Leisure Cove

Maths arrived!

2009-11-12T21:08:00.006-05:00

Our Maths module-- the new dual VC-envelope/slew limiter/envelope follower/tone generator/Swiss Army Knife from Make Noise-- just arrived! Look how skinny it is:

The first run of these (not too sure how many was in it-- I've heard anywhere from 50-70) sold out in a day-- this module is #076.

Looking forward to putting together a demo video later next week. It's going to take me a little bit to get my head around this one...

"Look At Them Beans!"

2009-11-09T15:33:00.002-05:00

Heard this on the Tennessee Border show yesterday, while Jess was fixing beans for lunch:

Found Sound

2009-11-05T00:12:00.000-05:00

I'm always a bit quiet on the blog when I'm in school, but I'm finally getting towards the end of my program, which means I'm indulging myself and taking classes that I can't totally justify professionally, but that satisfy some of the creative-librarianship tendencies that got me to apply in the first place.

I've had the idea for a found sound archive for quite some time, but I wanted to build a really good interface for field recordings. Something you can touch and move. I'm building a prototype as a final project for my Programming for Interactivity class. Here's the gist:

I bought this cabinet with a built-in radio online:

The ultimate goal is to build in an RFID reader and fill the drawers with RFID-tagged objects, and an SD card with field recordings linked to those RFIDs. When an object is placed on the reader, the related sound recording will play back. It sounds simple, but there are a bunch of intermediary steps that I haven't totally worked out yet. Like how to play back the sound. Ideally, I could just wire the Arduino to the speaker on the built-in radio in the cabinet, but I think I need an intermediary. And all the intermediaries I find seem to output in mono, which is fine, except that it's field recordings, and in a perfect world, you'd be playing with this thing, wearing headphones, and you'd pick out an object, like a little bird, and you'd put the bird on the reader and then you'd be surrounded by birdsong and you'd forget where you are for a split second. Mono is just not going to cut it. But that's okay. This is the prototype, right?

Updates as I have them. My first task is to get the RFID reader to read an RFID tag. Wish me luck!

Marathon clips

2009-11-01T23:20:00.009-05:00

The marathon runs right through our neighborhood, and is always a good place for people watching.

Here are a couple of clips from this morning, set to old chestnuts from the Colonial catalog:

(I'm not too sure what the story is with the black border on the videos-- I'm not savvy enough to have put them there myself!)

Party Frog & Lucas T. Ford Make The Halloween Scene

2009-10-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

Shamblers Halloween party mix

2009-10-31T20:22:00.000-04:00

Sounds best loud.

Happy Halloween!!

Hey Scott NM

2009-10-31T00:12:00.003-04:00

There's a new 71-disc Miles Davis box set coming out?

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Music I heard on WFMU this afternoon that I think Jess will like

2009-10-27T16:07:00.009-04:00

I couldn't find videos for "Peanut" (from our favorite Sonny Sharrock LP, "Black Woman") and "Endlessly Fascinated" (brand new!!) by the unstoppably good Psychedelic Horseshit.

"Peanut" was on Mayor McDowell's "Long Rally." The rest were on "Three Chord Monty" and Brian Turner's Show.

We're in Wine Country

2009-10-25T15:02:00.001-04:00

Not a metaphor. We're really here.

"Downtown New York"

2009-10-22T10:36:00.015-04:00

I saw "After Hours" for the first time last night and, noticing that Rockets Redglare was in it, I started snooping around the internet for stories surrounding his involvement.

What I found instead was this link to clips from "Downtown New York," a then-contemporary public access show with which I was otherwise unfamiliar.

Watching clips of Soho from the latter half of the 80s reminded me of this Glenn O'Brien article (to keep the NY public access theme going), about his realization that the neighborhood had become "too hot" for his handling. The gallery scenes from "Style Wars" come to mind as well (fast forward to 2:53)-- the time around which the neighborhood replaced its art makers with art buyers.

Things change, I'm not saying anything new, but it's been on my mind recently and is one of those facts that manages to surprise me whenever I'm reminded of it.

Eucalyptus - our new roommate

2009-10-13T21:37:00.005-04:00

Cassette loop drone

2009-10-12T17:19:00.006-04:00

I chopped together a blank tape loop yesterday, and have been using it with the 4-track pretty much nonstop since:

Same video, processed through the modular:

The Dustys at Terminal 5

2009-10-10T02:03:00.006-04:00

The Dustys came through town on Thursday. Unfortunately, the cheap-o tapes I bought moments before their set were toxic. The second I put one into the dictaphone, this happened:

Avoid, if at all possible, Trisonic C-90 tapes. They might look amazing--and why else would you buy them?--but they're useless. They will wreck whatever you put them into.

New Mexicoe - FREE SHOW next week!

