NB EP 5

Ep 5 is finished and available

for free download here !

Neal Beard and his Machines EP 5

01 Apple loop 9 1:13

02 Heard it before harp MT 3 2:40

03 Piezo 3 2:19

04 Is it meant to sound like T? 2:51

05 OSC wah 7 1:44

06 Messy beat 3 2:50

07 CATS THATS 3 0:35

08 THE SNAKE 3 1:46

Recorded July 2009.

ABOUT THIS EP

All the music was made using home made and circuit bent instruments and recorded by a human called Neal Beard with help from a human called Erica Lavender. Neal Beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

http://www.nealbeard.saftandboneless.co.uk/

http://www.nealbeardahm.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/nealbeard

INSTRUMENTS USED TO MAKE THIS EP

Circuit Bent Casio SA 5

Circuit Bent Casio SK-1

Circuit Bent Yamaha DD-10

Circuit bent vTech Apple Toy

Circuit bent Casio MT540

Casio VL1 with added Highly Liquid MIDI and Pitch Bend

Circuit Bent Roland TR505

Paia Ring Mod Kit

Paia Fatman

Home Made 6 x Oscillator

Circuit Bent Voice Changer Megaphone

Home Made 2 x Gated Oscillator

Circuit Bent Speak and Maths

Homemade distortion box

Another Homemade Oscillator

A Weird Sound Generator (MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE)

African thumb piano with homemade piezo mike

KORG ER1 not circuit bent!

MIXING AND SOUND

Electro Harmonix Small Stone, Memory Man and Holy Grail guitar pedals

Frostwave Resonator

Various homemade switching devices

Soundlab Micromixer

Marshall Amp

INSPIRATIONS

'Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments' by Reed Ghazala

'Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking' by Nicolas Collins (both the oscillators were based on schematics from this excellent book)

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/

http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/

http://www.casperelectronics.com/

http://www.paia.com

Eye'm Watching You

Neal Beard and his Machines track TIMESNEWRIPOFFDANTHI has been included on a new compilation of experimental electronica released by Audio Sodomy Records. The compilation is called Eye'm Watching You and is available for free download here. Their site is chock full of lots more circuit bent, chip tune and experimental electronic audio - check it out!

Casio VL1 gets MIDI added

I've finally finished adding MIDI to my VL 1 using a retrofit from Highly Liquid.

There's not much room in the VL 1 so the kit has to be housed in a break out box. I decided to use a DB25 to connect the two, that way I can unplug the MIDI box and still fit the VL1 into it's leatherette case.

I also have the future option of adding 1/4 inch jack out to the midi box, and perhaps a pitch bend pot and body contact.

The MIDI box has Led's for pwr and activity and I added an on/off switch.

NB EP 4

EP 4  is finished and is available for free download here

(The best yet!)

Neal Beard and his Machines EP 4 

01 Fun Ramp Version 2 1:55

02 sampleloop v9 1:42

03 TIMESNEWRIPOFFDANDTHI 1:56

04 sample box version 2 0:34

05 MT 540 ERICA v2 3:24

06 It ends with a noize v3 3:40

Recorded May 2009.

ABOUT THIS EP

All the music was made on home made and circuit bent instruments and recorded by a human called Neal Beard with help from a human called Erica Lavender. Neal Beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

http://www.nealbeard.saftandboneless.co.uk/

http://www.nealbeardahm.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/nealbeard

INSTRUMENTS USED TO MAKE THIS EP

Circuit Bent Casio SA 5

Circuit Bent Casio SK-1

Circuit Bent Yamaha DD-10

Circuit bent vTech Apple Toy

Circuit bent Casio MT540

Casio VL1 with added Highly Liquid MIDI and Pitch Bend

Circuit Bent Roland TR505

Paia Ring Mod Kit

Home Made 6 x Oscillator 

Circuit Bent Voice Changer Megaphone

Home Made 2 x Gated Oscillator 

Circuit Bent Speak and Maths

Homemade distortion box

Another Homemade Oscillator

A Weird Sound Generator (MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE)

