My Basement is a ***** - Free documentary on DIY Music Scene!

I am curious how music scenes form :)  So I bookmarked this documentary.
Finally I got to watch it tonight!  It's only about 20 minutes long, but I'm a busy person!

My favorite quote comes in the middle.  One of the musicians says something like,

"I don't like playing on a stage as much.  I like playing on the floor in front of people.  It's like it's more intimate."   

It was also fascinating how the scenes get stale when it's the same bands playing over and over again for the same audiences.  So keep that in mind if you want to grow the scene in your area! 

Antony Smith Building and Modifying a Bass Fuzz Pedal

In this cool video, Antony Smith shows you how simple, yet how awesome it can be, to build your own Bass Fuzz circuit.  It has a crispy sound!  This video nicely shows the atmosphere of listening, creativity and handiwork that go together when designing your own electronic music instruments.  He makes some modifications to the circuit in between playing and you can hear the differences!  Also, he plays well:

If you want to make a similar one and mount it into a roadworthy metal package, find parts like Hammond cases on the DIYDSP.com store.

For example, there is a shelf full of the colorful metal Hammond cases, which are sturdy: In fact tour-quality.  Stomp switches are on the same shelf.

Selected Electronic Music Instrument Parts from Sparkfun

Q: What do you do when you want to build a musical instrument and don't have time to build a MIDI interface and knob controllers as well as the rest of the synthesizer?

A: You get two knobs, three buttons and MIDI In/Out on this MIDI Shield.  Then connect its output to the microcontroller of your choice.  Wow!  Control of your synthesizer or effect program.

That's on the DIYDSP store shelves next to the Danger Shield, which approaches controller design differently:  It has long sliders and a small LED display instead of MIDI.

BTW, I'm going to save the delightful details for another blog post, but there are some more good-to-know-about items for electronic instrument designers behind that 'shelves' link above :)

DIY Kits for Building Electronic Instruments

Attention parties of people wanting to build their own musical instruments:

This bulletin is to announce the updating of the DIYDSP Store Homepage, where I have elected one kit for each major type of instrument family.

If you were to organize musical instrument kits into groups, would that  arrangement seem to be the best way?

FV-1 Development Tools

What is the latest news about the FV-1?

The FV-1 is a very convenient audio-processing chip developed by Keith Phipps before he passed away.

When it was first released, it had solid tools, but they were in 100% Assembly.

Since then, a Java development platform was designed.  This simplified things a great deal. It even included a simulator.

Recently, a graphical synth module editor was designed for the FV-1.  It outputs Assembly language automatically.  This is an important step because it allows people to make effect modules without having to program, as well as speed up the process greatly for developers who already do know the Assembly.


The FV-1 has been a favorite effects platform of DIYDSP for a few years now.  Now that ElmGen makes it so much easier to develop one, this is a really good time to finally get yourself one and protect it with a Centurion case.