This 1986 Toy Microphone Has A Secret That Might Surprise You
The Fisher Price "Creative Music Maker" is a very unique vintage toy microphone from 1986. It has a function that I have personally never come across in a microphone before! That opens it up for all kinds of wonderful musical experiments. With radios!
I will also make a sample pack + take some photos of the bending I did if you wanna check it out! I will put that on magpiestuff.com asap
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00:00 - 04:52 Testing
04:52 - 10:16 Circuit Bending
10:16 - 17:10 Music Testing
Had this as a little kid, and it later became a key piece of my setup when I first started recording lofi noise back in the 90s! Before I got a 4-track recorder I used this and a dual tape boombox to record over the radio. Good to see it again!
I wonder if there are any 4-track with radio? Has to be right? That would be a fantastic next step 😁
In high school, I had a bright orange microphone with this radio feature, very utilitarian looking (it wasn't meant to look like a toy, more like a tool... a hi-vis tool?). It was designed not to interfere with normal radio stations (per USA law?) so it had a fixed frequency. But, I wanted to use it to stop my chemistry teacher from playing a certain radio station. I disassembled the microphone and found there was a potentiometer for tuning it. Tuning it to the radio station in question worked perfectly; silence broadcast by the microphone covered up the radio broadcast. But I wasn't deceitful enough to pull it off. I blocked the radio for all of 30 seconds before explaining how it worked.
I would imagine you where kind of more excited to share how it worked when you had got it to work? 😆 cause it is really cool you got it to work!!
I have one of these. The kids use it to talk through the radio in the car Very fun little toy
Nice!!
vintage toys always have some cool thing about them, i mean, a toy microphone that catches radio signal? that's really cool you can do so much crazy stuff with old toys
There was one star wars toy that actually used brain chips.
@13:40 that really came together - I really enjoy that vocal effect going on with the slight delay. I know it's not an autotune situation but I like how it kinda comes off like that, very unique. Thanks for the video, Simon!
edit* finally thought of an example but the vocals give that "I'm up in the woooooods" feel
Speaking of radio, you can get a lot of circuit-bent sounding stuff by putting a radio right up to some inexpensive synths that aren't exactly perfectly shielded at close range. I found that out with an SK-1 of all things, while having it on top of some boombox and inadvertently finding the RF noise it generated. Different spots on the radio dial can find different sounds for the same input, and the built-in keyboard rhythms can be really interesting too.
Wow I am totally trying that out today! Getting drum samples like so might be fantastic! Thank you
@@SimonTheMagpie It's cool that you're giving it a shot, as I mentioned elsewhere too. (Some people were interested in circuit bending sounds, but not quite willing to hack older things they may be trying to keep original. I doubt you have that issue though.) Generally its the back or underside of the electronic keyboard that doesn't have much shielding, and it has to be really close to the radio receiver. Also use all bands available on the radio to explore for sounds, not just FM. Not just pressing keys, but changing modes, making entries to parameters, taking samples, etc. makes all kinds of weird electronic noises. I can only guess it's some harmonics of the clock chips used that are sweet spots on the dial.
This video is deserving of all the love in the world. Everything is perfect.
Thank you 😁
Awesome I'm so stoked to have a magpie circuit bending video just like the old days. Thank you so much you made my day. Plz me more videos like this. Much love from Canada 🇨🇦 dude
‘Words! Are overrated’ - Simon the Magpie Greatest quote I’ve heard in a while lol
That song sounds like it came straight out of a chill indie farm sim game. The kind were people praise it for their soundtrack.
Babe wake up, a new black metal recording technique just dropped
Before internet, mobile phones and wifi - meaning up to the late 90s, fm transmitters for microphones, tape recorders, cassette tapes and all sorts of music instruments were quite common. It was fir example the easiest way to send a sound to a car radio!
For instruments!!?!?!! That I would love to find 😁
the results here were awesome! very cool
OMG you just reminded me of a radio toy I had as a kid it was called “Radio DJ” it was made by Wild Planet. It had an AM transmitter, a microphone and a cassette player in it. And some buttons with awful sound effects. You should definitely try to get your hands on it if you can!
Wow that thing looks insane!! Must get myself one of those 😆 thank you very much!!
I had a little FM transmitter microphone, piezoelectric type, I clipped it inside my acoustic guitar soundbox and the feedback sound was incredible!
I have an antique 1940's AM tube radio, and always dreamed of having a low power AM transmitter to be able to use it as an effect. Love this mic, same idea
I wonder if it is hard to diy?
Another thing that would be cool is to put an input jack either inline with the microphone or replacing the mic. Then you could run any sound through the FM radio transmitter to get the lo-fi sound.
