No, it’s a Peavey bandit, all transistor.
Following the history of the guitar amp, I get the feeling that nobody ever really bothered trying to make a decent transistor amp, I think Sunn had some legal troubles with a solid state guitar amp design which they got around by turning it into a bass amp. I’ll try to find the source for that.
only now are amp makers starting to move into making gig worthy solid state amps but they’re mostly modeling amps that try to re create the sound of tube amps. Thus ensuring that they never sound just like the real thing and keeping tube amps as the be all and end all of guitar amplifying technology.
Basically, then, exactly like the orchestra where people try to keep the instruments sounding the way they did in the 18th and 19th century without considering for a moment whether the composers of the day really wanted them to sound like that.
And software synth developers trying to make their stuff sound “more analog” by emulating frequency drift that’s been eliminated on half-decent analog oscillators for decades.
Or adding lens flare after decades of designing cameras that reduce it.
There is surely a special place in Hell reserved for Instagram.
Also the designers of phone camera software that makes everything look as if it was taken with Fuji Velvia and then adds fake depth of focus that’s totally unrealistic.
I’ve done a few rounds [1, 2] of optimizing my bluetooth keyboard and trackpad set-up for use on the couch or in my lap. hopefully this is the last. I re-did the cigar tube since where I had drilled the original put stress on the holes and wore them out. I also raised the keyboard and sunk the trackpad which makes everything a bit more user-friendly. Although the trackpad feet on the bamboo board was actually fairly stable, sinking it into the board holds it even better and I went ahead and added a clip for it, too, while I was at it.
a bit of a better view of the trackpad height, which is exactly one click’s height above flush
here’s the naked view.
I initially routed the depth to be perfectly flush with the edge of the trackpad. the card-stock and several layers of tape in the routed-out area are to fine-tune the height of the trackpad feet as described above. sinking down the trackpad keeps it in place better and gives my hands more room when typing, but having the trackpad fully flush with the surface made clicking it on that edge very awkward-feeling; the button on a laptop is raised in the same way presumably for the same reason.
The modified clothes pin is fine. Ideally, I would have used a Chip Clip™. I debated about modifying a binder clip, too, but dealing with the clothes pin seemed easiest.
it doesn’t hold at every angle or upside down, but it can be hung safely.
If I were to do it over again, I think I’d start with one of those oversized clip-boards and mount foamcore over it to raise the surface and just cut the shapes out for the trackpad with a hobby knife. but my way probably looks a lot classier, at least.
Found materials are good, but for small projects I recommend carbon fibre/er and epoxy.
It’s amazingly easy to make mo(u)lds with either silicone or plaster of Paris, treat with release and then start with a single layer of 200gsm carbon. I had the problem at first of the cost of small amounts of epoxy, but I bought a cheap Chinese jewellers scales on eBay and can then buy small quantities of laminating resin. At the moment other activities mean I’m buying it by the kilo, but you can get repair packs. Ordinary masking tape helps with building up multiple layers of different shapes. You do need sharp, hard scissors and you will need to put something on the edges, but it’s possible to build up quite complicated things starting off with a baseboard of good quality ply and then laminating on top.
If your budget runs to it and you need enough, you can even use prepreg if you are allowed to use the oven. For small projects you can get 50mm wide carbon tape which is extremely easy to use.
Some people are surprised when I tell them this is really quite cheap. But nowadays carbon fibre, aramid and epoxy are inexpensive when you consider how little of them you need to get all the strength you could possibly want, while easily casting in metal fastenings and so on.
As an example, my coracle (above) is going to get its strength and waterproofing from one layer of 400gsm aramid. This will cost half as much as the traditional leather, be about the same weight and be several times stronger. It’s also much, much easier to apply.
For those interested in electronic music – two weeks ago, I learned about VCV Rack mentioned in Electronic Musician magazine. It’s a mostly free open-source virtual modular synthesizer. It’s new – I think it went live in September (?). You can sign up and download modules, then combine as many as you want, in any way you want (limited I think by your computer power) to make music. There’s a basic group of generic modules (e.g., voltage controlled sound sources, modifiers, amplifiers), as well as software version of hardware modules that are on the market. I just noticed a couple of new ones – added in the last week sometimes. Whew! I’ll try to post an experiment I’m working on later.
