Most Affordable Sound Engineering School

Today music industry are becoming more complex to handle due to the advancement in recording/PA equipment used in studio and on stage (live performance). That being the case, it even harder to acquire the right knowledge and know how in order to be able to operate such an equipment and hence produce state of the art sound or professional sound. Most audio engineering schools are full time and the tuition cost is beyond the reach of most students. For those who are keen or wish to become a sound engineer but can not afford to pay the high tuition fees, look no further.

Because AIA (Audio Institute of America) is available to everyone interested to pursue their career in sound engineering. The subjects taught are relevant and practical (applicable in real life situation). Apart form the affordable tuition fees (less than US$500), the other aspect that differentiate AIA from the others is it instructor.

The chief instructor and founder of our school is the legendary Peter Miller who is in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Peter toured extensively with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones during the sixties prior to building his own home studio and becoming a successful songwriter. His next venture was to establish one of the world's first independent record labels before opening up a recording studio in San Francisco. The studio was the genesis for the course since so many musicians asked Peter to give lessons on how he got such great sounds.

The complete Master Course is - Details US$299 Contains both the Master Recording Course and the Advanced Course in one package -- a $200 savings off the regular price. You will receive 25 Lessons plus 30 Video lessons and 60 Audio lessons. Your FREE Triple Bonus is shipped immediately including the three Recording Magazines, Audio Dictionary and Mixing Console Poster. (This Triple Bonus is included only with the COMPLETE Master Recording Course)
The AIA Difference Is Your Instructor – Legendary Peter Miller.

He has also been a voting member for The Grammys (The Recording Academy) for the past 20 years so you konow he knows what he's talking about! He is still actively working as a Recording Engineer, Music Producer and a Recording Artist. Peter is ready to share a lifetime of experience with you and welcome you to the exciting and rewarding world of recording! You are about to enter an incredible new world!

For the sake of comparison, take a look at the chart below. AIA is the most affordable sound Engineering School available today.

Experimental 2 seater Small Electric Driven Vehicle

via videosift.com


Fascinating Small Vehicle. You can get more info by visiting : PROJECTPUMA

I won't mind driving one of this around town. It looks very simple and convenient to use (I hope). Does it come with signal for turning left and right and what about break light and horn? It is good to have them around to lessen air pollution which contribute to the earth’s global warming and to avoid serious accident due to collision. Obviously, this vehicle does have their pros and cons so do all vehicles.

Affordable Radio Automation System broadcast straight from Home

Today it is possible for someone to run his own online radio station from home. However care should be taken not to infringe song or audio copyright. In other words, you are not allowed to simply broadcast copyright material such as song or audio without prior consent from the publisher or owner.

For those who are interested to setup their own Radio Station why not try the following software especially made for online radio broadcast.

Apart from a well functioning computer with semi professional audio card and broadband line with fix IP, all you need are these two softwares (stationplaylist Studio and Creator):

These radio automation software has been around for few years now and are used by over 2000 commercial and non commercial AM & FM radio stations worldwide. Furthermore it is very affordable and powerful radio broadcasting software solution for terrestrial radio and internet streaming / webcasting.

a) StationPlaylist Studio is a simple to use on-air broadcast automation playout software for the studio and/or DJ. You are able to manually or automatically plays all the media files. Some of the features worth mentioning here are as follows:


i) Automatic crossfading.
ii) Play jingles, Commercials, songs, live streaming, live input from soundcard, satellite feeds and many more.
iii) Built in Internet Stream Encoder, Voice Track/song ramp overlapping, Mic input and button with music fade plus many live assist features such as 96 cart slots for instant jingles.

The site also provides a demonstration playlist to show off some of Studio's features. It includes voice tracks and several songs truncated to 30 seconds for legal reasons. You are allowed to download and install the playlist. The trial edition of Studio will detect the playlist and load it automatically.

b) StationPlaylist is Creator a simple to use, yet powerful spot and music scheduler. Gain complete control over your station format using rotations of music categories and spot groups (jingles, advertisements, etc).