I kinda love the idea that there was someone else close by with a radio on that coincidentally tuned in to the same frequency and wondering wtf radio show this was!? :) Super cool vid, the jam at the end worked out so good! I really need to find a way to send some sounds to a radio and record them, it really added a very distinct sound to it - I guess the top quality mic contributed too but still. Hmm. Inspiring and entertaining as ever sir, thank you. Oh and we need some kind of vote/poll system that works through time instead of only on livestreams: "should I just...mod this now?" - I'm trying to hit the JAJAJA button but...alas :(
Haha yeah that would be so weird! 😆😆 Oooh a jajaja button would be epic during video makings 😆
You can also buy an FM sender for pretty cheap. They generally have a 3.5mm in for your phone or something. The only problem is, where I live there are too many radio stations so I can't get a clear signal even on the multi channel deals. But a cheap mic might be good with it if you can't find this toy.
I looked away for half a second and it like... became a vocoder? Amazing!
Haha this is awesome and kinda wholesome XD and your Casio collection is something else ;D
A toy a probably would have played with if I had it as a kid. Now it's a perfectly good lo-fi making device. I love when things find a new purpose.
the first sound tests sounds like a good version of i feel fantastic!
Mr Microphone existed since 1978 and it was basically this without a keyboard. It's not even a obscure product it had pop-culture references including the Simpsons.
Yeah I had no idea! So cool 😁😁😁 Must get myself one of the mr. microphones microphones 😆
@@SimonTheMagpie Mr Microphone is the same thing you have right now except yours has a cool little keyboard. I might suggest modding the microphone in it because they use the cheapest off-the-shelf mic available or maybe a audio input jack.
This guy is either a complete mad man or a absolute genius. Either way I love it. 🤘😄
Excellent video, thank you for making this!
You should create IRs with this setup
Lovely!
Great video Simon, amazing to see how good you made that little Fisher Price mic sound. That autotune type sound is awesome. I'm also loving the Casio Love with all these Casios showing up in your videos! And a KX Boombox Casio too - it doesn't get more Casiocore than that!
Simon. You make me feel like a human being, man.
I can't stop looking at the paper
I guess we all want you to circuit-bend just everything in the world!
When it comes to mics with radio transmitters I instantly remembered Mr. Microphone, or however it was called. Seems like it used to be a popular toy in US, IDK, I know it only cause it was used in one of Police Academy movies. And there was a very old YT video from kipkey about it.
Yeah I am totally adding that to my list now! Had no idea. Must test 😆😆😆
boys telling that they dont have an depression and then start making song from toy mic
The second I saw that micro chip I knew it was prime circuit bend material. Ahh the 80s!
Nice! I need to google it. Just recognized the texas instrument logo and got hyped 😄
@@SimonTheMagpie Indeed! It is a sound generator. As you know, it is a simple sound generator but yeah. Also, would be more prudent to set a diode somewhere in that tone adjust to keep the voltage from backing into the tuning pin the wrong way? Or at least try and use Vcc= 5V instead of the 9VDC? I fried my Casio MT520 inputting the line AUDIO to a circuit bend point.. and that was not even 9VDC! Something like 5 or 4.5V maybe? I will never do that again without a diode or resistor lol!
Thank you for the video! I might have to try out circuit bending... I think the Landscape Noon utilized methods of it.
“Hey, good lookin’! We’ll be back to pick you up later.”
if you got a second one you can play the keyboard over the radio 😆 "Mr. Microphone" is from the 1970's and has a built-in AM transmitter
Very Cool Video Cheers Simon The Magpie
Cheers!
This is where I started
I got one of these for Christmas as a kid. I loved that thing. ❤
I like the idea of having one of these just to use to produce radio effects for recording.
the song at the end gives me moomin valley vibes lol
14:27 this sounds exactly like something from Botanicula (or Amanita design overall)
when i was a kid, i had a hannah montana-branded microphone that sent out an fm signal that you'd tune in to with a radio
Ooh so same thing but modern! Will have to google that 😁
Remember, some robots are evil. I think The Casio Boombox is not your friend. 🤖 😱
I would record improvised music to tape via fm signal on this thing when I was in 2nd grade
The Beatles used a live FM broadcast of the Shakespearean play King Lear in their song “I am the walrus”. A section of that broadcast can be heard at the end of the track. It was added by John Lennon playing around with an FM radio during a studio session. It’s now infamous because of the whole “McCartney’s dead” conspiracy. Specifically, the conspiracy refers to the line “Oh, untimely death”.
Thats the same theory that ties to the no shoes on cover and blabla? Very peculiar stuff 😄
@@SimonTheMagpie Yes it is. I watched a 90 min documentary once that went into the whole thing. About Paul McCartney being decapitated during a car accident and MI6 recruiting a young man named Billy Sheers to replace Paul. The reason they do this is because they fear mass hysteria breaking out because of all the admirers the Beatles had. He undergoes plastic surgery and learns how to play the bass. But the other Beatles feel guilty about the deception so they leave clues in the music and album art. Eleanor Rigby refers to his funeral. Sargent Peppers has the dug up earth on the cover. And when you played a particular song backwards it would say, “Turn me on deadman”.
The Simpsons episode "Radio Bart" from '92 was about one of these toys, they were a bigger thing then you'd think... but only for about a year then everyone forgot about them.
