Thanks for being so patient with me while I got this badboy together and ready! And ready it is! (Nearly, we just need pcbs and bar graphs, piece of cake!)
Ok, let's start with what this thing is hey... the Spectrum Analyzer is a purely visual device, it's a looky-box, you put it where you listen to music or where you play music and you enjoy the visual display of your audio. The Analyzer is a complicated little computer that your audio signal is plugged into so it can read the signal. Your audio signal doesn't go through the analyzer, more like the analyzer is sitting on the fence and staring at your audio. It has a very high impedance buffer that has no impact on your signal at all, it's like it's not even there as far as your audio signal is concerned. It looks at your signal and then splits the signal into 7 filter bands: 63Hz, 160Hz, 400Hz, 1000Hz, 2.5kHz, 6.25kHz, and 16kHz. The intensity or quantity of signal in each filter band is then displayed on a corresponding bar graph LED on the front panel. The bar graphs go from lowest freq, 63Hz, to highest freq, 16kHz, from left to right.
They look like this:
They look like this in action:
https://instagram.com/p/2MrBMTNUjb/?taken-by=drscientistsounds
You can plug in anything that has an audio output as long as you can get an adapter to make it 1/8" (3.5mm). Your computer, your home stereo, your home theater rig, your tablet, your phone, whatever you listen to music on you plug into the analyzer, it fits inline with the signal chain. So say you listen to music on your phone with headphones.. you'd plug your phone into the analyzer and then your headphones into the analyzer. There's a few ways to plug in a home stereo or home theater rig, it kinda depends on what connections you have available, but basically you just put the analyzer inline using it's in and through jacks.
You can plug in musical equipment too like your guitar, your pedal board, your synthesizers and drum machines etc, or it can take a signal from a mixer or line level.. basically anything that outputs audio on a cable can be made to plug into the analyzer, you just need the right adapters. I start you off with a few common cables and adapters to get you started but you might have to get your own stuff, it really depends on your system and what you wanna do/look at.
Here's the jacks, all nice shielded jacks, they're on the right side of the box and there's a power jack and then two audio jacks, basically in and through although they're just connected directly to each other with the high impedance tap coming off each channel. The little white knob is how you adjust the height of the display, or how high the bars go. I adjust it for you when I build it so that the bars hit the full height with a strong signal but depending on how you use the analyzer, line vs mic mode, or what signal you put in, you might have to adjust the knob too, it's no biggie, it's like a volume knob for the bar graphs.
The analyzer also has a small microphone on its front panel that you activate by pushing in the switch on the back of the box. The microphone can be used if you want to put the analyzer in your jam room or rehearsal space kinda thing, let the whole band see their sounds on the box. You can stick it on your amp in mic mode and use it that way too if you like and not plug it in at all. Plugging it in gives a more accurate and fuller display but it's totally situational, for a jam room the mic mode is perfect.
This video shows the analyzers in mic mode with me jamming on guitar and drum machine:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZh3Se3gVek[/youtube]
The analyzers come in a black sparkle box and the lights themselves can be a few different colours. For the production version I'm just going to do blue and red, colours that I can get easily, but for this pre-order you guys are gonna have a choice of blue, red, green, yellow, white, rainbow (I'll use a bunch of different ones for you), or old-school. (old school bar graphs are dimmer and they go red/yellow/green/yellow/red)
Here's some pics of the different looking colours.. I have a really hard time getting normal pics of the analyzers, they always look too bright.. they look sweet in person, trust me!
I don't know why some of the pics are sideways, trying to figure that out but not smart enough!
Here's what you get in the box, a couple of 1/4" to 1/8" adapters for your guitar/instrument cables, a 1/8" to RCA cable for your stereo stuffs, and a 1/8" to 1/8" cable for phones, tablets, computers.
Ok, let's talk pre-order! I have nearly all the stuff already to build analyzers, I just need production pcbs and bar graph LEDs, and I could use a bit of help in rounding them up since they're a big bite. What I'd like to do is give you guys a bit of a deal and have you pre-order, then give me about 4-6 weeks, and then I'll get 'em built and shipped. The wait time is just for the pcbs and bar graphs and there's no surprises involved, everything is all set and ready to go. This pcb version is my 4th proto layout and the builds are great, I've had analyzers running nearly full time around the shop for almost a year now, they're thoroughly tested and proven.
The retail price for Spectrum Analyzers in stores is going to be $225 USD. The pre-order price is going to be $175 USD for continental folks, $195 USD for international folks. (that's assuming I can use tracked packet shipping for you international folks, if your country doesn't have that and it has to be Xpress then I'll check in with you and your shipping will be higher, I'm sorry)
If you're interested in pre-ordering an analyzer I'd like you to email me, ryan@drscientist.ca, and I'll send you a PayPal invoice. So let me know your PayPal email address to use and your country and also what colour of bar graphs you'd like.
And then in 4-6 weeks I'll have all the parts on hand and I'll do a big build sesh and make all of your analyzers! They'll all come with stickers and picks too as well as the usual limited lifetime warranty.
Fire away if you have any questions about the analyzer or the pre-order and thanks for checking it out! (Small caveat, if you're going to ask for mods to it or for it to be changed into anything else to do anything else, don't, this took a year to get ready and it's done, it's a spectrum analyzer and it rules.)
*EDIT* Here's the instruction manual if you're interested:
