Here are the online communities that I frequent on the regular:
For all the enthusiasts of this little wonder car. There seems to be a forum for every random consumer product.
What, you never eard of dubstep? Bollocks mate! If you like the heavy weight of a pressurized room, then turn on your sub and put needle to dubstep vinyl. This is the place where you will find all the other heads, including alot of the BIG producers and djs. Yeah, imagine chatting with Skream online. It's almost porn innit?
subtrac.blogspot.com
Subtrac is a crew that's setting a dubstep foundation in Toronto with monthly parties. They've brought Kode9, Skream, and Joe Nice, and hold things down sickly themselves. If you're local, this is a good thing to check out.
Representing for the tri cities and beyond in the underground electronic music scene. If you want to know where to party around here, this is where you look.
welcome!
This page is a workspace for me to develop things I want to publish. Whatever I make here, if it becomes something significant and fairly complete, will be broken out into it's own page on this site. I would like to get away from the blog idea and more into the idea of articles, writeups, howto's, etc. Beeeeeeeem!
Mastering Studio
Building a mastering studio, or any studio, can get expensive. If you do a lot of reading on what to buy based on what is the highest quality equipment, you start getting into the thousands of dollars per piece. Another approach is to start with cheap stuff, hear how it sounds and then get "better" equipment as you can afford it. In this way, you can really gauge the value of the more expensive pieces by doing double blind testing and measuring yourself.
What I have:
- Gadgetlabs Wave 24 audio interface. 8 in, 8 out. I bought this thing around year 2000 for about $700 on ebay. State of the art in 1999. It has an online support network who have managed to write thier own drivers for post-windows 98 operating systems. It has the digital I/O option, but I'm not certain whether this is supported by the current drivers. I had lost confidence in this piece since and hadn't set it up in my last two house moves, but I now realize that it's a solid piece of gear that will do the job of multitrack recording with decent quality. If I can get the digital I/O to work, I can also use it to transfer audio to a high quality external DAC for mastering.
- M-Audio Transit. This is a small cheap USB interface, 2 in, 2 out. It can do 24-bit/48 kHz and it has digital I/O. But, it seems the digital out only does 16-bit. Does this mean it's truncating when you're working with a 24-bit file? The analog output is very clean in my experience and I've seen measurements that find no flaws. I currently use the level control that the driver provides. Realizing that this is not ideal, I am planning to purchase the BMC-2 (see below). At this point, I really can't say I can hear the software scaling though.
- Paradigm bookshelf speakers. Not sure of the model, but their flatness has been verified.
- Kenwood home reciever circa mid-late 90's. Probably not good enough noise wise, have to see.
- Sennheiser HD650 headphones. These are considered some of the most accurate headphones you can buy. I got these as a first step in monitoring. Combined with a low noise environment, they are excellent. They however do not let you feel bass.
What I am aiming to purchase in the short term (aka what I can afford now):
- TC Electronic BMC-2. This is the poor mastering engineer's monitor controller. It is a DAC with analog level attenuation and digital boost, taking stricktly digital input at 24-bit. I don't know what happens when you feed it 16-bit.
- Some sort of bitperfect digital output device for the PC. A simple cheap device that spits out SPDIF or AES format digital is few and far between. Annoyingly, gear that does the job well is also packaged with high end convertors. WTF is the point of that? There is an option to use a cheap consumer grade sound card with the right driver but so far I've seen it's limited to 16-bit. Again, I'm not sure what happens when you're working with a 24-bit file and monitoring at 16-bit. There must be some scaling going on by software. Which software and what is it doing to the signal? There are many dream interfaces out there costing from $1k to several $k, but I'd rather pay for that with cash I made from mastering.
Music Creation and Publishing
Being that my focus is constantly on UK electronic music, there is always an air of mystery and I'm always trying to deconstruct why. Take the music production cycle of the typical dnb/dubstep scene. Music is created in studio with machines, then played out live for a long time before there is even a decision to release. By the time music is printed for distribution, it has already lived a full life and the people who spent the last 6 months raving to it probably don't want to buy it (?). But at that point, it has gained a serious (underground) reputation and is therefore marketable as certified good.
The roots of this "dubpate" culture are in the early days of vinyl pressing. Test pressing was necessary for quality control of the manufacturing process, not the musical content. I imagine you would only decide to print music after it has already gained notoriety by playing live for a period of time. In perfomed music, new music is composed and then performed live before being released. In programmed music, new music is composed and performed/presented (via dubplate) live before being released. In the latter case, the music can be heard much more efficently since you could have multiple DJs playing the same song in the same night across the world. The comparison of these two forms probably deserves another article.
When everything is avaiable for download at all times, you have to at least question whether the exclusivity of a dubplate makes sense. Well, music lives a public life. That makes it a spiritual thing, because it brings people together in a common spiritual experience. Does it matter whether everyone at the dance has their own personal copy of the dubpate that the DJ is presenting for the first time live? Playing it at home is a vastly different experience from being at a club. And, contrary to new beliefs, not everyone is a DJ. To answer the question, it's a different experience and exclusivity is not necessary so there is no reason to worry.
The difference between private and public performance needs to be emphasized because it is easy to forget the latter. Perhaps one day of the week should be reserved/preserved/ observed for a public spiritual experience?! Soundsystem culture takes this to its rightful extreme. A proper public address system is makes you understand why there is a difference.
