Find the Octavio at your local dealer

If you’ve been religiously following our blogs then you probably read about our discovery of a possible shortage of Octavio-stocking dealers. Next Byte seems to be the most reliable place to find them however they might start popping up elsewhere too. computer-generated image depicts our vision of a glorious future where the Octavio can be found around every corner near other more umbiquitious but less healthy and soul-nurturing products. Another similar photo and heaps of other Octavio pics can be found at Jamie’s flickr.

Regards,

Jacob on behalf of VAF

New Video: Music for 5 Octavios

Earlier this week I decided to film another video using the prototype Octavio I borrowed from Jamie. I decided to do something musical again cause that’s fun but I thought perhaps I’d try to incorporate the Octavio into the music to make it more interesting. There are two ways of making sound with the Octavio that I could think of – hooking it up to an audio source and cranking the volume and pounding the sturdy mdf cabinet like a drum.

I thought I’d pursue the pounding first because this was enjoyable and easy to film. One advantage was that I was able to show the VAF Octavio logo closeup which I thought would make people hungry to purchase one. Actually I just thought it was hilarious because it’s such a cheesy thing to do.

In playing sound through the Octavio I thought it would be important to make sure that the Octavio is more important than just a way to convert the electrical signal to sound waves so I figured the knob on top would have to come into it. The knob can do two things: switch audio source and adjust volume. Being the psycho overconfident testosterone-fueled teenager I am, I decided to do both. The tracks I used for all of this are detailed below.

• Two percussion tracks
• One synth where the switching between the Octavio’s audio inputs mutes and unmutes the synth (cause one input is wired and the other isn’t)
• One synth where the switching between the audio inputs of the Octavio switches between left and right panning (with a muted period in between). I did this by only wiring up the left channel of input 1 and the right channel of input 2.
• One track of an organ sound with volume swells performed using the Octavio’s volume knob. It’s hard to hear it in the video but I like the slightly glitchy sound of the Octavio’s stepped digital volume control.

I just recorded a small section of most of the tracks while filming and then looped the sound of the last track with the video progressing to the next.

This job is so much more fun than what most of my friends are doing in the holidays.

Thanks for listening

Jacob for VAF

New Octavio Video – Keyboard Rig

Jamie and I have been getting a lot of use out of the Octavio for various musical utility tasks where we need a convenient but dependable speaker system with a full frequency response that isn’t fatiguing to listen to. Anyway – I decided to make a promotional video about how I’ve been using it to play my sampler through for the last day. It really is convenient to have a little self-contained speaker box that I can just plonk down and plug in to avoid the discomfort of headphones and the difficulties in headbanging with them. The way I’ve set everything up here is the keyboard is talking to the sampler (grey box) via midi and then the sampler is sending audio to the Octavio so I can hear what I’m doing. Also the original song that I’m poorly trying to play can be found on Jamie and I’s myspace.

So anyway – I thought I’d try to be as pretentious as possible in this video because the playing is so bad – I thought it might be safest to take the piss. So I hope it’s okay with everyone. Either way – even though I’m not really a modern keyboard virtuoso I can say that the Octavio may be used for monitoring any audio source and if you have a lot of audio/music gear it is great to have around as a convenient and high-quality speaker system. Thinking of it as a Zune dock is really overlooking a lot of fun possibilities…..

Thanks for watching.

Jacob of the VAF Kids

I’ve made it to the spam!

Looks like I’ve become so famous that news about me has been stolen from Mike’s blog and is now featured on some spammy looking site. As long as the Octavio’s name is mentioned, I guess it might be okay. Any publicity is good publicity (perhaps?).When I recieve the first Octavio-selling spam email I’ll know things have gotten out of hand. Jacob

Practical Octavio Usage 101: Evicting your shed boombox

I just noticed (courtesy of my yahoo pipes) that Mike has chucked a photo of his Octavio in his shed on flickr (I reprinted it below). I can testify that the Octavio was there because Jamie had to retrieve it the other day so we could use it to monitor for a recording we were doing. You may notice that Mike actually doesn’t have any mp3 player in his Octavio which is because it is a Zune model he scabbed off Mr Vafiadis and unfortunately he doesn’t own a Zune. However this won’t stop anyone hooking up their radio through the aux inputs to spend some quality time in the shed.

My Sales Pitch:

The shallow form factor of the Octavio that was designed to sit on modern TV cabinets and compliment LCD screens also allows the Octavio to meld perfectly with your steel shed furniture or sit unobtrusively at the back of your workbench. The effortless, room-filling sound quality of the Octavio makes it suitable for small or large suburban sheds and the sound quality is more than likely to exceed the expelled boombox. Assuming that your shed’s acoustics are less hideous than average you may want to construct a comfortable chair to position in front of the Octavio for long listening sessions. I would recommend using one of the acoustic skins to protect those premium speaker cones from dust during productive sessions. Perhaps use a different coloured skin to the one you’re using when you take the Octavio inside for wild parties and general chillaxing.

