Detroit Maker Faire 2010 was quite a blast.  CMKT4 headed up to Dearborn, Michigan with Michael Una and Tomer Gal for a busy weekend of demonstrating and performing.  CMKT4 played the main stage both days and Michael Una played the second day. Our Bottle-Cap Contact Microphones won an Editor’s Choice Ribbon and got written up on Boing-Boing by Make Editor Mark Frauenfelder.  Mike Una also won an Editor’s Choice Ribbon for his live performance.  Here he is setting up on the main-stage:

I’m so glad we went, it was a fantastic experience.  We got to meet so many interesting people who are doing interesting things.  I was able to sneak away for an hour on the second day and shoot some photos, here is some of what I saw:

Here are Nina and Jeff from Omnicorp, Detroit, a relatively young hacker-space.  Nina and Jeff were demonstrating circuit-bending at their booth to Maker Faire attendees.  CMKT4 will be headed up to Omnicorp to present a workshop on building contact microphones Saturday, August 28th.  Details here.

Another group of makers were controlling these huge robots, which were playing some very loud noise music.

This roving skull robot “greeted” onlookers with gnashing jaw and Mars-Attacks-like gibberish.  Pretty frightening:

Here someone made a jug organ, I thought this was really neat:

CdS cells were inventively used to read data from player-piano scrolls and control an array of solenoids that play the keys of a modern keyboard at this exhibit:

An interesting by-product is the MIDI code being generated from the scroll by the keyboard being physically played.  Next to the main stage was this bicycle-driven guitar wind-mill called the The Axe Grinder.

There were of course plenty of vehicles at the Maker Faire, but my favorite had to be the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir.  I’m glad that somebody figured out something to do with Big Mouth Billy Bass and all his pals other than hang it over the back of the toilet.   All the fish and lobsters are made to dance and lip-sync to popular favorites, such as Bohemian Rhapsody.  I actually got to sit in the driver’s seat for a little while and operate the Lobster Conductor;  the control was two two-way switches, one to rotate the lobster, one to extend and retract the arm, and a push-button to bounce the lobster and “conduct” the marine choir.

Some of the crew from Life-Size Mouse-Trap taking a break from a long, hot day of repeatedly crushing a Chevy Mini Van under a giant safe.   More Robots!

Various doo-dads made with a Cupcake CNC machine:

Tomer sports some CNC-made goggles.  I felt like I was wearing some crazy goggles, because Maker Faire was one awesome, surreal experience after the other.  See you there next year?

MEGADUMP1

Here is a recording made in Cincinnati by Karl aka thejunkyardcatalyst at the Thriftsore Boratorium on May 18th, 2010 at about 3:00am. It features thejunkyardcatalyst and Mark 1/2 Mang as well as the members of CMKT 4.   Lots of circuit bent instruments as well as some prepared guitar, regular guitar, synthesizers, records, sleep deprivation, juggled cats and yelling neighbors. This is the first in a series of MEGADUMP recordings to follow on www.getlofi.com for more information. Enjoy!

Our friend Nathan Phelps has been working hard to cram as much stuff into the Kaossilator as possible. Based on this original pitch modification, his latest attempt features 555 Timer and LTC Precision kits with internal potentiometer controls and CV input.

Synth Video Example:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To make room for all of this the RCA board had to go, so the only output is via the headphone.

Nathan’s wife Clare (an expert solderer) who is a major part of the circuit bending duo “freeform delusion” created the sequencer to send the CV voltage out with the help from “Head in a Haunted Hat”.  The stand alone circuit also cranks out an array of bleepy noises via the CD4093 oscillators and when connected to the Kossilator it really creates some madness.

