Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Chris Goosman May 19th, 2010 - Acoustic treatment and design is pretty interesting stuff. It can mean more to your listening and monitoring experience than the actual gear you have, and should be the first step you take in designing a space to make music in. I've previously posted about Auralex's free ebook on the subject, and if you found that interesting, you may want to check out the guide linked below from Ethan Winer. Ethan Winer is the man behind ... Read More

Photo courtesy of MakerShed May 15th, 2010 - I've always wanted to make my own guitar or, at the very least, modify one of my current guitars. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to set aside the time investment required. Well, if I had this Gakken Mini Electric Guitar kit, I might just find the time. It's a 4 string guitar (so more like a ukelele) and includes its own amp and speaker so you can play it without your Mesa combo. However, it ... Read More

Photo courtesy of johnny from space 1 May 9th, 2010 - Do any of you remember the movie Crossroads? No, not the Britney Spears train-wreck, but the 1986 film starring Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame. In it, Ralph Macchio enlists the help of Willie Brown to find a forgotten Robert Johnson song. The story of Crossroads was so so, but the music more than made up for it. The soundtrack was mostly composed by Steve Vai and Ry Cooder, the latter performing ... Read More

Photo courtesy of richfiddler11 May 8th, 2010 - Ok, here's a seriously cool DIY project for a lazy weekend. User richfiddler11 on Instructables has created a tutorial for making a passive stereo mixer. It has up to four inputs that go to one stereo output. Because it's passive, it doesn't require batteries, and you can "mix" the signals together using the volume on the input devices. Super simple concept, elegant execution. The list of instructions and required materials looks pretty straightforward. I believe ... Read More

May 5th, 2010 - Rickshaw Records, maker of the Austin DIY ribbon microphone kit, have posted a Youtube video on how to make your own microphone shockmount. I'm sure you've seen pictures of the fancy elastic-suspended microphone mounts in professional studios. If you buy one customized for your microphone, they can cost quite a bit of money. So why not make your own (admittedly less sexy) shockmount for around $8 in materials? The video below shows how it's done. It's a pretty ... Read More

Photo courtesy of noahw May 1st, 2010 - Have you ever seen a dead log sitting on a curb and wondered how easy it would be to make it into a pair of speakers? No? Well, now that I've put the idea in your head I guarantee you will. Instructable user NoahW who you may know from his most popular tutorial on using a cheap pen to house a Mont Blanc cartridge, shows how he took logs from a discarded historic tree, and ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Harco Rutgers April 10th, 2010 - Have you ever wanted to make a contact microphone on the cheap? After paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, for nice ribbon, condenser, and dynamic microphones, the last thing many of you want to do is spend a lot of money on a microphone you will likely not use as often. Well contact, or piezo/pickup, microphones can be made very cheaply. If you have a soldering iron already, you won't need much more than ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Makershed April 4th, 2010 - It's a lazy long weekend here, perfect for practicing guitar. I could use any one of the many online metronomes, but why not make my own? Makershed has the Tactile Metronome Kit which is a DIY tap metronome. You can tap the piezoelectric speaker to set a steady rhythm for practicing (and then change the speed with dedicated buttons), and it will display the BPM. But what makes the Tactile Metronome Kit particularly interesting is ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Roomic Cube March 19th, 2010 - Do you have some dirty records laying around that aren't sounding their best because of all the contaminates? Well surprisingly you can use wood glue to clean them up. The process involves spreading wood glue over the entire surface of the record (not including the label), and waiting for it to dry. At that point, you peel off the glue and it should have grabbed all the dust, grime and oil off the record. ... Read More

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