Tindie

Portable recorders have come a long way since the dictaphone, which was a pocket tape recorder popularised in the late 1908s and 1990s for meetings, memos and musicians. The 8M Recordable Sound Play Module is a miniature device capable of playing a sound file for a range of uses.

It’ll support both WAV and MP3 playback, with 8MB of storage for a few small files which are played back on the connected speaker. It probably won’t replace your main portable MP3 player, but it’s small enough to be housed for a range of uses – perhaps a musical greeting card, photo frame, gift box or other types of creative gifts for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

The 8M Recordable Sound Play Module main board measures 3 x 3 cm and sounds can be uploaded from a computer using the micro USB port. It operates in the most simple way possible, with a button push to start and stop playback – although different trigger modes can be selected by using jumpers on the function selection area of the board.

It’s sold by ICStation who are based in China and have a vast range of electronics on sale and offer free postage on orders over $200.

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Have you ever wanted a theme tune to play as you enter the room? Perhaps the imperial march, a pop hit or Super Mario’s Jolly Roger Bay. Well now you can thanks to the Human presence triggered music player –  a small box which will wait for your arrival and serenade you when you step in trough the door and switch the lights on!

It’s designed for service rooms but has applications for all kinds of locations and establishments. The music is stored on an SD card, which can be selected by pressing the knob – which also controls the volume when turned. You might like to have some relaxing music to accompany a deep bath or something to get you pumped up for the home gym – whatever you choose it’s an unusual and ingenious device. Simply let it play out or turn off the lights to stop the music!

There are three versions of the music player with an embedded AC/DC adapter, a low voltage supply and a boxed, carbon-looking moel – pictured above.

The Human presence triggered music player is available from m1l3n who are based in Switzerland and offer numerous neat audio gadgets.

Check out their demo below to see it in action. Where would you put it?

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For audiophiles, sound quality is paramount at all times – and mobile devices often compress our beloved music to fit the storage size rather than the full breadth of the aural spectrum. The Audio Hi-Fi Player is a newly-released audio player which is faithful to the quality of sound intended to be heard by the musicians, sound designers and mastering engineers behind the music. It comes in a sleek design and features a real-time spectrum analyser for beautiful audio visualisation.

The ADIUM uses lossless sound to ensure maximum audio authenticity, up to 128 GB storage on board and 7 days of battery life in stand by mode. It supports a range of file types including Flac 48 kHz/16bit, as well as MP3 up to 320 kps, AAC, OGG and M4A. Its beautiful OLED screen displays in 3 different colors (green, blue, amber) with a real-time spectrum analyzer to show activity amongst the audio range. It has the conventional shuffle mode and a 3.5 mm stereo jack socket for audio output to headphones and auxiliary speakers.

The documentation is currently in Spanish only, but it is currently being converted into English. It’s being sold by AIRA Designs who are based in Mexico – see three of the players in action in the video below:

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For bands and touring musicians, a backing track is a useful addition to the live performance – to add depth and sounds which might not be feasible on stage. However, relying on the sound guy to play the right tracks at the right time is fraught with danger! The Stage Bro 1000 is a portable stomp box which stores and plays back your recordings from a USB stick, simply controlled by two foot switches – for immediate, controllable high-fidelity playback.

The Stage Bro 1000 plays back any stored files in MP3 or WAV format, which can be loaded onto a USB memory stick from your computer. Playback comes through a 1/8″ stereo jack socket, which will plug into an amp, or the mixing desk – with a small screen to display the track currently playing. It’s a useful tool for singers using backing tracks, guitarists needing a back beat, and any band which requires a full string section on stage!

It’s built to last in a durable enclosure for gigging, and bringing greater control over your live show without the need for laptops or computer playback. It ships from Canada by Krystal State who are sharing their first product – see what it can do for yourself:

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In the summer of 2001, Apple was something of an innovative, yet niche, computer company and listening to digital music meant loading a few tracks onto a flash-based music player with a memory capacity measured in Megabytes. Then in October of that year, things changed forever with the release of the iPod. This device would not only streamline our music listening experience, its descendants would usher in an era of consumer smartphones (iPhones) and propel Apple to be the world’s first company worth a trillion dollars.

Of course this march forward of technology didn’t happen in a vacuum, and one side effet is the proliferation of inexpensive components related to these products. You can now procure the hardware to decode MP3 files in the form of the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, as well as enough storage capacity to hold thousands upon thousands of songs for very little money. For a head start on this type of DIY device, you might consider the PiPod from Bram

Case printed separately

While it doesn’t include everything you’ll need—notably the Pi itself—it does feature a PCM5102A DAC along with a 3.5mm jack for “high-quality audio without a hum,” and a 320×240 pixel display. The device was conceived of when it seemed to Bram that current streaming services were starting to sound more like radio stations with the same songs playing over and over. He wanted to be able to play digital music locally—and with a 3.5mm jack…like back in the good old days!

For another interesting Pi Zero contraption, you might also check out the TinyPi, possibly the smallest Pi Zero game system that will ever be made.

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So once again you’ve put off your Halloween hack and will have to wait until next year to present your latest animatronic gizmo to the neighbors. Or will you?

The best Halloween props and installations are really about creativity. If you have a good idea there’s still time to make it happen, as long as you get a little bit of help with the execution.

For a head start on something spooky, this kit features a motion sensor, along with RGB LEDs and an MP3 player module to make your skeleton, jack-o-lantern, or glitching robot light up and say “hello” to your guests. You’ll need to provide an Arduino board to tie everything together per these instructions, as well as a micro SD card and the actual device to be “spook-ified.”

With motion, sound, and an Arduino at hand this is a great start for just about any idea. Just last week I covered several different motor options in a guide that will point you in the right direction to make that skeleton skull swivel back and forth too. Change out the audio, wire in more LEDs, and you can move a coffin lid that reacts to the motion sensor being triggered. See where I’m going with this?

While it looks quite scary in the video below, this set of components could easily be put to use in a more inviting configuration. Perhaps Santa Claus would like to say “ho-ho-ho” while Rudolph’s nose lights up, or maybe your robot just needs to be a little more social!

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