PETER EDWARDS of CASPERELECTRONICS
CUSTOM MODIFIED this SPEAK and SPELL
for BILL T MILLER

CASPER ELECTRONICS
Texas Instruments
Speak and Spell

La Dictee Magique

French Language Model

left to right on the face plate
-longloop glitch
-longloop randomize coarse and fine tune
-short loop glitch
-short loop adjustment
-shortloop release button
-glitch variety switch with two settings
-stable glitch
-slow motion glitch

-sound response LED
-reset button
-pitch control slider
-volume
-1/4 inch output
-flesh contact pitch adjustment
-Atari controller jack
-telephone jack for pitch module input

pitch control/sound gate module
-four pitch sound gate keys with two positions
-four tuning pots
-pitch correction switch
-sound gate activation switch

To achieve the LongLoop glitch, activate the switch and push any button. It may not work immediately and may even crash, but after two or three tries the loop will catch. The two adjustment knobs will transform the loop into crackling , bleeping static. As the pitch is lowered, the randomize setting increases. That's why I have installed a coarse and fine tune. When the pitch is high, the coarse tune will be adjusted all the way to the right and the fine tune will adjust the sound. When the pitch is very low the coarse tune should be set all the way to the left. The randomize setting may not always work or may cause the system to crash, but with some practice you should be able to achieve this effect often.

The shortloop glitch is two glitches in one. With the setting fully counterclockwise the sound is unaffected. As the knob is turned to the right, static will be introduced into the sound. When the sound is almost entirely static, it will catch the sound and loop. If you carefully adjust the knob you can catch the sound JUST before it loops. This effect is very interesting and can create some amazing sounds. The release button momentarily turns off the glitch and can be useful for grabbing different sounds in a phrase.

The variety glitch is very interesting, Set the switch to the left and press the ON button. Most often a strange, quite, clicking sound will be activated. At this point if you set the switch to the left, the sound will change to a similar bleeping sound. This glitch can also be combined with others for interesting effects. Also this glitch in both modes can be used to achieve more common, bleeping, random sounds and words. Also this glitch can trigger an almost endless stream of noise when the GO button is pressed.

The stable glitch is interesting because the function of the S&S is unaffected, but the sounds are transformed. Every time you hit the T button it will make the same sound. This glitch can be especially useful in live settings where you may want a higher level of predictability in your sounds.

The slow-motion glitch is a wonderful, multi functional glitch. First it often causes the S&S to function normally but in slow-motion. Also when the GO button is pressed, it can conjure LONG strings of sound and often causes the S&S to file through EVERY sound it makes. The pitch slider has been specially tuned using internal trim pots so it can be adjusted all the way up or down without the system crashing. The base pitch pin is highly static sensitive which makes it possible to effect the pitch by touching the flesh contact point. It also makes a drop in the pitch when the pitch module is plugged in. The problem with thiswas that the pitch slider was optimized so that it could be adjusted all the way up or down without it crashing, but when the pitch module was plugged in the system would crash when the slider was all the way down and the pitch was not high enough when the slider was all the way up, so I installed a special pitch correction switch that raises the pitch when activated.

The keys on the pitch module have two positions, up and down. One makes the pitch higher as the pitch adjustment pot is turned clockwise, the other adjusts the pitch higher as the pot is turned counter clock wise. This is possible because all potentiometer have three pins. One center pin and a left and right pin. As you turn the pot clockwise, the resistance increases between the center and left pin as it decreases between the center and right pin. The keys are connected to both of these pins (one up one down) allowing you to access both of these resistance ratings. Using the pitch keys, the pitch can only be adjusted UP from the pitch set by the slider, so the best way to use the pitch module is by setting the slider all the way down. Then the keys can set the pitch anywhere between the lowest and highest possible pitch. It's a little confusing but will makes sense after you use it for just a few minutes. When the sound gate switch is activated all sound will shut off and the pitch keys will act as sound ON pushbuttons in both positions.

The Atari controller jack allows you to control certain functions of the S&S with ANY standard Atari joystick. Here is a list of the functions:
trigger=ON
down=random letter
up=short loop
left and right=glitches

This setup is especially useful because by pressing diagonally down and left or right, you can conjure a random letter which is then glitched into a variety of strange sounds.

This is very possibly the most glitched out S&S this world has ever seen..and I'm not joking about that. I went all out. this thing is amazing!

have FUN!!!!
- pete@casperelectronics.com