2023: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2023)

[foosnark]

Ooo... that's COOL! {but, you would obviously need 3 or 4}

I was thinking maybe 2 for stereo.

There was a video demo of it somewhere but I see it's not on the site now and I don't see one on YouTube. Hmm.

[Shabdahbriah]

2 would be adequate.

[superscan]

Happy New Year, everyone!

Who will be the first to celebrate the new year with some new gear?

I bought a Moog Subsequent 37 at 12:01. Was a specifically timed purchase.

[whyterabbyt]

Ooh good idea! I hope to get a Photon Smasher when they're available again and it might be perfect for that.

I have one of the kit ones Thonk were selling, and unfortunately was utterly disappointed; mostly because it was broken out of the box and never worked.
And also because the circuit was utterly trivial; even with my limited electronics skills, I was able to copy it and build a working clone on a breadboard so I could test the parts etc of the original.
That was about £1 worth of electronic parts plus a potentiometer and the original solar cell, just a simple (LM386?) amplifier chip and a handful of caps/resistors.
The most expensive part in the kit was probably the 'underwater' style flashing RGB led light that came with it, think I found them around £4 at the time. I was also able to buy 5 of the same solar cells for £6 off Amazon, could gotten them cheaper from China (with a 6-10 week wait.)

Eventually I intended to get around to building a box (or even a module) with several of them in it. It'd come in about a quarter of the cost of the real one... I dont think I kept a note of the circuit, but if anyone wants to try, it was basically the simplest circuit on the amp chip's datasheet, with minimal changes to the cap/resistor values, directly fed by the solar cell. If anyone wants me to resurrect the breadboard version and photograph it, let me know, I'll try and get around to posting in the DIY forum.

[foosnark]

Good to know! I had assumed there was more to the device than that.

[whyterabbyt]

yeah, its a pretty simple device really. What actually contributes most to the sound is the light source(s), so that's where the scope would be.

the new handheld version is obviously a better form factor than the original, so I guess its now in the same sort of space as Elektrosluch or Soma Ether.

[Shabdahbriah]

yeah, its a pretty simple device really. What actually contributes most to the sound is the light source(s), so that's where the scope would be.

the new handheld version is obviously a better form factor than the original, so I guess its now in the same sort of space as Elektrosluch or Soma Ether.

That was my take-away as well... but cheaper. It occurred to me, that putting little stickers (like price-tag stickers, but cut down) over various sections of the face of the light box unit, when in 'meter' mode, could create some interesting rhythms/rhythmic elements. And attaching it to the pendulum of a Mechanical Metronome, to dance in front of it (hands free). And putting the sensor behind a cheap 'fish-eye' lens, or prisms, would introduce triggers that were not directly in front of it, but could be focused onto it.

[whyterabbyt]

My own thoughts ran to two things. First was building some arduino things to sequence neopixel rgb leds. Ive also just picked up one of those home RGB lighting strips that has sound-triggering built into it.

Second was siting the solar cells in front of screens/projectors, especially if showing some video synthesis stuff, possibly even sound->light type, then fed back in to the modular as a sorta feedback loop. (Ive already got an Ether, and a couple of telephone coil and DIY pickups for doing something similar for electromagnetic/audio feedback loops)

[justin3am]

If anyone wants me to resurrect the breadboard version and photograph it, let me know, I'll try and get around to posting in the DIY forum.

Sure! I'd be interested.

[Shabdahbriah]

My own thoughts ran to two things. First was building some arduino things to sequence neopixel rgb leds. Ive also just picked up one of those home RGB lighting strips that has sound-triggering built into it.

Second was siting the solar cells in front of screens/projectors, especially if showing some video synthesis stuff, possibly even sound->light type, then fed back in to the modular as a sorta feedback loop. (Ive already got an Ether, and a couple of telephone coil and DIY pickups for doing something similar for electromagnetic/audio feedback loops)

That sounds fun. I fancied placing several (4) on some repurposed CPU mounting brackets, which would allow me to adjust their 'spread' as well, in front of an oscilloscope with Lissajous-mode. I wonder if the Ether or telephone coils would pick-up anything from the solar cells (body/circuitry) being triggered?

[elxsound]

I received an early delivery today with Generation Loss

I’m hoping to put to use soon.

This was a B-Stock sale. I don’t see anything wrong on the outside. Hopefully its guts are intact too!

[sin night]

I have no plans for 2023. I already have a lot of gear and I don’t want to spend a lot of money. Trigone 6 and H90 are tempting, but they are a lot of money and I don’t feel like spending all that money… we’ll see!

The only piece of gear planned for 2023 is a rackmount power strip, which I already wanted to buy last november but the delivery to the local music store is experiencing some delay…
And maybe I’ll buy an oscilloscope for my diy builds, but I’m still quite undecided on this one…

So, since I didn't want to spend a lot of money, I went for a TT-73 by Heritage Audio...
In my defense, I didn't buy myself anything for xmas and January is the month of my birthday...

TT73.jpg

And I also bought a second MXR M76, because I love that compressor pedal...

[foosnark]

Instead of the Photon Smasher, my first purchase of the year is a Lite2Sound PX from Rare Waves. They make some other good stuff (I had their formant filter for a while), and the demos were impressive.

Where Photon Smasher mostly seems to concentrate on the PWM of LED displays, this one is more sensitive and has auto gain control... so the demos were things like sunlight reflections off of waves or drum heads, a laser pointer reflecting off of guitar strings or a radio or fabric, etc.

[vurt]

Instead of the Photon Smasher, my first purchase of the year is a Lite2Sound PX from Rare Waves. They make some other good stuff (I had their formant filter for a while), and the demos were impressive.

Where Photon Smasher mostly seems to concentrate on the PWM of LED displays, this one is more sensitive and has auto gain control... so the demos were things like sunlight reflections off of waves or drum heads, a laser pointer reflecting off of guitar strings or a radio or fabric, etc.

put it in front of the computer monitor, with visual synth being controlled by the audio being controlled by vs...

[whyterabbyt]

Instead of the Photon Smasher, my first purchase of the year is a Lite2Sound PX from Rare Waves.

I should dig mine out. Its a much older version than that, I think, though...