Analog and digital, gadgetry and module, DIY and ready-to-play, today in Austin we’re blessed with a get-together at the insanely-amazing Switched On music store. Austin’s noisiest manufacturers are dropping in to show some of their wears.

If you’re not in Austin, have a look at the lineup below and see if you have any questions for these makers, and I can bring back those answers to our readers around the world.

The event is free, 4:00 – 7:00 pm. It’s very informal and intimate – just sound geek boys and girls hanging out.

The Victory Grill Cafe
Across from 1111 E. 11th Switched On
Austin, TX

Switched On: a place where your money goes to die, but vintage synthesizers and circuit-bend video machines and other goodies replace it

I’ll kick of the proceedings with the MeeBlip, our fully open-source synth – which, now after several months of use and creative users, I can now say quite a lot about.
http://meeblip.com

Then…

Bleep Labs is a locally owned & operated manufacturer of some of the most creatively unique sound toys, some of which can be interfaced with CV supported hardware. His Thingamagoop 2 light controlled Analog + Digital Synth Friend is a hot item in every store who carries it. Please come check out some of his other gadgets that will blow you away!
http://www.bleeplabs.com/

Livid Instruments has been crafting controllers for electronic music in Austin, Texas since 2004, and offers a line of commercially available control surfaces and DIY products through dealers and distributors worldwide. Livid will be demoing it’s product line with software tools like Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Reason, ArKaos, and Traktor.
http://www.lividinstruments.com/
http://www.lividindustry.com/
http://www.lividdesign.com/

Dann Green of 4ms will demo synthesizer modules, including the Rotating Clock Divider, Shuffling Clock Multiplier, and the soon-to-be-released VCAMatrix. The RCD and SCM are hackable microcontroller-based timing generators for creating complex rhythm patterns, and the VCAMatrix is a 4×4 CV-controllable analogue signal mixer/router.
http://4mspedals.com/

Mickey Delp will be demoing several Delptronics products including the Guitar Meister, which plays real guitar sounds on a PS2 guitar controller; and the Bender Sequencer, a step sequencer designed for DIY synth builders and circuit benders. Mickey will also be showing his custom synthesizer created for Dorkbot’s SXSW event. The synth was sponsored by, and built with parts from Radio Shack.
http://delptronics.com/

bubblesound is proud to be joining this line up a month after we relocated from NYC, and we will be showing off our new oscillator: the VCOb. This is the first time the VCOb will be demo’d in public, so come on down. The VCOb will be joining the rest of the bubblesound line; the SeM20, the uLFO, the cvWS and the LvL+rm. It starts shipping in April.
www.bubblesound-instruments.com

Wherever you live, you can enjoy the DIY and open hardware inventions coming out of Texas. Or, as the famous song goes: “That’s right, you’re not from Texas / Texas wants you anyway.”

Austin, Texas may be associated with the strum of guitars. But it’s also populated by some of our favorite electronic music hardware inventors on the planet, led by the likes of Bleep Labs, 4ms, Eric Archer, and more. They’ve taken the idea of a “Handmade Music” and come up with the best formula for building a community around DIY hardware I’ve seen yet:

1. Get beginners – even if they’ve never soldered before – making noises with a beginning kit workshop.
2. Do an advanced workshop that pushes the envelope with new hardware.
3. Turn that noise into a performance/party: i.e., “After all the kits were built, we plugged in to the PA and partied until the amp overheated.”
4. Provide your specs and software freely.
5. Make a kit available for people to buy.

Notice that it’s possible to make “free hardware” (open sourcing part or all of the code, publishing specs and circuits) and still sell a product. And it’s possible to act locally (workshops in Austin), and sell globally (sharing documentation online, and shipping kits everywhere else).

And notice that it’s possible to make events beginner-friendly. In fact, this isn’t just to teach experienced musicians how to solder. I find that many people who are too shy to make music via traditional means find there’s a freedom to a glitchy, blippy electronic thing that makes noise. After all, through the ages music was never intended to be exclusively the domain of professional specialists.

Here’s the latest on their activities – and a chance to meet the hardware that has come out of their series.

For more, stay glued to handmademusic@noisepages.

First, let’s meet the devices:

Meet the Beasties

Thingamagoop 2

Bleep Labs’ Thingamagoop seems as much electronic creature as electronic instrument; its sounds seem like the vocalizations of an alien and, yes, it’s darned cute. The new Thingamagoop 2 is more usable (easier-to-access battery), sounds better, and has more features. But it’s also more open in every way. CV in and out lets it interface with analog gear. A programmer jack lets you reprogram it with your Arduino, if you so choose (the Arduino isn’t required, but it does let you reprogram the sounds on your Thingamagoop). And now the sonic effects — sample and hold, arpeggios, noise, and bit crush — all use open-sourced code. That makes what was already an ingenious soundmaker more open to hacking by advanced users.

The Thingamagoop 2 debuted to the world at Austin’s Handmade Music. Now, perhaps we need some hack sessions to get people working on reprogramming this and other sonic oddities.

Full info on the Thingamagoop 2
Arduino code
Circuit diagram

I expect to get one of these soon, so expect a hands-on.

