My Gakken SX-150

This is my Gakken SX-150 coming directly from Japan. The SX-150 is a analog synthesizer with LFO, pitch envelope, frequency cutoff, resonance and attack/decay. The pitch is controlled by a wired pen and a resistor-strip. It has a build-in speaker and a mono 3,5mm mono-jack. The SX-150 comes as a kit and a Japanese manual. The kit is very easy to assembly. You just need a screwdriver and some patience. It also takes a little training with the slide-controller to find the correct notes which I show you in this short clip:

Arduino Punk Console

Huh! ...being quite busy last month. Now I'm back in "Bastel-Business" with a 8-step tone sequencer called Arduino Punk Console (APC). It's based on a project from Beavis Audio Research and includes a Arduino-Board with an Atmel328 .
On the upper-left is the volume-knob and the 3 knobs in a row are for Duration, Frequency and Tempo of the tone-sequence. The frequency of each step can be set separatly. Just hold one of the step-buttons and adjust the frequency-knob at the same time.
The display(16 digits x 2 lines) from Sparkfun has a serial interface which is very easy to use.

Currently the only problem is, that I have to hold the start/stop-button permanently to hear the sequence. I will fix this in the software soon. There is also a small bug in the wiring-diagram on the homepage : The red-line to the "tempo" potentiometer is missing.

I also left some space for more potentiometers on the right side. A feature-merge of the Auduino would be cool.

Update: I uploaded a video showing the APC in live-action!

irq7 Live in Linz at ARS Electronica

I had the honor to play as irq7 together with the Gameboy Musicclub at the ARS-Electronica 2009 in Linz. This is a picture of the crowded Stadtwerkstatt during the gig. It was really fun and the people went crazy on our Gameboy-songs. Thanks to the Gameboy Musicclub for the great evening and "Musikkreis MS20" for the fine concert afterwards.

This is not me but a nice guy of the GBMC performing on a Gameboy Color with Nanoloop:

Thing-a-ma robot

Oooops I did it again.... No - not this time. I assembled this Thing-a-ma robot for a friend of mine who is currently very busy because of a little bit bigger project. So this robot is unfortunately not mine.
After a half a day work I finished it. The kit is neat designed and the instruction-manual is very detailed with many pictures and funny drawings.
On Thing-a-ma you can vary the sound with the knobs/switches and the two LED's mounted on the top of the antennas. The "eyes" are LDR's whichare reacting on the blinking LED's. Just checkout the video to get a better impression:

The Thing-a-ma has a build-in spreaker which is a bit small, but you can connect it also with a mono-jack on the side with a bigger sound-system. Maybe a little disadvantage is, that the 9V battery can only be changed by opening the housing with a screwdriver. But a separate battery-compartment would made the kit maybe more expensive. To sum it up: The Thing-a-ma-kit is solid, easy to build and the sound is very versatile.













Here is another video, I made today showing the Thinggama connected to with my NOIZEBOX.

GP32 MIDI Interface with Darkstar

I had some little time to finish the MIDI-interface for my GP32. I can use now this little gaming-console with the LGPT-software as MIDI-sequencer together with my Darkstar XP2 you can see on the top. LGPT has no more support on GP32 and is much more advanced on the GP32 successor GP2X, which I unfortunately not own. Anyway - it works fine for me and to prove this you can checkout the video:

Of course this was only the first Test. Here are some more pictures of the whole setup:

Auduino Video and MP3

As promised here is the video of my Arduino based Auduino and above the photo with the new knobs on it. I would prefer the silver knobs, but my hardware-dealer told me, that his supplier for this knobs is out of business.
I'm sorry, but the video is acoustical and optical very low-fi =)



Check-out also the MP3 of this session:
auduino session by irq7

My Auduino

Here are the first pictures of my Auduino which I build yesterday immediately after I received my second Duemilanove via snail-mail. I just couldn't wait =)
Its really easy to build. Just adding some potentiometers and an audio-jack and you are done.
The sound is _amazing_. Really! I didn't expect that complexity. I think I will add a MP3 after this weekend.
As you can see, there are some missing knobs. I will get some more of them. The case is very small and compact and you can see the Led flashing on the board, while modifying the sound-parameters.
Here are some more pictures:










Italy inside ;-)

Zwitsch to English

As you may have noticed, I switched the Blog from German to English to let you know how bad my language skills are make this readable for all my non-German speaking friends =)
If my grammar hurts too much, just add a comment with all your ....emotions.

New Gameboy track from irq7

Here is a little appetizer for the Concert on the 22.8.2009 at the Klosterruine in Arnoldstein.

train by irq7

Noizebox Liveperformance!

On the 22.8.2009 you have the first chance to see the NOIZEBOX live in action! Check out Disco Mutante at the Klosterruine Arnoldstein.

LIVE:
Monster Zoku Onsomb (Australien)
Nam Shub of Enki (Australien)
Eva3 feat. Riotmiloo (UK)
irq7 feat. Noizebox (A)
More Infos about the event here: www.mutante.at.

