NYC Resistor

Learn about the Reware project, see how to easily install GNU/Linux and Pd on your Palm TX, and see some example projects.

We’ve been working since July on making it easy to hack old devices and run new software on them. Coming soon, a image for running Pd, Python, and Lua programs on PDAs, as well as a HOWTO for making Pd patches for 1-5G iPods. The key idea is to turn old PDAs, mobile phones, etc. into something like an Arduino, where you can easily upload your own code to the device.

For more info, check out our Reware dev site

Gian Pablo, maker of this sweet algorithmic synth forces Wall-E to rock out. Gian Pablo has been known to teach synth making classes at NYCR so keep your eyes on the upcoming classes page if you’re interested.

Wall•E and the Rhythmic Synth from Gian Pablo Villamil on Vimeo.

Have you ever wanted your electronics projects to make sound? Are you interested in making your own electronic musical instruments? Do you love the sound of lo-fi electronics and 8-bit music? If so, have I got news for you!

I’ll be teaching a class on Arduino Audio in a couple of weeks, June 18th to be exact. The focus is very much on generating sound using the Arduino microcontroller, and a smattering of inexpensive parts.

I’ll be covering:

• Basics of sound generation with a microcontroller
• Making sound by toggling digital pins under software control (and why it’s limited)
• Introduction to R/C (resistor capacitor) oscillator circuits
• Using digipots to control R/C oscillators
• Advanced digipot control: scheduling, polyphony and ADSR envelopes
• Other approaches (Note: I won’t be covering sample playback - my focus will be on synthesis. Lady Ada’s excellent WaveShield for Arduino is a great way to achieve sample playback instead.)

You’ll come out of the two hour class with a working, breadboard-mounted circuit using AD5206 digipots to play back 3 (or 6) voices of modulated square wave sound!

You’ll need to bring your own laptop computer and Arduino board. Please bring your favorite sensors and interface devices - we can work on interfacing them during the class. The class price includes a parts kit, with digipots, stereo jacks, oscillator chip, breadboard, and various assorted components.

You can read about my previous experiments and projects on my Arduino Audio blog pages.

If you’re interested, sign up using this Eventbrite link.

Since when were hackers the best thing happening in Avant-garde music? SINCE ALWAYS DUMMY!

This event is curated by Speaker Synth artist Lesley Flanigan.

excerpt:
This Wednesday night at the Tank, a group of amazing people come together for a night of performances based on amplification. It will be AWESOME! A really special opportunity to see such a great, eclectic group of performers all in one night. For my part, I will perform both my latest speaker feedback instruments and Bioluminescence with Luke DuBois. So please come out and join us all for drinks, fun, and sound!

~Lesley

now come check out this awesome show at the tank in NYC at 7:00 pm

Map:

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Tonight, hackers will take over the Tank in Chinatown, NYC!

ASDF; is a laptop quartet comprised of intractable innovators, beat mavens, shirtless composers, tireless experimenters, and robots. Using their QWERTY keyboards as midi triggers for software synthesizers and samplers, they cross-breed your expectations by performing both their own original works as well as unique mashups of works by composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and not excluding pop artists who won’t be mentioned here… asdf; brings a dance-party attitude to classical minimalism and postmodern experimentalism. In a word, asdf; is Laprock.

The Tank is a venu in NYC that is responsible for many great shows and also awesome hack-fests such as the Blip festival and also the Bent festival. Be sure not to miss this event!

photo credit: aoifejohanna

All I’m waiting for to begin work on my monome, are 64 red LEDs and so I’m thinking ahead about programming languages. I don’t speak a programming language, but I may be looking to get started soon to make music. Everyone seems to love the power of object oriented programming in MAX/MSP, but it’s expensive at $495.

New York’s own Peter Kirn may have the answer for me. He’s got an awesome site, Create Digital Music, where he reports on the best stuff going on in the diy electronic music world. He reports that Pure Data (PD) has had a bit of a facelift and is easier to work with.

Hans-Christoph Steiner has been working for a long time on “Pd-extended”, adding a lot of that polish and documentation, and making the whole thing easier to install. There’s a major new, finished release that came out last week. “Easy” might not be the appropriate word — but “easier”, combined with “powerful” and “free”, might get your attention.

I’ll keep you up to date as I start work on my little monome device and start seeking help to make it actually do something! - Link

Most kids wanted to be something like a fireman or an astronaut when they were growing up.

Me? I wanted to write music for videogames. Some of my favorite pieces of music came from my Commodore64 and Nintendo, classics that I still whistle whenever I find myself in an empty, echoey space.

Think about some of your early videogame experiences. How many themes can you remember? The classics are all accompanied by tunes that we remember to this day. Pacman. Zelda. Mario. Brilliant works defined as much by the restrictions of the “instrument” as by the imagination of their composer.

Well, life often takes you in different directions from your childhood dreams, but I’m lucky enough to get to play at mine as an adult. There’s a whole scene dedicated to writing music for these platforms, and I’ve been dying to dive in, but didn’t really know where to begin.

Luckily, GameBoy Genius over at 8bit collective has put together a great how-to for getting started with gameboy music, complete with a gameboy emulator and awesome tracking software for the gameboy itself. Here’s a sample of what you can create with it(mp3). The gameboy’s limitations gave it a sound very similar to the C64, which also holds a special place in my heart. There’s apparently a “getting started” guide for C64 music as well, guess what I’ll be checking out next?

I started out this post looking to write a non-Arduino story, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m a huge fan of computer generated music, dating back to my days of playing games and composing music on the Commodore 64. I still love that classic SID sound, and was floored to hear it in the new 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake tune, Technology:

(Thanks to Kelsey Ruger for pointing out the videogame sounds in the song and Alex Hillman identifying the SID, likely coming from something like the SIDStation)

I wrote my first music on a C64 with “The Music Shop”, and after hearing this song, I want to get started in SID hacking and make my own SID powered instruments.

Well, I’m sure I’ll have more posts on that coming in the future, but while researching tonight I found myself sidetracked by Toni Westbrook’s awesome project to bring Guitar Hero to the C64 and the SID.

A closer look reveals that Toni’s programming the ATMega8 chip that he’s got the controller wired into with, what else, an Arduino! Even digging into C64 music projects, I still ended up with an Arduino post.

Read more about Shredz64 on Toni’s page