Centre for Computing History: Synthesized 2024 The Centre for Computing History have announced the return of their Synthesized event, which will be taking place on 29 and 30 June 2024 at their premises in Cambridge, UK. 

Subscription vitamin company Care/of is shutting downCare/of, a company offering personalized subscription vitamin packs, says it will be canceling all subscriptions as of Monday, June 17 and will no longer be accepting new orders. The news doesn’t come completely out of the blue, as Care/of had previously disclosed in a New York Department of Labor filing that it planned to lay […]
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Binance co-founder beseeches Elon Musk to address cryptocurrency scams on XAccording to Yi He, “a significant amount of money” was lost when X.com users were tricked by an impersonation scam.

An Enigma Machine Built in MeccanoAs far as model construction sets go, LEGO is by far the most popular brand for building not only pre-planned models but whatever the builder can imagine. There are a few others out there though, some with some interesting features. Meccano (or Erector in North America) is a construction set based around parts that are largely metal including its fasteners, which allows for a different approach to building models than other systems including the easy addition of electricity. [Craig], a member of the London Meccano Club, is demonstrating his model Enigma machine using this system for all of its parts and adding some electricity to make the circuitry work as well.
The original Enigma machine was an electronic cypher used by the German military in World War 2 to send coded messages. For the time, its code was extremely hard to break, and led to the British development of the first programmable electronic digital computer to help decipher its coded messages. This model uses Meccano parts instead to recreate the function of the original machine, with a set of keys similar to a typewriter which, when pressed, advance a set of three wheels. The wheels all have wiring in them, and depending on their initial settings will light up a different character on a display.
There are a few modifications made to the design (besides the use of a completely different set of materials) but one of the main ones was eliminating the heavy leaf springs of the original for smaller and easier-to-manage coil springs, which are also part of the electrical system that creates the code. The final product recreates the original exceptionally faithfully, with plans to create a plugboard up next, and you can take a look at the inner workings of a complete original here.

Thanks to [Tim] for the tip!

Reverse-Engineering Makita Batteries To Revive ThemModern lithium-ion battery packs for cordless power tools contain an incredible amount of energy, which necessitates that they come with a range of safeties. Although it’s good when the battery management system (BMS) detects a fault and cuts power to prevent issues, there exist the possibility of false positives. Having an expensive battery pack brick itself for no good reason is rather annoying, as is being unable to reuse a BMS in for example a re-manufactured battery. This was the reasoning that led [Martin Jansson] down the path of reverse-engineering Makita batteries for starters.
After that initial reverse-engineering attempt involving a firmware dump of the NEC (Renesas) F0513 MCU, [Martin] didn’t get back to the project until recently, when he was contacted by [Romain] who donated a few BMS boards to the cause. One of these features an STM32 MCU, which made the task much easier. Ultimately [Martin] was able to determine the command set for the Maxim OneWire-based communication protocol, as was a hidden UART mode.
Due to the critical timing required, off-the-shelf programmers didn’t work, so an Arduino Uno-based programmer (ArduinoOBI) was created instead, which can be found on GitHub along with the Open Battery Information desktop application which provides access to these BMS features after connecting to the battery pack. Although only Makita is supported right now, [Martin] would like to see support for other brands being added as well.

Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicThis week, our tips and advice for independent, do-it-yourselfers covered Spotify’s New Release Guide, improving your website, a guide to algorithm-free platforms for musicians, and more.
The post Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: New Music Industry’s Week in ReviewIt was a busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception. There were big accusations regarding Merchbar, music publishers’ fight with Spotify escalates, action on group. Continue reading
The post REWIND: New Music Industry’s Week in Review appeared first on Hypebot.

2B Played Music’s QFX Wax Thickener is Free Until June 20
2B Played Music is offering the QFX Wax thickener for free (with coupon code use code 2BWAX) until June 20, 2024, down from a list price of €17. Enter the coupon code 2BWAX during checkout for the QFX Wax to access the deal for this Windows and macOS plugin.  If you miss out on the [...]
View post: 2B Played Music’s QFX Wax Thickener is Free Until June 20

Erica Synths announce EDU DIY Labor Erica Synths' latest collaboration with Mortiz Klein make its possible to build a prototyping station that can be used to experiment with custom Eurorack module designs. 

Magical Peach PRC is Sweet on L.A.There's a lot going on with rising Australian pop artist Peach PRC. With a woodland sprite image that would make Melanie Martinez jealous, she skips around the stage like a pixie--a magical being emitting rainbows, sparkles and hearts.

Then, the next minute, she's pole dancing. Because--guess what--people are complicated and they have more than one dimension.

"The rising pop star packs an often-unbelievable journey from writing and recording in her bedroom to social media phenomenon into smart, slick, and sweet songs with a bold bite," reads her press bio. "Equally funny and sensitive, she holds nothing back when it comes to life’s ups and downs, mental health, and everything in between."

 Peach PRC has a huge following on social media (over 1.7 billion TikTok views, a combined audience of 4 million-plus social followers, generated over 180 million combined artist streams), which explains the devoted fans in attendance at the Fonda Theatre on Thursday, June 13. People that scream with full-throated vigor and know every single lyric.

Pride flags were waved enthusiastically, fairy wings flew, as Peach PRC's vibe of inclusivity, joy, love and revenge was celebrated.

Yes, revenge. The main character in the song "Josh" is told, in no uncertain terms, to stop calling her. In "F U Goodbye," an ex is told that his jokes aren't funny, and she hopes terrible things happen to his career. One might assume that's about Australian comedian Alex Williamson, whom Peach RC dated for a while.

