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Post by jimread on May 17, 2022 22:08:16 GMT
Hello there, I wanted to have a go at making the simplest possible oscillator, found a couple of 358 ic's in my spares box and several similar circuits online none of which I could get to work. Whether it was because I'm using 5V or I'd made a mistake despite checking umpteen times, I don't know. I knew I'd got some NE555's and some ICM7555's as well. I tried the NE's first and it worked straightaway with the output from the Pot going to Pin5 this was another online circuit, well I suppose it would wouldn't after all they will will work on 5V. BUT isn't there always one, it would only do about 1 octave. Then I thought ahhhhhh! Mr Penfolds book Electronic Music Projects from 1980 might help me and found this;  I just used the output from the 10uF Cap. With the 220k Pot Mr Penfold got 55Hz to 1.9kHz = 5 octaves, I used a 100k pot and got 120Hz to 1.9kHz = 4 octaves. That'll be fine for me. Here's a pic of it working on my old breadboard.  I'll have a go and see if I can cram three of these into one module 1/. sq wave 2/. pulse 3/. triangle and use them for drones. Well you never know! Cheers |
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 18, 2022 18:48:37 GMT
Cool little circuit! Wonder if it could be made voltage controllable in some way 🧐
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 18, 2022 21:05:29 GMT
Simplest oscillator is probably using a Schmitt trigger btw like Cd40106 (like in Moritz Klein ytb videos)! At least it has the fewest components.
Or the Atari punk console circuit is also a Fun small open source one!
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Post by pt3r on May 19, 2022 6:24:29 GMT
But the biggest problem with all of these simple oscilators seems to get the voltage controllable is some way. It's easy enough to make some squarewave droner but to cv control it seems like black magic.
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Post by jimread on May 19, 2022 13:35:46 GMT
Hello,
Well! ... I looked at Robert's (at least I think it was he) advice about drones and it went something like this. Take a couple of oscillators get them in tune and then 'just off' no need to use any CV input then use filters and other modules to modulate the sound.
I found that if I alter the frequency of one of the oscillators slightly the sound changes quite a lot with out any audible 'glide'
I also read some advice about getting stuff sounding at a point where an incremental pot movement makes a lot of difference.
With some fiddling I'm beginning to find that the above is quite true.
Cheers
Ohh and I will be able use my other 4 oscillators and another mono mixer to introduce peripheral sounds in with the drone. Well I hope :-)
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Post by keurslagerkurt on May 23, 2022 10:12:02 GMT
But the biggest problem with all of these simple oscilators seems to get the voltage controllable is some way. It's easy enough to make some squarewave droner but to cv control it seems like black magic. Yes indeed. The main 'problem' is that potentiometers are controlling resistance, so its not always possible to easily swap them with a controlled voltage. Often times you have to completely adapt the basic operation of a circuit if you want to change from a pot to CV. The other way is easy, from CV to a pot: if you hook a pot between + and ground, you basically have your 'control voltage' at its wiper. |
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Post by jimread on May 24, 2022 16:25:55 GMT
Hello there This is my set up at the moment. Some new modules arrived today so I recorded this before adding another box below this one and before putting the new one in  This is a one minute video to which I added another soundtrack, my first AEM recording, using both 2OSC/d oscillators with no CV input. The original version of this video was screened at, The One Minute Artists Moving Image Festival North Wales Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th February 2018 at CARN - Balaclava Road Caernarfon, Studio 12 - Parc Glynllifon and Barn - Ty Coch Nature Reserve, North Wales Using the cosmic background sound just after the expansion also known as the "Big bang" Synopsis The universe began with an expansion in total darkness. Cooling and coalescing matter forming the first stars that burned with light. I express the expansion from dark through to the light using the longevity of trees as a metaphor. We humans trying to make sense of all that has happened appeared only lately and could be easily wiped out in very short order, leaving only the trees. There is however, hope, everything we do in this information age leads to vast repositories of knowledge, knowledge ready to accessed by the 'artificial intelligence' we are heading towards, evolution unknowingly and blindly finding it's successors. Cheers |
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Post by rodney on Jun 3, 2022 21:20:03 GMT
But the biggest problem with all of these simple oscilators seems to get the voltage controllable is some way. It's easy enough to make some squarewave droner but to cv control it seems like black magic. I have been meaning to get some digital potentiometers for controlling gritty 'lunetta' style oscillators and Atari Punk Console (the Forest Mimms Stepped Wave Generator) etc.
Another part of me thinks that forcing such control onto these wild miracles will ultimately just make me feel dirty ...
One compromise between these two practical and philosophical positions, that I use with my NovaDrones, is to use voltage to control the brightness of a LED, then pair that LED with a light-dependent resistor (LDR).
It doesn't have that handy middle wiper that a pot has, so getting tuning precision is probably a lost cause. However, it does open up some interesting possibilities.
For example: - using an optical fibre as a patch cable
- using a RGB LED, then putting red, green and blue coloured filters over three different LDRs to separate out the voltages again
- multiple LEDS shining on a single LDR - or movable across a field of LDRS for strange mixing possibilities
- attach a bunch of LDRs to parts of a video screen to see what happens
Some of the above work better with IR LEDs, but with the loss of the visual bling element. Sending audio-rate signals via infra-red seems to get less loss, for example.
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Post by rodney on Jun 3, 2022 21:51:16 GMT
At the end of the day, maybe we should give up on using the word, control for this kind of circuit and settle for something like influence ...
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Post by pt3r on Jun 4, 2022 6:41:17 GMT
At the end of the day, maybe we should give up on using the word, control for this kind of circuit and settle for something like influence ...You just summed up my approach to modular patching.  |
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