If Reason is your center, and you’re wondering how to get started with the Bliptronome and its cohorts, this video is a great place to start.

For those that aren’t into soldering and building a Bliptronome from scratch or from a kit, I’ve also been able to keep a small flow of fully-built Bliptronome conversions around. I can’t keep make them fast enough to list them in the kit shop (And they’re not price-effective to ship outside the U.S.), but feel free to drop me a line and see if I have one on hand, or can build one for you: wil-at-straytechnologies-dot-com.

A standard build in an new with the cable runs about $145 depending on supply and outside pricing changes. …. and yeah! If you’ve never seen one, they’re really 6″x6″… that’s portable!

This will be available for MIDIo owners on a swappable program chip (the 8-pin one), so that now your MIDIo board can run the ANSI firmware or the new VidByter firmware.

The new firmware works with custom software for MAC/WIN & LINUX, whcih takes any live video feed or a pre-recorded video file, crunches it into 255Byte frames and sends it over a serial line at a whopping 3.5 frames per second! The MIDIo receives the video and splashes it directly into the video ram of a circa 1977 RCA Pixie video chip emulation. This chip is best known as the driver for Chip8 programs, the RCA COSMAC VIP, RCA STUDIO II, and other programmable “pong-style” consoles from the pre-NES era.

For those familiar with my VBLANK live project, I’ve been using this emulator on my breadboards for about a year, though this coming Saturday evening at Philadelphia’s 8Static event will be the premier of pushing live camera video through it.

My setup will include a wireless camera on stage, running through the VidByter software and to a MIDIo board to be mixed with my other lo-fi visuals.

The MIDIo kit with ANSI firmware is currently available here: with the new swappable program chips due out the first week of 2011.

This new series and parts of two of my other “Photosemasia” image series will be on view starting with an opening party at BambiProject.  I’ll be exhibiting with 3 other fabulous artists including Brad Litwin of Makers Faire and Hacktory fame.

Check it out in the Piazza at the old Shmidt’s Brewery in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia.

Info here! See you on October 1st!

Many folks ask me for ideas on how to case the various kits on my site.

Hal of eptheca sends along news of his latest creation: a beautifully cased YM_MINI with an accompanying keyboard controller. He has squeezed the whole synth into a classic Atari mouse including an original handling of the usb cable converted from an Atari cable of the era. Lots of images on his blog page dedicated to the project.

He also sends word of his test video, showing off some of the grunge and filter combos he found on the YM_MINI.  Please let me know if you have other great cases or mods like this & I’ll pass it along. Anybody tried a modem case yet? They have to be good for something!

The new ANSI MIDIo kits and pre-built units are now shipping!

Build and test went great and the first units went out from The HOPE conference in NYC this weekend.

The section at www.straytechnologies.com/resources

Is now updated with build instructions, programming instructions, and sample files to run from reNoise.  This includes how to integrate graphics into your tracker songs for synced video.

Kits available here

And Full Built versions here!

Enjoy!

Modem speed! (the speed is controlled from the song tempo).

This kit board has a realtime draw mode and a “color organ” mode to generate realtime images synced to music. It works with Max/MSP, Reaper, Ableton, PureData, or any midi software… The demo shows how drawing from the Renoise tracker works.

There is now an archive with 3 demo files for Renoise (including the one from the video), and the use instructions (with complete MIDI spec)  for the ANSI MIDIo available [here].

The board is now available for purchase [here] in both kit and pre-built versions.

PAL or NTSC versions of the kit are $65USD + S&H with prebuilt  and a pre-tested version (includs FTDI usb cable) is available for $95USD +S&H. Kits are very simple but require some soldering skill.

I’ll have the kits and do live demos at Hope Conference. More video to come! Mmmmmm Ansi!

Part of the “Art in the Air” premiere coordinated by PECO and Philadelphia’s Breadboard. Don Miller of NO CARRIER fame and Rachele Riley were also highlighted throughout the night. Philly’s ABC6 also covered the premiere for those not able to brave the heat.

The requests: Cheaper, DIY Kit Version Available, Upgradable, User Programmable

ANSI MIDIo: yes, yes, yessss & yes!

Oh, and not just programmable as in load-your-own-pic, instead the MIDIo will have real-time control and programming  right from your midi software, controller, or (in my case) a Bliptronome!

What it is:

Kit or pre-built a bit smaller than a business card, and powered & controlled via USB, using the open-source KIT_MIDI driver already available here.

The input is midi from any midi software such as Renoise, Max-MSP or Abelton on OSX or Windows or an external controller patched through KIT_MIDI.

The Output will be NTSC or PAL (separate versions) and give a sweet 32×12 screen where the user can program one of 12 different ANSI Graphics characters in one of 16 different color combination. Yes, 16-color  ANSI:  as in that BBS you wasted time on in 1992.

Stand-by for more information.

On the evening of July 4th, my work will be displayed on the largest screen in Philadelphia: The PECO Crown Lights. I’ve been selected as one of 3 local artists whose work will be displayed on the 4-sided color LED array on the top of the PECO Building in center-city Philadelphia during Philadelphia’s 4th of July celebration.

The project was organized through PECO and Breadboard will be open to media artists for future projects. If anyone has a 15th story BBQ happening in the area… let me know!

And yes, this video was derived from the Pocket-Vblank Circuit!

Just cut a sample playing from midiBar while I tweak the knobs:

SX-150MIDI.mp3

Never mind my lousy timing, and my inability to stay off of the pitch-envelope!  Pretty nice sounds coming from this thing.

Though this version is based off of my YM_MIDI firmware, there is no reason this shouldn’t work with Mr.Books original software released on his site with some modification. I’ve also taken the liberty of adding a tuning knob to the kit, as I noticed some good-old-fashioned analog drift at play. The original  speaker has been squeezed in next to the new 1/4″  jack that Mr. Books shows on his website.

If there’s enough interest, I could be convinced to do a small run of PCB’s for this mod. Drop me a line at

wil [at] straytechnologies [dot] com

to get on a pre-interest list. Let me know if a kit, PCB only, or PCB & preprogrammed Atmel only would be in your best interest.

Now I’m off to work out the overall bad tuning. I should be able to resolve this with a software lookup table as implemented in the YM_Synth kit.