Nebulophone

Nebulophone is a coming kit that builds on the Arduino platform to create a playable, DIY Stylophone-style instrument. Having debuted at Handmade Music Austin #4, the instrument features “adjustable waveforms, a light controlled analog filter, LFO, and arpeggiator that can be clocked over IR.” Yes, you read that last bit right: it’s all part of the new wireless, infrared sync revolution these guys are leading.

Official site has code, schematics, instructions – so you can actually make your own – plus sound and advance info on the coming kit. I expect a video and more on the kit soon.

SimSam

The SimSam is a noisy, glitchtastic product.

It’s also the subject of a beginners’ workshop, a chance to get people working with electronics for the very first time.

And its cost – a tiny $8 in parts.

It’s also a brilliant use of the ATTINY85, an ultra-compact, 8-pin AVR chip. (AVR chips also live at the heart of the Arduino platform.)

And the SimSam debuted at – you guessed it – a workshop at Handmade Music Austin #4.

Tons of info and everything you need to build your own:
SimSam

There are actually some details that could use improving, so have a look and see if you can do an updated version.

Autonomous Bassline Generator + Andromeda Space Rocker + MIDI-IR Sync

The Autonomous Bassline Generator…

…can sync up with drum modules like this Andromeda Mk-4 by Eric Archer:

…and sync together via infrared, wirelessly, connecting to each other or slaving to a MIDI clock signal generated by Wooster Audio’s MIDI-IR.

Together, you get the Andromeda Space Rockers: a whole little galaxy of wirelessly-synced sonic gadgets. And all of the above are available as kits, so you can sooth your soul by assembling them yourself.

The creators have debuted and jammed with these gadgets through Handmade Music, and presented workshops on the technologies and concepts that underly their creation.

Arduino, Sound Libraries, and Resources

I asked Dr. Bleep himself (John-Mike) about what resources might be useful for working with the Arduino platform (and similar architectures) and sound. The main secret is, use Pulse Width Modulation to accomplish sounds with a minimum of code:

Here are a few of the pages I used when designing the code for it:
http://www.cs.mun.ca/~rod/Winter2007/4723/notes/timer0/timer0.html
http://arcfn.com/2009/07/secrets-of-arduino-pwm.html
http://blog.wingedvictorydesign.com/2009/05/29/generate-real-time-audio-on-the-arduino-using-pulse-code-modulation/2/

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/ is a fantastic source for “Oh man why didn’t i do that/ this guy is incredible!” projects.

I’m also not the first to mate the stylophone with arduino
http://hackaday.com/2009/08/25/arduino-based-synthesizer/

The two biggest/ earliest arduino synths were :
http://code.google.com/p/tinkerit/wiki/Auduinohttp://www.critterandguitari.com/home/store/arduino-piano.php

One difference with the Nebulophone is that it is very low part count. No multipexers or DACs. Just PWM out to an two opamp analog filter. This does limit the number of keys and controls but makes for a tiny, simple pcb.

Handmade Music Austin, in Videos

How do these events go down? Here’s a look at some of the sonic mayhem.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Handmade #4 lacks a video, but we’ll watch for #5 when it happens.

The next Handmade Music Austin is on February 28. Details aren’t up yet, but I’m told you can expect an advanced workshop on building a digital delay by Nathan/Wooster Audio, plus a simple, light-controlled noisemaker for beginners. Stay tuned to:

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com

Autonomous bassline generators? Wireless, modular, infrared sync? Tiny drum machines networking together? Welcome to Texas, and the minds of Eric Archer, Bleep Labs, 4ms Pedals, the Church of the Friendly Ghost, and Andromeda Space Rockers.

One look at a floor full of blinking circuits, and most ladies and gentleman might assume they’ve stumbled upon some alien technology. “Imagine the things we could learn from this civilization – advancements far beyond our own,” as the stock line from sci fi goes. “Man and woman are not meant to learn such things. You’re meddling in things beyond your comprehension.”

In other words, you couldn’t build something like this, right?

Or could you?

In Austin, Texas, Eric, Dann, and Dr. Bleep are launching a new Handmade Music series, kicking it off with kits and classes so that anyone – including beginners – can start building stuff. For the 101 crowd, there’s a free beginner class even if you’ve never touched a soldering iron, so you can build your own analog drum. “I’m no n00b,” you say, “impress me.” Sure – the “upper division” gets to talk more advanced synth design and walks through the full-blown modular, networkable kit.

At the end of it all is an open jam and featured performance.

If you’re anywhere near Austin, Texas – or can find a bargain plane fare – you’ll want to clear your calendar for October 18!

Full Event Details, October 18 Handmade Music in Austin [Handmade Music @noisepages]

That’s just the first of more events to come, so stay glued to the Handmade Music site for events in Austin, New York, Portugal, Germany, and beyond.

“That’s right / you’re not from Texas / Texas wants you anyway.” For those of us in New York, Lisbon, Rio, Sydney, and Jakarta, there’s still hope. The kits will be online, and I”m looking at ways of putting together a full Handmade Music curriculum of projects online for all of us on the site we’re developing this fall, noisepages – ideas welcome.

I certainly didn’t expect to get deep into these geekier topics in high school while I was busily trying to fail Calculus and screw up science lab results in ways that baffled my teachers. But it’s a glorious age we live in, in which we get to assimilate alien technology as our own. Stay tuned.