Highly Liquid has just released another glitch desk system hailed the
Bend Workstation. Pretty much intended to be an end all box cause you can't compete with this thing. The system I assume is intended to expand on the bending possibilities of more complicated ROM based toys. A simple pitch bend may not be the best candidate, however midi control over keys could be nice. The desk features midi control over patch points, midi sequencer control, memory settings retention, and 9 Volt battery operation.
Available now for $249 US. Brilliant!
This BendWorkstation instrument pack has slipped my Radar,
check it.
Highly Liquid has just released another glitch desk system hailed the Bend Workstation. Pretty much intended to be an end all box cause you can't compete with this thing. The system I assume is intended to expand on the bending possibilities of more complicated ROM based toys. A simple pitch bend may not be the best candidate, however midi control over keys could be nice. The desk features midi control over patch points, midi sequencer control, memory settings retention, and 9 Volt battery operation. Available now for $249 US. Brilliant!
This BendWorkstation instrument pack has slipped my Radar, check it.
30 Comments:
At 4/18/2006 11:18:57 PM, inductive said…
I havn't been doing this very long, but I dont think I like the idea of a 250$ breakout box. Finding the bends on a new piece of gear is only half of it for me. The hardest part by far is putting things back together, hot glueing stuff without making a huge mess, mounting controlls or making a breakout type thing.
The idea of using midi to controll bends is neat at first. But when I realy stop and think about it, I feel like you get more out of bent instruments, and all hardware instruments, when you interact with them. Thats just a personal opinion, and most of my music is done with software.
I realy enjoy the repackaging stage of things. It seems to be the real challenge for me. I just bent some little intellivision game thing you hook up to a tv. Found tons and tons of glitches. Took like 2 hours to find everything I could possibly need in it. I have put in like 6 hours on the whole 'how the f do I get this back together' part now. To the point where I just pulled everything out and am in the process (thinking/measuring stage) of totaly recasing it. In wood cause I suck and have some. To me thats the hardest part. I've found if you throw money at the hardest part of something you do, you ending up not getting better, and throwing alot more at it in the future.
While the bend workstation looks realy cool, and I would love one. I think it would almost take something away from the whole bending thing for me. My um, controll addons to whatever I'm working on will never be as professional as this kind of thing. But I'll have made it, and thats more important to me.
And if anyone has a line on some of those jacks they use in the patch bays, I would like to use them in my current project. I just cant find them for anything close to inexpensive. I'll need like, alot. Something like 128 female ends and like... jeeze... at least 32 of those stackable type male ends. This bending stuff gets pricey pretty quick hehe.
At 4/19/2006 12:26:56 AM, Alex said…
.i agree.
At 4/19/2006 12:49:22 AM, Anonymous said…
I think the Highly Liquid stuff is incredible. The craftsmanship is beyond compare. However, I do have to agree with inductive. To me, it doesn't seem like the circuit bender mentality to buy something unbent and call it a bent instrument. To me, the stuff they produce seem more geared towards artist who want that sound but don't have the ability or want to circuit bend something theirself.
Regardless, the package sounds awesome. Make sure you go and check out those audio examples.
At 4/19/2006 04:00:47 AM, Anonymous said…
That's the most beautifully built useless thing I've seen yet.
At 4/19/2006 08:54:21 AM, Anonymous said…
Highly Liquid is providing studio-grade tooling for bent sounds. While I personally prefer my own stuff, bent instruments will probably soon be making their way onto more and more professionally-made music.
So producers who DO want the sound but don't have the time and can't worry about dropping that preciously-bent SK on the floor and having the pots break off, have in Highly Liquid a solid solution.
What I like most about Highly Liquid is that he MIDI'ed the Speak n Spell and decided to make a product out of it. To me, that's the concept of an artist, not a businessman-more power to him!
At 4/19/2006 12:52:21 PM, Anonymous said…
So if I add a MIDI port to something, it'll make me an artist? awesome, here's your MIDI-enabled $2 keyboard, that'll be $250. Ta.
At 4/19/2006 01:16:30 PM, Master said…
No, I think that above post was being sarcastic. A MIDI port on a $2 keyboard does not make you an artist, but it does put you in the top 99% of all the benders out there.
At 4/19/2006 09:44:09 PM, Anonymous said…
I bought a mid nineties casio for $2 that has midi. Can I get an amen?
At 4/20/2006 12:29:03 AM, Theodor said…
"Everything has value only in so far as it can be exchanged, not in so far as it is something in itself. For consumers the use value of art, its essence, is a fetish, and the fetish--the social valuation which they mistake for the merit of works of art--becomes its only use value, the only quality they enjoy. Hence the culture industry dissolves the "genuine commodity character" that artworks once possessed when exchange value presupposed use value ."
At 4/20/2006 10:19:07 AM, Anonymous said…
I'm the Anonymous poster who used the term 'artist' to describe Highly Liquid. Didn't expect much response to that, but...
What I meant was, the whole concept of bending a Speak IS something personal to a bender. inductive said this nicely and Ghazala talks about it.
