Casio MG-510 Midi Guitar
Back when I documented the repair of the Casio PG-380 MIDI Guitar, I had no idea that this post was going to dominate the traffic patterns to my little home on the web. Fully 1/3 of all visitors to this site come to that post, asking questions, posting comments, and requesting repairs. One request I’ve [...]
Ring Modulator: Prototype to Final Build in One Ridiculous Step
If you’ve been to this site before you know that I’ve been building a ring modulator for Bill Graham to use with his Rhodes for the better part of a year. If I had enough time to do it right it’d take me less than a week, it’d be stable, and I wouldn’t be worried [...]
Ring Modulator: Prototype Take Two
About a year ago I posted an article about a Ring Modulator prototype I had created using 2 audio transformers and some matched diodes. The design was beautifully simple, and I may return to it someday, but it had a number of shortcomings. The circuit I started with would have needed a preamp for my [...]
Casio PG-380 Midi Guitar
Several months ago Jason asked me if I could fix a MIDI Guitar. I didn’t have the slightest idea how to fix one, and had only speculative knowledge about how they work, so naturally I said “yeah, sure, piece of cake”. If I’d have known at the time the kind of gear lust this project [...]
The Hybrid Drum Kit
Back in June, I wrote a short piece on changing my music studio environment. At the close of that piece I mentioned a buddy of mine was selling an old Alesis DM-5 kit, and that I would soon be incorporating that into my setup. Although 6 months isn’t exactly soon, I managed to tackle the [...]
Inside The Korg DW-8000: Don’t Put Solder on a Battery
Recently a friend asked how hard it was to replace the CMOS battery in Korg DW-8000 keyboard. I assumed it couldn’t be that hard, looked up what kind of battery it accepted (CR2032) and said “yeah, 5 minute job”. I failed to take into account early 80s circuit construction. Sure, its no Maestro PS-1B, but [...]
Cheap and Easy Speaker Stands
I built some speaker stands recently for the home studio. Rather than go through the trouble to add all the steps here, I just created an Instructable for it. You can find it here: DIY Speaker Stands for Cheap I got the original idea from these guys, but I thought they were a bit small [...]
When Life Gives You Lemons, Use Tie-downs.
Last weekend Cary and I were building a brick wall for a patio. The project required toting bricks from one section of the yard to another. I couldn’t use a wheelbarrow because I needed to go up some stairs (I could have gone around but it’s twice as far). We looked everywhere for brick carriers, [...]
Mandala Meets Drumset
I’ve had several chances to play my new setup now, including the Mandala. I played a live gig (recording to come) on Friday of last week, and learned a few lessons. Now that I’ve got things under control, I started to create some basic kits in Battery for my Mandala. The Mandala is capable of [...]
New Music Setup
When we bought our house a few years back, I finally had enough space to consolidate all my music gear into one space. I had big plans for my basement studio. Mix desk over on one side. Wall-mounted monitors. Jute coffee sack sound baffles and just the right location for recording the drums. Later I [...]