Kaossilator being Triggered and Control by the Sequencer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nathan writes:

The Sequencers Mods/Features:

4093 Synth/Sequencer!

Mono mini jack output
On/Off Switch
Green LED Eight Step Sequencer
Green Momentary button to choose LED sequencer mode
Red Momentary button to Reset sequencer
Eight Knobs to tune each step of the sequencer
Pitch Control for Sequencer
Rate to speed up or slow the 8 steps
Trigger out to control keyboard/toy/Kaossilator with a mod we can add to them.
On/Off Switch for LFO with rate Control & LED (can be used on sequencer or drone synth)

Switchable 4093 Drone synth with three controls – switch between this or the sequencer.

—————–

The Kaossilators Mods:

Two Ring Mod On/Off Switches – these bends are on the Kaossilator circuit board, no additional circuits added to create these. They can be a bit grainy but I think worth it! The Effect changes best when both switches are on then press the tap bpm or scale button. It also provides a gated effect when the screen flashes.

Get Lofi – LTC Precision kit for Pitch Down
Switchable LDR Pitch Control

Get Lofi – 555 Timer kit for switchable Vactrol LFO

2.5mm Jack added for Trigger in from the 4093 synth sequencer

Headphone output is now the main output source. Removed the output RCAs

Come visit us at Maker Faire 2010 Detroit at the Henry Ford this weekend (Jul 31 & Aug 1)! We’ll be at the booth CMKT 4: Making Music from Junk, where we’ll have Bottle-Cap Contact Mics, Circuit Bent Devices, and Piezo Instruments for sale. Michael Una will be joining us there with some gear from Unatronics.  CMKT 4 will be performing Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm and Michael Una will be performing Sunday morning at 10:00am.

Here are some pictures of what we’ll have with us to sell:

CMKT 4:

Unatronics:

Circuit Bent Teletubby by Carpeteria with it’s guts rehoused, push buttons for easy triggering and toggles for glitching up the sounds. Very Speak and Spell like plus a kick ass led matrix to display the glitches.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trigger mechanism with a microswitch by Kaseo. This resembles a scratch interface and with pitch controls that can be connected to various other toys via a 3.5mm Jack.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kaseo also has a new musical project, a collaboration with Craftwife. Above is some footage of them rocking out with Pikachu and Remokon APP for iPhone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is more information and a demo of Remokon, which seems like a useful utility for remote controlling sounds and sending MIDI information with the some help from OSC and SuperCollider.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is an Atari Punk Console modification by Raymond. A PC fan is varying the voltage in the circuit and causing the frequency to shift as it spins and also adds a certain physical aspect to the device.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Casio RZ-1 Drum Machine with custom EEPROMS by Kenzie E. and dual LTC Precision Oscillator Mods from GetLoFi for adjusting the pitch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First version using dual LTC Precision modules!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Instructions by Juda for turning any controller into a MIDI transmitting device with some extra USB hardware and Cycling ‘74 runtime.

Click here to view the embedded video.

EraSer from circuitbend.it sent us a new instrument a while back. It is an example of “cross bending” made using two circuit bent guitar pedals. Rocktron digital distortion and a Fab Echo delay. The circuits of these pedals have been linked and re-housed in a “laptop toy” case.

Marco Benevento was again featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. They really like what he does on the new album and in the Interview is a huge shout-out to Tommy from Roth Mobot because he is the “Chicago friend” that builds instruments for Marco! Great work, listen to the program here.

Story Link.

by Creme DeMentia

Chicago circuit-bending duo Roth Mobot — Patrick McCarthy and Tommy Stephenson– are set to open the *sold out* 2010 OFFF (International Festival for the Post-Digital Creation Culture) in Paris, France on Thursday, June 24.   US Circuit Benders Casper Electronics and Bleep Labs are also set to perform Friday and Saturday, respectively.  A table of circuit-bent performance (see Nerdferences) show-times and full event schedule are available at the OFFF website, although it won’t do you much good if you don’t already have your ticket.

