Hack Job

I've wanted to write this article for quite a while. Over the years I've noted that Java-based music and sound applications have increased in number and quality, yet no comprehensive list or summaries have covered these advances. And so at long last I present this survey of music and sound applications that require Java. The presentation follows no particular order, but in this first part I'll begin by questioning the use of Java in sound and music applications development, followed by a brief look at Java's internal audio and MIDI capabilities. <!--break-->

Filed under: misc hacksThe Royal College of Art in London recently hosted its annual graduate summer show, where postgrad students exhibit some of their artistic and musical projects. Among those featured this year were several vinyl record and turntable mods by [Yuri Suzuki].

Filed under: home entertainment hacksYou can make pretty much anything a speaker by vibrating it. Japanese engineer, [Keiji Koga], has been working for many years to perfect his plant based sound transmission system. The voice coil is at the bottom of the plant container and transfers sound up the stalk to the leaves. It's and interesting idea, but we can't imagine it sounds much better than vibrating a rigid surface.

Filed under: home entertainment hacks

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Adobe flash player 9 on FreeBSD and Linux using Mozilla Firefox and Opera, both FreeBSD native and Linux compatibility environment.

sudo aptitude install alsa-osssudo gedit /etc/firefox/firefoxrcFIREFOX_DSP=”aoss”

Open source software makes podcasting easy -- too easy. Listening to a playlist of first-timer podcasts can leave your ears ringing from sudden changes in playback volume. The problem is audio mastering.

The Streaming Suitcase is a resource for those wanting to learn to stream. The material is all licensed under Creative Commons and is free to download and distribute.

"Here are some sample pictures of a speaker I'm building as an add-on for the new Sharp Zaurus. These are pictures of a prototype. I'm still working on design ideas.
Parts list:

* 1.5" 8-ohm speaker
* 1/8" stereo plug
* plastic case

You can find the speaker and plug at your local electronics hobby shop. The plastic case is a cosmetic case used for lip balms.

Wiring these things is simple. the black (ground or -) wire of the speaker goes to the ground tab on the plug and the red (positive or +) goes to BOTH of the remaining tabs on the plug (the signal tabs). Due to the wiring of the headphone jack of the Zaurus, this will also allow the speaker to double as a microphone. It worked for me. I ran the voice recorder program in ROM 1.1x and recorded my speech and played it back and the sound came out on the speaker. I didn't have to switch anything around. Plus, you get both channels of a stereo MP3 file mixed to the mono speaker output. BTW, this little speaker works with ANY headphone jack on other devices, like walkmans and portable MP3 players.