Archive for the ‘Weird & Wonderful’ Category
Ahhhh Freak Out!
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
Check out this amazing turntable related art freakout!
Posted in All things vinyl, analogue, video, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Hack an old Boombox to give line in
Saturday, September 21st, 2013
The execution’s a bit sloppy and as some commenters have pointed out, he could probably have just used the DIN socket, but the concept’s good:
Hacking a line-in socket into an 80s radio and cassette player
As well as allowing connection of phones and other media players, it will allow playback of the PS-F5/9 through the boombox speakers. A relatively inexpensive way of getting good quality sound (good quality boomboxes can be had for some very reasonable prices on eBay) with the bonus of keeping your kit in the right decade 😉
Posted in Accessories, analogue, ebay, Retro, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
TNT Triple T Speaker Cables
Wednesday, August 14th, 2013
Over 10 years ago, a friend of mine (the original Og) gave me a pair of splendid home made speaker cables that he’d made from CAT5 network cable that was being thrown away at his work. They sat waiting to be used until about 2 years ago when I purchased a pair of Heco Victa 201s for a steal on a local pick up only eBay auction.
These speaker cables tick all of my boxes- they look good, are reusing old tech which would have probably ended up in landfill, and best of all they sound great.
If you’re after some inexpensive speaker cable, see if you can locate some used network cable and plait yourself some audio clarity. Somewhere like Freecycle (or its new guise in your location – mine’s called Greencycle which is part of the Freegle network: the best bet in the UK) would be a good place to ask, or maybe try calling a local networking company to see if they’ve ripped out any old cable lately.
Check the instructions and further info here.
Posted in Accessories, analogue, ebay, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Cuttin’ Vinyl
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
This has been doing the internet rounds lately.
(Read about the process of making this on Ishac’s site)
Then I saw a link to this:
Which predates the first by a long, long time!
Posted in All things vinyl, analogue, video, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
retr0bright instructions
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
I’ve started gathering the ingredients to mix up some retr0bright, but still some way off. Today I found this Google translated French article describing the process:
Posted in Retro, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Turntable Animation
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Some clever animations made using the strobe effect gained by filming with the correct shutter speed under household lights which are strobing undetectably at 50 or 60hz (depending on where you live). This is the same principle as the red dots that are used as a speed guage on the outside of the platter of some turntables.
The illusion of movement with a record player.
Watch as hidden animations come alive by using a specific frame rate and shutter speeds of a camera and RPM of a record player.
To me this is one of the ultimate illusions.
Definition of Illusion: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
I used a Numark turntable set to 45 RPM and the camera was set to 24 FPS. The shutter speed was set to around 840. With that combination of settings a 30 frame animation would appear to stand still. I used the slider to increase / descrease rpms which caused the images to move foward or backward.
The sequence of the guy jumping on the blocks was the most difficult but turned out the best, in my opinion.
The images of the guy jumping is me. I recorded myself jumping in the living room then took 30 frames from that footage and traced the images in photoshop and filled with black. Then printed out the 30 images and cut each one out. I used 30 wooden blocks and glued them to a piece of construction paper then taped the images of the jumping guy to the clear sheet and aligned them with the blocks.
I also love the pac-man animation. It’s so simple but just has such a cool feel to see the mouth opening and closing.
brasspup on YouTube
Tags: animation
Posted in video, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Columbia’s Portable Mixing Rig
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Recently spotted a Columbia GMX-3 mixer on eBay. A portable mixer from Japan which is designed to be used with a pair of GP-3 portable turntables. Interesting piece of kit, but from what I can find online the turntables are only mono although they do have pitch control and built in speaker. Each device runs on either 100/110VAC (with built in tranformer) or batteries.
Going on recent eBay prices it would cost over £350 (US$560) to buy a pair of turntables and a mixer.
Tags: columbia, diggin, gmx-3, gp-3, japanese, portable, record player, turntable
Posted in All things vinyl, analogue, Related Devices, Retro, video, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
A More Vintage Portable Turntable?
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
(Thanks to Bill B for the image)
Posted in All things vinyl, analogue, Related Devices, Retro, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Becoming vinyl
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
“Music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked into vinyl records to leave behind for loved ones.”wired.co.uk
Posted in All things vinyl, analogue, Weird & Wonderful | No Comments »
Retr0Bright – De-yellow your Sony?
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
After the question posed by A.R. on this post, and my request for a “magical chemical solution” he did some amazing detective work and found a possible solution to the yellowing problem that many Sony PS-F5s and PS-F9s exhibit in their old age. This is mainly brought on by exposure to Ultra Violet radiation which reacts with chemicals in the ABS plastic of the case.
Some vintage gadget enthusiasts have come up with a home-brew chemical gel that can be applied to yellowed plastic which restores it to its original colour. This wonderful sounding product’s called Retr0bright.
“We have now proved on several forums that plastics yellowing can be completely reversed in hours without damage using our mixture.â€Â
There are a number of recipes on their Wiki. Thankfully all of the chemicals involved are easily obtainable (at least here in the UK) and all are safe apart from Hydrogen Peroxide, which is the main ingredient in hair bleach and is to be treated with respect. Be sure to wear gloves and goggles and work in a well ventilated room.
I was initially concerned about any chemical solution affecting the printing on the case, but then I saw this Lego piece in the Retr0Bright gallery, which is painted. The paint appears unaffected by the process:
Although the Problems and Pitfalls page on the site does show some examples of label fade, the printing on the PS-F5 is generally of good quality with a heavy black ink, so hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue, especially if the Sony’s not too yellowed, and therefore doesn’t require many applications.
There are other examples in the gallery with stickers and paint too, all of which suggest that it should be safe. Something I’m not sure about is whether the smoked transparent plastic on the front of the case would need to be removed prior to applying the gel. Maybe masking would be safest, attempting to remove the glued in smoked panel may cause breakage.
I’d like to give this a try, but would really appreciate it if anyone out there has a spare case (or piece of case, ideally one with some printing) for their PS-F5 that they’re willing to experiment on and report back to the site so I can let everyone know for sure that this works on our Sonys and is safe.
“There were an incredible number of people at first that said this was impossible – that was until they saw the pictures, then tried it and proved it for themselves. The usual reaction was ‘No way!’ then ‘WOW!!’.
Tags: aged, chemical, paste, plastic, restore, Retr0Bright, white, yellow, yellowed
Posted in Retro, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9, Weird & Wonderful | 5 Comments »