MIXING AND SOUND

Electro Harmonix Small Stone, Memory Man and Holy Grail guitar pedals

Frostwave Resonator

Various homemade switching devices

Soundlab Micromixer

Marshall Amp

INSPIRATIONS

'Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments' by Reed Ghazala 

'Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking' by Nicolas Collins (both the oscillators were based on schematics from this excellent book)

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/

http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/ 

http://www.casperelectronics.com/ 

http://www.paia.com

NB EP 3

Another Neal Beard  EP has just been finished for free download here

Neal Beard and his Machines EP 3

01 Erica song v1 1:28

02 GIVE IT ALL UP 3:57

03 Output 1-2 Distortion +sk1 (live improv) 5:14

Recorded January 2009.

ABOUT THIS EP

All the music was improvised on home made and circuit bent instruments and recorded by a human called Neal Beard with help from a human called Erica Lavender. Neal Beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

http://www.nealbeard.saftandboneless.co.uk/

http://www.nealbeardahm.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/nealbeard

INSTRUMENTS USED TO MAKE THIS EP

Circuit Bent Casio SA 5

Circuit Bent Casio SK-1

Circuit Bent Yamaha DD-10

Home Made 6 x Oscillator 

Circuit Bent Voice Changer Megaphone

Home Made 2 x Gated Oscillator 

Circuit Bent Speak and Maths

Homemade distortion box

Another Homemade Oscillator

A Weird Sound Generator (MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE)

MIXING AND SOUND

Electro Harmonix Small Stone, Memory Man and Holy Grail guitar pedals

Frostwave Resonator

Various homemade switching devices

Soundlab Micromixer

Marshall Amp

INSPIRATIONS

'Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments' by Reed Ghazala 

'Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking' by Nicolas Collins (both the oscillators were based on schematics from this excellent book)

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/

http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/ 

http://www.casperelectronics.com/ 

http://www.paia.com

More Machines

A circuit bent voice changer megaphone and a new and improved sample box based around a lo-fi-lo-res voice recording kit.

Distortion Box Finished

Neal Beards Home Made Distortion Box is finished...

It uses a cd 4049 and a cd4093 and is based upon schematics from Nicholas Collins' book Handmade Electronic Instruments. See photo for more details.

A basic experiment with a SA5 plugged through it here.

And a couple of tracks using it, a Casio Sa5, Casio Sk1, DD10, TR505 and home made oscs here and here.

Work in Progress - New band members joining soon

A distortion box breadboarded, switches mounted just need to get soldering.

A voice changing mega phone  - line out added, pitch and feedback to add.

And a PAIA Fatman that is going to take AGES to build but should be well worth it...

Ring Mod

Another new addition to the band - a RING MODULATOR - built using schematics from Craig Anderton's excellent book Guitar Electronics for Musicians built as a kit from PAIA.

The only problem is I haven't got it working properly yet, probably because I didn't give it a bi-polar power supply (whatever that is!)

Fingers crossed closer scrutiny of the book, and a bipolar power source, should yield a fully working unit...

Bi-polar power added - still no joy - bugger....

An email to PAIA swiftly followed by a fulsome and comprehensive reply from their tech support quickly located and solved the problem so it now works!

In case anyone else is having problems with this circuit pin voltages for the IC's from Scott Lee at PAIA below...

IC1 5532 IC2 (565)

The IC pins are numbered as shown above as viewed from the component side of the board.
IC1
pin 1 0VDC
pin 2 0VDC
pin 3 0VDC
pin 4 -7VDC
pin 5 0VDC
pin 6 0VDC
pin 7 0VDC
pin 8 +7VDC

IC2
pin 1 -6VDC
pin 2 0 to +1VDC
pin 3 0 to +1VDC
pin 4/5 appx. +2VDC
pin 6/7 +3 to +6VDC
pin 8 -4 to +4VDC
pin 9 appx. 0VDC
pin 10 +6VDC
pins 11-14 n.c. open circuit

2nd Casio SK1 Joins the Band

I've finally finished circuit bending a second circuit bent Casio. This time I used Reed Ghazala's Schematics as I was curious to see what effects they created, and how they differ from the bends I've used before. I also added MIDI using a highly liquid retrofit.