How Jamaican Sound System is setup (research)
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?p=534087
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:37 pm Post subject: Re: "dub/reggae" PA system? [by trevord]
Typical older/local system is made up of a number of bass/mid/his combos typically the double 18 box , a big mid horn, and a bank of piezo tweeters. Piezos are favoured for everything but the bass cause you can't kill them - usually when you do - you fry the lead wires and solder them back and keep jammin. These are usually separately amped but the amp is not in speaker box but in a rack maybe 3 or 4 19" racks wide and 5' tall (big enough for everything plus a dj "coffin" on top). In my day we didnt use crossovers but did separate equalizers as crossovers - this gave more flexibility on the sound. Amps are not bolted but are free standing for cooling - the racks are surrounded by fans.
In the old days and on the older systems today the amp of preference were the 500 W per channel tube Crowns and McIntosh's. The bigger tube Dynacos were also popular. These tubes bad boys would drive to distortion 24hrs a day (in the topic heat) and still sound "pleasing" . The other thing with tube is you could distribute the hi-voltage (if you had really long speaker wire runs) and put the transformer at the speaker. Another reason tubes were popular is you can pick the output impedance to match your speaker config - there were 4/8/16 Ohms taps on the output transformer. There were are few transitor amps which were legends 1) Phase Linear - Never understood the reason but these amps sounded great under stress - and were typically under rated in power. 2) Carver - (later on) very efficient and sounded good under stress 3) Consumer Pioneers - hugely underated in power and had the extremely high damping factor that damped speaker movement. You could run low bass all day on these things. I think all these lines share Carvers designs - nothing sounds like these amps - anything they have now will auto shut-off right in the middle of your clash
But nowadays power effeciency is paramout- so newer qsc or mackies are used. But if your see a crown 500 tube or phase linear 700 - get it - thats the sound of bass
With a system like this you have to run from the junction box of the building or use a generator.
All of these could be one team or independent - I used to be an independent sound-boy. The big bass horns are popular for outdoor events - but you get a mid-bassy sound - but it is more efficient. You would arrange a pair of double 18" in a corner formation to get more concentrated projected sound outdoors.
These systems might be home made - but they were not guess work. There was a "bible" of the speaker design - I dont know if you guys remember the Radio Shack books on speaker design - the DIY speakers were usually made from the tables in those books. The double 18 are usually 1" plywood or high or mid density fiber-board reinforced with 2x4s. Depending on the desired mobility the 18" were designed to be easily removable - to make things lighter for transport and you usually blew a couple during a "fete" anyway. If the double 18 was stay at home or extremely high-power speaker the botton was cast with concrete to prevent it from moving.
The new systems are all planned by the manfacturer representative - I think JBL had cornered the market for a while. There is nothing like every truck blaring JBL on Brooklyn Labour Day parade for advertising. But again the other manufacturers have caught on and the manufacturer/sound retailer is usually the "sound-system" for the super groups.
The more exciting "sound-clash" is the "hall" or "basement". "Halls" are bigger rental spaces and "basements" are basements in homes. Typically two or teams would battle with bass heavy songs and dj's - in my day the crowd turn the speakers of the loser around.
Typically a promoter would organize a fete - the money is made from selling of food (ital) and liquor (and other agricultural products ). Depending on the size of the venue and expected crowd - you would involve more than one sound-system on your team. You are expected to arrive early and setup. Earlybirds got the corners for the bass boxes. You were also expected to arrive early and play at max volume as advertisement. Depending on the geography around the venue - these things could be heard for miles - of course its different for a club or house in the city.
There is more interesting stuff At home - the first thing we did was varnish (yeah thats right as in poly-urethane) the paper cones of the 18 to protect them from rain, spilt beers and also to strenghten them. We also added paper re-inforcements from an old 12" to strengthed the joint from the cone to the core. We also added multiple leads to the core and extra insulation. AS far as the bass boxes go the the big problems were usualy the cores over extending and getting stuck - a quick slap to the cone would put them back. Other than that the cone would catch fire - then you just popped a spare 18" in. The piezos would take almost anything you threw at them - the main problem would be frying the lead wires - many piezos are fixed right on site - the solder remover tape serving as a temporary lead. Or a big 4.7 uF in series kept the bass out - but most of the time that was one more thing to blowup. As far as quality - you are right about the distortion especially the tube amps - that was the sound to get. I remember me and my "sound-boy" friends use to laugh that we were just gating the 60Hz power supply with the bass. But these are meant to be listened in a huge crowd in the outdoors. A "block-o-rama" - it was these systems that gave birth to rap in the '70s.
Those were fun times - nothing like telling a gang of rastas stop smoking the big blunts by your system because the long ash was getting in and shorting things
Interesting side note: The same mentality has combined with the American car audio contest to produce a strange phenomenon. The idea is to have a small sedan - packed with enough equipment to sound like a full "sound-system". The thing is - you are partyin in the street - but the desired thing is the source of the sound should not be identifiable - they are are usually the simplest hand painted (in a single color) sedans. Its amazing what they pack into these "sound-system" on wheels.
Hope I didnt stray too much from the topic. It was fun reminiscing.
