Bending Barbie’s circuits

Music Technology

Chris Connors

Making things is the best way to learn about our world.

Noise Night along with a few boxes of other seemingly bendable electrojunk. Maybe Barbie will cross your path at a yard sale, curbside picking or flea market. Apparently, they go for real money on Ebay.

Jimmie Rogers said that there was a good amount of information available on hacking Barbie’s soundbox. Casper Electronics has some experience at the craft and shows the results of bending a variety of talking toys:

If I were to form some sort of experimental noise army, this piece would be standard issue. It’s portable, versatile, and loud.

It has four different functions.

1. adjustable speed tape player
2. simple, amplified mixer
3. lo-fi echo processor
4. odd/pulsing/morphing/bleeping sound generator

All of these functions can be used together to achieve a variety of different sounds and effects.

If you are near Troy New York, you might check out the opening of Casper Land.