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circuit-bending

The Art of Circuit Bending

The term circuit bending was introduced by the self-taught, self-exiled, self-executed multi-media artist Qubais Reed Ghazala in 1992. Reed Ghazala modifies audio circuits since the 60th and has created an enormous range of fantastic, individual sound-art machines for more than 30 years. Let´s cite an interview from the EMI Magazine (Experimental Musical Instruments) on how it all began:

"The year was '66 or '67. I had left a toy 9-volt transistor amplifier amidst the clutter of my desk drawer, the back of its housing missing and with the power turned on. When I closed the drawer, to my amazement, there suddenly came from within my desk miniature versions of the sounds I associated with the massive synthesizers of the day. Like the $250,000 Columbia-Princeton machine. While they're everywhere now, sound synthesizers at that time were still quite a mystery to most folks, and weren't that easy to come by. When I realized that the sounds I heard were the result of the toy amplifier's electronics accidentally shorting out against something metallic it was resting on, two ideas immediately struck:

If these sounds are being created by accident, what could be done by purpose? If this can be done to an amplifier, meant to amplify a sound but to make NO SOUND itself, what would happen to SOUND-MAKING electronics when purposely shorted-out in the same way?"

 

Reed Ghazala´s instruments are artworks of a strange visual and sonic beauty, and are used by many musicians including Tom Waits. They can also be found in the Museum of Modern Art and a lot of other places. Thanks to Mr. Ghazala for letting me show this picture here.

What exactly is circuit bending ?

Circuit bending is the attempt to modify the circuitry of any device that produces sound, so it is capable of altered or new sounds, that are often very different to the sounds that these machines where designed to produce.

Popular bending targets:

• Texas Instruments Speak&Spell series

• Casio SA-2, SK-1, SK-60 and MT-140

• Any cheap keyboard or electronic toy-instrument preferably from the 80th

• The Suzuki Omnichord

• "Pro" equipment, like drum machines and FX devices
  
  

How circuit bending is done

According to Reed Ghazalas philosophy, which is called anti-theory, one doesn´t need to know how a circuit design works, to modify it in a creative way.

Another important part of his anti-theory is to use chance as a source of artistic creativity. He claimes that everyone can do bending, as long as he has a minimal knowledge of electronics and is aware of the safety rules that apply here.

There is plenty of information available on "how to" on the net, I suggest you start with Reed Ghazala´s exellent bending FAQ.

There are other, more technically oriented aproaches. Christian Oliver´s safer bending FAQ is another great source of info about targets, techniques and what to avoid.

 

Bending Methods:

The bending methods used are various and depend on the bending target.

The most common are:

• Body contacts between points or areas on the circuit-board
  

• Short circuits via switches or momentary switches between points
  

• Resitors or potentiometers between points or inserted into the layout
  

• Capacitors between points or inserted into the layout
  

• LDRs between points or inserted into the layout
  

• LEDs for control functions or for design reasons
  

• Solar cells
  

• A piece of damp cloth

How does bending work in practice?

Here´s a movie about how to bend an Omnichord in a minute...

size: 7.1MB, format: Mpeg4

Bend your Omnichord today!

it´s a lot of fun !

now lets get the tools out and heat up the soldering iron...

bend the Omnichord

inside the Speak&Spell

The other side of the Yamaha PSS-790