Wearable Computing

So here is another mot-music related post, but it has been 2 months with nothing worth mentioning, so I might as well post something.

My next project is a wearable computer like those made popular by Steve Mann and others. While I am ashamed to admit where the inspiration came from, the more I thought about it, the more awesome it sounded.

I'm starting with a broken Acer Aspire netbook. I found a neat hand-held keyboard from this site that sells really cool shit from China for dirt cheap.

Now, I'm working on acquiring a MyVu Headset I can modify into a transparent HMD.

I made a TODO list for the project. Most of it is silly, unreasonable, etc., but some of it is actually not too difficult, including an infrared camera for night-vision.

Unrelated Circuit - 4 Bit Adding Machine

So this is a little unrelated to music, but a friend of mine today asked me how hard it would be to make a computer. Not buy a motherboard, processor, hard drive, and memory and put it together, but to actually solder components together. At first, I laughed, but when we talked about how complicated a processor alone was, I realized in theory, they aren't too complicated. Transistors basically work as electronic logic gates, were "true" is a current flowing and "false" is not. We decided something simple, like a four bit addition "processor" (not really a processor, more like an adding machine) would be theoretically possible to build, even if it was incredibly large (compared to modern processors). I quickly started drawing up schematics.

We started with truth tables for binary addition:

0101 -(binary of 5)
0110 -(binary of 6)
+____
1011 -(binary of 11)

We found that each column works like XOR, except if A and B are both 1, you have to carry a digit (like above), which makes things a little nasty. My friend stumbled upon half adder logic, which instantly un-stumped the problem. You do an XOR for the sum of A and B, but you also AND A and B and store it to C, your carry variable. Then you have to repeat the process between [the sum of A and B] and C (explaining the other "half"). Then you send that sum to the output, and carry the C to the next column.

From RabidAudio

Another EE major helped me out a little bit. He reminded me of the basic transistor circuit, which turns out to be equivalent to a NOT gate. He then showed me that if you add another transistor, it becomes a NAND gate. Wikipedia revealed a way to make XOR gates out of 4 NAND gates, and you can make AND gates by using NAND and then inverting them with NOT. The only other logic operator used is OR, which is simply a Y-connection, which means all we had left to do was substitute logic gates with transistor circuits. Below is the processor, which in total uses 76 (I think) NPN transistors, and below that is the whole circuit. Notice that it is a) very sloppy; b) has no units; c) is probably at least a little bit wrong. I found out later that there are guides for making these out there, so if you want to make one, I don't recommend using my schematic. It's here if you want it though.

From RabidAudio

From RabidAudio

Server Isues

If you've tried accessing the site recently, you probably noticed it is down. I'm having some server troubles; one's that would be easy to fix if I had direct access to it. Unfortunately, the Network on Campus disables servers, so I have to leave mine at home, and being over an hour away makes it difficult to make minor changes. I almost have a remote-access system up, but it's hard to make router settings changes if I can't reach the firewall, and trying to walk my family though it over the phone would be a nightmare.

On the other hand, pretty much all the information available on the site is also on our new Facebook page. And this blog should update to a Twitter account, which should then update to the Facebook news feed. Very messy.

EDIT 9/21: Next weekend the server will be down (not that you can tell a difference; it's been down for several weeks now while I've been away) while I switch to a significantly more secure, more reliable Linux system (I will be using Ubuntu 10.4 Server Edition, if you are curious) and away from crummy Win7.

If I can scrape together twelve hundred dollars, I can get me my dream machine, an M-Audio ProjectMix I/O. It will finalize my DAW and I can actually start professionally recording stuff.

It has a Firewire connection that works seamlessly with Logic, ProTools, etc. You move a slider in the software, and the slider on the mixer moves with it, which is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Plus, multi-layer recording, MIDI control, and so much other cool shit.

Hopefully, I won't get too antsy and spend my savings on something else.

Site Launch

You might have noticed some changes recently, such as the redesigned logo at the top. I finally made an up-to-date website for RabidAudio. It has a real domain name, too: rabidaudio.com. I'm still trying to get my router to play nice with the server, so it may be a while until the bugs are all ironed out. If you find any, let me know. The template for the site is CC licensed from spyka.net, the same place I got the template for Music and Piracy. Obviously, even with Dreamweaver CS5 (which is amazing, by the way), I am a terrible web designer, so if you have any pointers or want to help me build a better site, shoot me an email or leave a comment (I don't get too many of those).

Effects Pedals 1.5

The loop pedal didn't really work out. Radioshack made a newer version of the device, which is surface-mount and has a different circuit, so making it loop is much more complicated. You could use a relay system, but honestly the quality of the recording is so bad that it was not worth finishing. I haven't yet had the chance to go out and get the parts for the killswitch.

In other news, IncontipleXion is considering a name change. You can vote for the new name here.

Effects Pedals 1

On my last visit to Radio Shack, I went in for a small PCB, and came out with a bag full of ICs, switches, jacks, and inspiration.

The first idea was thanks to a 555 timer. Tom Morello and Buckethead sound awesome with their killswitches, and DIY guitarists love to play with them as well. What if you didn't have to use your strumming had to use the switch? After some function crunching (I was looking for a circuit that would switch at frequencies from about .5 Hz to about 15 Hz with duty cycles from 25~75, and this was a big help), I got a design for an Auto-Killswitch. Check out the schematics here (PLEASE NOTE: I have not built it, or even tested it yet, so I cannot yet vouch for it's accuracy). The problem I'm finding now is I can't find anyone who sells 1.5M audio taper pots. Most guitar shops only have up to 1M for humbuckers. Hopefully, I will find some. I could just use 1Ms, but I would lose a lot of duty cycle range for most frequencies.

