Handmade instruments aren’t so unusual in the audio and music world, but in the trickier land of videoism, they’re a relatively rare breed. These are some recent works from Derraindrop:

The Rocky Top video synths (the “splattered” model is shown above) are available for sale at US$280, in beautiful handmade boxes. I’m honestly often disappointed by very basic video effects, but these are really gorgeous and simple, made all the more irresistible by the great sounds they create. It’s all the nicer that the case reflects the visuals inside. One thing I’ve discussed with the folks at Etsy is a desire for people making stuff that’s rare or ephemeral (as in the case of video and music) into something physical, and particularly for independent makers to be able to sell their wares. Derraindrop is doing just that.

Other works from Derraindrop made their appearance at the recent NIME conference, a gathering devoted to new instruments and interfaces for music, for those of you not in the know. On tap was this fantastic video organ, hearkening back to some of the earliest instruments for synesthesia (long before electronics), along with video intercoms — basically synths with an intercom interface and handset for “private” experiences, TV boxes with tiny screens and big knobs, and, in the totally non-digital realm, big kinetic color wheel sculptures. I really enjoy the mix of electronics and craft here.

The electronics behind these and a growing number of other works is the Critter board, a simple DIY electronics platform perfectly suited to simple sound and visual synthesis. Great stuff, and this clearly shows a lot of it is in the presentation and design. We covered the Critter previously, and it’s on my long list of gear/kits to acquire:

Video Critter: Custom, DIY Video Synthesis

Keep up with the latest at:

Critter and Guitari

The Video Critter hardware video synth kit seen here last year has been incarnated as a Cellular Automata kit from the good folks of MAKE Magazine. MAKE has been nice enough to do the scary bits for you: the board is assembled and programmed, so all you have to do is make a nifty case.

Cellular automata video synthesizer kit [MAKE:blog]

And if that’s not enough motivation, maybe free prizes will be. Our friend Wiley of Video Thing writes in to let us know he’s got a contest in the works:

MAKE: Cellular automata video synthesizer kit & Videothing CONTEST! [Video Thing]

Finish up a project using the synth by July 1, and you could win some nice hardware: an MP4 recorder or EyeTV.

This is indeed a great idea, but I’m still interested in what else the Video Critter can do — or what other analog hardware projects might be possible. Somewhere out there there’s someone building an open source video mixer; I can feel it. Or not. But I can imagine there might be.

Clearly, we also need to work with MAKE to follow up the music event we had in Brooklyn last month. They have some other themes and the Maker Faire in May, so maybe this summer. New Yorkers, get in touch and let us know your DIY projects and we’ll start to plan.

And just as we’re agnostic about mixing analog with digital on Create Digital Music, I hope to see more analog-digital hybrids here on Motion, too. This particular project isn’t quite tearing me away from my ongoing OpenGL lust yet, but I can see mixing in some hardware.

Soldering is strangely addictive, like knitting for tech geeks. Maybe it’s the solder fumes, but I find myself oddly relaxed. The other big surprise is that it’s really far easier than beginners think. (Read: I’m a klutz. If I can do it, so can you.) And there are plenty of good visualist hacker projects to which you can apply your skill, from the Arduino to video switchers and synthesizers and other sensor-to-computer rigs for DIY VJ controllers or distance-sensing 3D animator thingies.

But the one soldering mountain even hardware DIYers seem not to fear is surface-mount soldering. It requires a lot more precision, and has a far greater potential to destroy an expensive component (partly because it’s trickier, and partly because you’re more likely to be doing it with something pricier).

Sparkfun, purveyors of cool DIY gadgetry and raiders of credit cards (at least mine), have a terrific tutorial on SMD:

Sparkfun Tutorials (scroll down for multi-part SMD knowledge written in a beginner-friendly style)

I hear you. You’re still not sure you won’t screw this up. It’s easier to watch it being done than hear it explained, so watch a soldering ninja at work in this new Sparkfun tutorial video:

Perfect for assembling your own Arduino and creating a new Processing visual project. Stay tuned; I’ve got some new projects for March and April that I’ll finally get to document here on CDMo.

I wrote today about the Critter Board DIY synth/controller board for CDMusic, but I’m even more excited about the Video Critter:

Video Critter DIY, open-source audio/visual electronics platform

US$74.95 buys you a fully customizable, programmable DIY board with video out. (There’s also a $45 “mini” board that looks equally tantalizing.) The video routines are already programmed into the board, so you can write really easy, higher-level video code to put stuff on the screen. Just as with the Critter Board, you can use C programming from any Linux/Mac/Windows computer.

