u/OnionMadder

I got so frustrated trying to build the Blasser circuits and running into issue after issue: esoteric parts, missing documents, difficulty troubleshooting.

I decided to make a better paper circuit for beginners: the Old Faithful, our beloved Atari Punk Console.

I based the design it on a previous build I've already made a guide for, my dead-bug style Mosquito. You can find the guide here

Paper Mosquito Guide

I'm currently working on an upgraded version which includes polarity protection and an indicator LED.

I love to build unverified or "lost" circuits which seem to have no finalized layout. In this case, I built and fiddled with my friend Paul's circuit, the Sound Fuckulator.

Disclaimer: I am not a guitar player and I cannot test pedal builds properly how they're meant to be heard, I can only use my synths.

But this circuit was intended as a pedal and so I'm presenting it as such. Personally, I have found that it serves equally well as a miniature drone synth with a modulated input.

Please build it, bend it, make it yours.

I have this nearly finished PCB from Different Noises called Uneasy Cadence. I lost the BOM when I moved earlier this year. I've looked everywhere all over the internet for a copy and I can't seem to find one.

I'm hoping someone in this sub either has the BOM, or can help me reverse engineer the last few resistors/pots/?transistor? I need to finish it off.

The tubes are meant to be 12AU7, that much I do know!

A CD4093 quad NAND drone synth on my own stripboard layout. The fourth time I've built this board, and it's the one I kept adding to.

Twelve controls on the lid: one toggle is power, one knob is volume. The extras are bends I put in on top of my own circuit, and most of them only do anything depending on where the others are sitting. A knob that's dead in one configuration is the most important control on the box in another. so there's no knob list and I'm not going to invent one, that's just what it is now.

LM386 and a speaker in the tin so it makes noise on its own, 3.5mm switched jack that kills the speaker when you plug in, 9V inside. The tin is a decorative pansy thing, lid is the panel, silver hardware because it works with the pattern.

The layout is free if anyone wants to build a sane one or maybe do their own bends.

There is a much longer video if anyone is interested in hearing more of these weird sounds.

I got this Kawasaki toy keyboard and the original circuit was completely beyond saving. I did try. The keys do nothing now and that's permanent.

So instead of fixing it I built an NE556 Atari Punk Console dead bug and stuck it inside. No board, chip on its back, everything soldered right to the legs.

Then me being who I am I couldn't leave it there, so theres also an ISD1820 recorder wired to it. Lad's own toggle, record button, play button, and a pitch pot for playback. You catch a few seconds of the oscillator and play it back at whatever speed you want.

Theres a photocell on the APC pitch so you can play it with your hand, a 3.5mm line out, and it still comes out of the toys own speaker.

The lights are a complete accident. I wired an rgb led straight across the speaker so its driven by the audio instead of by anything deciding a color. Turning the recorder on happens to make it go red and the oscillator sends it cycling through everything. I didnt plan either of those and I can't really take credit for them.

Three knobs are volume, pitch and shape. theyre labeled # ! and ? bc I couldnt think of anything better.

This is Paul Stevenson's Devil's Triangle Drone. It was the first one he recommended to me, and I've built it multiple times since then. In my version, I've added an off/on switch, an indicator LED off voice 2's comparator, and shorted voice 3 back into voices 1 and 2 via lug one of the pitch pot. Sound confusing? I swear it's more clear in the write-up on my site. The modifications I've added make a very simple build significantly more "musical", imo.

I was inspired to create this after building two of my 555 Theremins and wiring their LDRs against each other to see what would happen.

This layout combines two copies on a single board that easily fits inside a 125B enclosure, with room for a battery if you prefer it, although the circuit wants at least 6v to run properly. Using a battery over time will leave you with a pile of half-dead cells.

This build takes approximately 45 minutes. Link to the demo and guide.

This is my Screaming Creep. It's a 555 optical theremin built on stripboard, living inside the body of an old Grumblies toy whose original board got gutted. The photocells sit where its eyes were, so the pitch is controlled by what it sees: wave your hand at its face and it howls, cover its eyes and it goes quiet.

Not really circuit bending I guess, since none of the original board survived. I just used the skeleton. Toy taxidermy with a mini synth inside?

The stripboard layout and a build guide are free on my site if anyone wants to make the circuit, and it runs on a breadboard too if you don't want to solder.