The few dozen plants around the world that make vinyl records are straining to keep up with exploding demand. Last year, more than 13 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S., the highest count in 25 years. One reason? The fuller, warmer sound from vinyl’s analog grooves.
A black box arrives in the mail. It’s a Cupcade, from Adafruit and you’ve been anxiously waiting for it. You rush to your workbench, switch on your soldering iron, and take out your kit. But there’s something missing.
It’s not a component. Or a tool. Or a broken link in one of our tutorials. There’s no soundtrack.
No problem, you stroll over to the record player at the far side of the room. The case you’re looking for is on display, sitting on a shelf next to family portraits and 3D-printed gizmos. You take the case down, pull out the bright pink 150 gram 12″ vinyl disc, and place it on the player. Slowly, the whir of a spinning record joins your Hakko’s low hum as you flip your stereo’s switch. A fuzz fills the room. The tone builds to near climax as you raise the needle and place it on the record’s first ridge.
Anticipation yields. Ethereal beats fill the air. “It is not soldering,” you think, “without Bartlebeats.”
Frequency by Bartlebeats is the soundtrack to your soldering. It’s the first vinyl record from Adafruit that collects the music that drives our YouTube channel like a V8 engine on a Mustang. All of it’s collected into one unique, limited edition, old school package. The record itself is a lovely pink and has a case with cover art designed by artist Bruce Yan. It’s a perfect way to rep your DIY pride and Adafruit spirit.
But that’s really just a bonus to the music you’re getting. We’re providing a free digital download through the Bartlebeats bandcamp page. It’s all music you’ve heard just by watching our videos but you’ve never been able to own it until now.
Below is the tracklist and here’s our YouTube page where all the songs are featured just in case you can’t wait for the record and want to relive past DIY adventures. And remember that we can’t guarantee that Bartlebeats will make you a better maker – but we can guarantee it’ll make your project even more epic and fun.
Side A
Idea3
Carpeter
Neat Please
Smart Forever
Mad Bugs Test
Daisy
Part 6
Side B
University
Discovered
Shooter
2011 Lookalike
6_6_12
Small Selective
Tall Bird
Clay Guys
Bartlebeats is the multi-talented Tom White – our very own Director of Receiving and Office Manager – who is ½ of the rock band Frog and also a bassist in the band Little Anchor. Album art by Bruce Yan. Produced by Ladyada, pt & the Adafruit team.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
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