July 26, 2012

I'm Back!

Lets talk about things I completely forgot about. Like this blog.

Its almost been two years since my last post, and much has changed since then. I've started and finished a few projects, while others have been pushed to the side due to lack of time. Lack of time is also why I haven't been updating this blog.

I logged on to blogger today after remembering that this thing exists, and apparently people have been reading it. This has inspired me to get back to writing, so lets get at it.

Let's start with project updates. 

I gave up on the ESQ-1 and sold it for parts.

I didn't have time to work on the guitar amps until recently. The SLO Clone is painfully close to working. I've learned a lot in the process of debugging it though. I also decided to completely re-cap the Fender Bassman. This is actually something that I have actually been working on recently (as in last week). Expect post about both of these projects in the near future.

Looking back on some of these posts is kind of a trip. My synthesizer setup looks very different these days. I've bought and sold a few pieces in the last two years. I also have a new found love for the Roland S-700 series of samplers. In addition to the S-770, I now own a S-760 and found a large sample library on eBay. Pianos, strings, and just about everything else sounds wonderful coming out of them. 

I've also started to work on a project not related to music too. I decided to learn how to program an Arduino. The first major Arduino project be designing and building swarming robots. I have a good idea about how to accomplish this and I'm working on a plan for the design, construction, and testing of the various components that will make up the robots. The name of the game is simplicity. The robots will follow two basic rules: stay near the pack and don't run into things. I ordered the first few components from Sparkfun yesterday and basic testing of a few design components will probably begin next week. Expect future posts about this project too.

That's all for now.