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smallstonefan
Member
USA
51 Posts |
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Rezn8
Bronze Member
USA
439 Posts |
 Posted - 05/05/2006 : 1:08:05 PM
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Ya gotta love passive boxes man. How much did you score that for James? Looks like an awesome tool.
My favorite piece of gear lately has been a robotic arm I built that's remote controlled. With a remote control it allows me to get the absolutely perfect mic position when I'm tracking acoustic guitar without having to fuss with a mic stand or clambour over my guitar to mess with positioning or leave my chair. No more unlocking and locking the mic stand or any of that frustrating, cumbersome business. Full control over XYZ axis with just a remote control. I'm working on the mounting system now for cheap tripods. I wish I could post a picture of it but I want to keep some secrets about this thing until I'm ready to sell a few of them. In the end you'll be able to control this thing from your pc if you want also. |
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garrigus
Moderator
USA
8743 Posts |
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smallstonefan
Member
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2006 : 2:33:18 PM
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Hey Rez,
You mentioned this before but I thought you were screwing with me and didn't want to bite! lol
I would LOVE to see a picture when you're ready to share...
Yeah, the passive box is cool! I can't remember what I paid - I think something like $75 on eBay. It seemed expensive for what it does, but I'm so glad I bought it! |
james |
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Rezn8
Bronze Member
USA
439 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2006 : 3:25:35 PM
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| No, I'm not kidding at all. I'm totally serious. This is a robotic arm that I've gotten to work with small diaphram condensers (weight is an issue with LDC's so far) that you can manipulate with a remote control. The arm holds the mic and you just hone in on the sweet spot using the remote control. It's amazing (to me, anyway). It works very effectively, I've found a very affordable mounting solution the other day and I'm terribly excited about sharing this thing ASAP. I got tired of struggling with being the musician/engineer/mic operator and decided to do something about it a few weeks ago and built "Mo". This is not a plan or a dream - I have built this thing and used it and it works very effectively. And I'm not talking about something that just moves up and down or sideways. I'm talkin' XYZ axis action - up, down, sideways, and about any other angle you can think of. The range of motion so far is limited to about 1 square foot but IMO that's all that's really needed for most applications. There's certainly room for development for larger studios of course but for the average home studio, this little thing will rock your world. |
Edited by - Rezn8 on 05/05/2006 3:31:03 PM |
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lawapa
Moderator
USA
2097 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2006 : 5:49:27 PM
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| To cool rezn8. Was the arm a kit? I know parts wise you can put just about anything together with the off the shelf stuff. |
Love to make that music,as well I love to tweak,Make my own sample sets |
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Jim Sturm
Moderator
USA
597 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 09:13:38 AM
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What? No rotations about those axes? How can you control angular adjustments? Isn't motor noise a problem? What? You mean you can't use it for dynamic panning and tracking the performer's movements?
Just kidding...
I bet that was a fun project. You should post pics when you get the chance. Any plans for commercial development? Sounds like it could really be handy when you're the lone engineer and need an extra set of hands when setting up to track.
-Jim
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Old Dog... New Tricks!
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garrigus
Moderator
USA
8743 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 11:17:13 AM
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Forgot to share my cool gear pick earlier...
One of the coolest pieces of gear I've ever seen is the SoundArt Chameleon. Here's a description from the site:
"The Chameleon is a truly multi-functional rack unit. You can completely "re-skin" it to be anything you need. It could be a monster filterbank, mastering tool and vocoder, a high-quality reverb, a virtual analogue synth module, an amp-modeller for guitar recordings, a solid multi-FX for mixdown, a dance music machine for a DJ gig, a gungy monosynth, warping delay-FX module... it's whatever you need, and it just takes a minute."
Basically, by loading up different SoundSkins, this hardware unit "magically" becomes all kinds of different pieces of gear.
