I was able to test out synthseqr live with my band Haptic Synapses, the night we also played with Antacid Crew, and it was a lot of fun! I posted a video of us playing and synthseqr is in there, but I wanted to make a new video to show the progress I’ve been making. Derek Scott is also working on some great functionality coming soon, and of course he’s the chief architect of Steppa, which synthseqr runs on top of. So check it out and let me know what you think.
beatseqr
IDEO’s arduino programming tool add-on — retreive source
Ah. Oh. Yes! Ooh! Maybe!
Dave Vondle from IDEO Labs posted a really cool add on for the arduino IDE that lets you retrieve the source for an arduino you physically have but don’t already have the source for. Essentially, if I understand this concept, I can tie the arduino mega inside each beatseqr to the source online, so that when you want to see how it works and want to change something on it, you can just plug it in, launch the arduino IDE with this add-on, and get the source from the internet. Sweet! I have asked a question about a minor detail, but overall the concept is really good, and I think I’m going to give it a try.
Synthseqr – this might be fun.
Ok, so I know I’ve been severely radio-silent for the last 6 months or so. We had our second baby, I got a 3d printer, and decided that I need to get back into a regular exercise schedule. So free time at night is scheduled very tightly. I know I previously stated that the 3d printer wouldn’t be a distraction, but I was way wrong. It’s a huge distraction.
Anyway, between it all, I have two nights a week that are explicitly scheduled for development of beatseqr and other related projects. Enter: synthseqr.
About two years ago, I started to think about what would be next, once beatseqr was up and running, and it seemed fairly obvious that a complimentary tool would be something for melodic sequencing. At the time I hadn’t consciously intended to copy the interface of anything, but it turns out that the idea that was new to me, of course, isn’t a new idea at all. I love the 16 step sequencer workflow. It seems very natural to me for the kind of music I like to make, so I wanted something to help with synths while I rock some beats with beatseqr. Synthseqr is intended to play that part.
Frankly, it’s just not working yet, and there’s an insane amount of work left to do to get it ready to show off the way I want to. But I wanted to post this to let you know that I’m still here. I’m still working on projects. If you’ve emailed me, I do intend to get back to you about a time frame for beatseqr availability. I won’t make any more excuses. I’m just working at my bandwidth limit. Whew, have you ever had two young kids? I need a nap.
This is not a distraction
I ordered a thing-o-matic. It should arrive in a month. Then another month to build it. Then I can get on to the important task of making beatseqr keychains.
No, but seriously, I think I can prototype top panel layouts and button arrays using the 3d printer. That could be a welcome change from the seemingly endless cycle of wasted time and money while producing new… things. Crap. I’m supposed to not say any more, aren’t I.
A slow march
The new baby in our house is almost 3 months old. We’re still on a pretty unpredictable sleep schedule, so doing much in the garage has been next to impossible. I have, however, acquired a couple of work desks to make my production environment more official. Doesn’t look like much, but it’s a huge step up from what I was using previously.
I really can’t say when I can kick back into gear, but there have been signs of progress lately beyond the desks. I don’t want to say much yet, but there’s something coming to me in the mail soon. Then I’ll be extra not talking about it until its working, then more not talking about it until I can figure out the enclosure and whatnot. It might be fun. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be fun. I’m predicting a high chance for fun.
Family reunion
That’s a lot of beatseqrs!
Version 4.51 multiples
Whew. One more of these units is out on loan, and one more needs a case+hardware… And that’ll be all of this version. 4.52 will be *extremely* minor tweaks…
Top panel final
It took a few iterations, but I think this works. Oh. Haha. I just realized how similar this look is to the version 3 acrylic cases. That’s probably why I like it. Anyway… I know the whole world is collapsing, but I’m pretty much done with research for version 4.51. I have a few of these boxes, then capacity for about more 10 boxes. Then I start to run out of some parts that are end of life’d, and I’ll have to re-evaluate my options.
What I do need to do is set up some customer relationship management infrastructure. But, I can do that behind the scenes.
Artwork overlay test results
Interesting. Took a *long* time. Food for thought.
Top panel laminated artwork overlay experiment
I’m going to test out a laminated paper artwork overlay. Here’s a first pass. Actually … Second pass. First one sucked bigtime. This one feels pretty good. I’ll post another photo when it’s laminated and mounted to the case.