Category: pertaining

volta

h2. here’s a valve based preamplifier in the works.

!http://www.mediumrecords.com/hacks/ecc83b-tb.jpg!:http://www.mediumrecords.com/hacks/ecc83b.jpg

those little glass envelopes can sure be fun… takes loads and loads of testing and tweaking at high-volume… but thankfully the neighbour has been pounding on the wall when the sound gets to be just perfect. (thanks bob.)

much of this stuff here has been salvaged from old television set and a bit of mysterious military transceiver equipment.

!http://www.mediumrecords.com/hacks/ecc83a-tb.jpg!:http://www.mediumrecords.com/hacks/ecc83a.jpg

there were some bad buzzes in there… on 1 channel but not the other oddly enough…
…dedicated powersupply with more current and cleaner power for the heaters was in fact the solution.
so now it’s 2 channels with the good kind of quiet. (and the nice wicked-loud i should mention)

only one mighty shock from the dc power so far… felt a bit like a pysio machine…
not so bad for 350 – 400 volts actually…
but do remember kids, involuntary muscle contractions can be dangerous… so play safe, etc.

diy video synthesizer web-forum

today marks the official launch of a little webforum dedicated to hacking around with analogue video synthesis.

“http://vidisynth.mediumrecords.com/forum/”:http://vidisynth.mediumrecords.com/forum/

it’s been there for a few days, but why not pick an official birthdate? today is the 43rd anniversary of the first broadcast of “Doctor Who”:http://www.tv-timewarp.co.uk/video_intros/DoctorWho-WilliamHartnel_HQ.wmv … a show which was well known for it’s creative visual effects on a tiny budget as well as its neato psychological/sci-fi soundtracks. that’s a good birthday to share.

VGA Expropriator – analogue video synthesizer

“this”:http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/vs001.html is my first completed video-synthesizer.

!http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/vs001desk-sm.jpg!:http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/vs001.html

it adds the wave-forms of audio inputs onto the VGA output of a computer.
it can be patched in ways which turn it into a big, fast, and very noisy audio-visual glitch machine.

!http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/screenshot720-2-tb.jpg!:http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/vs001.html

“more over on project-page>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>”:http://www.mediumrecords.com/vs0/vs001.html

more videosynth documentation

here’s just another little video file.

“http://www.mediumrecords.com/video/vidisynthexp05b2.mov”:http://www.mediumrecords.com/video/vidisynthexp05b2.mov 18.2Mb 3:13

was experimenting with different resolutions and refresh rates to drive the synth’s sync with. the basic circuit handles 120Hz (as in this example) with no problem and also works with all the other rates like 85Hz, 75Hz etc. higher rates actually do look better but it will be interesting to see what’s involved with converting to SD video.

resolution works fine at 1024 pix wide, but higher than that causes the right side of the image to be brighter than the left for some reason.

(not sure who this music is from at the moment as it was just taped off the radio… will be a bit of work to figure out who it is, so, that soon)