lunes, 25 de febrero de 2008

Mogwai Big Muff DONE


My first Big Muff Pi clone is done!!! One more to go.

You can see here a picture of my take on the Mogwai reissue BMP. I decided not to change the knob names to Volume, Rock and Action as in the real Mogwai reissue BMP. Other differences from the original are: I added a switch to bypass the tone control circuit and I changed the order of the knobs (I have, from left to right, Sustain-Tone-Volume instead of Volume-Tone-Sustain). I went for the moog style (sort of) knobs, which I quite like.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, "the paint has been a pain", from the first layers of white paint until the last layers of laquer... I am considering not painting my stompboxes anymore... took me 1 weekend to finish the circuit, 2 months to finish the case.

UPDATE: I have uploaded the MOGWAI and the PI artwork here in case someone wants to do another clone.

lunes, 18 de febrero de 2008

Big Muff Pi clones update

Finishing my 2 "big muff pi" clones is taking me longer than I expected due to some problems with the paint and the technique to do the texts and images. I finally decided to do a regular big muff pi and something similar to a mogwai reissue big muff pi, like this one. Here you can see the results so far:

They are missing a couple of layers of lacquer and the electronics of one of them. I should have the other ready in a couple of days.

UPDATE: The mogwai clone is now finished, check it out here.

Freescale new DSP development platforms (Update)

Paul Maddox has created a web page with a blog describing his work with the Freescale Soundbite evaluation tool and a forum to describe other peoples progress. Can be found here.
His plan is to come up with a substitute to the now defunct (I think) chameleon.

domingo, 17 de febrero de 2008

Eminent Organ



I saw this piece of art in a cultural magazine in Madrid. The piece was made by "Os Gemeos" using an old Eminent organ and is being shown in a gallery named Pilar Parra Romero, in Madrid. It does not seem to be the popular Eminent 310 that Jean Michele Jarre uses (toghether with a EH SmallStone) and which features the same (or similar) sound engine of the Solina String ensemble. I wonder if this one also comes with the same engine...
Check out "Os Gemeos" work... it is not necessary music related but you will like it if you like urban art.
As usual, click the image for a bigger view... it is worth it.

viernes, 1 de febrero de 2008

Blue Monday Owners Club


The song "Blue Monday", from "New Order", is claimed to be the biggest selling 12 inch single of all time. The rumor says that its peculiar die cut sleeve was so expensive that Factory records did actually lose money from each copy sold.
A couple of years ago I managed to find a copy of the "FACTUS 10", the American 1983 version of the single. I found my copy in a second hand record store in Santa Cruz, California, that was just two days after I saw the film "24 hours party people", where they mention the story about the die cut sleeve price. Afterwards I found this site: http://www.bluemondayownersclub.com/ where owners of the single send a picture with their jewel. I am in the 5th page of owners.
Do you own a copy? Are you in the owners club?