Cacophonator

Posted on September 17, 2011 by KevinB

I’ve recently made several audio synthesizer / noise generating boxes. The most recent is the Cacophonator, whose circuit description and board layout are easy to find on the web. Thanks to Adam for showing me how to etch my own circuit boards – something I can now do quite easily at the Makerspace. I modified the board layout, drawn in DipTrace, so I could add SIP sockets and pin headers to tidy up the inside of the project box. The sockets also allow the board to be easily removed, despite the 20 wires running between the board and other components inside the project box. The photos below were taken before I modified the circuit by adding a momentary power switch to slowly recharge the giant power supply capacitor if held for a few seconds. I also added a LM317 adjustable voltage regulator so the power supply voltage can be reduced all the way down to 1 V DC and below. The sonic complexity of this circuit is surprising considering its small part count, and lowering the power supply voltage further adds to the chaotic behavior of the cacophonator. Careful inspection of the board will show additional components not associated with the original cacophonator, but are discussed on electro-music.com. These are used for inputting audio signals (music, for example), which come out the RCA jack quite cacophonated.

Makerspace Represents at Made in Milwaukee (Sept 3rd)

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Cohen, Adam

CATHEDRAL SQUARE PARK – September 3rd, 2011

We here at the Makerspace are always looking for ways to reach out and raise awareness in the community of our existence. When an opportunity like Made in Milwaukee comes along, how can you pass that up. We will be at this festival (click image above for more info) all day showing off our inspiring creations and supervising hands-on maker activities. So please stop by our tent and show us some love!

June Music Group Night

Posted on June 6, 2011 by plural

June’s Music Group meeting tonight was Kevin, Matt G and myself scheming, listening to cool stuff, having some whiskey and playing around with max/msp tutorials.

The MESSSSS (Makersace Eight Speaker Super Surround Sound System) that we debuted at Bay View Gallery Night Friday went over pretty well, but could use some work. We ran it off of 3 stereo receivers and 4 android phones coordinated by the PBST (Push the Buttons at the Same Time) protocol and want something a bit more controlled. Also, the levels on our pieces were very different so we had super subtle things followed by ear-splitting shrieks. While i’m personally into that kind of thing, it didn’t make for a terribly cohesive whole.

We left the meeting with 3 main actions:

rebuild a spare PC I have with an 8 channel audio card to be the new brains of MESSSSS.
Start on an android app to control playback from multiple devices at once.
Kevin and I are going to spend some serious time learning max/msp. I have done a couple of things with it but they are ugly and hacky and i only made them work by pushing things together really hard.

If we can get the new MESSSSS brains up and running, we are going to refocus the music club meetings on performance and recording.

Makerspace Eight Speaker Super Surround Sound System

Posted on May 30, 2011 by KevinB

The day has finally arrived: The Makerspace Eight Speaker Super Surround Sound System (MESSSSS) is fully installed, wired and amplified. This morning MESSSSS reproduced its first 8 channel audio piece, authored using adobe audition and played back by four android devices through four 1/8″ stereo cables feeding the bank of amplifiers. More integration work remains to be completed (a dedicated computer with an 8 channel sound card plus a patch bay) but the MESSSSS is up and running!

Tea Box Radio

Posted on August 19, 2010 by BrantH

Someone bought me a gift assortment of teas last Christmas and it came in this decorative wooden box. When finished the teas, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out so I started turning it into an iPod dock. The speakers and electronics came from a set of computer speakers. I took some measurements and made a template in AutoCAD to lay out the parts. I hope to have the panel milled out of basswood using a CNC machine shortly.