Handmade Electronic Music : the Art of Hardware Hacking / by Nicolas Collins ; Illustrated by Simon Lonergan

RT75921_FM.indd 1 2/9/06 7:24:43 PM Disclaimer Despite stringent eff orts by all concerned in the publishing process, some errors or omis- sions in content may occur. Readers are encouraged to bring these items to our attention where they represent errors of substance. Th e publisher and author disclaim any liability for damages, in whole or in part, arising from information contained in this publication. Th is book contains references to electrical safety that must be observed. Do not use AC power for any projects discussed herein. Th e publisher and the author disclaim any liability for injury that may result from the use, proper or improper, of the information contained in this book. We do not guarantee that the information contained herein is complete, safe, or accurate, nor should it be considered a substitute for your good judgment and common sense. CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd iiii 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:061:54:06 AAMM Nicolas Collins Illustrated by Simon Lonergan New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business RT75921_FM.indd 2 2/9/06 7:24:45 PM RT75921_RT75913_Discl.fm Page 1 Monday, February 27, 2006 3:18 PM Published in 2006 by Published in Great Britain by Routledge Routledge Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue 2 Park Square New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Nicolas Collins Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10987654321 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-97591-3 (Hardcover) 0-415-97592-1 (Softcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-97591-9 (Hardcover) 978-0-415-97592-6 (Softcover) Library of Congress Card Number 2005030693 No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Collins, Nicolas. Handmade electronic music : the art of hardware hacking / by Nicolas Collins ; illustrated by Simon Lonergan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-97591-3 (hardcover) -- ISBN 0-415-97592-1 (pbk.) 1. Electronic apparatus and appliances-Design and construction-Amateurs' manuals. 2. Electronic musical instruments-Construction. I. Title. TK9965.C59 2006 786.7'1923--dc22 2005030693 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com Taylor & Francis Group and the Routledge Web site at is the Academic Division of Informa plc. http://www.routledge-ny.com CONTENTS FOREWORD ix by David Behrman ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi INTRODUCTION xiii PART I STARTING 1. GETTING STARTED: TOOLS AND MATERIALS NEEDED 3 2. THE SEVEN BASIC RULES OF HACKING: GENERAL ADVICE 7 PART II LISTENING 3. CIRCUIT SNIFFING: USING RADIOS AND COILS TO EAVESDROP 11 ON HIDDEN ELECTROMAGNETIC MUSIC Mortal Coils 12 4. IN/OUT (THE EIGHTH RULE OF HACKING): SPEAKER AS MICROPHONE, 17 MICROPHONE AS SPEAKER—THE SYMMETRY OF IT ALL 5. THE CELEBRATED JUMPING SPEAKER OF BOWERS COUNTY: 19 TWITCHING LOUDSPEAKERS WITH BATTERIES 6. HOW TO SOLDER: AN ESSENTIAL SKILL 23 7. HOW TO MAKE A CONTACT MIKE: USING PIEZO DISKS TO PICK UP TINY SOUNDS 27 John Cage—The Father of Invention 33 Piezo Music 35 v CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd v 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:061:54:06 AAMM vi Contents 8. TURN YOUR TINY WALL INTO A SPEAKER (OR HOW TO MAKE A PIEZO DRIVER): 37 RESONATING OBJECTS WITH PIEZO DISKS, TRANSFORMERS, AND MOTORS David Tudor and Rainforest 40 Drivers 44 9. TAPE HEADS: PLAYING CREDIT CARDS 47 Tape 50 10. A SIMPLE AIR MIKE: CHEAP CONDENSER MIKE ELEMENTS MAKE 53 GREAT MICROPHONES PART III TOUCHING 11. LAYING OF HANDS I (ST. VITUS’ DANCE): TRANSFORMING A PORTABLE RADIO 59 INTO A SYNTHESIZER BY MAKING YOUR SKIN PART OF THE CIRCUIT The Cracklebox 62 12. TICKLE THE CLOCK (LAYING OF HANDS II): FINDING THE CLOCK CIRCUIT IN TOYS 65 13. HACK THE CLOCK (LEARN A NEW ALPHABET): CHANGING THE CLOCK SPEED 71 FOR COOL NEW NOISES 14. OHM’S LAW FOR DUMMIES: HOW TO UNDERSTAND RESISTORS 77 Composing Inside Electronics 79 15. BEYOND THE POT: PHOTORESISTORS, PRESSURE PADS, AND OTHER WAYS 83 TO CONTROL AND PLAY YOUR TOY Circuit Bending 91 16. SWITCHES: HOW TO UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT SWITCHES, AND 97 EVEN MAKE YOUR OWN 17. JACK, BATT, AND PACK: FINISHING TOUCHES: POWERING AND PACKAGING 101 YOUR HACKED TOY PART IV BUILDING 18. THE WORLD’S SIMPLEST OSCILLATOR: SIX OSCILLATORS ON A TWENTY-CENT CHIP, 111 GUARANTEED TO WORK 19. FROM BREADBOARD TO CIRCUIT BOARD: HOW TO SOLDER UP 123 YOUR FIRST HOMEMADE CIRCUIT 20. MORE OSCILLATORS: OSCILLATORS THAT MODULATE EACH OTHER 129 21. EVEN MORE OSCILLATORS: DIVIDERS, FEEDBACK LOOPS, AND INSTABILITY; 135 USING OSCILLATORS AS CLOCKS FOR TOYS CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd vvii 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:071:54:07 AAMM Contents vii 22. ON/OFF (MORE FUN WITH PHOTORESISTORS): GATING, DUCKING, 141 TREMOLO, AND PANNING 23. AMPLIFICATION AND DISTORTION: A SIMPLE CIRCUIT THAT GOES FROM 151 CLEAN PREAMP TO TOTAL DISTORTION 24. ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERSION, SORT OF: MODULATING OTHER AUDIO 157 SOURCES WITH YOUR OSCILLATORS PART V LOOKING 25. VIDEO MUSIC/MUSIC VIDEO: TRANSLATING VIDEO SIGNALS INTO SOUND, 163 HACKING CHEAP CAMERA CIRCUITS, AND EXTRACTING SOUNDS FROM REMOTE CONTROLS Visual Music 165 26. LCD ART: MAKING ANIMATED MODERN DAGUERREOTYPES AND 173 ALTERNATIVE VIDEO PROJECTORS PART VI FINISHING 27. MIXERS, MATRICES, AND PROCESSING: VERY SIMPLE, VERY CHEAP, 179 VERY CLEAN MIXERS, AND WAYS OF CONFIGURING LOTS OF CIRCUITS 28. A LITTLE POWER AMPLIFIER: CHEAP AND SIMPLE 187 29. ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERSION, REALLY: 191 CONNECTING SENSORS TO COMPUTERS USING GAME CONTROLLERS The Luthiers 192 30. POWER SUPPLIES: IF YOU MUST, HERE’S HOW TO PLUG 203 INTO THE WALL WITH MINIMAL RISK APPENDICES A RESOURCES 211 B REFERENCES AND NOTES: WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT 215 C TOOLS AND MATERIALS NEEDED 221 D THE RULES OF HACKING 225 E NOTES FOR THE AUDIO CD 227 F ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 233 INDEX 235 CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd vviiii 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:071:54:07 AAMM CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd vviiiiii 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:071:54:07 AAMM FOREWORD DAVID BEHRMAN Th e appearance of Nic Collins’ Handmade Electronic Music has made me feel nostalgia for the sixties, when I was young and fi rst heated up a soldering iron. Th ere was a mixture of exhilaration and wonder that my generation felt, those of us who worked on a grass-roots level with new technology in music in the sixties and seventies, as we taught ourselves about the fresh marvels then made available for the fi rst time ever: the transistor, a little later the integrated circuit, then the microcomputer. Most musicians in the sixties and seventies didn’t make their own circuitry. Th ey had other things to do. Th e few of us who did were aligning ourselves into the tinkerer-in- ventor tradition handed down from earlier artists who had built things, questioned the establishment, and found new sounds or tuning systems: artists like the Futurists, like Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, and Harry Partch. Nic, the talented author of this manual, is roughly a generation away from me—he started building circuits as a way to make music in 1972. When I started around 1965—learning mostly from two artists who were friends and mentors—David Tudor and Gordon Mumma—there were no music synths for sale; when Nic started, synths existed but were out of reach unless you had a fat budget from a university or a record company. In the sixties, I learned from Tudor and Mumma that you didn’t have to have an engi- neering degree to build transistorized music circuits. David Tudor’s amazing music was based partly on circuits he didn’t even understand. He liked the sounds they made, and that was enough. In the old days there wasn’t any distinction between high tech and low tech. Th e early analog synths were made by creative individuals like Bob Moog and Don Buchla; even the early microcomputers were mostly made by garage start-ups and there wasn’t so much diff erence between these and the craft shops that had made lutes, guitars, or violins for cen- turies. Th ere had always been a good relationship between performing musicians and the craft speople who made instruments—whether those were mbiras, clarinets, or gamelans. Th at relationship was comfortable—it was on a human scale and almost personal. Only in recent decades have music instruments and soft ware become corporate, mostly mass-produced and mass-marketed, and only recently are the computers used for music generally the same ones found in tens of millions of business establishments. It isn’t surprising that there had to be a reaction among artists to this corporate stain, if one could put it that way, that has spread into the fabric of music. ix CCollins_RT75921_C000.inddollins_RT75921_C000.indd iixx 22/23/2006/23/2006 111:54:071:54:07 AAMM x Foreword It’s been interesting for me to learn that some independent-minded young artists won’t even go near a computer when they think about doing their music. Th eir instincts tell them to rebel against this “obedient” mode in which artists—like everyone else—are pushed into continually buying, from ever-growing corporations, the latest computer and the latest soft ware packages and then spending a vast number of hours learning how to use them.

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