2009-10-08T17:20:00.004-04:00

Tell everyone you know-- New Mexicoe is playing TWO sets at Sycamore next Saturday (4pm and 6pm). Plenty of new songs, very inexpensive drinks, no charge for admission.

Who wants to start a Cantina band?

2009-10-05T22:16:00.019-04:00

The very promising looking new Eigenlabs controllers were just released: the Alpha and the Pico*.

It's been a lot of fun to watch the alternative controller market explode over the last couple of years. Time was you had to pull out a Millioniser 2000 if you wanted to cause a scene. Nowadays, you can't help but trip over some new version of the Monome. There are options is what I'm trying to say, options aplenty and the more the merrier. Any move away from a traditional keyboard offers a new possibility.

On a related note, if anyone reading this in the UK will be at one of this month's Eigen Labs demos PLEASE report back on it, either in the comments or via email.

Question: is the guy on the bottom-left of the Star Wars photo playing a Drum Buddy?

*Matrixsynth, as always, had the scoop.

UPDATE:

"New Year for Chinatown" by Cosine

2009-10-01T21:24:00.004-04:00

Audio: 2004

Video: September 28, 2009

200 jacks

2009-09-29T20:10:00.004-04:00

Today at work a package arrived for me with 200 1/8" jacks in it!

Our new modules are that much closer to being built!

B.P. Soundtrack

2009-09-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

¡¡¡Eso Si Que Es!!!

2009-09-27T21:01:00.000-04:00

So my dad used to tell me this joke that I really liked when I was a kid. It's a language joke, and you have to know a little bit of Spanish, but I'll help you out.

This guy goes into a department store, but he's from Mexico, and he doesn't know any English. He goes to the salesman to get some help, but the salesman doesn't know any Spanish. Being a good salesman, he tries his best to make it work.

"¿Donde están los calcetines?" the guy asks, and the salesman says, "Um...are you looking for a shirt?" and he indicates his shirt, and the man shakes his head, so the salesman says, "Do you mean pants?" The man shakes his head again, no.

The salesman lifts the leg of his pants and points to his sock. "Socks?" he asks.

"¡Ah! ¡Sí! ¡Sí! ¡Eso si que es!{That is what it is!}" the man says.

"S-O-C-K-S?" The salesman says. "Well why didn't you say so!"

It's a total Dad Joke, but I bring it up because I finally finished knitting my first pair of socks, which are for Pete. It only took me three years!

You can kind of tell from the photo--the sock on Pete's left foot (the sock on the right in this photo) has a super point to it, kind of like an elf sock. I don't know why that happened, and I offered to fix it for Pete, but maybe he's half elf, because he said it was just fine the way it is. I like for my homemade things to look super homemade, so that's fine by me.

Special thanks to Courtney for teaching me how to turn a heel, twice, and to Kellie, for teaching me how to do the magic loop. And Pete for waiting so patiently all these years for his socks. Yeah, okay, I'll make you a dang sweater. It should be ready in about 5 years.

Speaker as fixed EQ

2009-09-27T20:24:00.011-04:00

I was making digital copies of dictaphone tapes this afternoon, and while doing so came to the conclusion that I prefer the sound of the tapes through the recorder's internal speaker over the sound of the tapes directly.

So, to get more of the sound I wanted into the computer, I set a 57 an inch or so off the speaker's center and pressed record-- it's a much closer copy of what I want than simply running the headphone output into a mixer.

Have any of you tried this? Do you have a favorite mic for the job? I haven't done much experimenting (and don't have the biggest mic closet in the world), but if this is something you've done or do often and can recommend a set-up, let me know-- I'd love to hear about/try it!

New Colonial CDs!

2009-09-26T15:39:00.009-04:00

There are 5 new CDs coming out on Colonial this Tuesday:

Check the Colonial site next week for more info, MP3s, etc.

Touch Clock

2009-09-23T18:53:00.000-04:00

New utility box on the way

2009-09-22T22:12:00.005-04:00

Our (mostly finished) new utility box:

Two A/B selectors, one mute switch, two momentary 9v gates (w/ snazzy green LEDs) and two passive OR circuits. Might try to squeeze a multiple in there as well...

Next on the list are the synth PCBs we've been "collecting." I've finally started sourcing parts for them, and we should have at least one of them coming together in the next month or so. Details/photos SOON!

"Fireball" by The Dustys

2009-09-19T11:16:00.006-04:00

Audio: "Fireball" by The Dustys

Video: 9/18/09

The Dustys are a group from D.C. that feature famed Iran-Contra member Peter H. on keyboards. They're going on a national tour this fall-- if they're playing in your town (or playing in a place that is accessible from your town): GO!

"Trouble Deep" by New Mexicoe

2009-09-15T23:32:00.004-04:00

Audio: 9/15/09

Video: 9/2/09

From the upcoming "Fifth Rehearsal" disc by New Mexicoe on Colonial Recordings USA.

Previous long-form NM video here.