Beat Blenders
A ready bent Beat Blender can be bought at http://store.robotspeakstore.com/beatbender.html for $150,-
Although I have piles of junk already I couldn't resist and bought the Hip Hop and Techno version. Twelve Euros a piece. I love drum and rhytm stuff.
The first bent Beat Benders I saw at http://www.techdweeb.com/ .
I think more can be done to the interface, making these things much more playable.
Also I wonder why people insist on using LDR's on drums or loop patterns. You will want to synchronise the timing or hold the tuning, at least I do.
So I want a potmeter, maybe two, coarse and fine. So your carefully adjusted loop length stays that way. Synchronised with your other sounds.Less cool looking, but more control.
Techdweeb states its bendability is limited and the logic is volatile (he added only pitchbend).
The clock/pitch resistor is R1. I replaced the resistor instead of bypassing R1 like Techdweeb did. Indeed it makes the Beat Blender unreliable.
The clock resistor is directly attached to the + voltage. So it starves the voltage for the complete circuit board and drains batteries fast. I may try a 5 volt voltage regulator and insert a diode to bring down the voltage to 4.5 volts if nescessary
I have a newer version circuitboard than the one pictured at techdweeb.com by the way.
Done so far:
The orange slider selecting the four loops doesn't move smoothly. The slider closes two copper pads, but it needs just a momentary contact to function.
I replaced the slider with four momentary switches. Now I can select each loop in random order very fast.
Pictured: at the back in blue: Techno Beat blender unmodded. Next in green the Hip Hop version with momentary switches for loop selection. In the front: Remnants of the original slider switch and light diffusor for the internal LED's. There's a lot more space inside without it.
Update 15 jan 2005: I fried one of the LEDs. Now the entire thing won't start. The LEDs must be an essential part of the circuit. So far I havn't found a suitable replacement.
The board: (why oh why are these always full of glare and out of focus? Will I ever learn?)
Anyway, I soldered the momentary switches to the square copper pads, to have direct and random acces to each of the four loops.