Roth Mobot left Tuesday for Paris and have hopefully arrived safely, so if you don’t have your ticket to see them, perhaps you can track them down.  Although the OFFF is paying for their airfare and stay, they are not paying to ship Roth Mobot’s gear or feed them; you can help defer their cost to play by clicking the Paypal donation button at their website.   When I talked to Patrick last, it sounded as though they were going to stay a couple extra days on both sides of the festival, seeing the sights and padding the Rolodex;  let’s hope they brought their camera as well, I’m sure all of us on this side of the Atlantic are anxious to see pictures and hear a full report!

* Update * Photos from the Event!

Flickr Gallery Link by Roth Mobot.

CMKT 4 returned from our first US tour a couple of weeks back.  With the ESG right on its heels and with all the video I collected, it’s been slow-going getting all of the material together for a thorough Tour Log.   We should have a Tour Log available for you here on GetLoFi within the next week or so.  A recording we participated in while on tour, however, is already available:

ORE Theatre Intangible E023 Artificial

We paid a visit to Tony Youngblood, host of ORE Theatre Intangible while we visited Nashville.  Jeff found Tony by searching “Nashville Circuit Bending” online.  Tony invited us to play a regular CMKT 4 set and then play two short improvised sets for the Theatre Intangible Podcast, the latter of which you’ll hear if you follow the link.   There are many other episodes of Theater Intangible for your listening pleasure as well, they are chock full of improvised performances and interviews with people who make crazy sounds in interesting ways.

Thanks so much to Tony for helping to make our visit to Nashville such a great experience!

After successfully building the 555 timer circuit the next obvious step is to use this oscillator as a Control Voltage Source. The only problem is that the output from Pin 3 is a square wave either on or off. While great as a Pulse Out that can be used to power another circuit, it gets fairly boring as  a CV source. What we need do is add a few extra components to give it that Warble.  First the signal passes through a 10K resistor to limit the current,  then charges the capacitor in turn discharging to the Ground during the Low phase of the 555. The output voltage is now in the form of a ramp and can be used as a CV.

To Connect the 555 LFO to the APC you can use the same circuit consisting of 10K Resistor and 10uF cap connected to the Ground. It is possible to play around with values, increasing the Capacitor value and also adding the potentiometer to make the Ground draining slower. The output of the LFO can now be connected to Pin 3 or Pin 11 on the APC circuit board. It is also possible to use separate LFO circuits going into both 3 and 11 as well as Syncing those together.

The above circuit is just an example to get some experimenting off the ground, feel free to modify the basic idea.

Here is a short example of the circuit in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Experimental Garage Sale of 2010 was a great success, thanks to everyone for coming out to sell and check out the wares. Below are lots of  photos from Lameboy and Alex Inglizian and if you would like to be in the loop about the next event please become our fan on Facebook.

Lameboy Gallery.

Alex Inglizian Flickr Gallery.

* Original Post *

The 3rd Annual Experimental Garage Sale is upon us, this Saturday June 5th at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio. 10+ vendors and special guests from around Midwest will be selling their newest circuit bent instruments and artistic wares.

Expect to also find a plethora of vintage synthesizers, un-bent toys, electronic parts, and interesting people. This free event starts at Noon and runs till 5:00 PM rain or shine. Don’t forget to bring your cash in order to walk our with best deals of the decade or stick around for a chance to win some instruments during the 3:00 PM Drawing!

Google Map Link. More information here.

Sellers are:

1. Tommy S. http://www.rothmobot.com/
2. Patrick M. http://www.rothmobot.com/
3. Mike http://www.aa9il.com/
4. Steve http://site.properboy.com/
5. thejunkyard catalist http://myspace.com/ThriftsoreBoratorium
6. Creme Dementia http://www.myspace.com/CremeDeMentia
7. GetLoFi.com http://www.getlofi.com/
8. Low-Gain http://www.lowgain-audio.com/
9. Tim Kaiser http://www.timkaiser.org/
10. Unatronics & Buck http://www.stevenbuck.us/

RSVP on our Facebook Event.

See you all there!