For the older/cheaper systems i think the faults were in order of frequency
1) Any coil driver in a mid-horn or tweeter - might as well walk with a box of them. Use piezo-electric drivers or spend the night replacing coils in your horns. 2) 18" speaker repair kits - there were two problems with these a) edge failure - the expected excursion of an 18" for high SPL is relatively small - and the edges were usually deteriorated from sun/heat, moisture and use. Even the newer edges deteriorate in the sun/heat, and there isn't much you can do to protect it. b) leads and cores - usually an 18 would knocked out of alignment by someone hitting the cone or dropping the box and the weight of the magnet shifting everything out of alignment - the core would then rub and short out (if you are lucky - if not - the cone would catch fire) 3) Low frequencies getting thru and blowing speakers 4) replacing tubes/transistors
When you get speakers - get the ones which can be taken completely apart by bolts.
But the need for hot repairs depended on the situation - if it was you alone with a big system in a smaller venue -- hardly anyone noticed (one 18 out of 6 or 8 double 18" boxes)
Its funny - it wasn't the bass that gave the most problems - its was the mids. In spending on your system spend on the mids - thats the perceived "quality" of your sound. You bass could be 100% undiluted distortion but as long as people heard the melody and recognized the tune - it didn't matter. Also this is reggae/soca/latin music - the bass doesnt "hit" that often - almost all the time you will see your bass power amp vu meter return to zero - while the mids power amp will be continuously driving. Plus when the venue gets packed the thing you compensate by turning up is the mids/highs. If you have 500w RMS amp and 300W RMS amp put the 500W on mids and 300W on bass - the bass amp will be peaking a high value but running 200W RMS while the mid will be running 300W RMS. So usually the thing to fix (because it immediately affects the sound) was things to do with the mids - horn/speaker going, amp overheating etc.
In a "sound-clash" its different tho - you go for it - hopefully you start sounding like crap before things begin blowing up.
The other big cause of failures was unexpected resonances in the space you are in. You would be surprised at what 6 double 18 would find in a room - from the floor going into resonance to bass build up actually moving speakers. More often than not you got bass feedback going thru the floor which cause your amps to overheat in one venue but not in another - this is why dj "coffins" are usually suspended from the "rack" by springs . Not to mention, when things are going good and the whole crowd is jumping in perfect synchronization (for calypso/soca) and the whole crowd "dip" in sync in reggae - thats a very low freq bump going thru your system
The other failures was people tripping over cords - one thing we learned early was how to wrap cords and connect cords/cable. It is one thing I dont see anyone do in America. Our way is - any cord going to the rack is first looped with the tie point of the loop at the top - this does two things - strain relief - if the line gets snagged (some one tripping over it) the loop just gets tightened - if water drips down the line - it would fall off the bottom of the loop before getting to the rack.
The amps were very reliable - but back then power amps were huge and simple - take the phase liner 700 for example
thats 50lbs of meaty transformer and heat sink - any of the driver transistor go - just unscrew them and replace them. Plus the heat sink was the perfect place to put "roti" (Indian wraps) to warm them up New amps seem to have the transistors hidden - but with all the modern auto shut-offs you should not need to change anything in an amp.
The big tube amps seem to sound better as they died - you knew they were dieing because the sound got really crunchy and the tubes changed from healthy red/orange to blue/violet - but they kept on jammin - nothing could stop a mono-block 500W McIntosh - that mutha would drive a short without complaining - you just noticed the lights in the village were dimming in time to the music
radio
| Monday | ||
|---|---|---|
| 05:30-08:00 | The Morning Ride with King Turbo | CIUT 89.5 FM |
| 14:30-17:00 | Rebel Music with DJ Chocolate | CKLN 88.1 FM |
| Tuesday | ||
| 05:30-08:00 | The Drill Squad | CIUT 89.5 FM |
| 21:00-23:00 | Loetech | www.streamizm.com |
| Wednesday | ||
| 16:00-18:00 | Stella Sessions with Skream | Rinse FM |
| Thursday | ||
| 16:30-18:00 | Afternoon Carpool with DJ Raph | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| 19:00-21:00 | The Wax Jungle with DJ DC and B-Mellow | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| 21:00-23:00 | The Pressure Drop with UBU Sound | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| 23:00-04:20 | Street Hop with DJ Carmello | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| Friday | ||
| 15:30-17:00 | Spoonful of Psytrance | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| 20:00-22:00 | Furious Fridays | CKMS 100.3 FM |
| 22:00-00:00 | The Drill Squad All Request Hip Hop | CIUT 89.5 FM |
| Saturday | ||
| 13:00-15:00 | Souljah Sessions | CJIQ 88.3 FM |
| 15:00-18:00 | Vibes Radio with Super V | CJIQ 88.3 FM |
| Sunday | ||
| 20:00-22:00 | Prophesy with Marcus Visionary | CIUT 89.5 FM |
deejaying
1993 I was sitting in grade 9 Chemistry. My friend Cyrus Raymond was like, "We should become dj's!" I thought something like that was way out of my league. Cyrus did it. He got the gear, bought some vinyl. After I saw his setup, I decided to start djing.
I've been playing records since 1994. I started in grade 10 with a set of Technics home turntables and a Pyramid mixer. My brother and I started collecting Dancehall and Hip Hop and I also started buying Top 40 dance music. At the time, Top 40 was House and you could make alot of money playing it, regardless of if you could mix or not. My main source of vinyl was The Record Bar in Oshawa, but we would also go down to Play De Record, Traxx, and New York Connection on Yonge Street in Toronto. Our aunt worked in Toronto and we would go down with her on a PA day at like 6 AM. So we would get to Yonge Street way before the stores openned and when we actually got into the store, we would have the whole place to ourselves. This was the time when it was Sniper and Mystical Influence working at Play De. I was 15 and my brother 13.
