ArtAndTechnology Podcast Episode 0 and where it came from

We have done our first podcast and put it on www.artandtechnology.com.au/index.html

This is the RSS feed for the podcast.

Don't know if there will be another.  We will see if anyone but me actually plays it, and as I did it for myself anyway, I've already achieved what I wanted out of it.

Has an embedded player, and link to the mp3 for playing else where.  It is 5 minutes, and a proper Podcast probably needs to be between 10 and 30 minutes. Something to maybe think about later...

We used a Audio Technica AT2020 microphone with a Behringer MIC100 into Reaper on a PC.  Used headphones while recording and removed a few uumms in Reaper, our DAW of choice.  Didn't do any editing other than that, and deleting some too long pauses and left in the mistakes, as it just sounds better to me.
The original is stereo 44kHz but we reduced that to mono 64kbps when encoding to mp3.

I originally wrote a script but an initial test mid week with it showed that isn't the way I should do it. I'm not a skilled voice actor and it just sounded like it was being read, ....poorly.  When redoing it, I just talked about the topics, and it just flows much better..... even with the mistakes, 'cause that is how I talk.

I was doing board game (Tabletop is the new term) research and found a few different things that were new to me. I  started listening to Radio Free Burrito and  really like the whole idea and much of what is talked about. I was inspired to do a Podcast myself.
Now, I have 24 music tracks on SoundCloud, which is something like two albums worth, so I have the recording gear and know how to use it anyway.  Embedding an Audio play on our site was also something I had been looking at for a while, so these things just came together this week. And so here it is.

I also seem to be very late to the party and didn't know Wil Wheaton is now something of an Internet Celebrity.  Yes, more than just a guest spot on The Big Bang Theory, or the kid Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  His Blog and Twitter feed have apparently been big for a very long time, in Internet terms anyway.

Anyway, this is just an experiment as we are really more a visual person than a talker, even when making music...   a reason we don't have any lyrics in our music.

Interactive Heavy Metal Garage Comic Boardgame

Been playing with what this is.  What the jokes and cartoons are, adding the drinking game part, possibly exploding kittens, but mostly trying my hand at making it actually fun and winnable .... sometimes.

The real key is in the cards... like Munchkin or Victory Point Games.

Can't say I'm a gamer of any type, and they aren't my target player anyway,  but have many interests and have studied game design over the decades and had some fun with it.

Of course we originally started with software game development many years ago. C++ then later learning Java. This is a video of a Java phone compatible thing I was working on like 7 years ago. Used a mod player for music and effects..  but un-satisfying even though it had Australian PM John Howard defending against IR and the Treasurer at the time.....  it didn't have an interesting foundation..

But now we focus on the core that is independent of any implementation technology, even if ultimately a software/mobile/Web app would be most profitable. This core is where the real interesting stuff is, and there really is something about cardboard pieces and playing cards to implement it when you spend most of your time with computers!   Much faster to change, and of course ties into our cartooning and car stuff.

And I want to use The Game Crafter!

Not easy, I must say... that top image may indicate it is pretty much done, but that is just a mock up using the size and what I can get made.  The actual prototype cards at the moment are actually just my old recycled business cards. With stuff on the back of them I keep on changing.

I have a spreadsheet with the game parameters on them.  A single sheet at Game Crafter of these sized cards contains 21 cards, so that is what I want to use.

And what those 21 are, and what they have on them is handled in a spreadsheet

And then there are the dice probabilities, and keeping with a singe dice (1d6 in the language of this world) seems the best thing to do....

So is it going to use 0.75" square chits or micro cards on stands?  Don't know yet, but are looking at a bunch of options......  some are too complicated and it has to be as simple as possible.

Some things, like ACME GOO are a joke mechanic that seems like fun and useful....

So making it simple and fun, as well as interesting is the plan..... all dependant on other things getting in the way......  like work we get paid for

We can be contacted at Art & Technology.

SMART Phone Mix Monitor

A few months ago we did a Blog post on changing monitor environments since the 1980s  that suggested a smart phone monitor is also important to now consider...

So this is our mono SMART Phone Mix Monitor Prototype.  It is based on a SAMSUNG Galaxy Smart Phone Speaker from eBay, an old floppy disc case and a stereo jack and cable salvaged from a PC speaker set. Put together using a hot glue gun.

It is actually an 8 ohm driver. The unit needs to be mounted to a panel to give any type of sound volume, hence the floppy case. It will be wired up in a similar way to our Auratone clone.  The details of making that can be found here.

