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Addicted to DIY instruments and effects.. (and stuff)
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People who enjoyed reading this: Otterfan, astroid, Roshi, Zanf, zfigz, jdg, breakscience, DrexonField, mapmap, daswesen, crabster, Analog, Tenine, Logo, reehc, energygiant, adcBicycle, bbwax, room, mlbot
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Hey all,
I'm not new here but I haven't really been active the last several months. Sorry I've been out of touch. I owe one of you a collab! Anyways, I've been doing much less actual "music" this year, partly because I've been bitten by the obsession that is this: building effect pedals and simple synths. I used to do a lot of electronics when I was a kid (I'm 28 now, ugh). Usually not more complex than simple theremins and 55 timer stuff. I left that behind at one point. Then a year and a half ago I started bending toys, effects and drum machines, and December of last year I started building them from "scratch".
Not always completelly from scratch, mind you. I'm an amateur so I need to look at other schematics and adapt them, or take out parts and use them in conjuction with something else. It's getting really fun though! It seems a lot of commercial effects don't have *exactly* what I look for, like ramp-up in a tremolo, or insane uncontrolable fuzz that haze very little sustain. etc. It's a good learning experience, and it's a great feeling of self-accomplishment recording a track that uses said effects.
Here are a few I've done:
link
The bitcrusher is based on the bugbrand circuit, with those hard-to-get ad781 chips. This red one is the second I've built, which has some modifications over the original. I want to find more of these chips so that I can try stuff I have in mind. Some kind of insane sample-and-hold effect that samples milliseconds (the pitch, essentially) of the signal in varying methods. Here are some samples. Last sample has delay and chorus in it though.
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Transformer-based ringmod with simple carrier synth. It sounds really dirty and bad. It sounds really awesome with just a guitar + ebow, which is what a lot of this sample is.
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Feedback looper. Takes the output of an effect or several effects and feeds it back into it/themselves i nvariable amounts. Insanity ensues.
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Transformer octave fuzz-thing. It sounds maddening in a floop, which is what the second stomp engages!
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Tremolo with triangle/square blend, ramp down/triangle/up, spacing between pulses, master gain, speed and depth. Based on the tremulus lune circuit. The next one I want to build will be a dual trem in one box, as I am addicted to out-of-phase dual trem.
link
So yeah, those are the better ones. I doubt I'll be seeing this obsession dying off anytime soon. I need to spend less time on it and more time on actual music. Especially this week because I have my first official gig (as cloudscapes) next saturday, so I need to practice and prepare. I'm nervous as fuck!
Bonus blog thing. A jam I did with two other local musicians:
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gmackrr and pk. Check out their shit!
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I really want to get more involved with the community now. More jams with friends and local musicians, more shows! I consider myself to be really lucky to have talented musicians who are into the same oddball music as I am for friends!
And yeah, I gotta get back at being more active here too! | |
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06/23/07
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yawn
Those are really beautiful! collectible objects!
06/23/07
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breakscience
great job! Where do you get the boxes/blanks?
06/24/07
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room
these look great cloud - really beautiful
i'm looking to start a "release" of DIY hardware on Audiobulb
If you fancy making some modded up > insect + lightbulb style units for audiobulb > we can start to talk prices 
Best wishes
David
06/24/07
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Squeal
e is mo fun than em, I always say...
06/24/07
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Analog
They look wicked.
I like the idea of the feedback loop. How hard was it to make?
Is it just some ins & outs, switches and a passive pot to reduce gain?
or is it active, compilicated and time consuming? (i'm quite lazy)
06/24/07
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boligrafoe
nice stuff man. heres a link to some circuit bent/ pedals etc i have built:
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06/24/07
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adcBicycle
These sound amazing c scapes!
Great work. I agree, almost as satisfying as recording music.
great idea room about the diy release, keep me informed!
06/24/07
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energygiant
06/25/07
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bbwax
those look great. i like the one on the bottom left the best. i'll be browsing the audiobulb shop for sure.
06/25/07
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indeep
beautiful instruments you got there energygiant, great great stuff
06/25/07
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p
they're beautiful. Love the designs.
06/25/07
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sweettrip
awesome!! are some of these projects available online??
06/29/07
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cloudscapes
yawn, adcBicycle, bbwax, p: thanks
breakscience: various places. my local electroncis surplus store has a few. otherwise I use smallbear
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room: thanks! I don't know anything about those, haha
Squeal: for the last six month's thats been the case. it's also been frusterating as hell though. when it's so simple and is clearly supposed to work, and doesn't for no reason.
Analog: the feedback loop is dead easy. it's passive, doesn't ven need any batteries!
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boligrafoe: beautiful! love the tree tone
energygiant: how you been?
those look amazing, especially the second one. samples?
sweettrip: the ringmod is my own design, though the heart of it is based on this:
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the bitcrusher is based on bugbrand's
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11/12/07
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room
any chance of you designing a crackling sinewave generator with frequency controls & a harmonic filter?
12/07/07
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cloudscapes
room said: "any chance of you designing a crackling sinewave generator with frequency controls & a harmonic filter?"
no, just trianglewave with tone and pseudo-resonance
perfect sinewaves are much harder to do, surprisingly
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