Today I was crusing the web and found some great websites.
http://www.escapehawaii.com/
http://www.getlofi.com/
http://www.micromusic.net/
http://c64music.blogspot.com/
Hope you get some enjoyment out of these.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Fritzing.org
Today I downloaded the Fritzing application again to see the progress this application has made in development. It is finally at a usable state for small projects, it is particularly good for the beginner as it accurately reflects the equipment you would be using.
Fritzing.org
Fritzing.org
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Bronome
Sorry about the lack of posting regarding the Bronome, this last leg of university has been hectic to say the least.
However, the LED routine has been smoothed out and here is a current video:
On Friday April 4th, 2008 the Bronome will be on display at Rodman Hall Art Gallery until April 27th.
However, the LED routine has been smoothed out and here is a current video:
On Friday April 4th, 2008 the Bronome will be on display at Rodman Hall Art Gallery until April 27th.
Monday, March 17, 2008
555 PWM
So I was bored today and started making a 555 PWM for my synth in eagle cad. The final product will use surface mount parts and I will have a breakout board soon.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Musicians Friend
A few days ago I purchased a used Akai MPC500 sampler and decided I would buy the ram module (EXM-128) from Musicians Friend an online music equipment retailer. I have to say this store has gone far beyond my expectations and I would recommend them to anyone looking for musical equipment.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
TEMT6000 Light Sensor Breakout
Today I took some time to develop the TEMT6000 break out board for one of my projects using Eagle Cad. Its a small little board which uses surface mount parts 2x 10k Ohm resistors and 2x TEMT6000 light sensors. This breakout board is for a much larger project involving performance and audio.
The file can be found here:
Breakout PDF
I used PDF format for the actual file as its easy to print at the correct sizes for multiple systems.
Enjoy!
Bronome Schematic
I have been working on a schematic for the Bronome in Eagle CAD. It is not completed but right now it accurately reflects the parts I am using. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bronome Brain
I have been working on the Bronome switch system which is based on 74LS164 and 74LS165 shift-in / shift-out registers. I have yet to write the code to handle these things but two such brains have been built. Additionally here are some images of the build of the Bronome.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Enough is Enough, stop stealing our money
When should someone be allowed to steal your money? Should you have to pay for music downloading if you do not download music at all? Personally I do not think so. The song writers in Canada have proposed a $5 fee to be applied to your internet service bill to compensate themselves.
This brings back memories of the tried and failed iPod levy introduced in Canada. And yet again I am left wondering why in this new digital era are music companies and now music writers not adapting. For the last 8 years this group proposes sales have "dropped from $1.3-billion in 1999 to $704-million in 2006." Is this not a clear indication someone needs to change?
Essentially the idea of distribution adding to the cost of music is dead. Being able to download a track or album provides the record companies even greater profits. Additionally consumers are not idiots we know that companies want to give us less while charging us more. No package, no printed material, no shipping, no storage fees from logistics companies, no middle men (if you do it correctly) and you have pure profit, production costs aside of course.
Rather than charge us $5 consider spending all that money you are using to lobby the government and put together an effective business plan. A plan that benefits the customer while making yourself money through downloads eg: iTunes, and other online sites, about 100% of the music I enjoy listening too is not available through these distribution methods, so I am forced to buy a CD and rip it to my iPod. This is far less convenient than purchasing online content (with out DRM) to place on my iPod or my MiniDisk.
The infrastructure argument: this new form of distribution costs us money. Everything costs money, but digital distribution will cost you less money. What major company does not have an internet and intranet network these days. Personally I run a business and maintain my own web server, I am not a major corporation and somehow I manage to fit that into my own budget, and I don't charge my customers $5 more for them to view my web content, write down my prices, or even to send me an e-mail.
"80% of artists make 15000 or less a year"
This last point is particularly frustrating to me, and to most artists in any discipline. I enjoy making art and would love to work as a full time artist, but currently that's not realistic however, I work two other jobs to support myself. I understand that people need to make money but loving what you do is sometimes more important than the money you make. Take for instance Radiohead, they released a pay what you can album. I was ecstatic, free music, perfectly within my budget, but more importantly its someone giving something back. Someone who loves what they do and wants to show that they care, and that we the listener are important.