Noizebox Flyer

I've done my first flyer with GIMP this afternoon.
It was a nice chance to take a closer look at this open-source tool. I have to admit, that GIMP is more user-friendly than most of the tools out there you can buy!

Cheers-Box!

I take Uli's comment "very" serious and put on a cup-holder =)
So our performance last longer in hot summer days out there in the shopping-streets. (btw. it's beer-can compatible!)

The Power-Box

To avoid cable spaghetti, I decided to build a individual power-supply for each electronic device within the NOIZEBOX. Two 12V outputs for the amplifiers for maximum performance and six regulated outputs with 9V for the other components.
On the top of the Power-Box should be a on/off-switch with backlit and one fan on the side to ensure that the voltage-regulators don't get overheated.
The fan is a bit loud, but hey - it's the NOIZEBOX =)














Well - at least there is the new lead-accu which also need a special charger cause it's a "maintenance-free" type. Normal chargers for car-batteries would destroy the accu. So the accu seems to stay my problem-child in this project :-P

Open the Box

Here is a fist view from the inside of the NOIZEBOX.
On the left backside you can see the Power-Box which handles power-distribution and voltage-stabilization. On the left backside you can see the Power-Amp, which is connected to the car-hifi speakers.














On this picture you can see various components I've already introduced in this blog. I just have to connect the to different audio-sources.

The Noizebox is finished!

I completed the NOIZEBOX during my vacation. Now it has the radioactive-like recycling-logo and it's own name on it. The yellow paint is usually used for marking trees in the forest!

The cover can be used as seat and is made of speaker-drapery(?).



Now you can sit down on the NOIZEBOX and e.g. play some tunes with your Gameboy like the following video shows:




An here is a picture of the first Sit-In ...ahem Sit-On:













How do you like the T-Shirt? =)

On the backside NOIZEBOX I made a hole for audio-cables used during the performance. Inside the NOIZEBOX there is the Power-Amp(hehe, 2x12Watt!), the lead-accu and the Power-Box. The Power-Box provide power for al components within the NOIZEBOX. I will show it to you on another post.

Arduino + Gameboy + MIDI = Arduinoboy !!!

How can you plug your Gameboy to a drummachine?
Can you play your Gameboy with a MIDI-keyboard?
Is it possible to control your Gameboy with a MIDI-software?

The answer is easy: Arduinoboy.

Arduino is a widespread open-hardware platform and there are countless projects around which only need to be downloaded to your Arduino-board. You only have to solder the peripherals you need.
I is late but I'm finished my first Arduino-project.
It took about 6-8 hours of work including housing, soldering and bringing it into service.

Here are the first pictures of my Arduinoboy:
























































At least a picture with the Arduino and my Korg ES1 sampler.

The "Tiny Boxes" concept

To keep all electronic components inside the NOIZEBOX modular, I go and get some empty plastic-cases and start soldering/assembling.
Now I like to present you an overview of all finished components:

The "Power"-Amp
Consists of two amplifier kits with 2 x 12 Watt (if the weather is fine =). The PCB's are mounted inside an amplifier-case from a defect car-amp. The stress-test is still not passed.














The "Little Brother"
This is a small amp compared to The Power-Amp but powerful enough to drive the car front-speaker in the middle of the NOIZEBOX.














The Preamp
For adding audio-sources with weak output I have this mono-preamp. On the Picture there is a piezo-microphone attached which works fine and really sounds lo-fi =)














The Equalizer
Consists of a old Kit from Conrad-Elektronik bought before the millennium. The Equalizer has fantastic features like treble, bass, volume and pan. Everything in full stereo of course. Wow. I can't keep my hands off. =)














The Condensator-Mic-Preamp and the Isolating Transformer
This tiny boxes are also very useful. The Preamp(on the left side)has a big microphone-jack.
The Isolating Transformer (on the right side) is passive (without any power-supply). He avoid ground-loop humming which should not occour on this battery-powered system - but anyway.

Recycle, Reuse, Repair, Retro

I had the idea while cleaning-up my room filled with car-hifi, defect amplifier-kits, unused preamps with loose wires around empty speaker-cases.
Why throw everything away? Why not build something new out of this "teenage electronic waste"? There were this big speaker-cases with rolls on the bottom and the car-hifi-speakers which inspired me to build a new, portable speaker-system. Roll's makes you mobile either car-amplifiers. Just a small lead-accumulator and there it is: The little NOIZEBOX.

Everything can be build quick & dirty and without additional cost.

On another day I cut-down the big empty speaker-case to a transportable size.
Enough space for the battery, amplifier and some additional electronic devices.
For easier transportation I've bought some small handles at my local building center.
Take a look a the first pictures of my NOIZEBOX:















A view from above shows where to put all the electronic devices inside the NOIZEBOX:















Behind the speakers, there is enough space for the accu and car-amplifier.















And the the trouble begins. I had to buy a lead-accu and I did. But I did a mistake and took the 6V accu which is not suitable for a 12V amp(Remember: Accu with 3 cells = 6V - see the picture above). The store won't take it back, so I have to buy another one *argl*.