I added another knob to this one which fades in a tone. You can pitch a note played on the keyboard down, until it is playing a constant sound, maybe a singular tone, maybe a glitched out stream of tones, and squeaks and squeals. You can then fade in the tone controlled by he second knob to combine the two. It really creates a lot of possibilities.
I made this instrument from the amp that's in these pc speakers. It's a pretty good noise maker. It has pretty good range, and can do some interesting things, as evidenced in the videos.
You can feed other signals into it, and have it modulate the sound. This is done by using the green 1/8" jack and cable that used to be the pc peakers input.
You can feed the signal from the instrument out into your amp in two ways. One, through the 1/8" jack on the front, which used to be the headphone jack. The sound fed through this jack is not what you'll hear from the built in speaker, though. I use this method to apply an interesting vibrato effect to my little keyboard.
The second method to feed the signal out is through a 1/4" jack I added to the top of the instrument. This signal is the exact same as heard from the internal speaker.
This instrument is powered by an a/c adapter, which is included.
You have a switch that turns on the whole thing-a-ma-jig, located on the top of the machine.
Now the interesting part: the knobs. Those knobs are really where the whole thing comes together. Without them, this thing would only be mildly amusing, instead of super... amusing. Turn 'em any which way, and you'll be pitched up, down, right, left, and through dimensions you are too afraid to even question the existence of. Just make sure that once you feel a moderate amount of resistance, you quit turning the knob, cause you might break it (out of pure excitement, not cause they're faulty knobs.
In all seriousness, it is a good little sound maker, which can be sampled from, or played through your other synths, or played straight.
I have included pictures of how one might want to change the batteries, should that ever be an issue.
This here is a very unique item, which I have named "super", only cause it was the most available word for gluing. It is super though. I did construct it, if my memory serves, from a radio, and a voice changer, plus some knobs, and switches, and audio jacks.
You have a switch that turns on the whole thing-a-ma-jig, located on the left of the machine, below the first audio jack, which just happens to be an input. There are also two more switches. Both have different effects when switched on, or off, or even vice versa. In the right top corner you will find the second audio jack (both are 1/8th inch, by the way) and that one can be used as your output, but I'm not the boss of you, so you go ahead and do whatever feels right with it.
Now the interesting part: the knobs. Those knobs are really where the whole thing comes together. Without them, this thing would only be mildly amusing, instead of super... amusing. Turn 'em any which way, and you'll be pitched up, down, right, left, and through dimensions you are too afraid to even question the existence of. Just make sure that once you feel a moderate amount of resistance, you quit turning the knob, cause you might break it.
This piece can generate it's own tones, distort them, and you can pitch them up and down. It can also have other signals fed through it, as evidenced in the videos I will post links to. In all seriousness, it is a good little sound maker, which can be sampled from, or played through your other synths, or played straight.
Here is #20. It basically has three pitch knobs, two of which I added. They all pitch it down, but with pinpoint precision. The effect is quite good. I also added an rca output, but normally I would have added a resistor to fine tune the audio signal, as sometimes it can sound kind of funny. But this time I didn't, to see if folks might prefer it. In the video it is playing through its own speaker, the sound file below it is what I recorded coming from the output.
Number 19 is pretty sweet. It has a pitch knob. Turn it one way, it pitches down, till it starts to glitch out, turn it the other way it pitches it up until it glitches out. If you pitch it too high it can become unstable and die. The best way to get it back, that I have found, is to take a battery out, and reinsert it, or if that fails take a battery out and insert it backwards, then reinsert it correctly. It is real easy to recognize if you have it pitched too high, and very easy to avoid. Along with the pitch knob is an 1/8" output jack I have added. Video:
Here is #18. I had some troubles with it. Apparently what circuit controls the demo, is different from the circuit which generates tones for the keys. I had the thing in demo mode while bending it, then I switched it over to play mode, and none of my bends worked. I figured whomever would rather have bends which affected it while in play mode rather than when in demo, so I rebent the thing, to, in my opinion, much better results. Makes some crazy sounds. It was rather sensitive to touch, so I added body contacts, four to be precise. I also added an 1/8" output so you can sample it, play it through an amp, or possibly stick an 1/8" jack in your mouth and feel the current, though I doubt that would be enjoyable. Video next:
I do some bending. I ought to post all my projects here, and so far the only one I've left out is number one. I am not against custom orders, in fact I'm for it, so if you want to send me your keyboard or toy, and have me bend it, give it a go. If anybody ever needs anything at all, I'll be happy to help you out: preposterousman at gmail.com