Shamelessly stolen from Fuzzytopia
Thumbuki Update: We’re Live!!
Thumbuki as seen from Space
There are times when you just have to say, “Enough is enough.” And I’ve had enough trying to perfect thumbuki before officially launching. I have a mostly functional website with incoming content and a decent layout. There is no reason, no reason at all, to put this off any longer. That’s why I’m launching thumbuki, right…. wait for it… right… NOW!
w00t! (streamers and noise makers)
Thank you. Thank you. You’re all too kind. But before you get too excited, I want to make sure you realize that there are still many issues that need to be resolved here.
As of right now, thumbuki seems to render properly on Mac Firefox and Safari. On Mac Opera, picture subtitles are most definitely off. Fixing this is going to be a high priority. The other big issue for now is that I have not seen how this page renders on PC or Linux. Good news is that I do have an old PC and an Ubuntu boot CD lying around somewhere. These issues will be fixed for maximum cross platform/browser compatibility in the near future. I’m sure there are bugs hiding in all the nooks and crannies of my html. So I’ll need to validate my code as week. I’ll get some time this weekend to do this.
One last thing… Special thanks to my good friend PAgent of PAgent’s Progress for pimping my blog last night. u r teh r0x0r!! Your free oven mit is in the mail.
Hands on with a Soldering Iron
My first solder
Earlier this week, I stopped by my local Radio Shack and picked up a soldering iron, wire, and a stripper. Yesterday, I finally had a chance to use it when I pulled out an old PC modem card (for practice) and went to town.
I managed to solder six wire ends to random spots on the board. The reason I didn’t do more is because the room I was in clearly wasn’t ventilated properly (got a little dizzy.) The first thing I learned was that the gauge of wire I’m using is a little too thick, though still workable. Second thing was that it was easier to put some solder on the tip of the wire first, then place the tip on the spot I wanted it connected to, and then heat the wire, causing the solder to precisely melt into place. In the end, all my wires were attached well enough that I could lift the board. And none of my solder leaked into an adjacent point of electronic interest.
This weekend, I plan on setting up a space in the garage, so that I don’t have to kill as many brain cells next time. And so that I can finally take apart a toy instrument and play connect-the-dots.
Part of Get Bent.
What is Circuit Bending?
This Short/Preview for the Circuit Bending Documentary by Derek Sajbel (http://absurdity.biz) features Q.R. Ghazala, Nebula Girl, The Shinths, Daedelus, Dave Wright, Cynthia and music by Venetian Snares
Part of Get Bent
Know Your Roots: Reed Ghazala
I would be in a state of sin if I didn’t mention early-on the internationally recognized “father of circuit-bending,” Reed Ghazala.
Ghazala’s website, www.anti-theory.com, is a haven for the odd and strange in the electronic arts. Besides Circuit-Bending, Ghazala has also involved himself with the visual arts. My favorite is his work with polaroids. Be sure to read up on the man himself.
If you are interested in giving circuit-bending a try, then the first thing you should read is Ghazala’s 19 page primer. This is more than enough (but not too much) information to get anyone started. If you want to dive even further into his world, Ghazala has written a book, Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments. I’ve already ordered my copy.
Part of Get Bent
Thumbuki Presents: Get Bent
From what I’ve read, bending capacitors of this magnitude might blow your fingers off. Or at minimum, learn you real quick never do that again.
Love noise? Love toys? Perhaps circuit bending is for you./
To celebrate Thumbuki’s soft launch, we’re kicking off our our first original series: Get Bent
And by original series, I mean I’m personally going to be doing research on “circuit bending” over the next few weeks, and sharing my findings with you. I will post here the top relevant links, video, tutorials, historical accounts, etc, as I find them.
What is circuit bending? According to wikipedia:
“Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of low voltage, battery-powered electronic audio devices such as guitar effects, children’s toys and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators. “
Also check out this video example of circuit bending by James Anderson.
As for me, I have zero hands-on experience with electronics. Though I do have some familiarity with everything from modular synthesizers to Csound. So I plan on getting very used to the idea of holding a soldering iron in the near future. I will be reporting back to you all of my successes and all of my failures as I turn children toys into little electronic frankensteins. For art’s sake.
thumbuki status update
perl -e ‘print “hello world”;’
From this point forward, I’m treating Thumbuki as if it were complete. It’s not complete. However, I’m a firm believer that content is king. A fancy smancy layout isn’t going to attract readers. Well written, interesting articles will. So that is what I’m going to set my mind to. In the mean time, I will continue to work on the design and layout to the best of my ability.
Speaking of layout… I haven’t uploaded any changes to the skin in a few days. My time has been severely limited as of late. Though I still have managed to get in a few hours. I’m currently working on getting the comment pages in order. Disorder, perhaps. I broke some things on thumbuki.local. Nothing that can’t be easily fixed. It has been a good three to four years since I’ve done any serious HTML. So I’m going through a sort of re-learning process. HTML and related technologies have advanced quite a bit. The good news is that most, if not all, has been for the better.
Enjoy.
Circuit Bent Playskool Kid Keys 2005 james anderson
It’s times like this I wish I knew how to wield a soldering iron.
“From One Single Acoustic Guitar Note”
Tony Miracle, of Venus Hum, explores a technique he used in making the bands new release “The Colors In The Wheel”
Tony takes a simple acoustic guitar note and through manipulation and modulation builds an entire electronic composition in an unrehearsed 15 min improv captured on film.
Gear Used In The Short
G4 Powerbook
Oxygen 8 USB Keyboard
Doepfer Regelwerk Midi Fader / Controlor
Taylor Acoustic Guitar
Ableton Live
Thumbuki Alpha V.01
Today marks the day Thumbuki.com officially goes alpha. What does this mean? It means I’m going to start posting regularly. Though the quality of posts may vary, as I will sometimes be writing filler to test for bugs and other things of that nature. I should inform you that I’m not actually done designing the site (ie sidebar.) I should reach a point sometime next week when I will feel confident slapping a “Beta” sticker on the marquee. At that point, the nature of my posts will become slightly more serious, and more focused on what this blog is going to be all about. In the mean time, have fun. If you feel so inclined, say something in the shoutbox.