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Well everyone knows them speak n spell toys which ruined our speach from child hood. Today they are a bit of a collectors item, complete with mods, and are being used in many new dance tunes, satisfaction etc. Well they still make voice chips, so them nerds who build robots can build friends to talk to. THese can be bought in kit forms too, so you can hook em up to a pc and type in words you want the little computer chip to say. I was thinking about a stand alone version with a QWERTY keyboard for musical applications.

Anyway there is a software emulator of one of these chips which you can download and make cool robo voice samples for your own sonic pscyhedlic manipulation. It can be downloaded here:

ChipTalk

It was around 2 years ago that i bought a Rhodes Stage Piano 73. I paid $600, and have since spent $200 restoring it. $600 was quite cheap, a friend paid $900. I have been watching the prices for the last year or so. Usually they are listed for $1200-$1600, more frequently $1600. Just in the past week a Fender RHodes 73 Mark 1 stage piano has sold for $2175 on ebay in Aus. Check it out:
Rather Pricey Rhodes Piano

BTW I uploaded some mixes of Ant for Ant. Check them out as he puts them up. Cred to me.

Despite what Im going to say next, electrocution is a bad bad thing, and you can die. Today I was electrocuted when diagnosing a power supply, and it felt awesome, comparable to sex, better.

I did some repairs to a power supply for a laptop. It had obvious faults, such as a broken circuit board and as a result broken tracks, which i fixed. DUring my second dianostics phase, i let the powersupply warm up, so i could see if components were hotter than normal. After an hour or so, i put my hand on the power supply, i picked it up by its ground/earth which should be safe(I will know to question this next time). Next thing my arms are jolting up and down rapidly in the air, i am pushed to the left, and some how the powersupply has stuck to my hand??!! I managed some how to swear 'fvc' (must be a reflex action) as i managed to oppose the force and throw my hand in the opposite direction of the jolt and the power supply is released. It was so peaceful how it progressed, tranquil almost, it was like time lapsed from one point to the other with slight recollections of in between. The initial shock was simply euphoria, then i came to realise what was going on. Bit of a scare and made me feel a bit whacked for some time, but did it feel good as i felt it travel up my arms....

Anyway some lessons to be learnt. The earth/ground may not always be earth/grounded properly, and components can short to ground. Always test for leaks to ground, especially when its 240volts plus!

Lucky to be alive tonight

My fingers smell like burnt carbon.

Robzy

Tonight i bought a korg kaoss pad 2. THe guy i bought it from didnt even realise it processed sound realtime untill i showed him. He had only used it for its synth sounds(aka theremin) which are below par. Think he was upset when i showed him some cool stuff. THe effects are very usable for realtime manipulation especially with the x-y touchpad which controls 2 parameters at once. So far i have had excellent results from manipulating loops through it. My only badpoint about it is it only has 5 seconds of sampling time. Would be sweet if they release a phrase loop sampler with a kaoss pad, that would kick.

Im thinking that maybe the x-y pad could be output through midi to a phrase sampler for sonic manipulation. THat would be sweet.

Well I attended another pawn auction today. Items of interest were the Roland MC-909 which i was keen for, a Rode Classic 2 microphone, Ernie Ball musicman stingray bass, fender electric guitar, roland u-220 module, they had behringer crap too. Bidded on the MC-909 up to $1350, thought the other guy would have budged at $1000, anyway let the sucker take it at $1400, which is a pretty standard price for one 2nd hand. The rode classic 2 took my interest and had a bid, picked it up for $700AU, which is a choice price since it has a 2nd value of $898US. Pretty professional mic tho, probably too good for me, so i guess ill sell it.

With all this auction crap im going on about i should pass you people, (if there is anyone out there) a useful link to get 2nd hand prices on music gear. The prices are in US dollars, and are based on sales on Ebay and in classifieds.

The site is called PrePal, Check it out:

Prepal

Check out Ants mix on earport. A large download @ 56mb but plenty of substance. Some good tracks throughout, except for one track which sounds like the microsoft mouse button click sound in internet explorer is repetedly sounded. Now ive pointed that out you will all probably hate me cos you will listen for it and then it will bug ya. Its actually a wicked track execpt for microsoft click.

Good to finally get a mix from this young lad. Im sure more to come

Real auctions ie not online auctions are choice for potentially picking up cheap gear. A couple of months ago i picked up over $3000 worth of music gear for just $600, and made my money back by selling stuff from the lot i didnot want.

Anyway today i went to an auction, they had an alesis midiverb 3, boss dr550mkii and a roland vs890, so i had a few bids. Some people bid strange amounts for crappy stuff. Like dvds movies getting more than $15 each for crappy titles. Anyway those kind of bidders bidded on this music gear, so for a laugh here are the prices they went for, remember that these prices do not include gst, so times by 1.1. The Alesis midiverb went for $110, the boss dr550mkii went for $130 and the roland vs890 which was in shocking condition went for $490.

Today im going to another auction hoping to win a roland mc909 sampling workstation. If i dont like it ill trade it in on something i like. Figure i need a sampler, some new skool gear. Would help with the creativity and any live performances i may do in the future. Hope i win it cheap. They should have some other stuff too which may be of interest.

Other new skool gear im lookin for is a kaoss pad 2. They remind me of those kool grainy samplers in reaktor.

This is the beginning of a blog on synths. Mainly old skool and only stuff kool enuff in the new skool. Also discuss some of my synth repair expeditions.


RObzy

In the mean time check out Rob's studio pics