Ladies and gents, we would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years. We would also like to thank all the musicians that were willing to share their awesome music with us, and with the world. With that, we are announcing that DoBox Recordings will be shutting down operations. It’s been a good run, but things have changed…times have changed…and it’s now time for us to change.

We leave you with one last release. ‘Loose Memories’ by Derek Scott is the result of experiments with an inline series of analog delay effects fed by extremely sparse synth patterns. While most of the recordings are atmospheric meanderings, there are four bangers that highlight the fact that exact synchronization or quantization is not always needed.

We hope you enjoy the sounds of the final DoBox release, and we’ll keep all our previous releases online for your listening pleasure until further notice. Thanks again, and please keep supporting all the talented musicians out there.

Peace!

Artwork by Dajis Systems

Modular Transformation
Flowing
Reflexed
SwingShift
Soul Scanner
Tone Friction
Detection
Dark Places
Elemental Plane of Duplicates
Tribe
Glimmering

Complete release in a .zip

The Diggarama label’s head honcho Izidor Radmanovic, aka Blurix, returns with another raw and energetic EP. All three tracks are full of movement and emanate Blurix’s distinct sound. One thing is for certain, they know how to make music for the dancefloor in Croatia. Enjoy!

Artwork by Blurix

All Alone (Shadowman)
Underdog
Magma (Escape)

Complete release in a .zip

We’re back! And Keckclip is back with us to present another round of fast-paced sonic workouts. Three no-nonsense tracks that start out with the bizness and don’t let up until they end. Your mind and body will definitely be sweatin’ after you push your speakers with these bad boys. Enjoy!

Artwork by Dajis Systems

NHT006
NHT008
NHT009

Complete release in a .zip

This script has a *lot* of variables you can tweak.  I don’t even feel like I’ve put everything into this script that I want to, either.

an incomplete list of parameters you can adjust:

• knob radius
• knob height
• shaft hole radius
• shaft hole height
• set screw inclusion, radius, and location
• flatness of shaft hole
• rounding on top (thanks very much to http://iheartrobotics.com for the articles on edge rounding!)
• indentations
• directional indicators
• plus a lot more!

About

One of the most stressful things about making multiple copies of an electronics project is reliably locating interface controls that you like. Maybe you can locate them one time, but can you locate them a year from now? two years from now? And how much do they cost?

For example, I found some slide potentiometer knobs at Mouser.com for about $0.50 apiece two years ago, and they ran out of them… forever. I tried sourcing them elsewhere, and the best I could find was a seller that had them for $4.00 apiece (!!wtf!!). So that really sucks.

One strategy is to buy in bulk. But, buy too few and you may run out and pay twice for shipping.  Buy too many and you  end up with unused knobs sitting around not making your money back. That also sucks.

Round potentiometer knobs are somewhat readily available. But still, they can be from $0.80 to $5.00 each, and if you can’t find enough for your project, that can be problematic. Mostly I’m tired of paying multiple dollars for things that should basically cost $0.25 apiece. Aesthetics are important too, so having options beyond what’s out there is nice.

A different strategy is to print them yourself as you need them.  No shipping, no running out, and you get to call the shots on how it looks and how it fits. Now, I like this way. Plus, for my project, making the knobs just goes along with the rest of the stuff I’ve done myself.

Well... some are better than others. Limited success is better than no success at all.

Download

Click here to download the parametric potentiometer knob generator OpenSCAD script.

License

parametric potentiometer knob generator by steve cooley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at sc-fa.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://sc-fa.com/blog/contact.

Dave Vondle from IDEO Labs posted a really cool add on for the arduino IDE that lets you retrieve the source for an arduino you physically have but don’t already have the source for. Essentially, if I understand this concept, I can tie the arduino mega inside each beatseqr to the source online, so that when you want to see how it works and want to change something on it, you can just plug it in, launch the arduino IDE with this add-on, and get the source from the internet. Sweet! I have asked a question about a minor detail, but overall the concept is really good, and I think I’m going to give it a try.

We had a great time playing with Mark and Kyle of Antacid Crew! Always a blast! Thanks to Nexus for the invite, it was a great party with great people.

Anyway, between it all, I have two nights a week that are explicitly scheduled for development of beatseqr and other related projects. Enter: synthseqr.

Synthseqr

About two years ago, I started to think about what would be next, once beatseqr was up and running, and it seemed fairly obvious that a complimentary tool would be something for melodic sequencing.  At the time I hadn’t consciously intended to copy the interface of anything, but it turns out that the idea that was new to me, of course, isn’t a new idea at all.  I love the 16 step sequencer workflow. It seems very natural to me for the kind of music I like to make, so I wanted something to help with synths while I rock some beats with beatseqr.  Synthseqr is intended to play that part.

Frankly, it’s just not working yet, and there’s an insane amount of work left to do to get it ready to show off the way I want to.  But I wanted to post this to let you know that I’m still here. I’m still working on projects.  If you’ve emailed me, I do intend to get back to you about a time frame for beatseqr availability.  I won’t make any more excuses.  I’m just working at my bandwidth limit. Whew, have you ever had two young kids?  I need a nap.

edit 2012-02-01 : my voltages were set to the makerbot motors, where the should have been set to the moons motor voltages. :-\

No, but seriously, I think I can prototype top panel layouts and button arrays using the 3d printer. That could be a welcome change from the seemingly endless cycle of wasted time and money while producing new… things. Crap. I’m supposed to not say any more, aren’t I.