So in summary – grab an Octavio for your shed and your mates will be around for a male bonding/jazz appreciation session in no time!

Jacob of the VAF kids

Octavio Interview Remix RadArtFilm

I’d like to unveil Wholesale Meat Media’s first promotional film (propaganda?) – a remix of an interview we found on the web where Mr Vafiadis was talking about the Octavio. Thanks heaps to Duncan for posting the original video at on10.net. Oooops I think I may have forgotten to ask permission to remix it but Mike tells me that they are probably cool about it (I hope so?). Anyway – shout of thanks to them.

I mainly chose the segments of closeup moving octavio footage and just used iMovie’s inbuilt processing to make everything look a bit like a dated music video. Hopefully this should suit the 80s-style octavio theme tune I made yesterday. I would have to say that Mr VAF is really quite an exciting guy to talk to (even though most of what he says goes over my head).

Anyway – please enjoy the viewing and be seduced into purchasing an octavio.

Jacob on behalf of VAF

New Octavio Theme Song

Hi Everyone

I’ve just been working on a little Octavio theme song that I’m sure will aid in it’s conquest of the world. Jamie and I are planning to accumulate as many cliche jingles as possible to spice up our podcasts and use as backing music for the video remixes.

This song is mainly influenced by all that 80s spacey pop music. I don’t really know how I’m trying to imitate it because all I’ve heard is a bit of Peter Gabriel and Enya, but anyway spacey synthesizers (check), world music percussion (check), exaggerated reverrrrrbbbbbb (check)……….I had a fair bit of fun doing this and I think you should all have a listen to the mp3 linked below. I would recommend listening on a VAF product because you won’t fully appreciate the depth of the music on anything else :-p .

Octavio Theme 1 (1.5mb)

I hope everyone’s having a great time (yay I’m still on holidays)

Jacob on behalf of VAF

p.s. Jamie and I have written a rap about Powermove (the Octavio’s distributor) and it should be on the way soon……..

Octavio Videos Discovered

Hey everyone

Jamie and I have just been holidaying at the beachside town of Middleton so there has been a lull in posting. Anyway, we are back and ready to continue learning, finding, creating etc.

Until recently, we didn’t realise that there were videos on the octavio. But it turns out there are two and they are both great. My highlight would have to be Freddy Mercury’s guitar solo during the octavio demonstration. I can verify that Mr Vafiadis really is knowledgeable about the technical stuff as evidenced by his explanation in the interview. I asked him about the use of the passive bass radiator because some people are calling it a fake subwoofer and he went into detailed explanation about how although it’s passive, it fulfills a role similar to a port and allows the system to be more efficient. I am really quite excited about the mashup opportunities and a mashup would be a good excuse to make a soundtrack which would be fun so let’s do it.

Octavio Demonstrative Promotional Video

Octavio Interview with Mr Vafiadis

Jacob on behalf of VAF

Practical Octavio Usage:Backyard Cinema

My mate Lachy and I have been wanting to find a use for the old projector my uncle gave me for a while now. In the end we decided to invite some of our friends around and setup our own outdoor theatre. This involved hanging a blanket from the eaves of Lachy’s house and sitting the projector on some chairs in front with a computer providing the video. For sound Jamie provided his prototype octavio beneath the screen with a long RCA cable feeding it from the computer. The teenage attendees (including fellow Octavio blogger Jamie) were treated to the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

The octavio is the shadowed box beneath the person kneeling at the screen (the purple glow of the status light is visible in both photos). I will mention for theatrical effect that Lachy rang me the afternoon before and asked if he should setup some other kind of speaker system because he was unsure whether the octavio would be loud enough. There were definitely no complaints once the octavio was cranked and we turned it down from it’s full capacity for fear of annoying the neighbours. Dialogue could be heard by those chilling in the pool and the music was certainly punchy. I noticed that the difference in volume between music and dialogue was much more apparent on the Octavio than on average TV speakers. Definitely more “cinemaish” (cinematic?). Our friends were quite surprised at how loud and clear such a little box could be. I really couldn’t imagine a more suitable device because the octavio could easily be chucked unobtrusively under the screen without carrying the separate components of a normal hifi and having to wire the speakers.

Hope this blog was half interesting – we definitely enjoyed a movie on the warm summer night. We are trying to think of more cool stuff we could do with Jamie’s octavio so there should be more photo posts from us soon.

Jacob – VAF Octavio Cheerleader

Octavio is Big Star

As Jamie and Mike have already commented on – the Octavio has just made it’s first appearance on national TV on the South Australian Breakfast show Sunrise. We’ve been waiting for it to pop up on the Sunrise website and it seems to have just appeared here. Vases not included (take a look at that sexy photo).
Jacob for VAF