And finally to complete my point. This flagrant disregard for respecting the rights of Canadian internet users is shameful at best. If this tax actually gets passed whats next taxing people who hum or whistle a melody, do we tax a telephone user if music happens to be playing in the background, or even better maybe we should tax car radio listeners by the kilometer.
And to quote the Calgary Herald "It's not my fault that nine or 10 years after Napster, a proper system hasn't been worked out to compensate songwriters and recording artists." ... second source article (page 2)
This brings back memories of the tried and failed iPod levy introduced in Canada. And yet again I am left wondering why in this new digital era are music companies and now music writers not adapting. For the last 8 years this group proposes sales have "dropped from $1.3-billion in 1999 to $704-million in 2006." Is this not a clear indication someone needs to change?
Essentially the idea of distribution adding to the cost of music is dead. Being able to download a track or album provides the record companies even greater profits. Additionally consumers are not idiots we know that companies want to give us less while charging us more. No package, no printed material, no shipping, no storage fees from logistics companies, no middle men (if you do it correctly) and you have pure profit, production costs aside of course.
Rather than charge us $5 consider spending all that money you are using to lobby the government and put together an effective business plan. A plan that benefits the customer while making yourself money through downloads eg: iTunes, and other online sites, about 100% of the music I enjoy listening too is not available through these distribution methods, so I am forced to buy a CD and rip it to my iPod. This is far less convenient than purchasing online content (with out DRM) to place on my iPod or my MiniDisk.
The infrastructure argument: this new form of distribution costs us money. Everything costs money, but digital distribution will cost you less money. What major company does not have an internet and intranet network these days. Personally I run a business and maintain my own web server, I am not a major corporation and somehow I manage to fit that into my own budget, and I don't charge my customers $5 more for them to view my web content, write down my prices, or even to send me an e-mail.
"80% of artists make 15000 or less a year"
This last point is particularly frustrating to me, and to most artists in any discipline. I enjoy making art and would love to work as a full time artist, but currently that's not realistic however, I work two other jobs to support myself. I understand that people need to make money but loving what you do is sometimes more important than the money you make. Take for instance Radiohead, they released a pay what you can album. I was ecstatic, free music, perfectly within my budget, but more importantly its someone giving something back. Someone who loves what they do and wants to show that they care, and that we the listener are important.
And finally to complete my point. This flagrant disregard for respecting the rights of Canadian internet users is shameful at best. If this tax actually gets passed whats next taxing people who hum or whistle a melody, do we tax a telephone user if music happens to be playing in the background, or even better maybe we should tax car radio listeners by the kilometer.
And to quote the Calgary Herald "It's not my fault that nine or 10 years after Napster, a proper system hasn't been worked out to compensate songwriters and recording artists." ... second source article (page 2)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Update
Tonight was the lunar eclipse and I managed to get a decent photograph of it.
As for my other projects, I have been working on the bronome switch array and have two prototype units built. The code needs writing and Little-Scale has been nice enough to lend a hand with some of the missing pieces. With a little more free time on my hands I should have something working. In the next few days.
Bronome set to white Feb 20, 2008.
TEMT6000 Ambient Light Sensor for laser midi interface project.
As for my other projects, I have been working on the bronome switch array and have two prototype units built. The code needs writing and Little-Scale has been nice enough to lend a hand with some of the missing pieces. With a little more free time on my hands I should have something working. In the next few days.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Bronome Prototyping
Today I started to tackle the LED routines. Right now its still really crude as I am borrowing a large section of the code base from other sources. I am not happy with the speed at which it is executing so I am going to rewrite a lot of it and perhaps use assembler. Here is the latest video:
Please excuse the documentation of code, that was more for my record.
Please excuse the documentation of code, that was more for my record.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Why Bronome?
The Bronome project has been designed to address some of my personal performance audio needs. I saw a need for something more than just a USB interface something which could also act as a hardware midi controller. In that respect the Bronome is a brother to many other projects such as the Monome, Tonori-on, and MidiBox. It borrows concepts and ideas from all to make a unique interface onto its own. Although the initial facade is very much like the minimalist Monome 40h, the differences are in its use of light to convey meaning. Through visual means the interface of the Bronome can mutate or transform into a multitude of utilities, keyboard, sequencer, or display. The configurations are endless.
If you would like to participate in this project either through coding, graphics, ideas or suggestions, send an email to Brian Durocher.
If you would like to participate in this project either through coding, graphics, ideas or suggestions, send an email to Brian Durocher.
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