Generate sophisticated daily or weekly playlists in seconds. Includes a simple scheduler utility for budget automation with free audio players. Also includes a Playlist Editor, Voice Tracking / recording, and many more.

So now, what next? Go a head try the demo and you will know what I mean.

Get your Beam Robot parts from Dead Electronics

You have to stock up parts such as Motors, Resistors, ICs, Capacitors to use later to build your dream robot. You can either get the parts from dead electronics or you can shop around and buy what you need at your local electronic shop. But it would be fun if you can extract most of your parts from dead electronic such as dead tape recorder, VCR player, Walkman, Mini Tape recorder, CD player, DVD Player and so on. Keep an eye oh these items other people may consider trash. Listed below are some of the things that worth watching for:

a) Tape recorders such as walkman, Mini tape recorders, CD players, DVD players, Computer Mouse, Portable Cassette Player, Car’s tape players: You can scavenge items such as Motors(big and small), gears ratio, belts, Pulleys, Pinch Rollers, Springs, Switches, Toggle Switches, couple of wires, LED lights and a few Battery, Light Detectos, compartment ( AA type battery).

b) Pagers (Vibrate Type), Mobile phones, Electronic Devices with Vibration Options: This is where the small Vibrate motor comes from. The vibration effects comes from a tiny motor spins an eccentric weight (attached to it spindle). These motors are normally used to build Mobile BEAM critters.

c) Spoilt laser printer Cartridges: You can extract quality Metal rods and plastic sheets.

d) Mechanisms that move slowly: This indicates that there are mechanical parts such as gear head motors (gear motor) presence. Gear motor turn slowly depending on the ratio of the gear box. The gear ratio provides the torque necessary to move, turn or lift load. It basically gives the motor a additional strength.

Therefore keep an eye of those dead electronic people throw away in their trash bin.

Robotics DC Motor

DC motor is the most common component used in building a small functioning moving robot. Apart from the motor's performance, the type of motor, as well as the physical size is of great important to consider when you design a robot. To understand how these motors function is very crucial as it will affect the overall performance of the robot. You can learn the basic function of motor and other related subjects at DC Motor.

Audiocity Audio Recording

If you are in a Music Band, then it is useful to get to know and use this piece of Sound Editor Application named Audacity. It has many advantages where you can simply create, edit, cut and paste, modify the sound and many more with great ease. Unlike other sound editor I have used before, audacity by far the most convenient tools for me to edit sound. Now it is in it latest version, Audacity 1.3.7 (Beta) for windows, Mac and Linux/Unix. I have use the version 1.2.3 long before this version came out. I used it to create sound effects during live stage presentation for the school where my wife works as a teacher. It was fantastic; the shows came alive with all the sound effect goes along with their stage act.

This version have significant improvement compare to the previous version since most of the former bug has been fix, basically it is a bug-fix release. It significantly improves stability and usability, especially on Mac OS X, but incorporates some new features too.

a) Cross-Platform Bug Fixes
b)Platform-specific Bug Fixes
c) New Features and other changes:
-F11 Full Screen mode, high-quality "Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift" effect, Audio Contrast Analyzer
-Windows: sound devices can now be opened using the more efficient DirectSound API
-As a first step towards improving latency correction, a fixed rather than variable correction is now applied

However because it is still in beta version, it has not complete with complete documentation just yet and it meant for advanced users. But for those who want to follow the manual/complete documentation go for the Audacity 1.2.6. This version is more stable, complete and fully documented. You can have Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.7 installed on the same machine.

Simple Mini Guitar Practice Amp

Looking at the circuit diagram, it is simple enough to understand how this tiny circuitry provides an amplifier suitable for guitar practicing.
List of components used as follows:

a) LM386
b) Electrolyte capacitors – 4.7uF, 100uF, 10uF ( prefer if Varicap), 470uF
c) Mono Jack (J1 and J2)
d) 9V battery
e) A couple of wires
f) Breadboard
g) Toggle Switch (S1)

However there are still more rooms for improvement i.e. additional features such as external power adaptor (if you runs out of battery during practice), one or two band EQ, Variable gain control instead of fix gain ( 20/200), buit-in guitar tuner, effect, . Hope to build this amp soon.

