Incredible Steampunked Musical Device Debuting Tonight at Gypsy Nomads Concert!

Want to hear and see something extraordinary and decadent tonight, Friday, August 6th for the low price of only $5?  Then bring yourselves, dressed to the nines (or tens!), to Darkroom in Chicago at 2210 West Chicago Avenue and experience not only the sights and sounds of  THE GYPSY NOMADS and the elegant and sensual dancing of MAE THE BELLY DANCER but also experience the fine creation of the Extra-Ordinary Aural Fusionoscope & Amplification Machine operated by our most esteemed and qualified steampunk DJ’s (including myself!).

Please RSVP to our Facebook Event:  “Gypsies & Steam”!

Update:

Picked up by the BoingBoing!

Yes, our contraption qualifies as a There I fixed it!

Advanced Technology Blog!

So to begin the journey:  roughly six to eight months ago (or perhaps longer?),  I was enjoying some lychee royale champagne when my good friend Heaven Malone approached me.  We got onto the subject of Steampunk, inventing and all that fun stuff when he mentioned, “You know Lord Baron (okay, so he actually just called me Joe), you should make a Steampunk DJ set up.”

For those of you who do not know, I have actually made a living at various points in my life as a DJ.  Thus, fusing DJing and Steampunkery seemed not only natural, but warranted.  Therefore,  I set out to create a Steampunk DJ rig, and sadly, failed.  The truth was that I did not really have the tools, knowledge or, well, the skill to undertake something like this on my own.

Enter the good inventor Evad.  With the help of this fine and extraordinarily talented individual, the two of us designed and have successfully built the machine that I had first dreamed of.  Thusly, my always good and possibly wantonly dressed and always finely coiffed personage – I present to you:

THE (extra-ordinary) AURAL FUSIONOSCOPE & AMPLIFICATION MACHINE!!

To clarify what you might be looking at for those who are not familiar with DJ systems – this was originally a Numark CD-Mix 2 which I purchased from my good friend Orvtronixx.  We built a wooden box around it and then got down to the lengthy task of expanding the audio ins & outs from the back of the box.  After much soldering (and gnashing of teeth) we successfully installed a balanced XLR out, three RCA line-ins and a 1/4 in” microphone line in.  We re-routed the main RCA unbalanced master out to a small speaker that is housed just below the vintage cast-iron Phonogram horn to act as the DJs personal monitoring system and re-routed the main mic out into a small microphone housed in the the smaller 1920s Ford car horn (which we repainted in black and copper).

We then took a 1940s radiator, took it apart and housed the transformer in it.  All in all the entire rig is an all in one system; though for large clubs we highly suggest running the XLR outs to the main sound.

We chose this particular rig because we’ve found that what is generally considered steampunk music is most often found on CD or is available via the Internet for download as most of it is made by independent artists who don’t have the funds for full vinyl releases.  With that said – the RCA audio-ins can work both phono and digital – we even included a large bolt for grounding; discovering vinyl turntables are easily plugged into the device for those who prefer to DJ on the good ol’ sound of vinyl.

Now of course you want to see it live and in person!  Then as stated in the beginning of this informational and exciting post, come out tonight as The (extra-ordinary) Aural Fusionoscope & Amplification Machine will be at Gypsies & Steam at Darkroom backing up such (EXTRA-ORDINARY) live acts as THE GYPSY NOMADS and MAE THE BELLY DANCER!

See you then!

The Lord Baron