This is a round device, which makes it a little easier to cut the hole for than the Apple iPhone spare parts I saw....

We can be contacted at Art & Technology. 

The Heavy Metal Garage (Board) Game MockUp

We have our eBook on Amazon - The Heavy Metal Garage  and a webcomic  and we have been thinking about the Heavy Metal Garage (Drinking) Board Game.  The above being a mockup mostly done in Photoshop.

It is based on the theme of Car rebuilding/ Hot Rodding.  This combines the comic with interactive jokes on the Fortune and Event cards.  Of course the things that help you get ahead in this car "rebuild/ hot rodding" game are a skilled friend and having the great workshop tools, like the "ACME MOTIVATOR", "ACME STEEL CAPPED BOOTS OF STOMPING GOODNESS" and "ACME BOLT PERSUASION" .......and all the "ACME PARTS" you need

It is still just an experiment at the moment and focussed on the Card Jokes and Illustrations.

You would say boardgames are dead and gone, but I think the same about Vinyl Records. And they aren't. You also cannot drink with your computer!

We can be contacted at Art & Technology.

DIY Studio 50W RMS Channel LM3886 based Amplifier

We use passive speakers in our modest studio and so use a stereo amp to power them.  The 1970s Rotel Receiver we had been using for the last 8 years had recently died and we were using a stand in CLASS T amp, that even though it sounded good, has a reputation for an early death.

We also had all the bits and pieces from prototype things we have developed over the years and after seeing you can get the assembled guts of an amplifier, using the wonderful LM3886 IC on ebay for about the same as just buying the ICs , it seemed a useful exercise to make an amplifier using them.  All I really had to buy was a case to put it in. So I ordered a flat pack rack box and slowly set to work among the other paid projects I had going. 

This is the term to search for on ebay for what we ordered:

HIFI YJ LM3886 68W+68W stereo amplifier board 3pcs total  , 

US $23.20 free shipping.

For your money, you don't get any documentation or schematics of any kind. I had to reverse engineer the PCBs to see what I had.

Without going into all the details (may be I will write it all up later, and clean up all my hand drawn sketches), over a few months it is now finished.  Some pictures above of the initial test assembly.

We have the mains and transformers front left, and the signal inputs back right, as far away as possible.  The heatsinks with the modules run down the far right of the case, as the case top cover has ventilation slots in that area. 

I used two multi-tapped transformers to get the +/- 24VAC needed for the PSU board, as I had them.  I wired the primaries out of phase to each other, like a hum bucker. Does that make it hum less?   Not sure, but the resulting amp has no background hum.

The case is connected to mains earth. The audio electronics are only earthed via the RCA input ground connections. The RCA sockets are isolated from the case.  Possibly a 10R between audio ground and chassis would not go astray here....

I added 2A fuses in the 30V rails to the modules, and an old relay speaker protection unit I had. Modified it with a bigger relay and changed the 30V to 15V supply to include a 5W 56R series resistor and a 7815 regulator, instead of just a zener diode. Runs cooler that way.

We bought a Dremel grinding stone,  using it in our standard drill, to remove the powdercoat around all the case screw holes and any place an earth connection is needed.  This is required to actually make a completely earthed and shielded metal box.

During the initial testing of the assembled modules we found they worked, but there was a low level oscillation you call motor boating.  The modules don't have any stability components to roll of the HF amp gain, or any output zobel networks. The High pass around the feedback (the 1k and 22uF) is at a very low 7Hz and would be better off being a bit higher.  The data sheet suggests a cap across the differential input of the LM3886 helps too, but we have not done this.

Adding these fixed, or seems to at the moment, with normal RCA cables connected to the input, the issues and now it seems like a rock solid amp module.  If it was just an opamp, a capacitor across the feedback resistor would have been enough, but it isn't just like an opamp... 

I also reduced the input attenuation so the volume on my monitor controller has the range I'm used to.

The amp is way quieter then the Rotel amp was.  There is no audible hum or noise from the amp they way I use it.

The amp speaker outputs are connected to my studio speaker selector box, that also has a headphone output and additional PTC speaker protection. This connects to 4 sets of speakers and can mute the speakers for just headphone listening.

Our Megacurve music tracks can be found at SoundCloud.

Info on our DIY Auratone clone and monitor controller can be found here.

We can be contacted at Art & Technology.