Intelligent and effective vacuuming robot

Nowadays people are more accustomed to adapt technology in their life especially if it help them clean their house. one good example is the robot vacuum.This particular robot keeps your floor clean throughout the day. unlike human maid, this little robot prefers to clean than complain. This is just the begining, in a few years time, a more multitasking robot will be invented to replace human maid.
This particular robot vacuum is called Roomba. It is an intelligent and effective vacuuming robot. It main component is the unique AWARE™ Robot Intelligence Systems. AWARE uses dozens of sensors to monitor Roomba's environment, and adjusts Roomba's behavior up to 67 times per second, ensuring that Roomba cleans effectively, intelligently and safely.

To see how some of Roomba's features work, please click: ROOMBA

ROOMBA main features are as follows:

a) A powerful vacuum -A smart and powerful vacuum Roomba picks up an amazing amount of dirt, dust, pet hair, dander, cat litter, crumbs, leaves and other debris as it autonomously navigates throughout your home. Roomba automatically adjusts from carpets to hard floors and cleans everywhere you want while avoiding off-limit areas.

b) Hard-to-reach places -Cleans hard-to-reach places Roomba’s compact shape allows it to vacuum beneath beds, couches and other hard-to-reach places while the innovative, spinning side brush removes accumulated debris along kickboards, cabinet edges and corners

c) Carpets to hard floors -Transitions from carpets to hard floors Roomba automatically transitions from one surface to the next, effectively lifting dirt, dust and debris from carpets, rugs, tile, linoleum and hardwood floors.

d) Avoids drop-offs -Avoids stairs and drop-offs Roomba knows when it’s approaching stairs and other drop-offs, cleans up to the edge then automatically and safely changes direction to avoid going over edges.

e) Detects dirt -Spends more time on dirtier areas Roomba detects dirtier areas and responds by increasing its vacuuming intensity and cleaning pattern to ensure deeper, concentrated cleaning in that area.

f) Won't get stuck -Won't get stuck Specially designed technology and suspension allow Roomba to maneuver over cords and effectively extract itself from fringe and tassels.

g) Light-touch bumper -Light-touch bumper Roomba identifies furniture and other obstacles, slow its approach then lightly and gently touch the obstacle with its bumper and changes direction.

h) Automatically recharges -Automatically recharges Roomba automatically locates and returns to its Home Base™ to dock and recharge between cleaning cycles and when the battery is running low.

i) Avoids off-limit areas -Avoids off-limit areas Virtual Walls create invisible barriers to off-limit areas that Roomba will not cross.

j) Lighthouse -Efficient room-to-room cleaning A Virtual Wall Lighthouse directs Roomba to completely vacuum one room before moving on to the next and creates an invisible barrier to off-limit areas that Roomba will not cross.

k) Modular Design -Modularity New modular design provides simpler cleaning, maintenance, part replacement and feature upgrades.

EXP-1 : Beam Robotic Part 2

As planned, we have successfully completed the whole circuit which include the Battery ON Indicator and reverse mechanism. The additional circuit (reversal mode) is mainly consists of the transistor 3904, one resistor, one electrolyte capacitor, toggle switch, relay and couple of wires.
Refering to EXP-1 part 1: the robot is constructed in stages based on the diagram shown below:





The circuit arrangement is a bit messy and wires are crisscross to one another. However, the circuit works fine as expected. During the experiment we found out that it is important to interpret the circuits diagram properly especially the connectivity of the relay. Anyway, the exp-1 is now has been completed. Next, we are going to house the whole circuit into a computer mouse casing, to make it look like a mouse. Rendy will be doing the circuit arrangement i.e. to squeeze the whole circuit into the tiny computer mouse casing.

Latest Humanoid Robot

Waseda University in Tokyo unveiled its updated humanoid robot, named Twendy-One, showcasing the robot's ability to pick up even the most difficult of objects.

