Making music on the TI graphing calculator — and a TI-inspired plug-in synth

Time to dust off that TI-82, TI-83, or TI-84. The graphic calculators that a lot of us used in school can become ingenious chip synths and even run trackers. And that translates to a surprisingly powerful graphing calculator-inspired synth — one that instantly became one of my favorite plug-ins.

The Speak & Spell is reborn as a chaos monster and glitchy groovebox

You’ve heard the Speak & Spell. You’ve heard circuit-bent Speak & Spell. But are you ready to open a Hellmouth of total destructive speech chaos based on combining those into a massively powerful groovebox?

Peter Kirn - July 29, 2024

The strange, cartridge-powered speech of TI Touch & Tell

No, not the better-known Speak & Spell. TI’s 1981 Touch & Tell was a singular moment in speech synthesis. Here’s its story – and a beautiful circuit bent mod.

Peter Kirn - July 11, 2018

A free app makes a TI graphing calculator make music

Peter Kirn - October 7, 2015

A Big Ass MIDI Cube with Hakan Lidbo, Live at MIDI Hack Stockholm [Video, Code]

- May 18, 2014