January 2012

People, products, Resources

Books Thomas Henry – Magic Smoke Electronics

By Dave on January 1st, 2012

There are very few dedicated DIY electronic music/synth cookbooks/reference books available out there so when ever I come across some I try to snatch them up. you can get all six of these spiral bound books from Thomas Henry for under $90 which cover some very specific topics for DIY synthesis and electronic music.

  • An Analog Synthesizer for the 21st Century  - $20.00
  • The Electronic Drum Cookbook  - $15.00
  • Making Music with the 3080 OTA  - $13.00
  • Making Music with the 566  - $13.00
  • Making Music with the NE570 Compander  - $13.00
  • The Noise Generator Cookbook  - $13.00

Synthesizer design books by Thomas Henry – Magic Smoke Electronics.

Custom Hardware, products

The Boom Case Store

By Dave on January 1st, 2012

I’m warming up to these hand made, custom order ‘stereos’ dubbed “Boom Cases”.  Get it?  Suitcase + Bass = ‘Boom Case’.  I’ve posted a couple of my favorites along with a couple of the more preposterous vanity shots.  Seriously though I can’t figure out if I love these or hate them.  As long as I never see these in the hands of roaming gangs of suburban youth in malls across america I think I love them.  From the website:

The BoomCase is a Self Powered, Portable Suitcase Stereo system that works with your iPod/iPhone or any device with a headphone jack. The BoomCase will last 10+ hours on a single charge (Charger Included). In addition to running on batteries, The BoomCase can also be plugged in when the party goes inside. To save on weight, you can opt for a plug-in only version.

Mighty Mini Gator

In the WTF category…
Spruce Goose

The Ripper

Gear Pr0n

Serbian Tube Amplification Wins. Period.

By Dave on January 1st, 2012

On my “can-I-do-that-scale”, these valve amplifies by the Serbian company NAT Audio are off the meter.  literally.  I don’t even know someone who knows someone who could come close to this degree of craftsmanship and beauty.  These guys win. It’s too bad these images are hidden deep within their site on static pages…
The “Magma”.
NAT Audio - Magma - Single Ended Mono Block Power Amplifier

The “Transmitter”.
NAT Audio - Transmitter - Single Ended Mono Block Power Amplifier

The “Xenon”. That blue stuff you see in the tubes… yeah, that’s plasma.
NAT Audio - Xenon - Plasma Effect AC Conditioner

Resources, scripts-code

Reverse Engineering the Korg Monotribe Firmware Upgrade

By Dave on January 1st, 2012

An excellent post (and useful comments) on the reverse engineering of the Korg Monotribe firmware update which apparently is provided as an audio file.  I’ll definitely be checking back on this regularly to watch Gravitronic’s progress.

GRAVITRONIC: Decoding the Korg Monotribe Firmware Upgrade.