Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Saga March 11th, 2010 - I've always admired luthiers. They're true craftspeople and in the modern age of mass produced instruments, it's refreshing to play hand-crafted (as opposed to assembled) instruments. However, having a guitar made to your standards can certainly cost a pretty penny. What's a musician to do when she wants a customized instrument but can't afford one? How about assembling your own from Makershed's Saga kits? Coming with all the pieces you need to build your instrument, all ... Read More

Photo courtesy of mattthegamer463 March 5th, 2010 - Have you ever wanted to ditch all the batteries in your guitar pedal rig? For someone like me that doesn't get out of the studio much, it seems like a waste to use up all those nine volt batteries when I don't really need the portability. Instructable user mattthegamer463, has created a $25 DIY power supply to daisy chain through all your pedals. Of course, dealing with all that electricity can potentially be dangerous, so ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Livid Instruments February 23rd, 2010 - Livid Instruments, maker of the Block, has teased us with the MIDI DIY for a while now. Well, it's finally here, but is now encompassed in the Builder series. Livid's Builder starts with the Brain (which replaces the MIDI DIY), and you add modular pieces to complete whatever controller you'd like from there. You can purchase specialized boards for push buttons, one for rotary knobs, and one for linear faders, as well as the associated ... Read More

February 6th, 2010 - Gakken makes some of the coolest DIY kits out there. I have the SX-150 pocket synthesizer and a music box kit. They now have a DIY vinyl gramophone kit that allows you to actually cut your own record, and then play it back. It's powered by a hand-crank (ie. your own muscle power) and it can playback 33/45/78 rpm records. I'd imagine that it's up to you to crank at the correct speed though. If you want your own, ... Read More

Photo courtesy of LackRack.org February 1st, 2010 - The fellows over at eth-O have hacked an Ikea Lack table into a rack mount for their network gear. Why bring up network rack mounts? Because audio gear is normally at the same standard width of 19 inches. Cheap audio rack anyone? Lack tables can be had for $8 USD, which makes these racks about as inexpensive as you could make on your own from raw materials. They are available in a multitude of colours to ... Read More

Play me off studio cat! January 31st, 2010 - Usually on the weekend, I post about a DIY project. Well this isn't so much about a DIY project you can do, but a DIY that I just undertook. One of the benefits of people knowing that I make music, is that when they have an old instrument they don't want, they give it to me. Well the brother of one of my friends is moving, and didn't want an old electric organ that a ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Sebastien Chorney January 26th, 2010 - A few days ago, I posted about Auralex's free Acoustics 101 website. While that website has a lot of great information, some of you might be wondering how to implement its strategies without breaking the bank. It is my belief that Auralex makes some great products and is certainly an innovator in the acoustic design field, however some of their products are out of the financial reach of the home studio tinkerer. I was looking ... Read More

January 24th, 2010 - If you've read any blogs other than mine lately, you've heard about the Pick Punch. Well this week I received one so I thought I'd throw up a lightning review. This will likely be the fastest review you've ever read on a piece of music gear, because there's really not much to say about it. The Pick Punch is basically the same as those craft hole punches, but it punches holes the size and shape of a standard pick ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Chris Goosman January 20th, 2010 - Today I checked out an online seminar on studio design and acoustics presented by HomeStudioCorner. Joe's guest was Gavin Haverstick, a studio design consultant and a lead acoustic engineer at Auralex. I find acoustic design quite interesting and I got a lot of great ideas from the presentation. One of the resources that Gavin suggested for more information, was Auralex's companion site Acoustics 101. It used to be a paid download, but it's available for ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Bleep Labs January 6th, 2009 - The Thingamagoop/Thingamakit are some of my favorite synths out there. Not only are they inexpensive, but they make some pretty cool sounds and were fun. Now Bleep Labs has released version two of the Thingamagoop and there are a whole bunch of upgrades: • Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required) • Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so ... Read More