So, for Highly Liquid to build a MIDI port for a Speak and offer it for sale goes AGAINST what a good businessman would do (just the responses on this topic show that the market for such an item is probably very small). He probably spent quite a bit of time to figure out the Speak's ROM mapping, layout the PCB, write the code for the PIC, determine the required voltage shifting for the bus interface, etc. Yeah, yeah, all that stuffs on the net if you search for it, but it still sounds to me like a lot of effort that might never make him a dime. And I still admire him for actually doing it. Be nice to know how many he's actually sold.
So, my mistake: I shouldn't have used the term 'artist' as an antonym to 'businessman.'
But Highly Liquid IS at least a craftsman, if not an artist - if you look at his stuff, especially his keytars, those things are gorgeous. Is craftsmanship a form of artistry? You tell me...
At 4/20/2006 10:28:07 AM, goldenechos said…
The way I see it, HIghly Liquid is not aiming to sell this "Bend Workstation" to benders, but to his own customers; as an upgrade to the bent instruments that they purchase, or have purchased from him.
VEry crafty indeed.
T
At 4/21/2006 02:21:23 AM, Anonymous said…
what are you afraid of? do you feel that this makes your manual bending somehow less .. unique?
it's not the tool, it's what you do with it.
At 4/22/2006 12:52:15 PM, Phil. said…
Okay, first of all, all of you benders are ONCE AGAIN, getting either jealous or scared that someone comes in and steps up your market with awesome looking and awesome working things. personaly i think this is AMAZING, for the fact of the amount of flexibility this gives instruments, think about it... sequencing 8 of those bends to move in rhythm with a peice apposed to 2 manualy controlled by your hand ...
i think its a beautiful peice of work and its really stepping up the business of circuit bending.
dont go jiving about you guys are artists and how bending a speak and spell is religious or some shit, because its not.
also, all of you anonymous posters... reveal yourselves...please, at least i have the balls to show who i am so if someone disagrees with me, they can contact me and talk about it, instead of me hiding behind anonymity.
Really, i do think this thing is beautiful and really worth it, id like to see any of you benders whip up something that is universal such as this, be controlled by midi, midi isnt as easy as adding a midi port to a keyboard, or stealing that midi port off your casio.
For the person who said "I bought a mid nineties casio for $2 that has midi. Can I get an amen?"...
and what does that midi control? im sure it controls key on/off...and thats about it... i bet it doesnt control glitches, and id like to see you modify that midi processor to control things like glitches...
once again, the circuit bending community is up in arms because someone is revolutionising the business... and this IS revolutionising the business, adding multiple sequencable modulations via midi to toys and making it available to those schmucks who sell bent speaks with a loop point and pitch bend.
and PLEASE dont bitch about the price... thats like people bitching about how moogs are expensive... thats because the parts inside are quality, and the work is quality... theres a reason for these pricepoints, its because a certain amount of work went into, not because you want to exploit a market.
and its well worth it, save up the 250$ and this can be used with any machine, interchangably, just assuming you spend the time to add a 25 pin jack to it... which doesnt take too long... than at that point you have this awesome capability with all of your bent items to integrate with your studio seamlessly through midi...
and if you want to attack me, attack me in an email, dont flood this with pointless comments directed to me. the address can be found on my site.
/rant
At 4/22/2006 01:27:15 PM, Anonymous said…
This is awesome. I really like the idea of using midi.
At 4/22/2006 01:30:26 PM, Anonymous said…
This is awesome. I really like the idea of using midi.
The Highly Liquid guy definitley has some very interesting ideas.
Tony Amendolare
(I had to log in as anonymous, I forgot my password :(
Sorry
At 4/22/2006 02:03:09 PM, Ryan said…
This thing is dope as shit and you know it. Just because you're too cheap and petty to pay for it. If "the hardest part by far is putting things back together" then why not eliminate the hardest part? Are you trying to make new sounds or is your favorite part of bending the "craft" part, the reinventing the wheel part? This thing is a fuckin dream come true. You guys can go have your bending circle jerk and pat yourselves on the back for all being real "artists" just cos you can buy a soldering iron and some stinky toys from a thrift store. Some of us would like to make music & easy MIDI is gonna open up a whole new world!
I'm gonna get this soon as I sell a couple of rack modules and I'm going to start constructing a modular empire with this thing. You kids have fun w/ your broken toys now!
At 4/22/2006 02:16:25 PM, Tony Amendolare said…
This thing really is a great machine. It really has taken things to a new level.
This man's invention is helping the evolution of a great art form. People are going to buy this thing like crazy.
Suppose you don't want to solder, or your not interested in electronics but would like to manipulate sounds from an assortment of musical devices? This is not only a great invention but also a great market product. Genius.
Very inspiring.
