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Ask Slashdot: Cheap and Fun Audio Hacks?
An anonymous reader writes: A few years back I discovered that even a person of limited soldering skills can create a nifty surround-sound system with the magic of a passive matrix decoder system; the results pleased me and continue to, It's certainly not a big and fancy surround system, but I recommend it highly as a project with a high ratio of satisfaction to effort. (Here's one of the many, many tutorials out there on doing it yourself; it's not the long-forgotten one I actually used, but I like this one better.) I like listening to recorded music sometimes just to hear how a particular playback system sounds, not just to hear the music "as intended." I'd like to find some more audio hacks and tricks like this that are cheap, easy, and fun. Bonus points if they can be done with the assistance of a couple of smart children, without boring them too much. I have access to Goodwill and other thrift stores that are usually overflowing with cheap-and-cheerful gear, to match my toy budget. What mods or fixes would be fun to implement? Are there brands or models of turntable I should look for as the easiest with which to tinker? Are there cool easy-entry projects akin to that surround sound system that I could use to improve my radio reception? I'm not sure what's out there, but I'd like to get some cool use out of the closet-and-a-half I've got filled with speakers and other gear that I can't quite bear to toss, since "it still works."
One of the coolest hacks I have encountered is the use of a computer sound card's audio input(s) to create an oscilloscope.
Google provides lots of links on the subject.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Try a singing Tesla coil. Kids will love making music with lightning.
Input error. There are no decent records from the 70s...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Actually, from an audio engineering perspective, this is quite true (at least for vinyl), since all records were run through a low cut filter in order to eliminate rumble/skipping due to low sonic frequencies distrubing the needle in a record groove.
If we are talking a clean, complete signal, vinyl records have plenty of deficiencies of their own, despire what so-called "audiophiles" might tell you.
...but, back in high school, one of my science teachers glued a tiny mirror to the center of a speaker cone. He then reflected a laser off of it onto the wall. When he played music though it, the vibrations made a very cool low cost laser show! Now that lasers are cheap and plentiful, I've always meant to recreate that laser show. One of these decades, I'll get around to it! ;-)
Glue a Front Surface mirror to a woofer
Point a Laser at the mirror
Play music with lots of bass through that speaker
Add a second speaker at an opposing angle to get X Y control
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
I've got a friend who's a cabinet maker and loudspeaker designer. For years he crafted full-range curved diaphram electrostatic loudspeakers. Nowadays he's into horns. One day I dropped by his shop and he blew me away with something he'd been doing with Dayton Audio Sound Exciters (well, that's what they're called today on Amazon's web site). They're transducers.
Get yourself two 2' x 3' pieces of 1/2" thick piece of foam core from an art supply store. Attach two of these Dayton Audio Sound Exciters to each of them. Wire them in parallel and connect them to an amplifier. The tricky part is that you have to suspend them in mid-air. Hang them from your ceiling or something. The sound you'll get out of them is very, very good - especially considering you'll have less than $75 in the whole project. I'd put it equal stuff you'd spend about $1000 to $1500 at Best Buy.
They aren't what I'd call extreme hi-end, but they sound much, much better than anyone would think. Would make for a great garage or shop system.
you can use a flame as a speaker. Cool thing is you can't burn it out by overdriving it!
1) create a large wide flame. e.g. for gas flatten a tube into a long thin jet.
2) put two electrodes in the flame
3) boost your audio into the high voltage range. a high voltage transformer can do this.
Now say "I am the great and powerful oz!" into the microphone.
4) get really excited and build a redonkulously large version with 6 foot tall pulsating glames and a a kilowatt amplifier.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.