I made some good money from djing throughout high school. My very first gig was the Ajax High commencement at Annandale Golf Club. Sound was provided by my Dad's Studio Lab speakers. The contract was for $200, and since I didn't really have many records at the time, I just went to Record Bar and bought all the top 20 dance singles to play at the event. A 12" was $10 back then.
In grade 11, I met Dwayne McDowell in Communications class. Dwayne was already a veteran dj with mad scratch skills, endless crates of records, and super hifi equipment. He was into 'oldschool', which was 80s roller skating music (funk and disco) and hip hop. We started attending The Regent nightclub in Oshawa on friday nights. Cover was $10 and you could dance from 10 to 2:30. This is where we both developed a love for House. After awhile, The Regent closed and the crowd moved to Classique Palace in Ajax. We threw a party there called Ultimate Reality where we threw down all kinds of party music. It was intended to be a weekly. We did the first week and a bunch of people showed up. This was an all ages event and the thing to do in High School. A couple of under-agers realized that they could get drinks at this place, including my brother who lost his dinner on the front sidewalk :) So the next week was rammed. I remember that one of our main concerns was where do we keep all the cash that's pouring in. We blew some speakers there and that was the end of it.
I was introduced to Jungle in 1996 by James Cover (aka DJ Fanon, aka Man Like Cover) through recordings of raves and the unbelievable mixes he made. That was a turning point and an acceleration into the hyper dub space of the UK. I heard echos from childhood freaked and dubbed out, a powerful expression of love for the source material. Jungle made me rave. I didn't attend too many raves, but the ones I experienced lit me on fire. The main appeal for me was the transportation into another dimension. Dark, experimental, sound drenched, energy filled, and without bounds, euphoric. Not drugs, just rushing to beats and bass all night.
Close Encounters July 16, 1998
Student Life Center, University of Waterloo
In 1997 I started school at the University of Waterloo in Physics. When I arrived at the campus, I made a point of finding the radio station. My experience in Ajax was that campus/community radio was the only radio worth listening to. After tuning into hit FM stations through public school, I found that stations like University of Toronto's CIUT (89.5 FM) and Ryerson's CKLN (88.1 FM) were providing a solid connection to Toronto communities and underground music in general. I was inspired by shows like: The Prophesy with DJ Marcus, the Morning Ride with King Turbo, and Ron and Lisa's Dancehall show. With these experiences in mind, I was eager to bring my own flavour and advancements to radio. I met this punker in my class by the name of Hugh (aka Hughagi) and we started The Pressure Drop radio show, an ecclectic mix of Jungle, Reggae, Rap, House, Punk and Ska. Toots and the Maytals' 'Pressure Drop' was our opening theme.
As time went on, Pressure Drop became focussed more on Jungle / Drum and Bass. New DJ's joined the show, like: Bucky, Scoobs, CBell, Shaft, Dru. People went away and came back again, including myself. We've had the chance to DJ out at various places in Waterloo, Toronto, Kitchener, some parties we threw ourselves. The show has served to keep me connected to djing to this day. Despite all my other interests and projects, the show keeps my hands on the decks on a weekly basis.
Despite all the years, my gear has gone through relatively few changes. I replaced the original Radio Shack quality mixer with a Numark 2002X 3-channel in around 1998. This was the advent of affordable 3-band EQ for DJs and it changed the way I mixed in several ways. The most dramatic was the sounds quality. Scratching sounded so much better and that made it more fun. This mixer also had effect send for each channel, controlled by a switch. Later on, this became immensely useful with the Roland Space Echo. A few work terms later I purchased a pair of Numark turntables. These were shiny, but they had some problems. They would feed back terribly at shows, so much that I had to get rid of them. I picked up 2 battered Technics 1200 decks with cases. These were rental units for about 10 years until James got them in a fairly f-ed up state. The tonearm heights were no longer adjustable. In fact, the whole assembly was not put together properly. After James was done with them, they should have been encapsulated in gold and put in a museum, considering what he managed do with them. Instead, I bought them, fixed them, and have been rocking them ever since. The last critical piece of equipment for dj use was the Roland Space Echo, THE vintage effects box used by every pyschadelic producer. I picked this up on eBay for a small fortune. What the Space Echo allowed us to do was take djing to a whole new depth. This is a signature of the Pressure Drop Radio show. At one point in time, I met someone who couldn't figure out how many people we had on the show since all vocals went through the echo. Well, it sounds sweeter with the echo chamber!
Jungle as I loved it had now almost dissapeared, being replaced by repetative beats and uninspired bass. It was difficult to find records to buy. Around 2002, I went to a small party in Toronto called Ragga Clash with no one on the lineup that I recognized. I went by myself, knowing only that the party was about ragga jungle and with a gut feeling that I was going to find gold. I did! I discovered a group of people who had never given up ragga, always refused to compromise jungle, and had loads of tracks I had literally wished were produced, but never knew existed. DJs like C-Rat and Frankie Gunns blew my ass away with dancehall refix's rinsed out to perfection. Here was all the dancehall I loved finally fused with proper jungle. I started checking ragga-jungle.com and buying North American produced ragga from producers like General Malice, Chopstick Dubplate, Debaser, Krinjah, Soundmurderer.
