Making noise on a budget

[Coinage]

I have been suffering from a deep metaphysical need to make noise, but the problem is that I only have a digital piano, which I sort of know how to play but can't really make noise with, and an acoustic guitar, which I don't know how to play at all but I enjoy banging on for the tactile sensation, and a laptop, which may or may not be useful in this instance. So what are some good ways to make interesting noise without spending a lot of money? Feedback is cool, but not necessary. Obviously, I could just buy a mike and a speaker and stick them next to each other, but I don't think that would be very interesting. I am deliberately not putting a price limit because I have no idea how much this should reasonably cost and I haven't decided yet what is "too much".

[Dohol]

Circuit bending is a good place to start...

http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/cir ... /main.html

And using homemade contact microphones (any piezoelectric buzzer will provide raw material) to amplify small sounds is another..


Freeware soft synths..



And then there is the old reliable no input feedback circuit...





Making noise on a budget is the only way to go.

[RFKorp]

This is a piece of advice that either will spur you on to great things or won't help you in the slightest.

But I recommend finding a download of Adam Sussmann's "Acoustic Guitar Solo" and rethinking the potential of that instrument as a generator of anti-musical sounds.

[fluxmonkey]

go to the library & get a copy of Nicolas Collins' book "Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking" (books, libraries, so old fashioned...) months worth of lowbudget noize projects.

[Charon]

hook up your digital piano to a big amp and turn the gain up, maybe get some distortion pedals and whatnot. I had some good fun with this a while back (although mine was a keyboard, not a digital piano)

[howsthatsound]

buy a cheap amp off CL
cut a guitar cable in half
open up an old portable CD player
use alligator clips to connect the ground from the cable to the ground of the CD player
use aligator clips to connect the positive lead from the cable to a jewelers screwdriver
turn amp on, plug jack in, start CD player up, poke around the circuit with screwdriver.
hear blasts of noise
?????????
PROFIT!

[Dohol]

But let us reiterate the first rule of circuit bending...Never hack anything that plugs into a wall socket.


If you wish to continue breathing that is.

[corey_larkin]

I agree with Richard... I wouldn't take the electronic route... start with the cleanest, clearest sounds possible... your acoustic guitar

... paper?

rocks + dirt?
and hey... they're free!

[snailed]

you talking just playing or recording here?

if the latter, you still have to have a way to record that dirt and paper.

the fact that you have a computer is a huge plus - download Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

use your internal mic on the laptop to start with. there's lots you can do with a little creative EQing. they have cheap usb microphones - again, pretty shitty, but used creatively you can do something good with it. or, look for a cheap usb interface on ebay, m-audio will be your friend if you're on a budget.

it's really just the easiest way to get started if you already have a laptop and don't tend to have old gear/tapes lying around.

[p_ano]

most of my gear was purchased at thrift stores.. you'd be surprised what you can find if you look.

[snailed]

true. and i should say i got my reel to reel off of craigslist for free as well.

also, dumpster diving. just keeping your eyes open for stuff of interest. some of my favorite instruments have been seen on the side of the road or found somehow

[RFKorp]

some of my favorite instruments have been seen on the side of the road or found somehow

but I imagine most posters here know by now how true this statement is for me too.

[Coinage]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I know I can make lots more sounds with an acoustic guitar than I already have, but I really don't know how to play the damn thing and I also want to do electronic/feedback noise, not just string sounds. And I have no interest in recording this, this is for my own personal catharsis and trying to record it with any fidelity greater than a video camera adds an order of magnitude to the cost.

Circuit bending is a good place to start...

http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/cir ... /main.html

And using homemade contact microphones (any piezoelectric buzzer will provide raw material) to amplify small sounds is another..

And then there is the old reliable no input feedback circuit...

Making noise on a budget is the only way to go.

Circuit bending sounds cool, but it seems like it would be a lot of work. I can't say I understand how one would accomplish the other two. But I don't know much about electronics. My point about the budget was that I've seen some of the setups people have, and I imagine they spent quite a bit of money on all those effects pedals, not to mention the amps and electric guitar.

However, it seems that Handmade Electronic Music would help me understand that and is probably the way to go, although it unfortunately is not in any library around here so I would have to shell out the $30.

The high gain amp suggestion is a good idea, especially since I'd need an amp for anything involving microphones and feedback. Since this is for myself, I wouldn't need more than 10 watts, right? Is there anything I should be looking for in the amp, or would something like this be ok?

[flies]

since indecision is your friend: i think I read somebody on this board saying that s/he was fond of cheapo computer speakers more than guitar amps. the advantage is that computer speakers are designed to do better with the high treble and low bass as compared with guitar amps. one disadvantage for you is of course the lack of onboard distortion.

however, that amp looks like it'll get the job done for sure. the headphones output adds some feedback possibilities.

one thing that most noisicians seem to use and recommend is contact (piezo) microphones. shakerbox + distortion pedal = noise. you can use an electrical junction box to enclose whatever crap you have laying about: bottle caps, pennies, etc.

[howsthatsound]

it's insanely easy to make noise with just a cd player or a tape recorder and an amp of some kind. computer speakers work great too.

you could also buy a Dictaphone that takes full size cassettes and put an answering machine loop cassette in it. just plug it in and hit record and it will feedback like mad. then you will also have the loop you just created to play back. then i'd figure out some way to expose the circuitboard so that you can short it out in various ways while you are doing either of the two aforementioned activities. that could keep you busy for some time and shouldn't cost more than a total of $25-$30

[Coinage]

Oh man, I went to Goodwill, and they didn't have any amps, but they have a horribly detuned full key upright piano for twenty dollars. I'm pretty excited about what I could do with some mikes and distortion with that, not to mention finally be able to John Cage prepared piano that bitch. Who cares if I destroy it if it was cheap anyway? The only problem is that my family will hate me for banging on an untuned piano, and there's not a lot of space in my house, but they'd probably already be upset about the feedback coming from the amp...

[Wombatz]

Sounds great, go for it. (Though getting it into your house might be the most expensive part if you're not connected.) Prepare it, then mostly dampen the strings, then contact mike the whole thing, put it through a cheap mixer and into an old 80s cassette tape recorder with input gain control (that, cranked up, is the sweetest kind of distortion I've ever heard). You should be able to keep that at room volume and the hardware cost wouldn't exceed 100 quid.

Or do it another way. Finding your own special set-up is the new practising.

[horaflora]

or, if you're not in too urban an area, try to find a place to put it outside, maybe near your house, maybe just within walking distance, but far enough from stuff that you could really let 'er rip, if you wanted to...! the weather would only help the tone...

[MKULTRA]

.

[Coinage]

Lol, I'm dumb, I just realized after I went back that even an upright piano is fucking heavy, and there is no way , even though it would be going on the ground floor. While it was obviously worth $20 to me, I don't know if it's worth the $200 it would probably cost to move the damn thing.

About the computer speakers: wouldn't that be significantly more difficult to rig than an amp? All the speakers I've seen have the male connector cable attached to it to go into the computer, so you'd have to run the sound through a mixing board or something.