Summer is truly here and so is my HAYFEVER...

I love the outdoors but at this time of year it is with trepidation that I venture outside. Normally I do not like to take medication on a daily basis but right now its a necessity. Lyon is quite beautiful at this time of year and as someone who loves the outdoors its pretty horrible to fear leaving the confines of the flat.

You may have noticed that we haven't been blogging here for the past few months and it has to be said that in my case anyway there is really no excuse for this. My girl on the other hand has other blogs to maintain so its not her fault. I think a mixture of procrastination and a lack of inspiration are to blame.

On the cycling front I haven't been doing as much as I would normally do except the odd trip to the workshop I say odd because my visits have become more and more infrequent which is something I hope to remedy quite soon as I am starting my second custom guitar (Another project proceeding slower than expected). Will post pictures of the first on one soon, I promise.

That aside my creative projects are going well, well the design side is going strong but the realization is a bit weak right now. I suppose ill just have to get off my ass and really push myself to bring these things to life. The project I have been concentrating most on lately is the one which we hope will provide us with a small but necessary income and so making it real is very important. It consists of a small box of electronics that I'm calling a photo controlled synthesizer. When you turn it on it produces a tone typically 700 or 800 Hz depending on the level of ambient light. By interacting with the three light dependent resistors either with your hand or a light source a wide range of effects can be created from sliding , Theremin like scales to a ten note graduated scale. There are and a few other modes where you can mix and match modulating effects and create sounds ranging from techno beats (With a flashing Bike light) to weird droning sounds or crazy high pitch beeps and bips. Once you throw in some delay/reverb things really get interesting. Actually the amount of fun Ive been having playing with the prototype have probably cut into the point of this exercise which was to build these things for sale. There are some other functions too like signal paths that become active at various light levels and an optically controlled tremolo and something which is missing on all other optical instruments a setting which keeps the device silent until it is interacted with. When I finish this ill post on it. Maybe this blog can be a record of my work online?

The only other thing I want to post on is this cool open source DJ'ing software I found the other day. It was a necessity as we have volunteered to play a party for a friend in this month. Ive DJ'ed before a couple of times at private parties but never on a laptop. The software is called Mixxx its multi platform, free and really easy to use with enough functionality to get by with.

Bye for now, more posts soon...

RV