I saw this Cicada shell on a tree today while walking around the neighborhood. I used to carry my camera everywhere, but recently I had kind of stopped. It seemed like I hardly used it. Today I grabbed it as I walked out the door and I'm glad I did. Cell phone cameras are great but I still think it is more fun to take a picture with a dedicated camera. I took this with a Fuji X10. Which is sort of a point and shoot with all manual controls that also shoots RAW.
I've been interested in analog synthesizers from the first time I heard The Rentals. That was the first time that I really understood what an analog synthesizer was. And since that time I've always kind of wanted one. Audrey had a Moog Rogue briefly when we were in college and it was fun and cool, when we got it to work. It had to be sold to pay for stuff college students need. I'm guessing rent and pizza.
Anyhow, now I want to build my own synthesizer. So I'm starting at the beginning. I don't know much about electronics. I mean, I've soldered a few things but nothing big. Mostly just fixing stuff. So I'm going to work my way though the Make: Electronics book and then move on to the Make: Analog Synthesizers book. On a sad note, Ray Wilson the author of Make: Analog Synthesizers passed away sort of recently. His information packed website Music From Outer Space is still up and running and it is a seemingly un-ending resource of information for DIY synthesizer enthusiasts.
This Philip Glass Buddha Machine is such a great thing. I've been just letting it play as I do stuff, such as nap in my chair, and it is great. Most of the loops are long enough that they don't get annoyingly repetitive. I mean they are repetitive but that is sort of a big part of Philip Glass's music, so it works. Often when I'm sitting around playing an instrument I'll just play the same riff over and over and over. There is something meditative about it. This is like that, except it's coming from a cool little red machine about the size of a deck of cards.