i came across an old casio sk-1 keyboard in a waco pawn shop and bought it thinking that an old sampling keyboard would be a helpful tool for getting weird sounds and for programming beats. the keyboard can actually sample about three seconds of audio and play it back at 8 bits.

it didnâ??t come with a manual, so in order to learn the sampling procedure i went on-line. while searching i started to come across sites talking about the use of an sk-1 keyboard as an experimental instrument. they spoke of how they would pull apart the keyboards and install â??shortsâ? in the circuitry. these short circuits would be wired through custom mounted toggle switches and potentiometers on the frame. being some what electronically minded, i had to try it. i couldnâ??t believe how cool the finished project sounded (think of a 70â??s space movie soundtrack mixed with an 80â??s video game). since then i have circuit bent a few other various items and have one other very large project in the works.

circuit bending links:

www.anti-theory.com – this is the home of reed ghazala, the “father” of circuit bending.

www.cementimental.com – this is probably the most comprehensive list of circuit bending links.

this is my most recent project. i think the speak and spell is probably one of the better devices to bend because it sounds so amazing when completed. while the sk-1 has more potential for musical usefulness the speak and spell just sounds cool.

i installed two pitch knobs and two touch sensitive pitch controllers. it also has a glitch switch and two touch sensitive glitch controllers which make it really go nuts. i gave it a power reset button and a quarter inch jack as well.

this is the next circuit bending project i was in anyway successful with. i managed to fry three perfectly good toy keyboards before completing this project. a very simple and small device with very annoying capabilities. i added a volume and pitch knob, a sustain switch and power cutoff (originally you couldnâ??t turn it off) I had my friend paint it as well and again she named it…

“C’mon Baby, Light My Fire”
(like The Doors’ song) in acrylic and oil.
(All Widsor-Newton brands of both.)