MASTER CHINA
Began the journey in spring '04. Will bend for food. If it makes a sound, I will give it the treatment.
Oh, and by the way ... I live in a secret and remote mountain range, and thus, I am very poor. I might sell something if you are interested. Email me at justin@bplr.com
BORN AGAIN
Speak & 'XXX' Series. 11 pieces designed by Seattle artists on display at Olivodoce from December 17th, '04 until January 16, '05.
Artists:
Toshi Asai
Ben Beres
Sarah Bergmann
Matthew & Erson
Cory Little
Tra Selthrow
Brian Sendelbach
Keith Tilford
Hondu Zeller
Click the BornAgain Speak & Spell to see and hear each one.
CRASHOLA/CRAPOLA II
Pitch shifter, Glitch, 3 Distortion switches.
The follow up to the original Crashola/Crapola, Once an incredible beat maker with a nifty flip top lid, it may have had it's final crash. Now it only plays the disco beat and drops out consistently.
UPDATE: Now completely D.E.D. dead. Look below for it's successor.
THE DeBRIEFCASE
Maxon Analog Delay and DOD Envelope Filter with selectable crossover. The crossover is controllable by optic sensor or potentiometer. Incredible theremin-like sounds, often like a laser. Great for auxing beats out, or freaky-ass vox.
UPDATE:
I fried the beautiful Maxon Delay when I added a DOD Supra Distortion. When I get the courage up, I might try to fix it. Long live the DeBriefcase.
OMNICHORD MOD
A real crowd pleaser. Covered in touch contacts that attach to the beat, chord and harp sections on the circuit board. Original output mysteriously became an input. Play the guitar through the input and you get a killer flappy, snappy Black Keysish distortion.
HEATHKIT SIGNAL GENERATOR
Tube generated Sine/Square waves. Added 1/4" outputs for both waves, + symmetry and feedback knobs to alter the tones. Swapped out the knobs so that it could be played more accurately and gracefully. Beautiful and haunting when played solo through a looper.
YAMAHA PiSS-170
2 distortions, optic eye control with on/off switch, crash/reset, and 3 pot controlled glitches that alter the ADSR curve in interesting ways. This one manages to be really cool and really annoying in equal parts. Noisy little fucker.
AND NOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. THE 2005 LINE!
fresh off your mom's workbench ...
SIMPLIFIED CRAPOLA (Crashola)
So I bent a Speak and Spell, Math and Read for my 3 sisters for Christmas this year. On the plane to San Diego, one of reset buttons was depressed while it was inside my luggage. As a result, the battery terminals were crossed long enough to heat up and melt the back piece into a wavy bulge. I went to every thrift shop in Escondido hoping to find another Speak and Spell I could harvest a back from. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find, lo and behold, my third Crayola keyboard.
So this time, realizing the fragility of the circuit board after killing 2 previous versions, I left the bending at 1 single control (pitch), and it seems to be happy with it. Sounds Fresh.
FUNNY LAND ORGAN
Once again, nothing but a pitch bend, mostly because I don't want to mess up one of the coolest designs I've ever found on a thrift store keyboard. All the animals are buttons, and i added an LED to the little girl's nose. It throbs to the sounds. Some day, I'll give this one a little more treatment.
THE UGLY KAWASAKI
This guy's got the same circuit board (or at least the same samples) as 75% of thrift store keyboards, including the CRASHOLA/CRAPOLA. Somehow, I managed to get a touch distortion, pot controlled distortion/cutoff control, pitch shifter, and a crashy mute that keeps the beat in time (as opposed to stopping it and starting back on the one when disengaged) without killing the thing. Then i hot glued a dowel to the knob so you can fine tune pitch/tempo adjustments.
Someday I shall paint him as a reward for his bravery.
BLUE'S CLUES
Don't be deceived by this guy's looks. I think he's the most satanic of all the toys I've done. Truly possessed by some malicious demon. I should paint a bad clown face on the dude, AND his dog.
1 pitch wheel with on/off, and 1 loop button behind the dog that does 7 repetitions, then drops it and immediately finds another, repeating it 7 times until the sample is over. Creepy fucker. Thankfully, he doesn't turn on by himself like BOB THE BUILDER.
(see below)
YONG MEI
Currently my favorite piece. Besides being cooly communist in design and in almost scratchless condition, it has a very interesting set of voices for the 2 (two) note polyphony keyboard, and bad ass beats with optional built in (some very strange) chord progressions.
I added 4 mixable touch contacts for distortion, 1 really hot overdrive pot with and on/off, a 3 way switch with clean and 2 extremely compressed filters. Of course, it also has pitch and, like all the toys, reset and 1/4" out.
Bill says it belongs in the hall of fame and I agree.
POLYPHONIC GLITCHMASTER
New paintjob picture coming soon!
That's right, this one's got 4 (four) note polyphony, which I've never seen on recycled toys. Granted, you're stuck in a major key all the time, but it has 4 (four)note polyphony!!!
So I put a pitch wheel on there, and 1 primary glitch switch that makes the keys plink randomly, 1 secondary glitch that gives it a farty add-on, and a 6 position switch that adds extra glitchy random fun-ness. This one was a surprise, and recently got a paint job.
BOB THE BUILDER
This guy bugs the shit out of me. He used to wake me up at 4 am with his characteristic "RINGY DINGY DINGY!! HELLO! CAN, YOU, FOLLOW IT?" He'd freak out ex-girlfriends and always show up when you least wanted him.
Blah blah, pitch, touch contacts, reset, 1/4" ... I might disassemble him someday.
THE KIDS WAY
Again, standard thrift store brain, breaks up cool at the bottom of the pitch range. Only pitch adjustment added, but it has a nifty, gargly attack when the lighted keys are turned on (and you can turn off the lights if you want). Then, when you pitch it up high, it gradually gets crankier before it crashes completely (great for beats!). Also, the tones for the keyboard sound nice at the low end of the dial. Much darker than it looks. Perhaps it should be black.
UNTITLED OBNOXIOUS
Weird touch contacts. Its ridiculous that I put a 1/4" out on it at all. It does reign supreme on portability, though.