The Birth of Phoxiilabs

As many of you know, I recently moved to Oakland to attend an MFA in Electronic Music program at Mills College. I have been immersing myself in the world of circuitry, and recently built a pair of noise boxes- I had enough folks express interest in them that I’m now looking into producing a small run (roughly 10-20) of both to sell under the handle of Phoxiilabs!

Making noise boxes may turn into something I do more of in the future, or it may be a one-off deal depending on the kind of response it gets from folks. Additionally, I have a number of related ideas I am currently working on that may fall under the Phoxiilabs project as well, including:

- An Arduino-powered box that can electronically trigger solenoids (small mechanical pistons) and be used to play a drum set, xylophone or other percussive instrument. The box will come with the Arduino code, as well as a Max For Live interface designed so that sequences for the solenoids can be programmed in Ableton. (May also look into control voltage inputs so that solenoids could be triggered with modular gear...?)
- A bundle of effects and synths created in Max 7, for use in Ableton with Max For Live.
- Various noise and effects boxes.
- Eurorack modules...?! (Would be an endeavor far into the future if I were to make any.

The things I would be buying with the $1,500 include: 
- Drill press / drill bits.
- Soldering iron.
- Heat gun.
- Multimeter.
- Oscilliscope
- Various screwdrivers.
- Various clamps.
- Wire cutters / strippers / pliers.
- Hand saw.
- Tool / component shelving unit.
- A whole mess of electronic components; capacitors, resistors, transistors, ICs, solid / stranded wire, breadboard, batteries, solder, LEDs, photocells, potentiometers, switches, heat shrink tubing, speakers, male / female 1/4” / 1/8” jacks, knobs, housing boxes and accessories.
- Production cost for pressing circuit box PCBs.
- Software: Max MSP 7 (For building synths and effects as Max For Live plug-ins, and to design a user interface for the Arduino box).
- Phoxiilabs.com domain name.

Essentially, I’m aiming for this GoFundMe to be a sort of pre-order for the circuit boxes. Donating $5 will get you a new, unreleased Phoxii EP made exclusively in SuperCollider, $40 will get you the Amisynth (my first ever Max For Live synth), $80 will get you the Phoxbox S-1 (the smaller of my two Phoxboxes; quad oscillators with LFO), $150 will get you the Phoxbox L-1 (two oscillators with LFO, crackle circuit, tremolo and built-in stereo speakers), and $500 will get you the Soledrummer (Arduino powered, Max For Live controlled acoustic / percussive instrument player; includes solenoids, gooseneck mounts for solenoids, required code and instruction manual). There may be extra charges for shipping.

You can check out videos of some of these projects in action below.

Phoxbox L-1: https://www.facebook.com/aminafoxdye/videos/10155285129582607/?l=588731140491955719

Phoxbox S-1 and L-1 together: https://www.facebook.com/aminafoxdye/videos/10155343406117607/?l=2758685040160845708

Soledrummer on a drum kit: https://www.facebook.com/aminafoxdye/videos/10155679478272607/?l=5126680831014780211

Another L-1 video with better audio: https://youtu.be/v-1pDACuLUI

Another S-1 video with better audio:
https://youtu.be/Sm0phvRydE8

If the goal of $1,500 is reached, I’ll be able to get all the equipment and supplies I need, have a list of orders to get filled right off the bat, and then have the basic tools to make more boxes in the future!

Thanks so much for supporting my creative endeavors, and hope to crank out a run of Phoxboxes for y’all really soon!!

<3 <3 <3