I really can’t say when I can kick back into gear, but there have been signs of progress lately beyond the desks. I don’t want to say much yet, but there’s something coming to me in the mail soon. Then I’ll be extra not talking about it until its working, then more not talking about it until I can figure out the enclosure and whatnot. It might be fun. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be fun. I’m predicting a high chance for fun.

For my kids, I think 3d printing is going to be one of the important tools of their lives. It uses the stepping stone that I was given and takes it further. Now not only can you visualize anything your mind can think of, but you can hold a copy of it in your hand. No doubt that 3d printing at home is in its infancy, much the same way that computers at home were when I was a kid. So, to me, 3d printing appears to be the most likely tool my kids can have to propel them into their future. In my opinion, a 3d printer in the home will foster: problem solving skills, imagination, healthy non-conformity, the concept of iteration, no fear of being wrong or failing, and hands on application of the scientific method.

So, I’m in research mode. Here are the links I can find to commercially available sub-$5000 hobbyist 3d printers. I’m mostly focusing on fused deposition modeling type printers. The other technologies I’ve seen for 3d printing are either experimental, lacking in resolution, lacking in base affordability, or the media is too specialized (and presumably expensive).

MakerBot Industries has one called the thingomatic. These guys have been at the heart of the maker/DIY front and honestly, they have a lot of momentum. Their machines are iterating very quickly, and they have a huge community rallying around their project. Their laser-cut plywood product is undoubtedly borne from the DIY mentality their product aims to foster. They have some super nice features like an automated build platform, and a new dual extruder head option. They’ve generated a lot of buzz about attracting $10M in investor funding, so it’s likely they will be able to afford support staff for the foreseeable future. Has Mac software available and/or printing from an SD card. Their wiki and build instructions are incredibly detailed. $1,299 kit, $2,500 assembled.

Reprap, represents the wild west of 3d printers. It sort of kicked off the DIY 3d printer revolution happening now. As such, it’s really focused on bootstrapping quickly with the least amount of time spent on worrying about what the machine looks like. (what the machine looks like?? Look what it’s DOING!) There’s no official source for parts. That’s kind of the point, though. It’s open source, so you need to find someone who will print our the parts for you (and you presumably pay them)

botmill surprise! a presumably reputable source for reprap based 3d printer design. No exterior enclosure, all wires exposed. This machine will undoubtedly appeal to the mad scientist crowd. $1,395.00 assembled. Pretty cheap, actually.

Ultimaker The videos I’ve seen of this thing are of it printing really really fast. Designed and sold out of the Netherlands. €1,194.00 base (kit)

UP! best consumer based enclosure design. The machine itself looks great. Sensible and clean. Definitely made to alleviate concerns about reliability and reputability. Looks like a real product. Compact. Comes with integrated software. Higher on the price scale. Has Mac software. You’d think they could price it under $2650+~$150 shipping. C’mon, China. What the hell. Alibaba says I can buy whole laser engravers for that price.

RapMan. Pretty. laser cut clear acrylic. Alibre sells software, so they probably will support the machines they sell for a while. With the revolution happening at the pace it is, your mileage may vary on how long they do support it. (5 years?)

Bits from Bytes 3DTouch lots of options for number of print heads. mo’ printheads, mo’ problems. It may be the most capable from an aspect of possibilities, but the workflow must be significant to munge multicolor GCode. Maybe not.. It’s probably right on the edge of being past the scope of being a machine for the home.

buildyourcnc’s white ant I have the buildyourcnc.com blacktoe 2×4 cnc machine and it’s great. Their white ant 3d printer is still in active development, and given the flexible nature of their design ethos, this could be cool. The downside here is that you can’t buy everything you need right from them. You have to pick up some of the required parts from MakerBot. Which is kind of a drag. What I think we owners of blacktoe and blue chick machines are waiting for is some word about why an extruder print head for our existing machines is impossible. I guess I could image why. I’d gladly replace my 3 axis control board with a 4 or 5 axis board if I could interchangeably use a router or a 3d printhead. GLADLY. Use the motion control table and hardware I already have for multiple tool heads? Yes, remind me why I can’t have this? A ridiculously large 2′ x 4′ FDM 3d printer. It’s probably impossible because its a ridiculous idea.

So, for me, time to make a verdict… and that task is pretty easy. MakerBot has the juice right now. I love how they’re dedicated to the movement and driving innovation. They have lots of instructions and a huge community. And funding, so more brains getting paid to focus on it means good things for the future.

If price is a sensitivity for you, buildyourcnc’s white ant would be a good choice, with botmill coming in a close second. If I was in the Netherlands, I’d probably go for the Ultimaker. UP! sure looks nice, but I can’t fathom why it’s so expensive. Cut the price in half and then it’s a horse race.

http://bengrosser.com/projects/interactive-robotic-painting-machine/

Interactive Robotic Painting Machine (2011) from benjamin grosser on Vimeo.

I’ll be honest, I’m doing things in quartz composer and processing that I wish I could do on the canvas. So maybe I should follow Ben’s lead. The unspoken lessons here are: 1. set your expectations low on the resolution of the resulting product, especially if you want to cover the canvas without it taking all day. 2. Don’t worry about cleaning the brush. 3. Do worry about the fluid viscosity of the media. 4. love the result for what it is now. Let the historians decide if it’s good or not. The process is awesome, and that’s worth a lot to me.