SolidGold MeatBox | |
This beast began its
life as a "Solid Gold Rock Star Mini Beat Box." It didn't have much going for it un-modified,
but it did have some real nice electro-analog sounds. |
|
After some prodding, I was able to find a couple
of points for pitch bending. I added an audio out, a pot for slo-down
and two optical resistors for blinky-blinky sequence control. But I wasn't
satisfied—that
wasn't enough. I decided to see just how much ridiculousness I could add to this gadget, even tho the board was very simple and didn't seem to want to yield very many interesting sounds. I found two human contact resistance points. Then found places on the board that, with momentary switches, would trigger the sounds just as if I were striking the piezo pad. And, to finish it off, I poked and found two places that would trigger the drum sounds with an audio input trigger signal, with one sensitive to high frequency input, and the other to low frequency input, so one audio signal split into two and put into both minijack inputs would trigger different sounds at different times, depending on what the original signal was composed of. Neat! But, unfortunately, it is a bit of a cantankerous gadget. It sometimes refuses to trigger, or triggers unexpectedly. I like the randomness of it, but would like it to be a bit more performance-friendly. It's great with blinky-blinky LEDs as optical sequencers, and can do some really amazing stuff. As it is, it generates some really great sounds, that are mostly controllable. And, I love the way the paintjob and meat turned out...dig that groovy gold knob! |
Completed: | February 22, 2004 |
Dimensions: | 1.5" x 5" x 8" |
Current Status: | Stinking up my shelves |
Audio Bits:
|
SGMBManualTrig.mp3 and 02 are
examples of the red button manual triggering. |