In recent times, the ragga element in DnB has come back in varying forms. Ragga DnB is not Ragga Jungle. Ragga Jungle is reggae and dancehall dubbed out on jungle beats. The principles of dub, sampling only the most impactful vocal parts and using them sparingly, is greatly missing in much new "Ragga". The music must relfect a thorough knowledge for Reggae and an understanding of what's being said and what it means in its original context. Therefore ragga producers must listen primarily to Reggae just like how the original jungle producers listened to Jazz, Funk, Techno, Rap, Dub, and many other genres.
In 2006, Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC Radio 1 aired a special on her Breezeblock show called Dubstep Warz. Scoobs introduced this to me. It consisted of mini sets from some of the biggest players in the dubstep scene. The sound was dark, a bit moody, varied, and dub reggae driven. At first I was bored by this music, but the one track that stood out was Midnight Request Line by Skream, which seemed to echo the old school hardcore rave sound. My interest grew around that track and the set by Digital Mystikz. I started listening to SubFM and RinseFM. I went out to Subtrac parties in Toronto. I started buying records from Redeye. I started discovering a sound that I could relate to. The most suprising thing happens when you play dubstep through a sub. You hear much more and you experience the physical aspect of the sub bass. You cannot "hear" dubstep if you don't physically feel it. If you don't have a sub, then you're not listening to what the producer made.
instrumentation
What a DJ needs. At least 2 music players, each having realtime transport controls and clean undistorted sound output. A mixer to allow overlapping of the audio from different sources. A mic for addressing the listeners.
The standard setup. Two Technics 1200 turntables with slipmats and an analog mixer. The source medium is the vinyl phonograph disc. The setup allows realtime control of the audio. Precise cueing, jogging, and speed control. Two records can be mixed seamlessly by matching tempo, phase, and frequency content. The DJ has total transport control over the music. Any part can be started, stopped, looped, played fwd or reverse, at any speed.
The digital setup. A laptop computer loaded with digital recordings, software to allow control and mixing of the recordings, and some external control mechanism. The controller is entirely flexible using digital and analog transducers. Vinyl control is possible through the use of records printed with a control signal. DJ's who have developed motor skills for vinyl will find this the most immediately productive. Any MIDI controller can also be used and there are many to choose from designed specifically for DJing.
I've seen quite a few articles/tutorials about using Ableton Live for DJing. This is not DJing, but mixing pre-programmed clips. It involves setting up each and every piece of audio you want to play, setting cue points. The results are fantastic, but for a dj like myself who wants to pull together tracks from an mp3 collection on the fly, it's a bit too consuming. What Live needs is a proper turntable instrument.
festiva
Since I got my licence, I drove my mom's 1989 Toyota Corolla LE. It was a 4-door sedan, a small family car that was economical and well built. The car's odometer went to about 460,000 km in my posession and past 500 before it was scrapped.
In 2002 I got a new car, one that I chose. I had always been a fan of small cars like The Mini, VW Rabbit, Subaru Justy, etc. The best looking car out of that class was the Ford Festiva. I found one for sale in Toronto by a pair of school teachers who had driven it from BC. The car had spent its whole life there after being imported from the states, so it was almost rust free.
A few facts about my Ford Festiva:
| Model | 1991 L |
|---|---|
| Engine | Mazda B3, 1.3 L inline 4-cylinder, EFI, 63 hp |
| Transmission | 5-speed manual, cable clutch |
| Curb Weight | 1900 Lbs |
| Tire Size | 145/80/R12 |
| Front Suspension | coil over strut, single control arm stabalized by roll bar |
| Rear Suspension | trailing torsion beam, coil over shock |
| Brakes | front solid disc, rear drum, wheel bolts (not studs) |
| Interior | front bucket seats, fold-forward rear bench seat, 4-speaker stereo (4") |
In 20XX, Sport Compact Car magazine ran a story about Cam Waugh of CWS Tuning about his fully built Ford Festiva. Cam swapped the original motor for a 1.6 L turbo-charged engine of the same series, the almighty Mazda B6T, as well as other trick mods. The swap gave the sub tonne car about 135 hp, clearly ready to embarass any potential competition. While this was not the reason I wanted this car, it was a good reason to own it. I was mostly interested in optimizing the car's performance, but creating a sleeper seemed like a very sweet project. I started to gather information via fordfestiva.com, the meeting place on the web for all things Festiva. After awhile, I was convinced that a swap for the BP engine was the most practical. The B6T engines are found in only a few models. The Mazda 323GT and GTX cars have it, but these cars are already so badass that it would be a shame to gut them. The Mercury Capri XR2 also has it. These cars are hard, if not impossible, to find in Canada. The BP on the other hand is found in the Escort GT, which enjoyed considerable success in Canada and can be found in rusty condition for a few hundred dollars.
In 2005 I found my Escort and in the Summer of 2006 I began the transplant, using Matt Swabb's excellent Cardomain writeup as my guide. Props to him for paving the way for many other people as well. The old B3 was removed in working order. A rectangle had to be cut out of the firewall and recessed and one of the frame rails needed to be clearanced and then reinforced. Alan helped me with the fabrication of the patches and we welded them in and painted over. I purchased a brand new Stage II clutch from Spec and had the original B3 flywheel machined flat. I used the B3 flywheel because I was retaining the stock transmission. The new clutch had to match the input shaft of the transmission and the pressure plate that came with the new clutch had to bolt up to the B3 flywheel. This has the added advantage of having a lighter flywheel than the stock BP part.
