INI Workshop Prototype Instruments pt. 2

INI Prototype Instruments Pt. 2

These are the last of the prototype instruments I designed for the INI instrument workshop which took place last Thursday at Artspace New Haven.  If you go to ininewhaven.com you can see some pictures and video from the event.  Turnout was great and everyone had a swell time making things to make noise.  We plan to give a series of instrument making workshops at MakeHaven (makehaven.org) in the new year so stay tuned.  We envision a 2-part workshop where we would make contact mics in part 1 and then make instruments in part 2.

Filed under: El MuCo, Music, Tutorial / How-to, Artspace, DIY, El MuCo, instrument, Music, musique concrete

How to: Make Contact Mics

In preparation for our instrument making workshop at Artspace New Haven on December 13th, your intrepid guides Brian and Scott spent a foggy Sunday afternoon making contact mics from scratch.  The below is both a how-to and an advertisement for the workshop.  If you are around New Haven, please follow this link to the INI site and register now as seats are limited to 10 and they will go fast.  So without further ado, lets make some contact mics!

Filed under: El MuCo, Tutorial / How-to, Artspace, contact mic, DIY, El MuCo, how-to, INI

INI Workshop prototype instruments Pt. 1

LLW in Action 1

In preparation for our workshop at Artspace, Brian and I met to quickly put together a few prototype instruments out of wood, screws, springs, etc.  We basically wanted to see what we could do with next to no materials (and no preparation.)  The following prototypes are the results of this first meeting.

Filed under: El MuCo, Artspace, audio, avant-garde, DIY, El MuCo, Improvisation, INI, Music, workshop

El MuCo at ArtSpace: Instructions not Included

Brian and I have five of our hand-made musical instruments in the gallery at ArtSpace New Haven as part of an exhibition titled “Instructions not Included.” The exhibition will run from November 9 2012 – January 26 2013. The opening is tomorrow from 5-8pm at ArtSpace. Please feel free to join us and explore the exhibition which has some really great work.

Here are some pictures of our contribution to the show.

Filed under: El MuCo, avant-garde, circuit bending, DIY, El MuCo, electronic music, hardware hacking, Music

Raspberry Pi: first impressions

Getting the Pi Baked

I got my Raspberry Pi in the mail yesterday — a long anticipated event. My excitement was slightly deflated when I realized I didn’t have anything I actually needed to make the damn thing run: micro USB for power, an hdmi-dvi adapter so I could actually see and control it, and a fast SDHC card with lots of room*.

Filed under: El MuCo, Phase 1, arduino, Code, computer, DIY, El MuCo, electronic music, Improvisation, linux, Music, supercollider

Installing SuperCollider (w/Sced & Swing) on AVLinux: a quick guide

Let me put the following in the most tasteful way I can: the latest iteration of Ubuntu (12.04) is a total turd.  It is slow, clunky and terribly designed*.  Having had it with Ubuntu, I decided to shop around and try a few low-latency kernel audio/multimedia distributions.  Of those I tried there were a few I didn’t care for at all that I won’t discuss.  I liked KXStudio overall, but I don’t care for KDE and after years of modding and customizing for taste, I was looking for something that would require the least amount of tinkering to get where I wanted it.  (it had other problems too, but now isn’t the time.)

Filed under: El MuCo

Sparkfun Amplifier Kit (and Power Supply Solution)

Look at the size of that heat sink!

The Sparkfun STA540 amplifier kit is a cool, fun to put together amplifier kit that employs the STA540 amplifier chip at the core of the device.  The chip itself is a 4-channel AB amplifier chip that can be employed in a number of ways depending on the circuit configuration.  The kit is really easy to put together, not because of the included instructions, but because the components are actually labeled on the board.  This really is a foolproof kit and a great introduction for the new audio electronics enthusiast.  The sonic results of the kit are pretty impressive too.  It has a good bang for the buck at 38 watts per channel (2 ch) at 18 V and 4 Ω speakers, and has a low noise floor for an affordable ($30) DIY kit.  Additionally, and as evidenced by the picture above, it has a small form factor.  That is, despite the enormous heat sink.  Holy mackerel!  (Okay, the wide-angle lens distorts it juuuuuuust a little.)

Filed under: El MuCo, amplifier, circuit, DIY, electronic music, power supply, Sparkfun, sta540

IBeam Laser Show (2011)

It has been almost five months since MuCo performed for the 2nd time at Ibeam and for one reason or another the recording has sadly sat neglected on a hard drive since then.  I finally dug it out, mixed the tracks together (output of kane + scacinto) and here it is for your listening pleasure.

(Just in case you are wondering what the laser-gun sounds are that occur at the beginning and, even more noticeably, during the middle of the recording [11:18 ->], they came from a magical black box that Kane made and I played without knowing how it worked. Hilarity.)

El MuCo @ Ibeam May 28th, 2011

Filed under: El MuCo, avant-garde, circuit, circuit bending, Code, computer, DIY, El MuCo, electronic, electronic music, feedback, hardware hacking, Improvisation, interactive, Music, supercollider, synthesis

DSO Nano V2: unboxing, upgrading, using

**UPDATE** SEE BELOW

If you don’t know what a DSO Nano is, but you are in the market for a cheap (<$100) oscilloscope and don’t want to risk one of the totally awesome, but possibly janky analog ones on ebay, then you are in luck having found this post.

Filed under: El MuCo, Miscellany, DSO Nano V2, firmware, Nano, update, upgrade

MuCo in Miami: the recording

Here is the somewhat-delayed recording of our set on the Subtropics festival in Miami on March 20th. I took some video, but it was terrifically dark and the audio was useless as well. I know Gustavo recorded the audio from the room, but I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet. The recording below was recorded internally (and separately) on our two machines and combined afterward, so no room on this one.  If I get a good room recording, I will post it here.

Also, I think there are some good pics from the event that I haven’t gotten yet either, so I’ll post those if and when I get them. Until then, enjoy the show!

(headphones or a system with a subwoofer is highly recommended!)

Improvised Feedback Systems I (30:55)

 

Filed under: El MuCo, avant-garde, circuit bending, Code, El MuCo, electronic music, feedback, hardware hacking, Improvisation, interactive, Music, supercollider