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Fisher Price #816 Record Player Repairs
I got a Fisher Price #816 battery-powered phonograph from 1983. It played fine for a week and then the speed started to intermittently increase to “chipmunk” without warning. Moving the volume control...
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Digidesign Mbox 1 Standalone Mod
With a simple hack you can use your old Mbox 1 as a standalone mic preamp! Any long-term user of Avid’s Pro Tools audio software probably has a stack of obsolete hardware that won’t work with newer...
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Steenbeck With Synced Digital Audio
photo: DRs Kulturarvsprojekt In 2015 there are still people who love the tactility of editing 16mm film by hand on a flatbed editor rather than transferring to digital video. Most of those people are...
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FM Transmitter Experiments
I have often worked on projects requiring short-range high quality wireless audio. Bluetooth is an obvious choice these days, but it has some problems outlined here. The ubiquity and decent quality of...
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Coolant Hose Lamp
After a recent workbench redesign I really wanted an articulating lamp that I could position anywhere on the work surface. I was inspired by the now-famous Third Hand++ tutorial, which uses flexible...
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16mm Film to HD Transfer System
This page is not nearly finished. What follows is a brain-dump, to be improved later… I run the film facilities at Cooper Union Art School, where we teach 16mm and sometimes Super8. I spent a few years...
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Quick Easy & Cheap Resistor Storage
I’ve been building stuff with electronics for years, and I’ve come to find that storage and organization of my materials can make or break a project. Here I share my method for storing resistors,...
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Improving the Amaran AL-H198 LED
The Aputure Amaran AL-H198 is a small inexpensive LED light with great color. The build quality is pretty suspicious, as are some of the design decisions, but it excels nonetheless. Here are some fixes...
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Building Contact Mics
This is my step-by-step guide to DIY contact microphones. There are many other ways to do it, but my goals with this method are simplicity and durability. What you need: Parts: Shielded audio cable...
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Cheap Microphones for Ultrasound
This page documents my experiments using inexpensive microphone capsules to record ultrasound signals. I tested several capsules using a 192kHz audio recorder and cheap piezo tweater. For each mic...
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Audible 16mm Footage Counter
I modified a 16mm film synchronizer to add an audible footage counter. This helps me spool down large loads of film in the dark. Conventional wisdom says that 42 turns of the (4:1 geared) rewinds will...
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Testing XLR Adapters with Plug-in Power
I’ve been testing a few inexpensive XLR to 3.5mm adapters that contain a circuit to convert 12-48v phantom power to low-voltage “plug-in power”. (See Richard Mudhar’s Microphone Powering for great...
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DIY “Teensy” Bat Detector
Ultrasound has fascinated me for a long time (see my other pages about ultrasound recording and microphones), and I’ve been observing urban bats in NYC for several years. I’m fascinated by the urban...
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Arduino Bat Simulator
I’ve been messing around with ultrasound listening and bat detector circuits, but often there are no obliging flying critters to talk to me! You can generate ultrasound in many ways (rubbing fingers,...
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DIY Power Plugs for BrightSign Players
I recommend BrightSign players for video playback in gallery installations, and they are used all over the world for looping, synchronized, and fully interactive shows. They’re not cheap for the...
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Wall Plate Adapter for Tiny Reflow Controller
I’m slowly converting to surface mount components in my electronic tinkering. It makes things easier in so many ways, but soldering little things is hard! The humble toaster oven or hot plate helps,...
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Wall Plate Adapter for Tiny Reflow Controller
I’m slowly converting to surface mount components in my electronic tinkering. It makes things easier in so many ways, but soldering little things is hard! The humble toaster oven or hot plate helps,...
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Zoom Recorder Technical Details
I’ve used many Zoom recorders over the years, sometimes pushing them outside their design intentions. This page collects the “secrets” I’ve discovered through testing and experience. It will grow as I...
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Choosing a Contact Mic For Field Recording
(This page is part of a series. See the rest of my contact microphone pages here. I also have a similar page about Choosing a Hydrophone for Field Recording.) I’ve been experimenting with contact...
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3D-Printed DIY Contact Microphone
(This page is part of a series See the rest of my contact microphone pages here.) I developed this contact mic design for my students in 2020. I wanted them to have durable tools with great sound, but...
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