Of course, it’d be great to go even further, and have a totally open-source video mixer / effects unit. It’d be pricey, I’d imagine, but imagine an Edirol V-4 you could program yourself. (Uh, Edirol — ever fancied getting into open source yourselves? After all, no one could compete with your sales and manufacturing volume. Yeah, I know — snowball’s chance of this happening — but I can dream.)

In the meantime, this is a brilliant way of creating some quick, retro-looking custom video effects, and it’ll be ideal for installation work. I have too many other toys to play with to pick one up for at least a couple of months, but if you get one, dear readers, send photos and video.

Electronics and physical computing is great fun to learn as you get tangible results from your progress. It’s simple and fun to grab a kit or a bunch of components and follow on with a blog or instructable. However, as you progress to designing your own projects and circuits (or to make following other people’s ideas easier) you’ll need some theory to explain what all the different components do and how to put them together successfully.

Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering and Electronics is an ebook primer available online or downloadable as an HTML help (.chm) file. The formatting is a little weak (inter-page navigation links would be appreciated), but the content is clear and concise (including an excellent analogy for Ohm’s law). The book is split into sections: DC, AC, Semiconductors, Digital, Reference, and Experiments.

I spent some thoroughly engaging hours on recent flights reading this, which I’m going to take to mean “FEEE contains interesting material presented well,” rather than “Jaymis is a big nerd.”

Since receiving my Arduino I’ve found myself looking at technology a little differently. As your post-production skills increase you tend to watch videos thinking: “I could do that”, or “I could do that if someone gave me lots of money and got out of my way”. In my post-Arduino life I now look at technology and think either, “I wonder how I could interface my arduino with that,” or “I wonder if anyone will mind if I pull that apart.”

Nobody will mind if you pull an old Inkjet printer apart. Every house has at least one in a cupboard somewhere, kept because it cost good money back in the day, but now replaced by all in one devices which cost less than their own replacement ink cartridges. My household had 6 mothballed inkjets. Now there’s only 5, and my parts box is filled with cool bits and pieces.

I received my Arduino today, and in preparation I’ve been saving up some Arduino/Wiring/Processing links of interest to a newbie physical-computerer.

If you haven’t Arduino’d before, here’s Todbot on why it’s a rocking little microcontroller. Tod also tells us how to make an Arduino Breadboard Shield, for quick circuit prototyping.

You should probably familiarise yourself with the Arduino Board, then have a look at ARDUINO meets PROCESSING - physical computing and computer graphics site: Projects containing the basic physical interactions mediated by an Arduino board.

The Arduino meets Processing project intends to make it as easy as possible for anyone to explore the world of physical computing. All you need is an Arduino board as well as the Arduino and Processing software, which you can download on their project websites.

Some of the pages seem a little incomplete, but it contains basic circuit information and code for: Pushbutton, Switch(es), Tilt Sensor, Accelerometer, Potentiometer, LDR Light Sensor, NTC Temperature Sensor, Joystick, Ultrasonic Sensor, Piezo Element.

Of course the Arduino Tutorials page has loads of examples. Of major interest to VJs may be:
Blinking LED.
Dimming 2 LEDs (RGB colour mixing).
LED Driver makes use of an LED Driver in order to control an almost endless amount of LEDs with only 4 pins.

Both Peter and I have Arduinos now, so you can expect things to be getting a little more physical in the future. Don’t be scared, we’ll be gentle.

Make:Blog’s current weekend project podcast is revisiting their high speed photography project. Interesting, but not really the hottest thing for visualists as the process only yields one frame per event. However, if you combine this with group of low cost cameras, you done got yourself some animation.

Ever want to freeze a rose in liquid nitrogen and then smash it and catch the photograph of the rose just as it begins to shatter? Watch this video podcast to learn how!
If you get inspired to make amazingly cool photographs, go get the Make:flash controller kit, and then upload your photos to the Make:high-speed photography pool!

Related on Make: High speed photography - water figures.

Light Emitting Textiles is a technological theme which keeps reappearing year after year. In fact, a year ago for the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) Phillips announced their Photonic Textile Prototypes - rather blocky but undeniably cool flexible LED arrays.

For this year’s IFA, Phillips have upped the ante with: better resolution? Cliched example loops? Come on people, an @ symbol hasn’t meant “super cutting edge technological stuff” for at least eight years now. This is just showing that you’re as out of touch with the cool kids as the corporations who will pay to use this for their marketing.

Motion design weakness aside: I think this would go beautifully with something like the Remote VJs Control, which is way too limited for serious VJ action, but probably just daft enough to work with a fabric-embedded display.

via Processing Blogs