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Got my Alpha!

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Got my Alpha!

by CruzMark » Thu Jun 21, 2012 18:28 UTC
Got my Alpha in the mail yesterday. Fun! I'm wondering, though, why I can't seem to get any volume from it. The photos show headphones plugged directly into it, but when I do that, I can barely hear any sound. When I plug it into an amplifier, I have to crank it *way* up, and even add some overdrive to get a decent sound level. Anybody else having this problem, or any ideas?

Thanks.

BTW, posted a photo of my Alpha on Facebook and generated a lot of interest among my friends...

Re: Got my Alpha!

by guest » Fri Jun 22, 2012 00:48 UTC
sorry to hear about the low volume
what sort of headphones are you using

the volume isnt super loud
but it should definitely be loud enough
i find its actually a bit loud
on an efficient pair of headphones

when plugging it into an amp
try plugging the cable in half-way
the left and right channels are reversed on the mixtape
so anything that mixes left and right will sum to zero
plugging in halfway only gives on channel
a mono cable should do the same thing

Re: Got my Alpha!

by CruzMark » Fri Jun 22, 2012 05:10 UTC
guest wrote:sorry to hear about the low volume
what sort of headphones are you using


Just some earbuds that originally came off of a Rio MP3 player of a few years ago. I'll try with some other
headphones.


when plugging it into an amp
try plugging the cable in half-way
the left and right channels are reversed on the mixtape
so anything that mixes left and right will sum to zero
plugging in halfway only gives on channel
a mono cable should do the same thing


I'm using a mini guitar amp, and need to get a mono 1/8 cable to 1/4 cable. But I got it working okay. It's a bunch of fun.

I'm thinking about trying to put a thin shield of foam or something over the back, just to keep allow me to handle it without accidentally changing settings when I touch the back.

Also, are there docs for hooking into it to play with / upload new programming? I didn't see anything that was immediately apparent on the website. But I know it is still "early days". I'm excited to see what folks do with this.

Thanks!

Mark

Re: Got my Alpha!

by guest » Fri Jun 22, 2012 18:29 UTC
ive definitely had volume issues with cheap earbuds
but let me know how it goes with some good ones

all the docs are up here
http://wiki.openmusiclabs.com/wiki/MixtapeAlpha
im excited to hear what you do with it

theres a puredata patch for making new wavetables

i saw one guy cut up an old tape
and glue half of it to the back
to keep his fingers from shorting things out