My circuit bent VTech Talking Little Smart Alphabet Desk. This was a royal pain to bend. It was very finicky and prone to crashing. It would occasionally begin linking random words and sounds together into long strings of nonsensical poetry. Very cool. At one point I almost fried it, I think, which is why it sounds so muffled and distorted. It turned out to be a very random hard to control instrument, but I suppose that is why its cool.

This is a circuit bent toy police siren. I had found a bulky police Hummer vehicle that made sounds and thought it might be fun to bend. The hardest part was convincing my four year old son to give it up. I took out the circuit board and lights and rehoused them in a small, uniquely shaped case that once had a security camera in it. The controls are basically just pitch and voltage starve. Video: Mike Chastain.

Circuit Bending

Somehow I ended up with this cheap, generic keyboard by a company called "My Music". Its so generic I could not even find it on a google search. Anyway, I added Pitch control, 4 squelching glitches, a Reset button and a 1/4" mono output for amplification. I made the knobs out of toothpaste caps. All the original functions of the keyboard are intact and the on-board speakers work.

Toy Police Siren

Power Gear Voice Changer Megaphone

VTech Talking Little Smart Alphabet Desk

Here is a collection of my circuit bent devices. Circuit bending is the customization, or hacking, of circuits within electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered children's toys to create sounds never intended by the original designers of the device. All of these circuit bent devices are hacked in my home workshop. Find more videos on the  Just Say Noise! Youtube channel.

Buddha Box

My Music Keyboard

My circuit bent Kids Power Gear Voice Changer Megaphone. It came with three different voice effects. I added pitch control, a "glitch" button and the option to toggle between the built in microphone or a line in. Video: Mike Chastain.

This is the Chang Fo Ji Buddha Loop machine. It’s a small yellow box that loops various Buddhist chants. I circuit bent it and mounted it to a box with Tibetan images. The loops can now be speed up or slowed down and the sound can be further manipulated by lowering the voltage from the batteries. The loops can be manually gated or left always on. You can cycle through the different loops by pressing a small button on the original Buddha Box case. Video: Mike Chastain.