Mashup/media/music maven Moldover checks in in comments with another tip for surviving the desert of Burning Man (or, you know, your next gig in Yemen):

I’ve been bringing my laptop to the playa for several years now. My solution this year was a modified briefcase. I made a mount for my MIDI controller to sit right on ontop of the open case. This minimized my footprint which was very helpful. The case worked like a charm at night but it would overheat during the day. The quick fix was to put it ontop of a bag of ice. (Not very elegant, but still effective!) Next year I’m going to check out liquid or dry-ice cooling systems…

I like the liquid / dry-ice cooling idea!

Moldover is co-conspirator on the excellent, Ableton-biased near-monthly performance party Warper here in New York (though hopefully part of a new cultural fever spreading the country).

Dealing with the elements is a serious idea. I may have to do some low-tech waterproofing for a party this week in DC, and CDMotion’s Jaymis recently experimented with combining laptops and beer. (Hint: this turns out not to enhance performance.)

Previously:
Burning Man: Musical Mac Laptops in Home-Built Bio-Hazard Boxes
Numark’s $99 Portable Turntable, Torture Tested in the Burning Man Desert

Now, anyone got general Burning Man reports / photos for this year?

Burning Man 2006: Hope & Fear the Future

When we were asked to play on the playa, I immediately thought of all of the stories of â€Å“That dust gets everywhereâ€Â? and did I really want all of my precious gear getting destroyed? Would you? No! So I went to work on a plan that would help keep most of the dust and elements off of the gear. â€Å“Bio-Hazardâ€Â? containment boxes a â€Å“Clean Roomâ€Â? of sorts. If something could keep particles from reaching the air, then I could keep particles from reaching the gear. As you can see the burners were impressed by our research on brining digital gear to the festival.

The boxes are made of 1/4� acrylic and the holes are made from 5 1/4� PVC with Large black rubber clean up gloves. Obviously, the boxes are in the 1.0 stage and if we go back to BM in 2007 2.0 should be even better. All because we love to create digital music!

Brilliant work, Chris! Now all we need is a carry-on blast chamber for the occasional bad battery on a plane.

As a DJ, there’s one gig that I always wanted to spin: Burning Man. The problem is that I’m not real eager to drag my Technics SL-1210M5G turntables (which weigh 26 pounds each) to the hot and dusty Nevada desert. I found the perfect solution in Numark’s PT01 portable turntables.

The Numark PT01 is a US$99, portable, battery-operated turntable that is perfect for those traveling gigs when you can’t or don’t want to bring your big and heavy DJ rig. They’re also perfect for light use, resurrecting your dusty vinyl collection and for kids. The best part is that the PT01 packs up into a tiny footprint when you attach the included lid and fits in a standard record bag or crates.

If you live for climbing through stacks of vinyl at used record stores or garage sales, it takes nothing to bring along a PT01 to preview a record before you buy it via in the built-in speaker. If you want to use the PT01 to spin at home or at a party, you can connect the included AC adapter and spin all night long. There’s also a full set of analog outputs for connecting it to a standard mixer and PA system.

The turntable itself is no toy: the belt-drive motor operates at 33, 45, and 78 RPM and there is +/-10 percent pitch control (for beat matching). The PT-01 has tone and volume controls and 1/4 and 1/8th-inch headphone jacks. Even though it’s a belt drive platter, you can still scratch on this puppy because it comes with a high-quality slipmat built-into the 7-inch platter.

Using the PT01s in the desert was a dream. The dust covers kept them clean while packed away in my tent and they were easy to grab, setup and spin due to their light weight. The sound was great, the pitch control was super-useful and the built-in cartridges saved me from near near disaster when I completely forgot to bring a set. It would be nice if the PT01’s built-in speaker was a little louder for times when you want to use it without a PA. My only other requests for the PT01s would be for a place to put the lid when not in use, it would be great it snapped onto the bottom of the turntable for safekeeping, and it lacks a place to store the AC adapter, which I’m bound to lose at the most inopportune time.

Verdict: If you’re looking for a portable turntable to try-before-you-buy or to breathe new life into your long-forgotten vinyl collection, then the Numark PT01 is for you.

Specifications:

Use 6 “D” Cell batteries or use included 12V AC adapter

Updated: Don’t miss the Affordable Turntable Roundup over at the always-superb Retro Thing for more options. The Numark still looks like your best bet by far for a portable turntable.

See also in today’s news:

Scratch for Less, Scratch Your Computer: Which is Your Turntable of Choice?

Start `Em Young! The Three-Year-Old DJ

]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/09/22/numarks-99-portable-turntable-torture-tested-in-the-burning-man-desert/feed/ 20 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/08/26/burning-man-laser-harps-improbable-orchestra-knob-boxes/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/08/26/burning-man-laser-harps-improbable-orchestra-knob-boxes/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2005 05:00:00 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/08/26/burning-man-laser-harps-improbable-orchestra-knob-boxes/

For some of the most bizarre and unusual music-sound installation art, look no further than Burning Man. Burning, indeed: this desert-based event has in the past featured Eric Singer’s Max/MSP-controlled pyrophone, a propane-powered flaming sound organ. (And, incidentally, that installation is making a repeat appearance this year.)

And what better activity when in the middle of the desert than tweaking knobs and producing strange electronic grooves? That’s the idea behind improbable orchestra, an interactive table full o’ knobs for collaborative soundmaking. Build one yourself: check out the copious design notes. Basic specs: the free Pure Data graphical multimedia development environment is running sounds, gutted Pentium PC with custom power supply, custom circuit board connecting the knobs and fiddly bits thorough a Parallax basic stamp board. (Lots more specs on their site, missing only details of the Pd patch.)

“But,” says you, “I hate knobs. Give me lasers, man.” Sure! You obviously want the interactive Aeolian laser harp, which suspends a series of laser beams through which you can walk to trigger sound. It’s the creation of former NYU ITP faculty member Jen Lewin, now based in Colorado and doing interactive sculpture full-time. She has other fantastic projects like interactive butterflies.

Are you going to Burning Man — or have a project of your own you want to tell us about? Drop me a line!

improbable orchestra
Laser harps
Pyrophone [ CDM ]
Art of Burning Man [burningman.com]

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