Many people who do this swap want to use the large transmission that comes attached to the BP and there have been successes in doing so. However, it takes alot more work in adapting the axles to work with the hubs, fiting the bigger transmission, etc. I decided to stick with the B3 tranny to keep things simple. Some people have had problems with the transmission breaking when doing a hard launch. Since I didn't plan to do that, I figured it would be OK. The bonus is that the transmission is much lighter so it's better for say autocross.
In installing the engine, one mount had to be fabricated. I used the cylindrical part of the BP mount and added some steel. I also cut the cast iron part that attached to the original mount to clear the mounting bracket on the chassis. I had to drill and tap another hole in it to accept the mount I created.
All four corners recieved new Festiva Motorsport springs and KYB GR-2 shocks. This lowered the car about 1.5 inches. The rear springs are progressive. The shocks damp a little better than stock and a lot better than the old ones that came off. I replaced all brake and fuel lines on the car. Trying to bend extremely long lines and then flare the ends in place was a frustrating endeavor. When I got the brake system back together, many of my connections leaked so I had to re-make many flares. The way flares are made is a two stage process. First, the end of the tube is bulged and second the end is pressed in with a 90 degree taper so that the mating surface is conical. The trick is to not competely crush the end when you do the second step. Allow the die to shape the end, but do not compress the bulge. When the fitting finally goes together, the nut itself will make the final deformation and allow the tube end to conform to the male part. I figured this out by looking at the pre-made lines available at the store.
I upgraded the Festiva tires to 195/45/14 and put them on 14" Suzuki Swift GT aluminum wheels which Alan lended me. The tires I picked, the only brand of that size, were the awesome Toyo T1R. These are classified as ultra high performance Summer tires. They have deep V-grooves for channeling water away and not much else. There are no cross cuts. A lot of tire sits on the road and the compound is nice and soft. This upgrade was actually made a year before the swap and the difference it made in handling was dramatic. It really drove home what I had read, that tires make the biggest performance difference for the money.
racing
WOSCA 1 2008 - Sarnia, ON
The clear advantage of having a high power to weight ratio in a vehicle that most Canadians regard as hardly a car is the potential to win races. I'm led to believe that at one point in time street racing, similar to drinking and driving or not wearing a seatbelt, was acceptable. We now know that racing on the street is just as dangerous as driving to the mall in the Christmas season: very dangerous. So to really be able to have fun with a car requires a controlled environment. As a result of reading Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, I was introduced to the sport of Autoslalom racing.
Autoslalom (Autocross in the Excited States of America) is legal race in which each car drives one at a time on a flat course marked by pylons. Each car tries to get the best time and time is added for hitting cones, going off the course, or not stopping in the designated box. The track is different for each event, meaning that memory and quick thinking are important. The entry fee is usually $35 for at least 5 laps throughout the day. Any car can enter and competition is based on car classes. My Festiva usually runs in an open type class since the engine has been changed.
Starting in the summer of 2007, I attended the Push it to the Limit racing series run by the Mazda Sports Car club of Toronto. This was a very well organized event with about 120 drivers and a broad range of experience and skill levels. The venue was the Bronte GO train station in Oakville. Due to train service now extended to Sunday, PITL lost the venue and is still searching out a new space.
Events I've attended:
PITL 2007: events 1, 2, 4, 5. Results
WOSCA 2008: event 1. Results Photos
HADA 2008: events 1, 2, 4. Results
films
- The Freshest Kids
- Style Wars
- Beef
- The Last Dragon
- The Karate Kid
- The Outlaw Josee Wales
books
- Isaac Asimov's Chronology of the World - Isaac Asimov
- Hamlet's Mill - Giorgio De Santillana
- The Sign and the Seal - Graham Hancock
This goes on the air intake of my car and allows me to fasten a 3" cone air filter. I made it from one piece of aluminium and had it anodized.
I know that what happens at most bachelor parties should remain top secret, but this was more of an excuse to party than to watch strippers. It was also a good excuse to mash a chocolate boob cake into ND's face!
We love you Nick.
Click here for the pictures.
We fired up the Festiva last night!! With half an exhaust the sound was glorious. Truely a moment of inspiration. Still need to bleed the brakes and finish the exhaust. I'm aiming at a test drive tonight. Probably won't leave for Newfoundland until Sunday. I'll try to get some pictures tonight.
The intake is kind of unique. It's the most bare bones you can make it. I've got a very short rubber elbow and then the VAF and cone filter. That allows me to just fit the intake in the engine bay without relocating the battery. If I had a slim battery, there would be tons of room. I had to make a 3/4" port on the rubber elbow by making a hole and screwing in a piece of steel conduit. This is for the idle control line. It makes the line extremely short, which I've not really seen before. But the motor seems to idle great. My guess is that it's just for noise control. We'll see what happens when I actually drive the car though. It may affect the power response.
This is the home stretch for my engine swap. Lauren and I leave for Newfoundland on Friday in a much improved Festiva. Refurbished 1.8L engine, new upgraded clutch, new struts and progressive rate lowering springs, new tie rods, new ball joints, new brake lines and fuel lines. Test drive is slated for the middle of this week.
I was looking for something to listen to on the web and found this on BBC's 1xtra. It's a video of DaVinChe in his studio showing how to make a UK Garage Grime tune. I don't really listen to Grime, but I've been getting more and more onto the Dubstep tip and both are strains of UK Garage.