Tony Amendolare
At 4/24/2006 04:35:51 PM, inductive said…
Uh, wow, I forgot to check back with this. Everyone is so touchy. Eliminating the hardest part of something doesn't apeal to me. Last night I was trying to get all these bends back into an original case, took a few hours, and it was dead. Worked fine, something went wrong stuffing it back together. Tried again, was dead again. I didn't sleep last night trying to get it back together, about an hour before I had to be at work I finaly lost my temper (which I do sometimes unfortunitly) and threw it against the wall. I missed. And it went through the window. I just had to laugh. It was a 3$ toy (a way cool one I might buy again) which cost me like 30$ in knobs and like 200$ in new window.
That has nothing to do with any of these posts, but it struck me as the most usefull thing I could say at the moment. Do I wish it had just worked? Yeah. Am I upset? Yeah. Am I gonna give up? Maybe. Would I rather have been making music? Not realy. If I wanted to save time making music I would (and pretty much do) use all software. But you lose something. I dont know what, but something is diffrent. Not better, not worse, just diffrent. Thats how I feel about this whole thing.
Highly Liquid seems to make some amazing things. I would love to own at least 2 of everything. But I cant. If I had the money, I would buy realy expensive things to bend. Have I ever bent a speak & ** ? No. Do I want to? No. I personaly think the whole fun of this (FOR ME!) is in the exploration and the headache's. Its like when you were in highschool and you were trying to get with that one chick with that butt... you know the one. Some of us, we never got with that girl, we didn't try hard enough, or know how to achieve that goal. Those of us that spent a few years on it though, well, when I fire up something I just put back together and it turns on and makes crazy sounds. Thats my electronic money shot.
Is the audio spooge any better if you had to bleed a few knuckles in the process? Dunno. This has made no sense, I'm drunk. Bend everything and die with multimeter testers in your eyes sockets. Someone fix my god damn tr505.
At 4/24/2006 04:41:49 PM, Master said…
Drunk at 4:35PM on a Monday, now that is impressive.
At 4/24/2006 09:52:34 PM, inductive said…
i was still at work too, now i'm hungover at 10:50pm on a monday night :)
At 4/27/2006 11:57:28 AM, tablebeast said…
This post has been removed by the author.
At 4/27/2006 12:58:59 PM, Master said…
Damn, that is certainly some inside info for shizzle. I we'll see how highly liquid responds to the allegations.
I do see your point about people not giving the cred to the idea originators and that irks me as well.
That is a bummer dude.
At 4/27/2006 02:22:26 PM, Master said…
Also to note that MIDI has been around since 1981 and the SK-1 MIDI mod has been published in 1987 by the Keyboard Magazine.
http://www.maxmidi.com/diy/sk1/article.html
Patchbay MIDI devices are nothing new as well. So combining MIDI with alternative devices like SK-1s and Speak and Spells is a natural progression atleast in my mind.
We can all sit all day dreaming up the new touchscreen iPods and new sci-fi like technologies, but really someone has to do the legwork of make those dreams reality.
Never to less, credit is due where it is appropriate ofcourse.
At 4/27/2006 05:24:50 PM, John said…
I can't let that comment from Tablebeast go without a response. Most of it is untrue. I'll let the emails speak for themselves (there have been a total of five messages between us, ever).
The emails.
John
highlyliquid.com
At 4/29/2006 07:57:48 PM, Master said…
Tablebeast seems to have removed an essential part of the thread which leads up to the conclusion. Oh well.
At 4/29/2006 08:39:14 PM, Anonymous said…
just to keep perspective, from cache:
Highly Liquid's stuff certainly looks very cool. His craftmanship is bar none, but his ideas are anything but original. I'll explain: a few years ago I e-mailed this guy back and forth a few times inquiring about his awesome keytars. In the course of our conversations he told me that he was adept at MIDI, something I had never messed with. I suggested to him that MIDI could be used in bent stuff but that I had no means to implement my ideas. He did have the means and I suggested a few ideas to him including: MIDI Speaks, MIDI to control glitches, a MIDI glitch sequencer, A better MIDI implementation for the SK series, and and even a MIDI based external patchbay control box (Not to mention that at the time I already used 25 pin connectors and patchbay style breakout boxes). We discussed a business partnership with my ideas and his implementations, but I never heard back from him. Of course not, he already had my ideas, why kick me any credit or cash? So far every single interface product he sells is based on one of my original ideas. And now, to thank me, he won't even respond to my e-mails! I can't wait to see if he ever sells anything that's based on his ideas instead of mine.
Jesse aka Tablebeast
At 4/30/2006 07:27:41 AM, Anonymous said…
People are naturally going to step on each others toes from time to time. I'm sorry for my part.
Instead of arguing about things, maybe we can move along, and continue building a supportive and constructive community instead.
- anon (one of the bitter posters)
At 4/30/2006 10:38:02 AM, Anonymous said…
It almost looks like cashing in on circuit bending takes the fun out of it. Greed ruins everything.
Suprise suprise.
At 5/01/2006 08:37:05 PM, Anonymous said…
An item like this is hardly 'cashing in' is it? It's not like he's going to make a million bucks, this is a very niche market - someone who makes a device like this is doing it for the love of it, not the coin.
At 5/22/2006 03:20:40 AM, Anonymous said…
You faggots need to put down your tinker toys and go get girlfriends!
Post a Comment
<< Home