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What is Circuit Bending? Circuit bending itself is both an art form and a hobby, popular among musicians, sound artists, and electronics hobbyists. It often involves opening up cheap, toy-like gadgets, such as kids' keyboards or drum machines, and making physical modifications to their internal components to manipulate or distort their sound output. This results in strange noises, glitches, and other unconventional sonic textures that are prized in avant-garde music and sound art. Circuit bending began in 1966 when musician Reed Ghazala accidentally short-circuited a battery-powered amplifier inside a metal desk drawer, creating unusual, experimental sounds. Ghazala officially coined the term circuit bending in 1992 and first published a writing series “Circuit-Bending and Living Instruments, Which debuted in the magazine Experimental Musical Instruments (EMI). Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments is the definitive, foundational book written by Reed Ghazala. Published in 2005 as part of the Wiley ExtremeTech series, it is widely considered the bible of the circuit bending hobby.

Bookstrip Board

Circuit Bending Basics -loosen the screws and expose the circuit board -experiment with wire leads and touch contacts -choose controls and test out your modifications -design a layout for your controls and artwork (if any) -use for performance, composition or sampling

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