Create Digital Music » Bent Derelict Spacecraft Keyboard, Musini Ambient Music Generator

Jan 30 2007

Bent Derelict Spacecraft Keyboard, Musini Ambient Music Generator

Mike’s description: “It’s the type of artifact you might discover hidden away on a derelict alien freighter drifting aimlessly somewhere near the ancient center of our galaxy … There are mysterious faded glyphs on the buttons - the remnants of a now long dead language.”

Mike aka Chronovalve writes CDM to share two new projects: a circuit-bent keyboard called Debris and the Musini, a children’s toy turned into a surprisingly sophisticated ambient music generator.

Here’s the surprise: just because these are circuit-bent / DIY projects doesn’t have to mean they sound like glitchy chaos. One of the conversations I had with Reed Ghazala, the “father of bending”, was about his disappointment that benders weren’t exploring broader timbral and musical horizons, at least for his taste. Mike definitely gets some interesting sounds out of these. For instance, the keyboard can absolutely rock the glitch:

Debris Glitch

But it can also enter traditional synth lead territory, with some subtle twists:

Debris 1

The Musini enters an entirely different musical dimension with some wild sonic landscapes, all from an aleatoric children’s toy:

Musini Metamorph

More pics and sounds:

Musini
Debris

DIY MIDI Controller from Pennies and Popsicle Sticks

NAMM: Barry Wood’s Legendary NAMM Oddities for ‘07

6 Comments

Chase

Now I feel bad for mutilating my musini and using it for parts.

January 30, 2007 @ 9:41 pm

John

Here’s another Musini with a different set of bends than the Chronovalve ones.

http://www.intelligentmachinery.net/resources/index.php?title=Madsini

January 31, 2007 @ 2:28 am

Michael Una

Man, that Musini sounds great.

January 31, 2007 @ 11:29 am

Niall

Yeah, the Musini demo is pretty full-on holy crap material, right there.

February 1, 2007 @ 5:36 pm

Jason

the 3rd demo - like nothing i’ve ever heard out of bent material for the LONGEST time. glorious.

not to the point of shabby over-reverbed synth pad, either. just glorious.

February 1, 2007 @ 8:55 pm

Create Digital Music » Mother of all Musini Music Toy Circuit Bends

[...] Of course, the results are interesting, but not as interesting as they could be, so circuit benders have set about modifying the toys. A couple of weeks ago, we saw chronovalve’s ambient musini bend, alongside a very lovely, post-apocalyptic-looking keyboard. Jonathan Williams write in to share his own circuit-bent musinis. His designs may have inspired other benders’ musini hacks; even if not, he’s gone through several generations and added some powerful features: [...]