Circuit Bent Drum Machines

What is Circuit Bending?

Circuit Bending is the process of modifying electronic musical devices to extract unintended functionality. Bending is often noisy and destructive, but I prefer modifications do not impact the usage of the original devices. The alterations can be switched on and off, creating a variety of distortion and bit-crushing effects. Additionally, I put all the bends in an external control box attached via ribbon cable, so it can easily be disconnected and the device can be used as envisioned by its developers. 

How I made these modifications

These modifications are accomplished through "RAM-Bending". This unscientific process involves connecting different pins on the RAM chip or where the memory for the drum samples is stored. This corrupts the reading of the memory without destroying the data. I selected connections that I thought had an interesting effect and added wires connecting the two pins to a switch. When you apply multiple connections at once further unique effects arise, resulting in hundreds of interesting results.