I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Month: March 2012

VL-1 Arrived

Posted by on in Music, Tech

I had a VL-1 when they first came out, but I got rid of them. I wish I hadn’t. So I’ve finally got around to getting a new one, or rather a second hand one that is. It’s a little grubby but I think it’ll be quite easy to get cleaned up. Once that’s done, my plan is to MIDIfy it. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Processing day 3: Drawing a little line

Posted by on in Making things

[processing width=”480″ height=”120″ file=”http://www.ashleyelsdon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/sort_of_draw_a_line.jar” method=”inline”]Load the applet[/processing]

Another bit of processing, this time drawing a little line on the screen. If you’re interested, here’s the code for the sketch:

void setup() {
size(480, 120);
strokeWeight(4);
smooth();
stroke(0, 120);
}

void draw() {
line(mouseX, mouseY, pmouseX, pmouseY);
}

Solar Theremin

Posted by on in Making things

I decided to build this kit after having it for ages and ages. So I made the whole thing and put it all together and it doesn’t work. I’ve checked every connection, and I can’t find anything wrong with it at all. Except that it doesn’t work. Which is a real shame.

I actually thought I did a really good job of soldering it, which makes it a little worse in a way. Anyway, I think I’ll leave it for a while and go back to it to see if I can work out what’s wrong with it.

New section on hard to find Palm OS music apps added

Posted by on in Stuff, Tech

Of interest to very few people I know, but even so I’ve decided to put it up here in case anyone is desperate for these things. It seems that now I’ve started to look for these things I keep remembering and finding more things that I think would be useful for this section.

So I’ll add more as a little archive of Palm OS music making history.

Happy birthday Douglas

Posted by on in Thinking

I was watching the new series of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency last night and remembered that today would have been Douglas Adams’ birthday. He would have been 60 today.

I loved Hitchhiker’s and have only recently got into Dirk Gently, but the work I most loved was what he did in Doctor Who. I leant the Big Finish version of Shada with Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor to a friend at work the other day. He really enjoyed it and commented on just how much humour there was in it. What else would you expect from such a talented writer.

He will continue to be missed, but his excellent work lives on.

Playing with Android Inventor: A very simple drum pad

Posted by on in Making things

I mentioned before that I’ve been playing with Android inventor now that it’s on MIT’s servers. The first thing I tried to do with it was to make something vaguely musical. Well, ok, not that musical to be honest. I thought I’d try and do something like a little drum pad to start with.

It works, sort of, but it really isn’t too useful sadly, as the drum sound only triggers when you take your finger off the button and not when you press it. So I really need a new way of getting that to work.

Processing day 2: A little dot is going to follow you around the screen

Posted by on in Making things

[processing width=”480″ height=”120″ file=”http://www.ashleyelsdon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/spot_follows_mouse_movement.jar” method=”inline”]Load the applet[/processing]

All this applet does is follow the mouse around with a tiny spot. That’s all, but it’s day 2 of my look at processing and tracking the mouse. Here’s the code for it.

void setup() {
size(480, 120);
fill(0, 102);
smooth();
noStroke();
}

void draw() {
background(204);
ellipse(mouseX, mouseY, 9, 9);
}