3D Printing Volume 398

Let's talk about the Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer.

From the top review on Amazon:

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Ok I just received this printer and so far it's amazing! However I've noticed some people on youtube or other places that shows them having a bit of trouble setting it up so if you're planning on getting this printer use the following steps to have an awesome experience.

0.) Order a spool of Hatchbox 1.75mm Filament to either arrive before or at the same time as the printer. (The sample PLA included isn't enough for anything)
1.) The VERY first thing you do is use an X-acto knife to cut away the corners of masking tape covering the bed screws! LIKE I SAID THE VERY VERY FIRST THING!
2.) Use the provided Allen Key to lower the bed at each corner TWO full turns!
3.) Remove the tape from the hot end (NOT THE YELLOW TAPE AT THE NOZZLE) but the one that holds the hot end in place for shipping
4.) Plug in the power supply and turn it on
5.) Navigate to "Move>Home" and home the printer and guess what? The nozzle won't dig it's way into the print bed because what? YES we lowered the bed first!
6.) TURN THE PRINTER OFF!
7.)Now use a strip of regular typing paper and gradually start to raise each corner while checking the tension on the paper until you feel some resistance but not too much. In other words like a guitar we tune up not down!
8.) DO NOT UPDATE THE FIRMWARE UNLESS YOU NEED TO TO TROUBLESHOOT LATER ( In spite of what some gurus say on youtube)
9.) Take your SD card, load a test Gcode from Thingiverse (Print something you'll actually use like the New Dial for the MP select mini on thingiverse) it takes 26 minutes to print (NOT THE CAT! it takes too long!)
10.) After each print leave the filament in the nozzle and never try to pull it out once it cools because you'll break the hotend! To switch filament (Empty spool or different color) Preheat to 210 wait for it to reach that temp, extrude a little bit and then pull it out from up top)

I wish this info was put together in one place like this when I was reading reviews, It took me like 4 weeks to gather all the steps.

Now stop thinking about it and just order it!, a year ago you'd have to spend $500 to get a printer this good

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And here's a good review of the printer.

Now I get to close some tabs

Octane renderer is now available for Blender.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is something which apparently I need to see.
John Pearse Strings are apparently the best acoustic guitar strings.
Glassdoor audio jobs.
Loudness and dynamics in cinema sound.
The page I made for Pandora Machine post-production sound services. 

Spark Workshop in Brooklyn seems interesting although their website doesn't really explain what gear they have. And they have a minimum of a $500 class that you have to take before you can even spend $150/month to join (which, honestly, seems incredibly insulting to professional woodworkers -- but that might be the point, to keep them out. I dunno.) At the JCFabLab we were only charging $10 for the safety class and we took that out of your first month's membership.
Spark Workshop has the smaller Epilog laser cutter. 40-Watts.

JCArtist has studio spaces available. Including a garage. And if I'm building a police cruiser, that might be a good deal. I'll have to look more into it.

I have to admit I've never actually been to the MakerBar in Hoboken even though it's maybe 1000 feet as the crow flies from the JCFabLab.


This dude made a microphone from a coconut.
These MillRight CNC's are supposed to be the only good cheap CNC routers. 

Wooden Microphones Concept

So I got this idea into my head of making a "wooden microphone." At first I thought it would be a ribbon microphone. But then I thought it might be a kickstarter and be a USB condenser. Like a Blue, but prettier, for podcasting and looking pretty on your desk next to your typewriter-style wooden keyboard or some such.

There are only very high-end microphones made out of wood (that I know of.)

Feather Microphones make ribbon mics out of Seattle. They're in the $1500 range.  They're pretty though.

Workhorse Microphones make custom mics. Here's one.

 And there's the Bruce Swedien Nu-47. Honestly it's a lot of microphone for four thousand bucks, still, it's four thousand bucks.

Okay, those are all the very high-end microphones. The one people actually have on their desks is a Blue of some sort.

These are particularly nice-looking I think.


Of course, I no longer have a FabLab. But I did some prototyping.
That'll be another blag post.

Carbon Copy Japan

The Japanese artwork for Carbon Copy.

A list of things done this year.

I am scrambling to finish up projects at the FabLab before we close. The day we're done for good is the 31st of October although the laser cutter leaves sometime between the 25th and the 27th.
I'm working on finishing my brother Dave's guitar. (He hates that logo so we won't be using it.)

This was the first instrument I made. I call it the "Fish Bass."

So I made the fish bass. Then a baritone guitar. Then a weird half-hollow-body "Bellacaster" Tele-style, then my brother's guitar (which I call the "Big Bells" but he doesn't like that, I just keep the name with all my files around it so I can get back to it.) The newest guitar is the "Five". Humbucker in the bridge, P90 in the neck. Bigsby-style tremolo.

I also wrote a children's book.

Last Voyage of the No Ship

The Pleasure for the Empire record The Last Voyage of the No Ship is now on CD. And, of course, on Bandcamp.
 
This is probably as good a time as any to remind you about the previous Pleasure for the Empire album, The Oceans of Ganymede.
 

Loudness

Loudness metering. And not just CALM Act, but loudness normalization for streaming audio. Have I lost your interest yet?

YouLean makes a free loudness meter. I've been digging it.

Peak to loudness from a mastering perspective.

A short introduction to levels when mixing for picture.

LKFS and loudness (for picture.)