Project 6: The Tetractys

This is a little noisemaker. The interface is electrodes. So your fingers, toes, or tongue for the daring completes the circuit which drives six hex schmitt trigger oscillators.

The glory:
1. you become part of the circuit
2. totally random feel
3. volume control
4. its made of wood
5. homemade electrodes
6. six oscillators mixed in a ring mod kind of way

The defeats:
1. my woodwork needs work
2. volume shorting out occasionally due to arrangement in enclosure resulting in random peaks of volume
3. don't like the coin electrodes, I think small dome-headed lag bolts would be better
4. too many Lo-Frequency oscillators

Project 5: Heisenberg Uncertainty Tremolo

This project is a photo-tremolo with weird polyrhythms instead of a constant warble like a normal trem. The unit is just a prototype. I decided it needs a preamp to boost the signal, but it sounds great with other effects that boost its signal like a fuzz pedal or overdrive. I also need to figure out a bypass switch and some way to kill the battery when you are not playing. I think it could really be a sellable device with a unique sound. It took me 4 attempts to solder it before I could get it to work. I discovered heat shrink during the process which cleans things up inside the box and prevents shorts. Modern hairdryers do not get hot enough to shrink the stuff very fast though. I may invest in a heat gun. The cool thing is the internal led circuit which changes the photo tremolo effect is a circuit I can also use to make a cool expression device. I might try that too. I am really happy with this!

Project 4 my own circuit (expression device)

Okay despair ended. I built something that works. The best part is I designed it all myself. Used the breadboard prototype to work out the circuit then reproduced it on some veroboard or strip board. Veroboard is a type of circuit board where all the holes are connected in long rows. I was able to play around with different capacitors to get the right sound. In the final design I included a on/off switch and an LED. The project is an analog synthesizer that sounds a little like the Atari Punk Console. I am unhappy with how the LED + its resistor is attached and need to figure out a way to mount everything in a nicer way. I used a tin my grandmother gave me to house the board and pots and all that. The circuit board is hanging upside down from the lid by the potentiometers (or little turny knobs). Having the board attached to the lid seems good. Otherwise the knobs would have to be on the sides. Overall I am quite proud of my first expression device. I won't call it a pedal because you can't control it with your foot.

Here are some pictures and a video. No name for the device yet. Suggestions?