Wooden mics and suchwise.

FiveFish Audio makes a vacuum tube preamp kit for a 500-series rack for $190.
JLM Audio, in Australia, makes an opto-compressor 500 series kit for just under $400 (USD.)
Here is an early prototypes of the "Wooden Microphone." The inherent structural issue is revealed in the second image.

Oops.

Austin Ribbon Microphone

The Austin Ribbon mic kits are very sweet. All the parts you need and really good instructions. I got mine with the Cinemag transformer. I don't understand why transformers sound so different from one another. That is beyond me. Cutting and installing the ribbon is a surprising level of pain in the tuchus. Lucky for me the Marsian Queen did that part for me. Also lucky? Having a FabLab to build in.

Laser engraved with the secret elephant language of course.

3D Printing Volume 398

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

From the top review on Amazon:

___________________________________

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

 ____________________________________________________

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.)

POD Vinyl

http://www.vinylizer.com/
5 for $205 CAD with full-color jackets and labels. I believe the jackets have no spines.

Ooh, but https://intheclouds.io is from Jersey. And they'll do one-offs for about $35 with full-color jackets.

Fab. Lab.

So for the past year I've been at a magical place, the Jersey City Fab Lab. It's amazing. You can join for a hundred bucks a month and you can use all the wood shop and general area. If you want the laser cutter or 3D printer those are extra hourly charges.
About half a year ago I joined as a worker prole -- much of my work is working directly with artists to make their dreams come true with a laser engraving or cutting on their projects.
It's amazingly satisfying for me because I'm the artist tech at the end of their process and I bring the "bang" to their projects and they walk away joyous and what "we've" made (they did all the work, I just did the pretty part at the very end they couldn't do on their own.)

And Eric really pushed me in to industrial design. Into 3d modelling. Into working with unusual materials.

Robot has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

Unfortunately, we're closing. Huh. I have the uncanny ability to close places down, don't I? Or maybe I just refuse to bail out as the sink is shipping. Or something.

Jerome Leary has a site for creating .dxf files of boxes. Including trusses, which is very cool. You will need a way to convert to .ai files though. Convertio has a web app which worked for me.

Jordana Williams

We're in the middle of the run of the podcast of Mac Rogers' Steal the Stars (which will be released as a novel by Nat Cassidy.) It's directed by Jordana Williams and like every thing I've seen her direct, it is amazing.
Funny enough the first time I met her she was an actor in a Mac Rogers play that was a kind of send-up of 30's very-fast-paced radio drama where she was the lead -- a kind of gal Friday tough character in The Lucretia Jones Mysteries.*
Here's an interview with Jordana and Mac about developing Steal the Stars.
And another interview with Jordana about Asymmetric.

*I just realized I keep quoting this show in my mind because there was a recurring joke where someone would call someone else "Pud" and then say "That's short for 'pudding'." And for some reason I still find that kinda hilarious.

Where At I? (Says the Horta.)

Making ADR lists of dialog. Must finish movie before AFM...
The color space of my monitor in normal viewing is very unlike inside Premiere. That very queered pinkish color was totally gone and the shadows were more better inside Premiere. Huh.
It's kind of a huge relief to have the novel done. Now I don't have to deal with it anymore. It's done. It's out there. Nobody's gonna buy it, of course, but it's not weighing on me.
And oh. I guess I owe rent tomorrow. Huh. Funny how that all works.

Earthkiller Novel released

On Kindle and in print.