Very cool... 
http://www.chameleon.synth.net/english/index.shtml
Scott
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Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - http://musictechshop.com - http://cooltechshop.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview |
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Rezn8
Bronze Member
USA
439 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 6:42:45 PM
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lawapa, it's a mod on a design that already existed for completely different purposes - a frankenstein at this point. I have a few more mods to make before it's marketable [to answer] Jim's question and yes I do intend to market it. And yes it does actually rotate around pretty much any angle you can think of. It's too cool Not to offer this design to home studio folks worldwide. It's a lifesaver and IME so far, proper mic placement can make the difference between your avg. $99 mic pre sounding more like a $500 pre. You all know as well as I do that a VTB-1 (for example) with a $12 replacement tube, a really decent mic and just the right placement and engineering can record some pretty big sounds with a talented musician. That's not to say though that it doesn't hurt to have a nice UA610, Hamptone, Grace101, etc..
Scott, the Chameleon looks liek way too much fun. No prices at their site that I could find. Any idea what the pricepoint is? And, do you already have one?
TKS,
Rez |
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GK_Studio
Bronze Member
USA
287 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 8:15:06 PM
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Thanks alot Rezn8,
I was going to announce my new gear and then you go and build a freakin' robot. Why do I even try.
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GK_Studio |
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lawapa
Moderator
USA
2097 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 8:44:15 PM
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Comeon GK No reason to be shy  I'm just as interested in your new toy's as Resn8's robo mic arm. And why not. |
Love to make that music,as well I love to tweak,Make my own sample sets |
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GK_Studio
Bronze Member
USA
287 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 12:08:12 AM
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Yea Sure, I get a new set of strings and a new capo and Rezn8 builds a time machine out of home appliances...
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GK_Studio |
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Rezn8
Bronze Member
USA
439 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 09:33:35 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by GK_Studio
Yea Sure, I get a new set of strings and a new capo and Rezn8 builds a time machine out of home appliances...
And with the warmth of tubes too. 
J/K
Well, give it up GK. What piece of gear are you going to spill the beans about. |
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garrigus
Moderator
USA
8743 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 09:56:24 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rezn8
Scott, the Chameleon looks like way too much fun. No prices at their site that I could find. Any idea what the pricepoint is? And, do you already have one?
TKS,
Rez
Hey Rez,
I'm not sure what it's selling for now. Actually, it looks like they may not be making any more of them. If you click on the Shop link at the site it says you can e-mail them and that there are only a few units left available. A shame because it's definitely a cool product.
Yep, I sure do have one... and I'm keepin' it. Actually, I haven't used it in a while, but all this talk about cool gear has got me going again. Plus, I didn't know they had some new Skins up at the site. I'll have to check them out.
Scott
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Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - http://musictechshop.com - http://cooltechshop.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview |
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lawapa
Moderator
USA
2097 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 10:41:19 AM
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| Both the Chameleon and the new Receptor are kinda open ended,You can change there function. The concept is nice. Portability in your computer apps? I'm not sure if the chameleon would load up anything like with the Receptor VST's can be loaded up but there does seem to be a few bug's with that. Yet the idea rocks. Hardware you can move around and it does just about everything software can do cause it's computer based allowing you to load up those fav apps. With software taking paying customers away form keybord workstations sales I'd think this concept would catch on. You buy a hardware box with Yamaha's synths in it and interface with your computer through firewire. You then have the ability to offload some software apps to take the load off the CPU, PLUS the Yamaha's synth/effects and controll the whole thing with Sonar/P5/Reason/Cuebase/Vegas. But what do I know. The big boys just sit on there hands as these little guys move forward. I would like to see these take off with the resulting price drop. That would be so cool. |
Love to make that music,as well I love to tweak,Make my own sample sets |
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GK_Studio
Bronze Member
USA
287 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 2:36:34 PM
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Chameleon is a good concept. It reminds me of my Digitech Studio Quad (V2). Probably one of the best investments for my live PA rig that I ever made (8 years standing). Great unit but it doesn't play the keyboard like Rezn8's vacuum cleaner probably does...
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GK_Studio |
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