How cool is this? I just fried my beloved WaMiRack24 – a massive WAve and MIdi sound card for the PC – as I was reshuffling my synthesizer rig down in the basement. I’ve had it for years and it’s been great. It came all the way from Korea when I bought it and cost over $800.

I’m thinking that it’s going to be next to impossible to fix, and I’m probably going to have to send it all the way to Korea to get it repaired.

I look on Ebay and within minutes I find a guy selling the rack and card (no cable) for just $100. Perfect! SOLD!

How did we manage without the internet? Must have been like living in a cave or something…

Not really a photography post, but I recently discovered a new pastime (or obsession depending upon your point of view)…

I’ve never wanted a Playstation, not I, II or even III. All the games looked *exactly* the same, whether you were Sully from Monsters Inc, or a Gangsta Rappa (sic) in the hood, all you seemed to do was run around jumping over things and occasionally bopping people on the head.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago when I went over to my buddy’s house and he introduced me to Guitar Hero. That’s the game you play with a small plastic guitar shaped controller and try to follow the notes as they come shooting down the fret board. A nice touch is that the on-screen band follow your moves, as do the audience – who start booing when you miss too many notes.

I was hooked – the next day I went out and bought a PS2, Guitar Hero II, and a wireless controller. I then spent about a week playing all the way through GH II, then went out and got GH I and played through that.

While I was kicking around waiting for “GH Rock the 80s” (coming out later this month) – I thought I’d have a go at making a full size controller. I cut up an old guitar and transplanted the electronics from the wireless controller into the guitar body. Afterwards I decided to give it a custom paint job – 3 tins of Wal-Mart’s best metallic paint and some masking tape provided a natty looking Union Flag motif.

After much stressing/snapping of the delicate ribbon connectors – and subsequent resoldering I finally got the thing working. I played about 4 songs last night and I’m pleased to report that the feel of the new controller is much better than the old one…

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