So yeah, there's a lot going on. Real life clashes with a fantasy world. Escapism smashes into realism. And by god, it works.

 
 
 
 
The post Magical Peach PRC is Sweet on L.A. first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Mining execs establish organization to influence US crypto votersA board member of the Bitcoin Voter Project described the group as nonpartisan and planned to take a different approach than initiatives like Stand With Crypto.

The Raveonettes Turn Seattle's Crocodile into a Sound BathThe Raveonettes (Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo)- who made waves in the early and mid-2000s with their matchless flair for melding melodic girl-group doo-wop with retro rock and modern bents of shimmering effects and glitzed-out guitar dissonance- have returned to the U.S. touring circuit after a decade-long absence. Inside Seattle’s ultra-cool The Crocodile, longtime devotees eagerly anticipated the return of the Stygian-tilting musical visionaries while gathered in the packed pit, all waiting patiently with Danish-like hygge. Their eyes focused with intent on an illuminated silver screen hoping the band’s signature strobe show would ignite and pull them into the duo’s world filled with hallucinatory dark delights.

Whether it might be through sheer will or simply the time of night, their wish to see the band again was fulfilled when a burst of bright light ushered in the Danish duo from stage right, dressed in their emblematic black and white. A hint of a synthesized hum thrummed in the air as Sune and Sharin grabbed their mics and sang the beautifully eerie acapella “When the Night is Almost Done” from 2014’s Pe’ahi. After the gorgeous prelude, the pair picked up their instruments and moved into the otherworldly "Aly, Walk with Me” from 2008’s Lust Lust Lust. Together, the selection showcased The Raveonettes’ skill in harmonizing scintillating, wraithlike voices alongside haunting stories and cinematic soundscapes that range from sparse to complex.

Burrowing deeper into the catacombs of their abstract reveries, the pair moved into a subset of tracks from Lust Lust Lust - the sparklingly dark-edged “Dead Sound” and scuzzy David Lynchian “Blush.” The addition of exploding strobe lights blitzing and dancing in time enhanced the performance and surreptitiously pulled the audience further into their songs filled with dark allure.

The Raveonettes followed with a few gothic Western serenades, including “Somewhere in Texas” from 2005’s Pretty in Black and “Love Can Destroy Everything” from 2003’s Chain Gang of Love. The band’s vintage vocals and retro-tremolo twang harkened to sounds made famous by artists such as Duane Eddy and Gram Parsons, just a few of the duo’s many favorite influences acknowledged on their recent release, a compilation of vamped out classics, Sing…

After a brief pause to switch guitars, the duo delved into a B-movie beat denouement filled with Nordic noire storylines, distorted feedback, and oneiric atmospherics featuring fan favorites “Attack of the Ghost Riders” from 2002’s Whip It On and “That Great Love Sound” from 2003’s Chain Gang of Love. Another frenzied explosion of timed strobes followed as Sune and Sharin closed the show with the emboldened “Recharge & Revolt” from 2011’s Raven in the Grave. Its last chords rang against the walls while the venue faded to black. Fans, not knowing when the band might return, stood their ground - with many not wanting to leave just yet, reveling in The Raveonettes’ mysteriously surreal sound bath.

SETLIST

When the Night is Almost Done

Aly, Walk with Me

Hallucinations

Lust

Dead Sound

Blush

Railroad Tracks

Somewhere in Texas

Love Can Destroy Everything

Attack of the Ghost Riders

Veronica Fever 

Do You Believe Her

My Tornado

The Enemy

Endless Sleeper

That Great Love Sound 

Encore

Remember

Love in a Trash Can

Recharge & Revolt
The post The Raveonettes Turn Seattle's Crocodile into a Sound Bath first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

2024 Business Card Challenge: BAUDI/O For the Audio Hacker[Simon B] enters our 2024 Business Card Challenge with BAUDI/O, a genuinely useful audio output device. The device is based around the PCM2706 DAC, which handles all the USB interfacing and audio stack for you, needing only a reference crystal and the usual sprinkling of passives. This isn’t just a DAC board, though; it’s more of an audio experimentation tool with two microcontrollers to play with.
The first ATTiny AT1614 is hooked up to a simple LED vu-meter, and the second is connected to the onboard AD5252 digipot, which together allows one to custom program the response to the digital inputs to suit the user. The power supply is taken from the USB connection. A pair of ganged LM2663 charge-pump inverters allow inversion of the 5V rail to provide the necessary -5 V for the output amplifiers.  This is then fed to the LM4562-based CMoy-type headphone amplifier.  This design has a few extra stages, so with a bit of soldering, you can adjust the output filtering to suit. An LM1117 derives 3.3 V from the USB input to provide another power rail,  mostly for the DAC.
There’s not much more to say other than this is a nice, clean audio design, with everything broken out so you can tinker with it and get exactly the audio experience you want.

Tempus soars 15% on the first day of trading, demonstrating investor appetite for a health tech with a promise of AITempus, a genomic testing and data analysis company started by Eric Lefkosky, who previously founded Groupon, debuted on Nasdaq on Friday, rose about 15% on the opening.  The company priced its IPO on Thursday at $37 apiece, at the top of its $35 to $37 price range, raising nearly $411 million at a fully-diluted valuation […]
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Latin music star Feid hit with copyright lawsuit over sample used in ‘Ferxxo 100’Artist Sebastien Graux alleges he was “taken advantage of" by Feid's creative team
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