Dubstep is my mainstay for fresh music at this time. I'm right on that, buying lots of records from the UK and rinsing them on The Pressure Drop. This Saturday I'm going to check out Joe Nice dj at Dubstep Basics inside the El Mocambo. There's quite a buzz around this guy. He's played at a few dubstep nights right at the source in England as well as being a resident at Dubwar in NYC, plus he's got mad dubplates from all the big producers. He seems passionate about the music, so that's enough for me to check this out. Here's a recent set from Dubwar.
January 30, 2006
I managed to put one side onto the sailboat tonight with the help of Owen and Pete. Here is a nice side shot:
The side panel actually lines up pretty well with the front of the bow centerframe at the top. I didn't expect this and I'm pretty happy about it. One thing I kind of jumped the gun on is that the stringers at the front should taper outwards at the top. I was supposed to make the stringer into that shape, but instead I have created a gap that I will fill with bondo.
January 12, 2006
Here are some pictures of my sailboat in progress:
September 5 2005
What's more awesome that this?
I returned to the site of my last two camping adventures with Maria et al, about 45 minutes north of Parry Sound near Pointe Au Baril (point of the barell). This time it was a weekend getaway for two with my partner in time, Lauren. Late Summer / early Fall camping is sweet - no bugs to deal with, but it was shocking to see that the leaves are already changing colour. Summer appears to be closing out. Check pictures from this trip here.
Check out new pictures from Chas and Alli's wedding reception here.
June 20 2005
OK, this is unorthodox. Two blog entries in one month!
That's right. A soundsystem party in Ajax!
I went to Ottawa on the weekend to visit Diana. We went to Gatineau Park in Quebec, just across the Ottawa river. It's a huge conservation area, with hiking trails and educational displays. The trails, while well built and clear, weren't that trival to walk on. There was alot of climbing up and down large steps, definately not where you want to take your grandmother. I have some pictures.
We went to this one part of the park called Pink Lake. The lake is surrounded by cliffs, which makes the water pretty calm all the time. This leads to the water not ever being mixed from top to bottom, so that below a certain depth is almost void of oxygen and apparently contains one of the earliest life forms. The lake is not allowed to be used in any way by humans, except for looking. We saw some minows near the shore and they were incredibly hungry. I flicked a bug off my shirt into the water and there was an instant swarm. We started throwing in some flower petals and they actually ate those too, although we observed one spit it out and another one come and grab it. Here is what happened when we put the remainder of the flower in, after we had stripped the petals.
I bought an issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine on the weekend. For those unfamiliar, this is probably the coolest car magazine out there. There is an article in this issue about how to make your car fast, without doing anything ridiculous or spending alot of money (in most cases no money). Basically, it runs through how to properly adjust everything and make some simple yet effective mods. One thing they suggest is a cold air intake, and this got me thinking about something I had found on the web awhile back, but can't seem to find now: a hot air intake system.
Basically, there's a guy somewhere in California I believe, that had this idea to heat the gas/fuel mixture before it enters the conbustion chamber. The system uses heat from the exhaust and also uses some turbines to promote mixing and vaporization of the fuel. Apparently he got some pretty good results, but I don't think anyone has reproduced them, or even tried. I think the main principle here is complete evaporation of the gasoline. It made me wonder why liquid gasoline is injected into an engine and not a pressurized stream of vapour instead. There could be a partially filled pressure vessel under the hood with a regulator going to a valve. The answer to this question is that you wouldn't get enough fuel into the combustion chamber. In liquid form, it takes up alot less volume, so you can get alot in there and some of the evaporation will actually take place inside the combustion chamber.
The answer came from this website which talks about an entirely new engine dubbed the quasiturbine. I will comment on that once I have read through the site a bit more, but at first glance, this looks like the next shit.
Speaking of next shit, I was wondering last week how to make an electric motor that uses superconducting magnets. I discovered that such a motor had already been made by American Superconductor. I have yet to really confirm that what this company claims is true.
June 6 2005
This is a picture I took early in the morning while Jeff, James, and I were on the way to Ajax from Pickering.
I got new tires! Toyo T1R 195/45R14 on stock SwiftGT rims (thanks to Alan). Now I can corner as fast as I want without slip. Well, I haven't made them slip yet but it's a vast improvement over the last set of tires. Now all I need is brakes, a motor, lowering springs, shocks, seats... The project continues.
March 9 2005
I've uploaded a bunch of new pictures: from the Kloet Housewarming extravaganza on Friday in Hamilton (pic above indicates a successful party), Chas's and Allison's farewell to non-marriage at Failte in Waterloo, the party we had for Owen's birthday plus pics the next day (on his actual birthday) from the show that his band Knock Knock Ginger played in Guelph, and some old ones that never got uploaded from a farewell party for Richard at Owen's old place.
Many people have requested pictures from my trip to Pakistan and I haven't delivered. Sorting through my pictures is something I probably shoud have done when I got back from the trip in January, but I instead jumped right back into my projects. I haven't even sorted through pics from Maui! I looked at them once, from all the different people's cameras. I took me about 3 hours. There are alot of repeated shots where 10 people take a picture of the same thing. Ideally, I would sort through all the pictures and choose the best shots for each picture. That's still my intent, believe it or not.
