Mike's Blog » Arts http://www.mikeheijmans.com A site about everything and nothing at all Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:54:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 My TalkBox Project Status http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2009/02/my-talkbox-project-status/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2009/02/my-talkbox-project-status/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:53:26 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2009/02/my-talkbox-project-status/ A few months back I posted that I would be building my own DIY Talk Box. I have finally gotten around to doing it. I managed to pickup a PylePro PDS772 for $20 and it was still in the box. The thing has a great frequency range (500Hz to 16KHz) and is very powerful at a whopping 300W RMS with a peak of 600W. I managed to pickup all the parts I needed from Fry’s Electronics and Home Depot and cobbled it together earlier in the week. Boy, does it sound good. I am making a HowTo video to show all the steps and explain some of the gotcha’s I expierenced on the project. So that video is coming very soon. I also had a Crown D-75 reference amp tucked away that I decided to drive the Talk Box with but I wanted to switch it to Bridge Mono and the service shop said it would cost $125 to get done so I sent an email to crown asking for the service manual and within a day I had all the schematics (including all the older revisions) emailed back to me. Upon looking at the schematics I found that it was a single jumper that needed to be changed and so it took me a total of 5 minutes to switch to bridge mono. There is a HowTo video for that coming as well.

]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2009/02/my-talkbox-project-status/feed/ 0 SlumpBuster http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/07/slumpbuster/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/07/slumpbuster/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:26:32 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/07/slumpbuster/ I have been in a music slump for like 2 years now. Nothing I would write would ever be good enough to keep or even playback. I had no ideas, no feels, nothing… I had serious writer’s block! But last week I wrote and tracked the best song I have ever done! It is a really ruff cut but I hear more potential in the riffs and feels than i have heard in any indie band I have ever scouted as an A&R guy. The song is industrial with some metal and ambient origins. I just need to arrange and further produce it out now. The best part is that I have busted my slump! I have so many other ideas coming to me everyday now! I finally see the end of the tunnel for my first solo album! It’s pretty far away, but I see a faint glow!

]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/07/slumpbuster/feed/ 0 Justin.tv! http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/05/justintv/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/05/justintv/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 02:34:19 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=91 So I have been playing with Justin.tv ever since I interviewed for the position and I must admit that I am addicted. It sucks that they decided not to hire anyone for the position :(

But hey, they got another user out of it!

Justin.tv is a live webcasting website that is totally free! Like YouTube for live footage. It is the most awesome up and coming application out right now. 

You can check me out two ways… First you can click on the “Live Feed” link above or if you want to chat while I am live you can go directly to my live feed on Justin.tv by clicking here.

JTV

]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/05/justintv/feed/ 0 Armor for Sleep Does it Again! http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/02/armor-for-sleep-does-it-again/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/02/armor-for-sleep-does-it-again/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:45:33 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=71 For most people that know me, it is not surprising to see anything about Armor for Sleep on my blog. For the rest of you, you need to understand that Armor for Sleep is one of my favorite bands. Armor for Sleep is a large part of the soundtrack of my life and represents a lot of who I am today.

Armor for Sleep released their new album, “Smile for Them”, back in October and it is amazing. I suggest going and buying it immediately! Trust me! Anyway, today I just stumbled upon the Music video for their new single, “Hold the Door”, on Myspace. It is chilling and amazing at the same time. It truly captured the true spirit of AFS. I love the message of “Hold the Door”. I can really relate to parts. Oh, and they are playing the Fillmore on March 30 and you can put money down that I will be there.

Here is the video…Enjoy:
Hold The Door

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]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2008/02/armor-for-sleep-does-it-again/feed/ 0 What is this you are trying to sell me? http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/12/what-is-this-you-are-trying-to-sell-me/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/12/what-is-this-you-are-trying-to-sell-me/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:00:43 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=51 Tis the season for shopping and crappy products on store shelves. Here are two products that were recently found while out and about shopping for the holiday season.

First is the “Stay Straight” Doo-Hicky

What is this thing? Is it a hair appliance or maybe a homophobic person’s dream device? From looking at the packaging, there is no indication whatsoever about what in the hell this thing is for or even how it works. The information gleaned from the package is that it is a kitchen product. That is it. It was selling for $1.00 and I was thinking about buying it just to have if I needed to keep things straight.

Second up is the “Peg Legged Kitty” Ornament

This poor item was found tucked away in the holiday section at my local TJ Maxx store. I see the concept but it is a horrible execution. Did anyone step back and look at this poor thing before they sent it in to production? And what blind retail buyer decided to pick this product up?! Honestly people, are you serious?! I don’t know what is worse, the fact that the cat is crippled or the fact that the cat looks like it knows and is sad and confused about it. I almost bought it out of pity because who is honestly going to buy a crippled kitty to hang on their Christmas tree?

Thank you to my lovely Lisa for pointing these things out in the store, making me take the pictures, and suggesting that I post them on my blog.

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]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/12/what-is-this-you-are-trying-to-sell-me/feed/ 0 Tampa to Oakland http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/tampa-to-oakland/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/tampa-to-oakland/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:04:13 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=18 Last year I drove from Florida to California with a trailer in order to move my life to the left coast. I video taped a lot of the ride and I am planning on editing it in to a nice little documentary/travelog. I upload it a scene from the trip to YouTube yesterday. In it I have just crossed the border in to Texas and found myself in a gridlock of vehicles.

I call it “Traffic Sucks”

Here it is:

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]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/tampa-to-oakland/feed/ 0 Media Box for Linux http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/media-box-for-linux/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/media-box-for-linux/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:39:27 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=16 So, Sean, my co-worker decided that he wanted to archive all his movies in a NAS and watch them streaming through his home network. Then he changed his mind and decided that he wants it to handle downloads and I am sure the next thing is that he wants it to be like a sling box. Or at least it will be when he reads this :)

So, I am toying around with creating a software package for Linux/Mac that will allow you to manage videos, music, and photos locally and clustered to NAS arrays that will allow you to watch uncompressed or compressed on the fly movies via direct access or a web interface. It will also have a built in torrent downloader and an indexer that will allow you to quickly and easily find media on the cluster. It will also support multiple users and roles so that you can let you friends in to download and upload things with disk and bandwidth quotas.

And there you have it. Its only an idea at this point and I won’t be able to do it alone so if anyone that happens upon this blog can help, shoot me an email or IM.

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]]> http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/media-box-for-linux/feed/ 0 JVC Everio Frustration and Solution http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/jvc-everio-frustration-and-solution/ http://www.mikeheijmans.com/2007/11/jvc-everio-frustration-and-solution/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:48:40 +0000 mike http://www.mikeheijmans.com/?p=15 If you own a JVC Everio video camera you will share in my frustration on this.

For some stupid reason, JVC decided to use a damn proprietary file type for their video files. .MOD

.MOD seems to be an MPEG2 format that nothing but iMovie can read and to make matters worse, the tools that came with the camera are windows only and by what I have read don’t even handle the files right.

Thankfully though, I have found hope in converting the stupid useless files in to something more useful and even compressing them for web use. Check out: http://www.squared5.com/ they have the answer that I have been looking for and its for Windows and Mac! I just used it and it works beautifully. I converted to .MP4 and posted it on my you tube account. You can check it out here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7gX_IHn0_4

The converter even has full H.264 compression support for .MP4 files!!! YAY!!

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