Microbot swimming through human bloodstream

The Researchers from Monash University are working on microbot motors designed to swim through the human bloodstream. This tiny motor would be able to power a probe swimming through blood vessels.The Proteus is 2.5mm long and utilizes a dual-action action piezoelectric motor to drive a small fan that pushes the unit forward. This med-sub sailed through the blood stream to tackle the clot in the brain. The Proteus’s speed would be 6 centimeters per second.

The Smallest Robot

Not really the world smallest mini robot but it is tiny.

EXP-1 Beam Robotic

This is our first attempt to construct the herbie Robot(Originally invented by Randy Sargent, Herbie was built from spare parts as an entry for a robot competition), we (myself and my friend Rendy) called ours the EXP-1.



We used the same circuit as the original herbie Robot. We come up this simple approach; we used a vero board as the chassis, Motors, Resistors, Variable resistor, Two LDR and the heart of the robot, an audio amplifier. Below are the complete schematic diagram of the Herbie's Robot Seeking Light.



This robot used the following component:
a) Two unit 5V DC motors
b) One unit 47K Resistor
c) One variable 100K resistor
d) Two unit LDR (light Detector Resistor)
e) One unit LM 386 Audio power Amplifier
f) One unit Vero Board


The robot operates as expected but we have some difficulty in controlling the sensitivity of these LDR. We are thinking of fine-tuning the circuit again by adding variable resistor in replace of the fixed resistor to both LDR. We are so fascinated to see it became alive and kicking. The EXP-1 is attracted to light source. So, whenever you shone the left/right LDR with a torch light, it move to the left/right respectively. We are looking forward to the next experiment i.e. to modify the circuit and add in more features.

You can try experimenting and build your own herbie by clicking this link :http://www.scribd.com/doc/6666573/Mouse-Robot

MOBILE ROBOT BASE

A mobile robot base that I invented during my final year ( BEng in Electrical & Electronic ) at the University of East London, UK and sadly to say that it not fully complete yet till today, even though it was made in 1993. This Robot is as complicated as BEAM robot. It main components are Light to frequency shaft encoder and Pulse Width Modulator motor Drive control System. Despite the lack of information, ideas and others at that particular of time, I was lucky enough to secure a B + for this project.

Electronic Components for BEAM Robots

B.E.A.M stands for Biology Electronics Aesthetics Mechanics. The founder of B.E.A.M robotic is none other than Dr.Mark Tilden. He chose the word BEAM to summarize the concept he thought were the most important in building a self guiding robot. You can find a lot more detail of BEAM robot by reading the following book:

JunkBots, Bugbots & Bots on Wheels by Dave Hrynkiw and Mark W. Tilden.




Anyway, I won’t be discussing what each letter mean, However I will be going through the important components used in building the BEAM robotic instead.

Apart from using the usual resistors and capacitors, below are the most commonly used transistors to build BEAM robot:

a) 2N3904 (NPN) or 2N3906 (PNP),
b) PN2222 (NPN) or 2N2907 (PNP)

Both of these transistors can drive some small DC Motors (we will be discussing the DC Motors later on). To fully utilize their usages, it’s important to read and understand the functionality of these transistors (by referring the Data Sheet supplied by the manufacturer of the transistor).

The other most useful and frequently used component is the integrated Circuit or IC. The project we plan to do later in building BEAM robots will use the following ICs:

a) 74(AC/ACT/H/HC/HCT/LC) 240 – Octal Buffer Inverter Chips.
b) 74(AC/ACT/H/HC/HCT/LC) 14 – Hex Schmitt Inverter Chips.
c) 74(AC/ACT/H/HC/HCT/LC) 245 – Octal Driver Chips.
d) 555 – Multipurpose Timer.
e) LM386 – Audio Power Amplifier.
f) LM 324 – Quadruple Operation Amplifier.
g) 7805 – Positive 5V Voltage Regulator.

Caution: Be very careful not to subject the above ICs directly to 9V battery, otherwise it may cause damage to the IC.

Again, it is advisable to read and understand the functions of each of the above ICs by reading their respective Data Sheet. You can search for electronic data sheets at http://www.cytron.com.my/

For now, let us start familiarize these components.