Important texts:
Nicolas Colins – Handmade Electronic Music
Andy Farnel – Designing Sound

The world of electronics is a daunting one- but being rooted in science, is one that can be thoroughly understood, this undertanding being of importance when trying to break the creative boundaries. Circuits surround our everyday living, particuarly in a modern society where most of our household and recreational devices are powered by electricity. When creating sound with electronics, having a key understanding of circuits and how they work is the primary step to mastering the craft.

The Victorian Synthesiser

Composed of a battery connected to a speaker driver with two crocodile clips (one clip for the negative and one for the positive terminals), the Victorian synthesiser attempts to achieve effects similar to those of modern hardware synthesisers, but using Victorian techniques. Tweaking and adding differnt components such as breadboards, jump wires and paperclips can adapt the sound created.

In this image, a breadboard is used to route the positive and negative signals, allowing for the crocodile clips to know hold paper clips to adapt the sound.

The World’s Simplest Circuit

Taking the idea of using a breadboard further, here’s an example of what is known as the world’s simplest circuit- albeit with all the jumpwies and “fiddly” little bits, it may seem complex to build at first. These “fiddly” components that have now been introduced are resistors and capcitors.

Resistors
A resistor is a small component made up of a longwire and (usually) another sort of material, such as carbon film, that withstands and controls the flow of curent. Varying resitors carry different levels of resistance, with the lower the resistance, the slower the circuit will operate. Although a resistor doesn’t add anything to the circuit in terms of sound quality or texture, it allows the user to have control over the flow of power. Different types of resistors include LDR resistors, also known as photoresistor, – their resistance being affected by light exposure- and force sensitive resistors, which are affected by chysical contact and pressure, amongst many others. In the photo of a ‘World’s Simplest Circuit’ created by myself (pictured above; the largest component aside from the breadbaprd; large upright square), a force sensitive resistor is used.

Capacitors
Capacitors are components in the circuit which store electrical charge, which is seen in the photo above (the small yellow figure undearneath the resistor). The resistor is then used to control the flow of this electrical charge. Different capacitors have different levels of voltage, so by replacing the capacitor, the user of the circuit can control the texture and loudness of sound that is produced.

Here is a visual demonstration of my circuit in effect. Enjoy!