Mar 12
Sonic purists swear that everything sounds better on vinyl, and you know what? Spinning records is also just way more freaking fun. It’s common to digitize your LPs
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Jan 24
Analog or digital: it’s the Thunderdome throw-down of our time. Two formats enter; one format leaves. Either or. Pick a side. Or do like Brooklyn-based artist Job Piston, and use ’em both. Reds is a series of physical prints made on light-sensitive paper pressed up against a computer screen—and they’re pretty dang cool.
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Jan 16
Melting Watch: Hello, Dali!
Posted in: Today's ChiliIf modern art is more important to you than the ability to tell time, then have I got a timepiece for you. Inspired by Salvador Dali’s classic The Persistence of Memory, this surreal watch is sure to turn heads when you go to check the time.
Despite its distorted looks, the Melting Watch does actually tell time accurately thanks to a precision quartz movement. It’s available for just $29.95(USD) from our friends over at Gadgets & Gear. Though for that price you don’t get a melted face or a pile of ants with it. I suppose that’s a good thing.
For some reason I’m thinking that this is what the T-1000′s watch looked like when he melted into a pile of molten metal in Terminator 2.
Dec 04
Yesterday, Sydney Australia bade farewell to analog TV signals, and put a stop to the old-school over-the-air broadcasts across the city. And while that doesn’t affect cable users (or anyone outside of Sydney), the death of those signals is universally poignant and eerie to watch. Goodbye forever.
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Oct 23
Instant film cameras in the digital age are nothing new, but no new product has yet captured our hearts like the good ol’ Polaroid did back in the day. Can Fujifilm’s revamped Instax camera lure people in with the Mini 90 Neo Classic
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Oct 08
Moog Music’s new "Minifoogers" are a line of compact, analog effects pedals that’ll allow you to warp the sound of your guitar or another electrified instrument in myriad ways. They’re packed with all the Moog sound we’ve come to expect from the brand, without the high price tag its products usually command.
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Sep 18
Ilija Stjepic wants to do for photographic printing what Instagram did for Polaroid. Ilija and his friends made the Enfojer kit. It lets you develop the images in your smartphone into black and white pictures using traditional techniques. You’ll need a darkroom, chemicals, the works. It’s the perfect gift for the budding hipster.
The most important part of Stjepic and company’s kit is the Enfojer itself. It’s an enlarger – a projector used in printing from negatives – that uses your smartphone as both the light source and the film. The Enfojer projects an image from your phone to a piece of photographic paper. Then you’ll dip that paper into a couple of chemical baths, and in about 6 minutes you’ll have a black and white photo.
The Enfojer is supposed to work with most smartphones. As shown in the image above it will also have a complementary app that provides guidance as well as basic editing features. The other parts of the kit are indispensable as well – the photographic film, the safelight, the chemical trays – but you can get those items elsewhere. Still don’t get how it works? Watch the video. Brace yourself: annoying background music is coming.
Seriously Ilija, how in John Herschel’s name did you think that music was okay? In any case, if you made it through the whole video you must be really interested in the Enfojer. Pledge at least $200 (USD) on Indiegogo to get the Enfojer as a reward. You’ll need to pledge at least $350 if you want the entire kit, which includes 100 sheets of photographic paper, trays, tongs, a safelight and a tray rack. You’ll still need to buy the required chemicals – and find a space to convert into a darkroom – even if you buy the full kit. You gotta work hard to be hip.
Sep 01
There are plenty of amazing watches out there, but this is the first watch I know of which allows you to evaluate the timing rate on the fly, so that you can fine-tune the mechanism, depending on the conditions you’re in.
The titanium and steel Urwerk EMC Watch has got a Witschi watch tester built-in. This device is electronic, but wound up manually, which is kind of cool. The Witschi listens to the watch’s rhythm and balance, and displays this information for the prior 24 hours. This is perfect for anyone for whom having accurate time is paramount.
The mechanism is designed to allow wearers to tweak timing based on the minor variances that can happen due to position, temperature and shocks. Its maker says “thanks to EMC’s unique and pioneering monitoring unit, not only can the wearer obtain the precise timing rate on demand, they can then use that information to accurately adjust the precision of their watch to suit their own personal rhythm.”
The watch is expected to retail for around $120,000(USD). Horologists, get ready to mortgage everything you own.
[via Uncrate]
Aug 18
Several years ago we saw Alvin Aronson’s minimalist timepiece, which used wood and ceramic to replicate the seven segment digits commonly used in LCD and LED displays.
Instructables member alstroemeria took the idea further, creating a papercraft version of Aronson’s clock.
Alstroemeria used layers of cardstock, an Arduino Uno, 28 servos and a servo controller to make a cheaper and biodegradable version of Aronson’s clock.
Alstroemeria said he’ll soon post a video showing his clock in action. But time’s a wastin’, so go ahead and check out his build process on Instructables.
[via Evil Mad Scientist]
Aug 05
“There are a lot of records that I love that clearly have a Pro Tools imprint of them that just sound like sh**,” answers John Vanderslice, excitedly. Though that last part really goes without saying. If there’s anything about which the musician isn’t passionate, we certainly haven’t discovered it during the hour or so we’ve been at his Tiny Telephone studio. Talking to Vanderslice is less a conversation than it is immersion therapy in musical enthusiasm. “And these are great bands,” he continues. “I actually refrain from being specific because I often know the people that have recorded them, that have mastered them. These are bands operating at the prime of their career. This represents two or three years of their creative thinking and their work, and they’re making a five-minute decision to record on this medium versus this medium. It isn’t cheaper or more expensive. It’s a tragic decision.”
Of course, anyone with a passing familiarity with Vanderslice will happily tell you there’s one subject about which he’s particularly passionate. And indeed, we’re currently standing in one of the last remaining shrines to the dying art of analog recording, housed in a shed-like building in an enclave of artist spaces at the end of a quiet San Franciscan side street. When we first arrived, a bit on the early side for a Sunday morning, the former Mk Ultra frontman was beaming beneath a patch of blue dye on platinum-blond hair. It’s an expression that won’t leave his face for the duration of our stay, even when the conversation turns to Pro Tools, something of a dirty word around the 1,700-square-foot studio, which boasts Wurlitzers, Hammonds and grand pianos. There’s an ancient harpsichord, a 1976 Neve 30-channel board, reel to reels and a room full of tape. It’s a bit like stumbling into Phil Spector’s bomb shelter.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
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