Pictures and info on a new instrument from circuit bending creator and pioneer, Reed Ghazala. The "Fractal Oscillator" features a magnetic patch bay for signal routing.
Reed Ghazala, father of modern circuit bending, has created a new instrument called the Fractal Oscillator. It is a modified Yamaha PSS-6, a popular keyboard for circuit bending because of it's low price and simple circuitry. The main modification is a magnetic patch bay mounted on the back of the keyboard. There are no sound samples as of yet, but Ghazala has a Flicker set of the Fractal Oscillator with descriptions. Thanks to Create Digital Music for the original post.
The Fractal Oscillator is the first such instrument to have magnetic patching built in, though Ghazala mentions that he used magnets to hold wires in place as far back as his first instrument, the Odor Box. He also notes an interesting option that magnetic patching opens up: the possibility of routing more than one signal to the same location, something that can't be done with jack connections.
Ghazala is filing a patent for the magnetic patching, but encourages benders to experiment with the technique. He plans to put up sound samples of the new instrument on his website soon.
Other circuit bending links:
