Audio Rat Engineering

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Audio Rat Engineering

It feels real good to build something with your hands

06/09/2023

A marble machine that helps you decide which ingredients you should add to your chilli.

29/07/2023

Making progress on the outfeed/assembly table. It will have a built in router lift, a downdraft table that doubles as a clamping station and plenty of storage. The bench is heavily inspired by the build by Salt City Workshop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1hpQ7eSi4Y), with some minor tweeks to the storage and size.

05/05/2023

Yeah, 2 cars and a trailer should be plenty to run an interstate move. Right?

21/04/2023

I built a sound reactive LED hat for a festival and only wore it for 15 minutes because it was uncomfortable. You get that on the big jobs.

08/07/2021

Wont somebody please get Zig a soldering iron...

16/05/2021

I've mentioned the TheoryBoard before. It's a cool kickstarter device that essentially makes sure you can play no "wrong" musical notes.

After looking at the price tag I thought "yeah I could make that". I googled "where to buy electronic components", ordered some parts and after a few days of struggling I put it in the "too hard" basket (because I knew nothing about electronics and very little about computer programming).

I spent the next 500 or so days working on easier electronics projects and this arvo I was going through some draws and found the old components I ordered. After 15 minutes I had everything connected, mocked up a basic program to test it all worked and here we are.

Plans are to design and 3D print an enclosure for this and work on coding a smaller scale theoryboard-ish device (that also produces alterable sounds) and seeing where we go from there.

It's very cool seeing skills develop and learning and exploring new systems.

28/04/2021

I've spend the last few day putting together this mono synth using my favourite microcontroller (yeah you guessed it), the Arduino Nano. This project is based on the article by Blog Hoskins (linked below) and is a single voice synthesiser with a bunch of different ways to alter the sound (LFO, attack, decay, resonance). The arcade button is used to select between different waveforms (sine, square and triangle) and I spent way too long fumbling though the code to trying and make it work. Once I'd finished it I called my partner Beck into the room to show her what I'd done, it was really similar vibes to being 12 and calling my Grandma into the computer room to show her my "Hello world" script I'd written and her not really getting it but still being very supportive of the 'cool thing' I'd done.

The wooden frame was made from a few bits of wood I found on the side of the road and the artwork used for the panel is from Elora ( Owakita).

As with most projects I do this was more about doing the thing than having the thing. So this is gonna go straight on the shelf and I'm going to start working on another synth, but using a teensy (like arduino nano, but much more powerful) controller that is able to handle multiple voices (can process more than one note at a time)

http://bloghoskins.blogspot.com/2020/11/20-synth-project-complete-build-guide.html

https://twitter.com/Owakita_

08/04/2021

I spent this arvo putting together a small speaker cabinet. About 10 minutes into the fabric work I realised I know nothing about upholstery, but managed to fumble it together (hoping the 2nd cab comes out a bit cleaner). I've never really been much of a tone guy, so to have a play I'm planning on building a few amplifier head units of popular amps to explore what kind of sounds I like.

10/03/2021

The Old Fashioned Fuzz is assembled and up and running. It's gritty, it grimey and just like the original Fuzz Face it'll sometimes pick up AM radio. It is the first circuit I've taken from idea (granted, not original, but we've all gotta start somewhere) through to complete production and I learnt tonnes in the process.

I started by taking the fuzz face circuit (link below) and setting it up on a breadboard, which is a prototyping board that allows you to experiment with different components before locking them into a final configuration. I added a simple tone section, which allows control of the bass and treble and a bias k**b which changes the way the transistors interact with each other, and intern the sound of the circuit.

Once I was happy with how it sounded on the breadboard I used a program called Eagle to draw in my circuit and generate files I could send to a printed circuit board manufacturing company in China. I paid my $6 and a week later I had 10 custom printed boards.

My beautiful partner has been learning to use water colours and designed the art, which was UV printed onto a light blue powder coated enclosure. It's no coincidence that the enclosure is the same colour as MOTHER ENERGY DRINK's classic Epic Swell™ flavoured brew. I am currently seeking sponsorship, so please hit me up and we can talk details.

The blue LED is very bright, and as the age old saying goes, if the ambient blue light is rocking, don't come knocking.

https://www.electrosmash.com/fuzz-face

05/03/2021

Postage on these was 4x more expensive than the boards themselves, we truly are in the digital age.

Now I've just gotta put one together and test that they work!

25/02/2021

I just ordered a trial run of AudioRat Fuzz pedal printed circuit boards! The circuit is based on The Fuzz Face, which was made famous by Jimi Hendrix in the late 60s. This pedal features two additional k**bs, bias and tone. The bias k**b allows you to control the grit of the effect, while the tone k**bs helps you dial in the desired amount of bass/treble and helps the instrument sit right in a mix.

Address

Melbourne, VIC

Website

https://audiorat.net/

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