|
Addicted to DIY instruments and effects.. (and stuff)
Viewed 3468 times. 20 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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
-->
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.
link
link
link
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.
link
Feedback looper. Takes the output of an effect or several effects and feeds it back into it/themselves i nvariable amounts. Insanity ensues.
link
Transformer octave fuzz-thing. It sounds maddening in a floop, which is what the second stomp engages!
link
link
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:
link
gmackrr and pk. Check out their shit!
link
link
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! | |
Comments
06/23/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
yawn
Those are really beautiful! collectible objects!
06/23/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
breakscience
great job! Where do you get the boxes/blanks?
06/24/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
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
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
Squeal
e is mo fun than em, I always say...
06/24/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
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
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
boligrafoe
nice stuff man. heres a link to some circuit bent/ pedals etc i have built:
link
06/24/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
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
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
energygiant
06/25/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
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
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
indeep
beautiful instruments you got there energygiant, great great stuff
06/25/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
p
they're beautiful. Love the designs.
06/25/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
sweettrip
awesome!! are some of these projects available online??
06/29/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
cloudscapes
yawn, adcBicycle, bbwax, p: thanks
breakscience: various places. my local electroncis surplus store has a few. otherwise I use smallbear
link
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!
link
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:
link
the bitcrusher is based on bugbrand's
link
11/12/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
room
any chance of you designing a crackling sinewave generator with frequency controls & a harmonic filter?
12/07/07
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
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
Register / login
|
^
EM411 is Copyright 2001-2008 EM411.com
All rights reserved. | Contact | RSS
|
