Open Music Labs

New Business Info

guest — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:58:36 +0000

We are happy to announce that Open Music Labs has officially joined forces with Flingco Sound System in Chicago, for great justice! So what does this all mean? Really, not too much. Besides for taking off every zig, we will be charging Illinois state tax instead of California, but that’s about it. We are also extremely appreciative for the years of help that Sparkfactor Design provided as our previous business partner.

Shipping Cost Increase

guest — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:22:04 +0000

Due to the recent increase in USPS shipping charges, we have had to increase our prices for shipping. The domestic fees are the same, but international fees increased quite significantly. We apologize for this, but it is out of our control. USPS is still the least expensive way to ship, both domestically and internationally, and we are proud to support an institution that has served so many, for so long.

ATmega Timer Sync’ing

guest — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:35:52 +0000

I’m tempted to make some bad “Hammer Time” and “‘NSYNC” mashup here, but i’ll save you the agony. Instead, i will replace it with something that will hopefully help relieve frustration for some of you in the future. Another PWM/Timer tutorial! This one is dedicated to syncrhonizing multiple timers using the GTCCR register. This is useful for making Triple PWMs, combining interrupt processing for multiple timers, keeping capacitive sensing lines from interfering with each other, or generating complicated waveforms like NTSC. It’s a bit of an advanced topic, but the work has been done, so why not publish it?

Pulse What!?! Modulation (PWM)

guest — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:49:54 +0000

PWM Signal Components

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a very easy, and often used method to get audio out of your microcontroller. But, there is a lot more going on under the hood besides for just writing values to your timer. We just finished a complete dissection of how PWM works, and what you can do to get the best possible audio from your PWM output. We also put up an Arduino sketch that helps you quickly navigate the possible options, and pick the settings that are best for your application. So follow the links below to learn more!

Overview
Dual PWMs
Distortion Analysis
Arduino Tutorial

ArduinoFHT – Tastes great! Less filling!

guest — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:18:25 +0000

Not too long ago, we finished an Arduino FFT library, which added frequency spectrum analysis to the list of things you can do with an Arduino. Now you can do that same task in half the time and half the memory usage, thanks to the Fast Hartley Transform (FHT). It’s identical to the FFT, except that it was designed specifically for processing real audio data, which is exactly what we’re all about here. It can do a 256 point spectrum in 3.2ms! That’s fast enough to be sampling at 40ksps and not miss a beat. And we bundled it up into a nice Arduino library with examples, so check it out:

ArduinoFHT wiki page

This transform is named after the same Ralph Hartley that gave us the Hartley oscillator. So thanks to Ralph for coming up with this nice transform back in 1942, and to Ronald Bracewell for making the dicrete version in 1983, and finally to Stanislav for introducing it to me in 2012.

Arduino FFT – Get your freq. on!

guest — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:11:36 +0000

Sorry, no cool picture to go along with this. But, we think its pretty cool anyways. We just finished a really fast FFT library for the Arduino platform. This means you can do frequency analysis of your audio data in real time. It can take input from the ADC or from the CodecShield, and output up to 128 real frequency bins at a 7ms update rate. These bins can be set to linear or logarithmic output, and there is even an octave mode, where the frequency bins double in width as they go up the scale (perfect for making a graphic EQ). Check it out, and let us know how it works for you.

http://wiki.openmusiclabs.com/wiki/ArduinoFFT

BootlegMIC – A kick in the boot for your phone!

guest — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:27:51 +0000

Tired of bad sounding youtube videos? So are we! Which is why we’re proud to announce our latest kit – the bootlegMIC.

The bootlegMIC is a small, high quality microphone that plugs right in to your cellphone’s headphone jack. It highly attenuates any incoming signals, eliminating distortion when recording in loud environments. Since it’s a kit, it’s also a great starting point for learning about electret microphones. For more information, check out the product page, or browse over to the store to get your very own.

Mixtape Alpha has landed!

guest — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:00:04 +0000

We’re excited to announce the launch of Mixtape Alpha! Its an 8-bit digital synth, designed around the ideas of cassette mixtapes.

It has 4 voices, 4 effects, and 5 note polyphony, all while running off a single coin-cell battery! There are touch buttons, sliders, and it can record songs to be traded with friends. Check out the project page, or pick one up from our store.

Grand Re-Opening!

guest — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:45:35 +0000

Our store is back online! And we are happy to announce that we have partnered with Flingco Sound System in Chicago, who will be helping us with distribution. This means that orders will go out on a more regular schedule! Flingco Sound System is the record label arm of Flingco, an Art-Product retailer. Check them out, they have some cool stuff.

We also switched from our ZenCart system to a simpler Paypal system. This should allow us to make updates more quickly, keeping the store running smoothly. The main reason for this switch, was the trouble we were having with international shipping pricing. Our apologies to those international customers who suffered through our ZenCart days. Right now we only have USPS First Class mail for international orders, but will be adding USPS Priority very soon.

Please let us know what you think, and if anything seems amiss. We will be adding more products to the store soon.

In Transit. . .

guest — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:29:14 +0000

The migration is taking longer than a week. Right now our entire store is in cardboard boxes and slowly making its way to Chicago, where they will build nests and lay eggs. But, we will be up and running this coming Monday! We appreciate your patience, and apologize for any inconvenience. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.