Circuitbending Software

[Illuminasty]

I've seen some VST's built around circuitbending, whether their GUI resembles a toy/machine or a series of circuits.

I played around on SynthMaker and have just got a copy of Synth Edit and was wondering if anyone here has created a VST or VSTi like this.

[Circuitbenders]

Seems like a bit of an absurd idea to me, rather like that korg VST remake of the MS20, but then i guess its only a matter of time before Roland release something with 'virtual bent technology' and thus miss the point on an epic scale.

[Illuminasty]

I just like the idea of being able to choose between hardware and software when it comes to noise creation. Obviously hardware would be the preferred choice for any artist in live performances but just for messing around and wanting to come up with random results within your software, vst's would be the 1st choice. I'm talking about sound-mangling effects and odd synths.
This idea aint new but I wanted to know if anyone here has created such software.

[Gordonjcp]

I have actually got a partially-written circuit-bent sample player DSSI plugin.  It does need a joystick or gamepad to control it.

The good thing about ROM bends is you can work out exactly what you're going to get - there's no random element at all.  This plugin works along those lines by modelling what happens to the data and address lines when you short them.

[Circuitbenders]

we're all doomed! DOOMED i say! 

[goldenbaby]

It'll be the 28 Days Later of Circuit-Bending...Stockpile your CBOs in a hidden location and be prepared to live in it...

[Illuminasty]

I have actually got a partially-written circuit-bent sample player DSSI plugin.  It does need a joystick or gamepad to control it.

The good thing about ROM bends is you can work out exactly what you're going to get - there's no random element at all.  This plugin works along those lines by modelling what happens to the data and address lines when you short them.

Wicked! And how would I be able to get my hands on this plugin???

we're all doomed! DOOMED i say! 

It'll be the 28 Days Later of Circuit-Bending...Stockpile your CBOs in a hidden location and be prepared to live in it...

No-no-no-no! It won't be the end of circuitbending I promise! Think about it, there's nothing like getting your hands on a toy or synth and completly customising it from scratch then being able to use it in performances. Besides, substituting a bent synth with a vst would be like replacing an army of fully-trained soldiers with action men, it aint quite the same 
All I want here is an alternative, something I could use to put a sample through and it'll mangle it up and spit it out as something different. I found a few already and they do a good job 

[MAGTIG]

Seems like a bit of an absurd idea to me, rather like that korg VST remake of the MS20, but then i guess its only a matter of time before Roland release something with 'virtual bent technology' and thus miss the point on an epic scale.

Yeah but that plugin is awesome, for one, and for two it introduced the wonders of the MS20 to a whole bunch of people who might not have otherwise known how awesome it sounds (like me). But you're  right, circuit bending plugins seem almost like an oxy-moron.

If you're going to use plugins why not find the craziest ones on the planet that push the possibilities (instead of ones that emulate hardware classics)? Sonic Charge's Synplant comes to mind... maybe Omnisphere & Absynth as well. Amazing sounds come out of those things, but I'm sick of all that stuff, really. That's why I'm here. haha

[Signal:Noise]

if you invest the time and effort learning them you can get some cool random/generative sounds out of stuff like pure data. Unfortunately I suck at programming.

[Circuitbenders]

I used to have an Amiga A1200 which had a sample editing program that allowed you to do a 'Ramscan'. Basically it loaded all the data currently in RAM into the software as audio, whatever the data was originally. Thinking about it now, i wouldn't even know where to begin coming up with some of the noises that thing vomited out.

[Gordonjcp]

I used to have an Amiga A1200 which had a sample editing program that allowed you to do a 'Ramscan'. Basically it loaded all the data currently in RAM into the software as audio, whatever the data was originally. Thinking about it now, i wouldn't even know where to begin coming up with some of the noises that thing vomited out.

sudo dd if=/dev/mem of=noise.raw
sox -r44100 -s -2 noise.raw noise.wav

done.

[Bogus Noise]

I used to have an Amiga A1200 which had a sample editing program that allowed you to do a 'Ramscan'. Basically it loaded all the data currently in RAM into the software as audio, whatever the data was originally. Thinking about it now, i wouldn't even know where to begin coming up with some of the noises that thing vomited out.

In addition to Gordon's answer, have you tried opening random application, data and image files in a wave editor as raw data? Could even grab a few disk images from old Amiga sites and open those! There's a few wave editors about that'll do it.

[sk-1]

Here's a circuit-bending simulator you can try... and it's FREE.  It's a Cubase VST, which means it comes as a plugin DLL which you can use in any of your favourite host programs, including Fruity Loops and anything that accepts Cubase plugins/VSTi's.

But I like to run the hundreds of virtual synths I have as standalone desktop programs, by running it with SaviHost... a program that will let you run any virtual instrument or virtual effect as a standalone program, without the need to load it up in a host program.  It's a standalone host, basically.  Anyway, it's really cool and you can get it here:

Robot Juice (Circuit Bending VST):
http://freemusicsoftware.org/487

SAVIHost (Standalone VST Host):
http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm

Let us know what you think!

*Edit: Let me just say... that no matter how cool and fun circuit bending may be, the world of software synths is just incredibly amazing and I never grow tired of plunking away at the keys of a good virtual instrument.  It would literally cost me millions of dollars to buy the real instruments that I have collected for free with downloaded VST's. (I'd also need a studio the size of an aircraft hangar to store them in too!).  Software Synths absolutely ROCK!