Ooh thank you!! I will have to look that up and watch it! They did show simpsons in sweden when I grew up. But always kinda too late at night 😅
They had one of these in an old episode of The Simpsons. Bart used it to trick people in to thinking there was a boy left in a well by tossing a transistor radio down there and using the microphone to ask for help. He then fell down the well himself, trying to get the radio back and got stuck down there for real. Just the first thing I thought of when seeing a microphone like this in real life :)
Now I imagine that is what happens in nolans batman begins as well😄
I looked at the paper the entire time
You can just imagine the mischief kids got up to with this. "We interrupt this program to bring you an important message. Today, the President announced a recall on all brussels sprouts. If you have brussels sprouts in your home, throw them out."
the main thing with FM Transmitters is that theyre relatively weak compared to the equipment that broadcast towers use...thats why you usually cant use them on 'actual' radio stations-- you have to find an open frequency somewhere in the fuzz, so that its the only thing ON that frequency...
Yeah otherwise it would be illegal even? Or not illegal, but it would need certain regulatory stuff? I heard 😅 I am a total fm radio noob. Nut have some friends that dabble
@@SimonTheMagpie oh yeah, i was totally avoiding the Legal side of things (like the FCC or whatever regulatory body watches over that stuff for your country), but just on the Possibility Level, its already difficult because Radio Stations BLAST that frequency...so youll have to either Isolate your signal (like, down in a bunker) or Overpower theirs (not likely, with consumer-grade parts)
i’m just a blob from 1982
Let me guess, without watching the video. It lets you record a sound sample, and then play it on the keyboard, in different notes. That, or it lets you make something like a soundboard, where every button plays different sound. Edit: Well, that was unexpected 😅
That would have been super rad though 😁😁😁
That would be nice. Like this + SK-1, et al
perfect for fooling the citizens of springfield
Dang, I just got rid of one of these not too long ago. XD
I had one of these as a kid
Nice! I wish I had as well!!
Radio mic toys were a whole thing.
I had no idea! Please guide me in that direction 😆
nice
Good chance if you hack it, you can adjust the transmitting frequency, you just need to know what to look for, possibly by adjusting what's labeled as I7.
Oooh! I have done very little with radio stuff. So that could be a fun rabbit hole to fall down 😆
I just had an idea for your Casio keyboard, tape deck, radio thing. But this might not work. I was thinking if you could take a tape cassette, cut out all the tape and make it a loop. Then if you record yourself playing while the loop is playing, will it be like a delay? Will you get an echo? Will it take too long? I don't know but that seemed like the kind of thing you'd do. In any event, tape loops are cool. I'd love to make a whole Melotron thing with tape cassettes but it would take too many tape machines and you can't buy them cheaply anymore.
That's a good idea! Built-in cassette-based delay.
@@NicStage Well, if it works. One can only try. And if anyone would, Magpie would. If you really wanted to do it right, you'd need some way of speeding up and slowing down the tape which isn't all that big of a trick but he might not want to do that to his machine. Then you'd have to figure out some way of feeding it back. I'm sure people have done it now that I think about it. But it could be a way of doing it on the quick and easy.
If you mean the KX-101 , the tape deck sadly doesnt work. So will have to fix that first! I have other keyboards with tape though. But will have to look up how to diy a tape echo first. Cause I dont know how to have it active listening back to recording while playing 😅
I’ll hook up some tape wizards I know to help me mod for tape echo. Speed is something I have some really fun and interesting ideas for 😁😁 a new take on it. Together with @nicstage even, haha
@@SimonTheMagpie Cool man. I hope you have fun and don't go into some headache because of my comment. Lol. I'd feel bad about that. But it might prove to be interesting. I've seen others do some really cool things with tape cassettes.
Uhhhhg man, I was such an idiot. I got one of these as a kid at a thrift shop and never figured out why the microphone didn't work like the keyboard buttons did ... doh!
And a new musical instrument is born..... suddenly the price of these things on ebay is going up......
Add an input to this so you can have a radio echo!
Did he quit drinking? I can sense something different about him from years back. He's happy or something.
nice, very animal crossing like sound
That guy who plays SpongeBob looks like mark Zuckerberg
Sort of like a Kob-Controlled Theramin! A Knobomin! ..Knobomic..?
Knobomic it is 😆
You could, like, google the chip and read the basic description of what the chip does.
Yeah I’m on it! I just like to explore in the real world before I go online 😁
@@SimonTheMagpie it is fun to poke around and see what it does, I'll admit it. I do it too hahaha
I totally had this! It's also basically what Bart used to make Timmy fall down the well... "CONVOYYYYY"🎶
you child lol. Cool
Забавный микрофон😂
КАК ВСЕГДА БОМБИЧЕСКИ
Cåsio (TM)
Now you can make minecraft music.
Ive seen videos of hot sugar using this toy with impressive results
m
gnhm
fuck yes
👃
Spooky 😆😆😆