--== morbisceiver ==--

bent micro jammer drum circuit

circuit interference tunes into dead signals

INTRO:

Purpose: Take a simple, inexpensive toy, slice it open, put it back together and force it to make sounds it was never designed to make. Make noise. Make original sound.

This was ultimately my first "real" circuit bending of a musical instrument/toy. I became genuinely impressed with the sounds I managed to make this thing spew. After I finished it, some of the targeted sounds were gone, but new ones took their place.

IMAGES:

The following are images that show pre and post bend versions of the morbisceiver.

• original toy - foto showing original toy pre evolution bends
• evolution - foto of front of finished box showing controls.
• rats - foto of the inner wire mess showing borrowed circuitboard. see the secrets inside.

SOUNDS:

The following sounds were recorded directly from the finished bent device on one take without any effects. All silence has been left intact and the files are completely unmodified. A mono line-out was run from the bent device into the line-in of a computer sound card to create the recordings.

• original - this is what the original unmodified microjammer 6-pad drum toy sounds like
• evolution 001 - 00:54 seconds demonstrating slower, pitched-down manually triggered capabilities
• evolution 002 - 00:39 seconds demonstrating noise ridden glitchy mode
• evolution 003 - 01:39 seconds demonstrating high pitch beep-squeal capabilities and "radio" mode

---

Note: The notes below were "jotted" down while the device was in pieces... they probably aren't very useful...

=========  
Discovery notes  
=========  
Circuit will power for long durations without any noticable damage  
(however, output gets a little loud and driver transistor gets warm when driving 8 ohm speaker)

2.2k threshold on pot for upper "normal" freq limit between clock and fucked clock pins  

Higher pot (1M) gives slower playback speed  

Lower pot (under 2.2k) gives warble (lower than 2k probably guarantees warble)

Looping effect can be obtained by starting with a low pot value (under 2k) and rapidly going to a higher (above 2.2k) value.

Looping behavior(s) are very sporadic. Looping will stop when another trigger button is pressed.

All 6 triggers can be triggered directly from 555 circuit (looping solution)

Targeted bends:  
===============  
Enable 555 looped triggering on any single trigger (from approx .1 sec to 5 sec interval [is this reasonable w/ 555?])

Pot between clock and fucked clock for freq adj (series 2.2k to limit going into warble region)

Switch to toggle mode: Pot (freq adj), 1k resistor for warble mode, or neither

Heavy wire for human contacts (3 or 4?): Clock, ground, fucked clock, default pot center?

3 pos switch for clock to cap ground (WAY SLOW), 2 different caps,

Small individual buttons for each trigger (probably)

Master volume

555 trigger circuit:  
====================  
With R1 = 510, R2 = 500, and C = 100uF, T = 0.10 s.  
With R1 = 510, R2 = 50k, and C = 100uF, T = 6.98 s.  
Will use 50k pot in series with 500 ohm resistor, 510 ohm R1, 100uF cap.  
Will try putting 200k ohm resistor in parallel with pot 40k pot timing...  
this will give a slightly shorter max period (5.66s)  

Visuals:  
========  
555 Trigger LED  
Power LED  
Trigger on indicator LED  

Outputs:  
=========  
1/8" line output  
Speaker  
Switch to toggle from speaker to line