Basement Noise Track

Last night Neal Beard and his Machines made a lot of noise in a basement using circuit bent keyboards and homemade oscillators.

You can hear a 5 minute excerpt here...

LSDJ MC2

Neal Beard's first foray into the world of chiptunes! Having had a color gameboy hanging around since the late nineties, I decided to put it to use...

I bought a pre-flashed LSDJ cart from the excellent DJ Transformer website/shop, and because all my machines are MIDI integrated their DIY LSDJMC2 kit .

I also Pro-sound modded the gameboy for better sound.

A first track called 'The Gameboy Bajan Bee Song' here.

Drums are from a circuit bent DD10, additional keyboard from a Casio VL1.

A link to LSDJ's wiki site here and all the LSDJ manuals here.

And a link to firesARTer's MC2 schematics here.

Credit Card 'Scratcher'

Another cool device joins the mechanised throng, a homemade credit card 'scratcher' based upon an idea from Nicholas Collins' excellent book Handmade Electronic Instruments. The credit card reader was bought cheaply through ebay and I added a pre-amp circuit using a CD4049 chip to up the volume a bit.

Sound samples to follow...

New Tracks by Neal Beard and his Machines

Two new tracks by Neal Beard and his Machines have been included on an anniversary compilation of circuit bent, chip tunes and experimental electronica by Audio Sodomy Records. The compilation is called Happy Birthday Audio Sodomy and is available for free download here. Their site is full of lots more circuit bent, chip tune and experimental electronic audio - and is well worth checking out...

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.