The Communication Cube

[Klumpen]

Yep, you shouldn't work with green (fresh havested) wood. Drying it properly is a profession of it's own and takes a lot of time and space.

It can be massively accellerated via microwaves though (we got a huge microwave in the workshop for re-drying the wood after it's been bent in steam).

I've got enough scraps of classy well dried black cherry wood (very nice brown tone, gets darker over time in sunlight) in my workshop, but I'm not exactly around the corner of Switzerland.

The stuff you got there may be some birch plywood and the other one will most likely be pine, that's what people got liyng around usually.

For raw carving, I like the cheap carving knifes from "Erik Frost" (Sweden) but got a very small japanese carving set too, which is very seldomly used (it's been years..).

 

[Granitehead]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/115003865848536489805/posts/N8kbFnpa9Xp

I agree there was no worse way to share those photos. On the other hand I already have an account there anyway, so less pain than to search for an image hoster.

Two parts form the case, they slide together. The antennas are removable, a banana plug waits for them inside that hole. I still need to add something so I they don't turn or slide out.

The stand is shit, I just whipped something up in two minutes because I wanted to finally try it.

The electronics consist of an "Open Theremin.Uno" shield and an Arduino Uno.

The case still needs a decent bottom.

And most important: I haven't been able to calibrate it properly, it produces sounds, sometimes even quite acceptable sounds, but uncalibrated it's unplayable. I might try again tomorrow, but it's difficult and it will need recalibration anyway when I change part of the case or stand, so I might wait with doing it until I'm really finished with it.

 

[Granitehead]

Guess who needs to get up again for work in 3 hours? It's me! Surprise!

Damn.

 

[Null]

^

 

[Klumpen]

I finally ordered a Melodica.

 

[Null]

http://www.jpgroove.com/index.php/our-product/pullip-family/pullip/270-p-034-hatsune-miku.html turned up earlier today and I can honestly say I have never seen such frizzy hair in my life. Pics tomorrow.

Edit: Long hair is long.

 

[Fzero]

New Pyra theme forum is excellent.

And the top dropdown menus are all suited, unlike before with the couple that had the white background. Minor issue that just bugged me

Looking good, very good

I'd say one thing just noticed now as I'm posting this...

The style class 'input_submit' has text colour #992b34 on hover. Which is the same Pyra red colour as the button itself. Making the text unreadable.

The [More Reply Options] button at the bottom right here, the [View New Content] button, and when in the messenger section of UCP, the [update] and [go] buttons have this styling. As does the [use Full Editor] button just below me now...

 

[Klumpen]

My black 37 key Melodica arrived today and I am very surprised how good and versatile this instrument actually is for the price and it doesn't look as dorky anymore if you use the long mouthpiece.

I already got some ideas for upgrading it further in my workshop and making an excellent instrument for drone music out of it.

Only 69€ and the slightly inferior B/W 32key version is only 38€.

 

[Fzero]

Interesting little instrument that, just watched a 90s megamix on YT on one, and a comparison video which showed quite a varied range of them... One of which I looked a bit like a harp in shape.


I'd like to have a go on one

 

[Klumpen]

Yeah it's really small, because the rest (wind mechanism) of this Accordion is actually the player itself, quite handy and the sound is not bad.

That's about my model only in B/W (not available atm):

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rw0vdLKCxKk?feature=oembed

 

[Null]

First pic of the precious, long hair is long, also... flying.

 

[Nova]

Ok. Catch me up.

 

[Granitehead]

Back from a recorder course for advanced players which I took instead of going to school for one week.

That was fun, only making music for a week, nothing else. Also feels good when I'm good enough to visit the same course as professional recorder teachers without dragging the others down or anything, possibly wasn't even the worst player in the course (at least not by far, of that I'm absolutely certain).

Will be back at making the Theremin soon (i.e. maybe this week or else next month) - I decided I really don't like my take at the case (it's also a pain to calibrate that way). Maybe I'll have another try with a solid piece of wood, I've had an idea for something not too complicated which might look good.

I think I'm going to participate in an antinationalist peace demonstration on the Swiss national holiday. :-D

(ironically, the only reason I can participate at all and am not away for vacation at that time is that I'm required to show up for recruitment in the Swiss army {either that or up to 18 months of prison})

Have been looking at VirtualBox features for a while. I'm now running virtualized Windows from a real hard drive from which I can also boot the physical machine. Now I just need to look more into PCI passthrough - I expect with PCI passthrough of my graphics card I would be able to run CAD applications and games in my virtualized Windows.

I wonder whether I need a second graphics card for that... I guess in the long term, yes, I would need a second graphics card and a new motherboard to support two graphics cards at the same time (pity - my current mainboard is still pretty new. Should have looked into that stuff /before/ upgrading my computer. At least it was cheap). But for trying out I should be able to start Linux without using the graphics card (i.e. controlling it over SSH) and just use it for the Windows guest, I assume.

Lots of fun.

(and maybe never booting Windows on my physical machine again)

 

[Klumpen]

Back from a recorder course for advanced players which I took instead of going to school for one week.


That was fun, only making music for a week, nothing else. Also feels good when I'm good enough to visit the same course as professional recorder teachers without dragging the others down or anything, possibly wasn't even the worst player in the course (at least not by far, of that I'm absolutely certain).

Oh, you playin' some renaissance music as well?

Recorder is perfect for this stuff.

Or a nice mix like this:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YkPcKmVD6Kk?feature=oembed

 

[rygD]

Back from a recorder course for advanced players which I took instead of going to school for one week. That was fun, only making music for a week, nothing else. Also feels good when I'm good enough to visit the same course as professional recorder teachers without dragging the others down or anything, possibly wasn't even the worst player in the course (at least not by far, of that I'm absolutely certain).

I tried to find you a picture of Donna Tubbs playing her recorder.  Anyway, that is cool.

 

[Granitehead]

Oh, you playin' some renaissance music as well?

Recorder is perfect for this stuff.

Not this year in the course, but I've played some renaissance stuff. But mostly I'm playing baroque and modern music (the kind which you don't even find on youtube for example from the same componist:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hAaxX4zgLd4?feature=oembedI should get sheet music for that. Should be doable, but certainly a very hard piece to play.

 

[Null]

http://www.figure.fm/en/post/53774/Sakura+Miku+at+the+Park+2.html, that reminds me I need to get some outside photos taken before the school kids break up for the summer holidays and overrun everything.

 

[rygD]

Edit: Who is Donna Tubbs? She isn't on Wikipedia, it seems.

She is a character from The Cleveland Show (the wife and mother).  Her music isn't really a major part of the show, but they show her playing from time to time.  She started out pretty bad, but I think before the series ended she had played a couple shows.  I don't know anyone else that plays the recorder, so that is why she sticks out in my mind.

 

[Null]

She is a character from The Cleveland Show (the wife and mother).

Thought the name sounded familiar.

 

[rygD]

She is a character from The Cleveland Show (the wife and mother).

Thought the name sounded familiar.

I spent far too long looking for a pic of her playing.  It would be great if I could find an animated gif, but I couldn't even find a normal one.  If you find any in your adventures please send me a PM with it.