December 13, 2004
Marcus Garvey was a man who fought for human justice his entire life and never gave up, even though he faced fierce opposition everywhere. He was a great believer in spreading information, having founded many newspapers to report on living conditions of Africans all over the world. Marcus Garvey means NEVER GIVE UP.
December 8, 2004
Today I read an article about global warming that states plainly: taking carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and putting it into the air must stop now or we will be facing world catastrophe flooding within the next generation. The problem is that large chunks of ice are falling into the ocean, thereby raising sea levels. All the people that live near the water now should probably move before that happens. I do not forsee our dependence on fossil fuels for energy changing any time soon. I believe that this mass flooding is the only thing that will make people wake up. The article originates from a group of the Geological Society of London.
December 2, 2004
"Hip Hop is the expression of our creative intelligence." - KRS-ONE
dance : music : paint : poetry
November 29, 2004
Don't do things because it's "environmental". Do things while being conscious of your surroundings. Know that you extend into all things and take care of yourself.
A !NEW! video game that samples existing video games. Make a side-scroller out of existing sidescrollers like Mario Bros, Bionic Commando, etc. Or have a bunch of games with linear levels and manipulate the order that you play them in. Have player data move from one game to the next. It's like deejaying video games. Then you throw in a live mix for the soundtrack. You could give it to someone as a present.
Is this a marketable idea? Does it have a potential market? How large is the market? How many competitors are there? Are you indeed the first? How cheap can you make it for?
Would this thing that I made, benefit the rest of society, make the world more civilized, bring them closer to each other? If the medium is the message, then all created things can carry a message. So then our creations are poetry. They convey ourselves and a message about how we see the universe.
November 22, 2004
Listening to The Arcade Fire right now on CBC Radio 3 and wearing my Arcade Fire t-shirt.
Read this article in New Scientist today about using a generated magnetic field to deflect cosmic rays that are incident on a spacecraft. The article makes some blunders, like saying you have to cool the superconducting magnet to absoute zero (an impossibility) and saying that high temperature superconductors generate less magnetic field. But despite the bullshit, I think making a mini magnetosphere is a pretty cool idea. I wonder if it's a good idea to make one for my house?
October 17 2004
One of the greatest weekends ever. Oktoberfest really descended onto this one. I felt like it was my birthday all over again. Starlight on Friday. There was an abundance of both fine women and booty shaking. Saturday I went to my first Oktoberfest outing. It really was a celebration bitches. Nothing but getting retarded all night long. Best of all, I came home to a rocking after party with Steve and his friends. It was a Westcourt-style party, rinsing until around 5, with the amp turning off a couple of times due to temperature overload.
This evening we had a post-thanksgiving dinner at Laurens. Check the pictures here. The food was top notch. The turkey (ala Lauren) was perfectly moist. I didn't even get any to carry home (wtf). Lots of mashed potatoes left over though, so I guess I'll have to make something nice to go with that this week. The evening ended with a poker game. I didn't have a real hand the entire game. I don't really care to much for poker, but it was fun given the company.
The radio show tonight kicked some major ass. It was bucky and I with the records tonight until Colin showed up and dropped some other tasties. After the show, Steve and I chilled with Colin down inside Westcourt Place. It reminded me that I should look at this picture again from the DJ Club end of term party in Fall 2003.
October 12 2004
I seem to seldom have time to myself at my computer these days. Ian's suggestion is to start using Linux so that I can do everything remotely. That would be nice and it will have to be undertaken one day. We're getting a new computer at work to build a Linux system (Red Hat I think), so I should be getting some experience soon.
Last week was a troubling one. Garth Rutledge had his funeral on Thursday. I met Garth at Ajax High School around grade 11. Garth was one of the smartest kids to come out of that school. In Math class, there were a few of us who always understood what was going on. Garth was one of the kids who could have easily become a Mathie at Waterloo. He had the skills. But he also had diabetes. I remember seeing something on tv about diabetes. I really didn't know anything about the desease before that even though I knew Garth had it. He never treated it like a handicap. Anyway, the program painted a pretty dramatic picture, as tv tends to do, and I asked Garth about the diabetes one day. His response was basically, "I don't really give a fuck." It wasn't until Garth's funeral, hearing the eulogy that his old pastor gave, that I really understood everything behind that response. He was informed of the disease at age 14, probably around grade 9 or 10. So it makes perfect sense that he was resentful about the whole situation. But even though Garth had this thing hanging over him, it didn't stop him from having fun and generally being a happy person. I can honestly say that is how I remember the guy. He had a great sense of humour and was generally fun to be around.
The weekend that just past brought a bunch of birthdays. Pete Higdon on Friday, myself and Jeff Wells on Saturday, Aunty Julie on Monday. I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting. I had a kick ass party on Saturday. Of course, not everyone could make it since it was Thanksgiving, but it was rocking none the less. Photos are up so check them out.
I had the opportunity to down 2 turkey dinners this year! Funny thing is that I really didn't eat alot of turkey. I ate a whole bunch of other stuff, like various vegetable preparations. I'm not complaining, only making an observation. However, I am complaining about the lack of turkey leftovers. I have none in my posession! I am attending a post-thanksgiving dinner this Saturday at Lauren's, so maybe she will give me some leftovers.
Leftover turkey sandwich: Shred the turkey meat and warm it up in the microwave on a plate. Then throw it on some toast with mayo. Booyaka!
Alan in front of Nick, Pete, Verona, Ben, Sandy, Diana, and nattyphysicist. Thanksgiving session at Pete's.