Casper Electronics

Here it is. Audio sample at the bottom of the page.

too much to write about right now. Lots of new pieces. working on schematics, sound samples and general documentation.

Played a show at the Piksel Festival in Norway. See the performance here:
http://www.piksel.no/piksel07/streams.htm
scroll to the right until you find “TheBunker, Piksel.no Casperelectronics”
The drum beats are made using the sequencer and drum box (the brown and white one) shown in the picture above. The gray box above is a dual voltage controlled filter that I built at Piksel.

I experimented with a BOSS DS-1 pedal yesterday and found some really fantastic mods.
My friend brought the pedal over and showed me some mods he had found that were cool sounding feedback loops. Basically this is where the audio signal from somewhere along the signal path is fed back into an amplifier stage somewhere EARLIER in the path. This creates a feedback tone and can result in some really nice sounding, rich tones when an incoming signal fights with the feedback tone. The problem is that when there is NO incoming audio signal, there is just steady, squealing feedback.
I wanted to find a way to make the effect happen only when there was sound feeding into the pedal, so that when you aren’t playing into it, there’s no sound output.
I had a suspicion that a transistor used as a gate was the answer. I experimented with some transistors configured different ways and found the 2N3904 NPN to be the most useful. I encourage people to experiment with different types though.The best effect we found is drawn below. If you have this pedal, you really have to try this!

It’s a really great sounding effect. Sort of ringmod meets harmonic exciter of some sort. The “distortion” knob controls the effect.
I soldered the transistor to the component side of the board so that I could still close the back cover. The back cover presses right against the solder side of the board so there’s no room to add components.

I’ve been working on a step sequencer design for a while based on the 4017 decade counter. I’ve finally gotten around to building a working prototype!
I posted the schematics here a few months ago.
You can also find them on the step sequencer page which I just uploaded.

I also uploaded an awesome sound recording of the sequencer in action. The recording was made using the sequencer to trigger three different synths.
–A casio SK1 was used to make the melodic sounds.
–and I had that running through an echo circuit I’ve been working on for a while
–the bass drum beat was made with a Korg MS20.
–The other rhythmic tones were made with a Paia modular synth
The casio has been modified to allow an external trigger to activate the recorded melody play back feature. So I can record a melody into the SK1 and play it back one note at a time every time i send a pulse to the new “playback” jack.

Here’s the step sequencer page.
The recording is at the bottom of the page.

my newest project. More to come.

Here’s a nintendo bending “tutorial” I did for a public access station in CT. I’m not sure how informative it really is though. The most interesting part is at the end of the video where I show the effect of using a potentiometer to change the distortion levels. Thanks to Chad Rains for filming, editing and posting this video! Check out some hot super thumpin tunes on his bands myspace page.

I was randomly asked a few weeks ago if i wanted to be in a music video.
I posted it for a few days but the video was removed from YouTube.

A new legit version is up…and here it is

whew… It’s been a busy few weeks for me.
I got my vinyl plotter working! What a great tool. There are a few new pieces pictured below that make heavy use of this bad boy.

I finally wrapped up a project I’ve been working on for a loooonnng time.

It’s a continuation of the “VP” series I’ve been working on for a few years. Each model is based on the same echo and voice changer circuitry. The “VP” stands for vocal processor, which is an odd name because the pieces can be used to process any sounds. It just happens that each model has been made for a client who wants a vocal FX unit.

I also built a new echo effect unit that I will attempt to make a small run of. I’d like to make 8 or so. We’ll see how that goes.
I finished up the 4th semester of “Creative Electronics” at hampshire college. I have lots of pics of peoples final projects to post later. Here’s a pic of me with some of my star pupils from the last 2 years at the “inventors showcase” at Hampshire last friday.

It’s sad but true. I’ve recieved lots of enthusiastic emails about the book but have only recieved a few submissions. Fortunately the submissions I HAVE gotten are really fantastic which has reassured me that this book is a worthwhile project. I’m not deterred from my mission…. The Big Book of Bends will be made! It will just take longer than originally planned, as things often do…….

The good news is that I’m still taking submissions and will be until I have enough to make a book not a pamphlet of bends.
Send submissions and questions to

pete@casperelectronics.com

It’s of dire importance that you write

BigBookofBends

in the subject bar!!!
Otherwise your email will most likely be lost or thrown out.
Here is an example of a super duper page sent in by Benderella