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Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments (ExtremeTech)
by Reed Ghazala
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Wiley (2005-08-26)
ISBN: 0764588877
EAN: 9780764588877
Dewey Decimal #: 786.7192
Binding/Media: Paperback - 450 pages
SKU: 102009-1701
Condition: New
Comments: 0764588877 Brand new, may have wear on cover, we have a HUGE selection of computer books at great prices! All discs included if issued by publisher. New, never read, may have minor wear on cover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
- Fans will get bent out of shape if they miss the first book to cover circuit-bending-"bending," for short-the method by which an electronic toy or a device such as a keyboard is short-circuited and modified to create an entirely different sound
- Written by the inventor of the technology, this book covers the tools of the trade, shows how to build a bending workshop, and reveals secrets that will have readers of all levels making sweet music in no time
- Readers learn basic bends, body contacts, and other bending skills, as well as ways to create bent instruments from a variety of popular toys and electronic devices
- Features some of the author's own unique creations
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Customer Reviews
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Easy Easy Easy
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-04-08
If you are looking for an easy to understand, simply explained tutorial book about circuit bending...this is it. Don't be intimidated...you can do this too. This book is written so well, and is easy for a newbie like me to understand. I have no prior knowledge of electronics but I now feel confident I will be able to pull this off. I have already bought some toys at the thrift store & look forward to bending them soon. I just need to get some supplies & I will be off & running.
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can't put it down
Rating (5)
Date: 2010-01-02
Bought this for my musician son for Christmas & he's having a hard time putting this book down. He's been playing circuit bent items for a while & can't wait to roll up his sleeves & create his own instruments.
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You CAN do this!!!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-03-12
I LOOOOVE this book. It's easy to follow, informative and doesn't insult your intelligence. You'll wonder why you weren't making weird and strange instruments all your life. I thought the book was going to be a bore and hard to get through but boy was I wrong. Mr. Ghazala has a wiley but colorful style that really draws you in after a while and you really start to believe you can do this. And you can!!! I've never soldered but after reading this book and a little practice it will be a breeze. Very cool resource and probably a great place for curious kids to start. A+++++++++
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Great Read
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-02-13
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
As a musician who has utilized several bent instruments on recording, and having natural curiosity about the bending process, I figured this book would be interesting, but it turned out to be a more enjoyable reading experience than I might have thought. The author conveys information in a manner that is easy for a beginner to assimilate, but also assumes that the reader has a reasonable degree of intelligence, which is nice. A good teacher should be a stepping stone between what his or her pupils need to know and what they will find out on their own down the road. It goes without saying that an instructor should instill in his instructees at least a spark of interest, which is hard to do if he isn't really that interested himself. He should teach people how to learn for themselves. A sense of humor never hurts either. Mr. Ghazala presents his material in a way that reveals his ongoing love for the process, his reasonably intelligent and semi-dry wit and his eagerness to continue the journey of exploration. And I really like his ideas on what actually makes up music itself, and the notion that music is all around us all the time in the ordinary (and also the extraordinary and even non-ordinary) sounds we hear. It's also cool to find out when and where it all began. Aside from that, the book contains lots of very useful information in a nicely laid out format. For example, soldering is the thing that keeps many people from bending, so it's good to have a very good chapter about that. The factoids are helpful too. While I don't have much time right now to do any bending myself, I would like to take on one of the simpler projects described in the book, and it's nice to know that the particular item I'll be working with has a fragile casing before I go jabbing a big drill into it. Not everyone would even think to mention things like that.
Even if I never find time to put this book to use, and I do hope that I will, I have enjoyed reading it very much. The writing style appeals to me personally, and I think that if Mr. Ghazala wrote a fiction novel (and for all I know he may have written several) I would probably read that too. I'd recommend this book to musicians, mad scientists, architects, artists, electronics types, tech nuts and anyone interested in just reading a good book.
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Much like the evil genius books in style and substance
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-11-27
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is great for aspiring electronics hobbyists who know nothing about building their own electronic devices but would like to learn and have something more interesting to show for their efforts than some boring counter device with a seven segment LED display. There is plenty of instruction on selecting components and assembling circuits, but there is not much in the way of theory as to why you get the sound you do. In other words, if you are looking for the math or musical theory behind any of this, it is missing. I really wouldn't have been that bothered by all of the narrative side trips that the author took that other reviewers have already mentioned if only at the end of the day he had delivered the goods in relation to the theory. If you are a fan of the Evil Genius series of books, you will probably like this book too. The instructions are clear and correct, and you will have something that works if you follow directions. What is missing is the why. What would be nice would be a book that combines the how of this electronics book with the why of more theoretical books on the subject that are usually totally impractical. I am yet to find one. The most accessible books I've found on the mathematics behind music are the two volumes of Musimathics that came out just recently.
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