Edit (5/17/11): I just looked back at this schematic, and it is very wrong, so I removed the link. I will post a better one in the future.

The second idea is a little less original, but handy nonetheless. During a bout of wishing I had the funds for one of these beauties, I realized it wouldn't be too difficult to make a loop pedal. With some help from Instructables, I could patch together a loop pedal with 20 seconds of flash memory pretty painlessly. Just need one of these first.

Maybe now that summer is here I will have time to make at least one of these.

Music and Piracy: A New Direction

I finally put together a little site for the ideas I have been throwing around in some of these essays. It's a simple little site, hosted on a server from Webs.com (the tag in the url is the cost of free hosting). Here it is:

http://musicandpiracy.webs.com/

If you like it, please distribute the pdf. That is what it is for.

Buoyancy

I stumbled upon this article from a couple months ago in The Economist entitled "How to Sink Pirates" (the article is "Primium Content" on their website,** but if you are on the Berry College intranet, you can read it here). In it, the author argues that the "best way to discourage it is to offer a diverse range of attractive, legal alternatives." However, the author suggests that these alternatives are things like dollar songs on the iTunes Music Store. But 35% goes straight to Apple. The other 65% goes to the Record Label. The actual artist sees very little of that.

**EDIT (10/8/11): I find this really ironic. See this for the DRM-free revolution equivalent of academia articles.

In other news, IncontipleXion competed at the Battle of The Bands at St. Pius X Catholic School in Atlanta. If you were there, I hope you had a good time; I know we did. The winners were a progressive dethcore band, This Night I Possess. They were absolutely amazing. If you're into that kind of music, check them out. And one last thing, I am in the process of putting together a hardcore industrial/experimental group under the name Crimson Dominion. I've got a few songs written, so if anyone is interested it joining, toss me an email.

Creative Commons

I'm sure most of you have heard about Creative Commons, (especially if you read my last paper). For those of you who have not:
Creative Commons is an alternative to Copyright, similar to the GNU Licence, where you can choose what others can and cannot legally do with your work. Consider this idea applied to music. Piracy is no longer an issue, as you can (and are encouraged) to distribute such work.
For an example of such a licence, check the bottom of this page. This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Randal Monroe has a little fun with the free distribution of work in his web comic (the joke runs from 341-346).

Butch Walker

So today Butch Walker released his new album, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. I gave it a listen, and I am quite impressed. With catchy melodies and creative lyrics, this album stands proudly with the rest. Not to say that it sounds the same. Butch seems to have strayed further away from the kinda-rough-but-still-pretty sound of Rise and Fall (think "Bethamphetamine"), but still manages to keep all the slow songs entertaining and beautiful. Plus, the acoustic version of "Don't Move" (one of my favorite songs) at the end is amazing.

Buy on Amazon

Butch Walker was born and raised right next door in Cartersville, GA. After playing guitar for the hair metal band SouthGang, Butch started a band called Marvelous 3 (Hey! Album is one of the greatest albums of all time). Since then he went solo, spending part of his time making music, and part producing it for artists like Avril Levigne and Katy Perry. His last album, Sycamore Meadows, is about his return to Atlanta after years on the west coast. Butch may not be part of the genre of music I usually listen to, but he is so musically talented that everyone can like him.

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fzfpxqrgldae~T1

Bad News

Late last month, concert companies Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged, after approval from the US Anti-Trust. Both companies made venues sign contracts for exclusive access to ticket sales from over 100 venues in the US. The new company (keeping the name Live Nation) claims this will allow them to lower ticket prices. However, both companies have been accused of inflating their service fees in the past (a Coldplay ticket on Live Nation priced at $35 had over $20 extra in service fees this past summer).

"They've just received the biggest disincentive not to reduce ticket prices ever."
-David Viecelli (Agent for indie bands such as Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire)

"A bad idea for fans of live music."
-Tony Margherita (Manager for Wilco)

"Pretty much everybody agrees that ticket prices with service charges are too high - and I don't see anything in the Justice Department remedies that will change that one bit."
-John Scher (Manager for Simon and Garfunkel)

Knopper, Steve. "Live Nation and Ticketmaster Merge, Creating Music-Industry Superpower." Rolling Stone. 18 Feb 2010: 14-15.

Yes, I read Rolling Stone. Yes, their magazine is full of political bias. However, a year subscription was $2, so I might as well.

Further reading:

More from RS

More about exclusive venue contracts

More about exclusive artist contracts

Welcome

I am a student at Berry College, a music geek, an instrument effects pedal builder, and the owner of RabidAudio, an indie record label based in Atlanta, GA.

This blog will (for the most part) include posts related to such things.

As for RabidAudio, the site is under construction (there was an old site, but I am so bad at web design that I'm not going to even share the link). At present, there is one artist I am working with. IncontipleXion, a comedic metalcore group (with whom I have in the past played bass for during live shows).

Here are some artists I know personally:

Tetrarch - Classic Metal meets Bullet For My Valentine. Will be opening April 30 at the Masquerade (my favorite place in Atlanta) for Sonata Artica. Definitely check them out.

IncontipleXion -Pronounced [n-kon-tuh-pleyk-shuhn]. The only song I have produced for them is this one. I don't get to do much recording nowadays, thanks to school. This summer, however, we plan to put together a full album for IncontipleXion and start a local tour.

David Bergen - Local rocker and former guitarist for The Psychedelic Pink Socks.

Eric Morphis - Unique rapper and close friend. Edited and Produced music video for single, "Rockman".

Ross Woodruff- Acoustic rocker in Nashville.

Tetrarch preforming a cover of Master of Puppets