The developer of VCV Rack demoed it at Knobcon just before its release. It’s an impressive piece of software to be sure.
If you have an audio interface with sufficient DC-coupled inputs and outputs (capable of passing control signals as well as audio), you can interface it seamlessly with hardware Eurorack modules. Part of the demo involved switching between a real Befaco Rampage and the software emulation of one.
(Unfortunately my interface is AC-coupled, and I like it well enough not to switch.)
Since it’s open-source, there are also a whole lot of third-party modules available for it now.
For my purposes it isn’t as fun to work with as modular hardware, but free software that comes closer to that experience than anything else I’ve tried (possible exception below) is still something quite special. I’m likely to explore it a bit more when the VST bridge becomes available for it so I can integrate it better into my workflow.
I’ve recently gotten into the just-released Arturia Buchla Easel V, the $100 software version of the $6000+ remake of the 1973 “West Coast” synthesizer.
It’s pretty fantastic, despite initial frustration. It’s quirky and mysterious and a bit backwards in some ways, even though I’ve been into West Coast synthesis in Eurorack for several months now, but I learned my way around it after a few hours. It’s inspired wider and deeper exploration of my hardware as well as being quite playable in its own right.
As I was checking it out, I also found out about Madrona Labs Aalto, which I’d somehow missed before. There are magazineware versions out there that limit it to monophony without unison, and I’m using that for the moment but I’m likely to go for the full version if my bank acocunt survives this month. It was inspired by the Buchla (and unless it’s a massive coincidence, The Harvestman Hertz Donut oscillator) but is a semi-modular synth with less flexibility. It adds a lovely tunable delay though, and easily gets into natural-sounding flutes and growly trombones.
I thought I’d be playing with VCV Rack on the laptop when I go traveling for Christmas, but it’s gonna be this Buchla plugin and Aalto instead
Neat! Mysterious sure covers Buchla’s machines. E.g., I never understood why they separated the audio and control lines.
I had the Arturia Moog Modular, but in upgrading from Win XP to Win 8 I had a devil of a time getting it to work; they changed licensing schemes, bricking it, and it took forever responding to my emails to get it resolved. And I found it harder to fiddle with than the VCV, which at least lets you zoom in, scroll from side to side and up and down. And if you want 25 oscillators, you just right click and select 'em.
My problem was I had no place to put my old modular, and it wasn’t working very well anyway. So this is a good substitute for me.
I’ve been recording stuff just about every day. Just finished a clangy, droney horror soundtrack of a thing, because 2017. (And more honestly because that’s some of the music scratching at the doors of my brain trying to get out).
Buchla Easel V
LIfeforms Double Helix with Make Noise Pressure Points, Rabid Elephant Natural Gate, Valhalla Vintage Verb
SynthTech E370 with Natural Gate, Valhalla Plate
For someone to whom that sort of thing looks intriguing but baffling, what would be a starting point to learning/understanding what those things are and how they could be used? Or do you need to know a lot about music theory and electronics first?
I don’t think you need either music theory or electronics. However, modular analog synthesizers (real ones or as emulated by the VCV Rack) have a system or language of their own that you can easily learn. A rudimentary knowledge of what sound consists of (pressure waves made up of different frequencies) is really helpful.
At its simplest, it’s a matter of generating a basic sound (with an oscillator of some sort), controlling its pitch somehow (like with a keyboard), modifying it (e.g. with filters), and shaping the volume so that it starts and stops like the note of an instrument. In the hardware world, the modules are all voltage-controlled, and they all output a voltage of some sort, so that any module can control any other. That’s where the flexibility comes from – you can connect the modules together in complex ways limited only by your imagination and the modules you have available. But you do have to follow the rules of interconnection.
I don’t know of a recent text on the subject. I looked on Amazon and this book looks promising. And I’m sure there’s lots of tutorials on line.
I would say that the VCV is a great way to learn. You can dive in and fool around, without having to lay out any $$.
I’m working on a few projects, burning the midnight oil.
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I’m also handling writing duties for an MMO currently in development. Timezones make it really hard to arrange meetings with the rest of the team… having been brought onboard so late in development and being expected to handle it all is a heavy burden.
a bit of a better view of the trackpad height, which is exactly one click’s height above flush
