Music from outer space - diy synthesis
Ive been following this site for a while and am considering purchasing one of his kits. im thinging of starting on the wsg (seems to be the easiest and best documented) and then mabye moving onto the mini synth. oh the possibilitys!
DRONELAB
Ive finaly ordered a dronelab pcb from casper electronics.com!
ive followed the site for a couple of years and ive found it to be an valuable source of circuit bedning examples and schematics ( i used caspers schematics for my own speak and spell ~ first post) and now hes made his own dronelab synth kit. i cant wait to get started on sourcing all the parts and constructing this beast. the information and videos are from his site casperelectronics.com
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What is the Drone Lab?
The Drone Lab is a 4 voice analog drone synth, rhythm generator and FX processor. It is capable of generating rich, textured soundscapes, hypnotic drones and complex rhythmic sequences. It features a series of filter and distortions circuits as well as an audio input jack. This allows it to be used as an effects processor for external audio signals.
What is a DRONE?
A drone is created by slightly de-tuning 2 oscillators. This creates a rhythmic phase canceling effect as the output waves line up and diverge. The density of the drone can be increased by adding more oscillators tuned by harmonic steps above or below the other oscillators.
The Drone Lab is engineered to allow for the creation of dense, pulsing drones. A series of filters and a distortion circuit have been built in to add more depth and variation to the drone.
TREMOLO (volume modulation):
In order to create movement in the drone we developed a complex, interlinked tremolo system with independent controls for each of the four oscillators. Each oscillator has a tremolo on/off switch, an inversion switch and a pulse divider adjustment. Each of the four tremolos are controlled by one master clock. The divider adjustment creates sub divisions of that clock. The sub division output is then used as a volume control signal for the oscillator.
INTERFACING:
TREMOLO CLOCK. The master clock is totally modular, meaning it can control the clocks in other Drone Labs or be controlled BY other Drone Labs. This means any number of Drone Labs can be linked together to make extremely complex rhythmic sequences.
It can also be synced with other gear like modular synthesizers, drum triggers or old drum machines with a trigger output.
AUDIO INPUT. Any audio signal can be added to a drone and run through the distortion and filters. The input goes through a preamp, so un-amplified signals like a guitar or microphone can be used.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURES:
The Drone Lab V2 is based on the architecture of the V1 with a number of substantial improvements.
-Interfacing added. Audio input jack and tremolo clock syncing
-Fine tune pitch control added for each oscillator
-Improved fuzz stage
-Improved and expanded divider/tremolo feature
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oscillator bank.
De-tune and fade the volume of four oscillators to create rich drones.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio input
Add external signals into your drone or use the Lab’s filters and distortion as an FX processor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Low pass filter
Modify the tone of the oscillator bank and input signal before it goes into the distortion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Distortion
Adding distortion brings out the phasing rhythm between two or more tones.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Band pass filters
Two slightly resonant band pass filters can be adjusted to drastically alter the tonal character of your sound. Achieve wah-wah and phaser sounds as well as creating classic analog synth filter effects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tremolo bank
Add movement to drones and create interlinked pulses and complex sequences. Sync the master tremolo clock to a limitless number of other drone labs to create a rhythmically linked drone orchestra. Alternate clock sources may be used such as modular synth clocks, drum machines, piezo triggers and simple DIY clocks such as the 555 timer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battery or wall power
The Drone Lab draws very little power and will work for days straight on a single battery. In the event the you don’t have a battery it can also be powered using a standard 9 VDC wall wort power supply.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add your own circuits!
It may be small, but a proto area has been added to the board to allow for simple circuit addition. We’ve got oodles of ideas that we’ll post as the project goes on. Hopefully others will contribute their ideas and designs as well.
ive followed the site for a couple of years and ive found it to be an valuable source of circuit bedning examples and schematics ( i used caspers schematics for my own speak and spell ~ first post) and now hes made his own dronelab synth kit. i cant wait to get started on sourcing all the parts and constructing this beast. the information and videos are from his site casperelectronics.com
----------------------
What is the Drone Lab?
The Drone Lab is a 4 voice analog drone synth, rhythm generator and FX processor. It is capable of generating rich, textured soundscapes, hypnotic drones and complex rhythmic sequences. It features a series of filter and distortions circuits as well as an audio input jack. This allows it to be used as an effects processor for external audio signals.
What is a DRONE?
A drone is created by slightly de-tuning 2 oscillators. This creates a rhythmic phase canceling effect as the output waves line up and diverge. The density of the drone can be increased by adding more oscillators tuned by harmonic steps above or below the other oscillators.
The Drone Lab is engineered to allow for the creation of dense, pulsing drones. A series of filters and a distortion circuit have been built in to add more depth and variation to the drone.
TREMOLO (volume modulation):
In order to create movement in the drone we developed a complex, interlinked tremolo system with independent controls for each of the four oscillators. Each oscillator has a tremolo on/off switch, an inversion switch and a pulse divider adjustment. Each of the four tremolos are controlled by one master clock. The divider adjustment creates sub divisions of that clock. The sub division output is then used as a volume control signal for the oscillator.
INTERFACING:
TREMOLO CLOCK. The master clock is totally modular, meaning it can control the clocks in other Drone Labs or be controlled BY other Drone Labs. This means any number of Drone Labs can be linked together to make extremely complex rhythmic sequences.
It can also be synced with other gear like modular synthesizers, drum triggers or old drum machines with a trigger output.
AUDIO INPUT. Any audio signal can be added to a drone and run through the distortion and filters. The input goes through a preamp, so un-amplified signals like a guitar or microphone can be used.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURES:
The Drone Lab V2 is based on the architecture of the V1 with a number of substantial improvements.
-Interfacing added. Audio input jack and tremolo clock syncing
-Fine tune pitch control added for each oscillator
-Improved fuzz stage
-Improved and expanded divider/tremolo feature
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oscillator bank.
De-tune and fade the volume of four oscillators to create rich drones.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio input
Add external signals into your drone or use the Lab’s filters and distortion as an FX processor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Low pass filter
Modify the tone of the oscillator bank and input signal before it goes into the distortion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Distortion
Adding distortion brings out the phasing rhythm between two or more tones.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Band pass filters
Two slightly resonant band pass filters can be adjusted to drastically alter the tonal character of your sound. Achieve wah-wah and phaser sounds as well as creating classic analog synth filter effects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tremolo bank
Add movement to drones and create interlinked pulses and complex sequences. Sync the master tremolo clock to a limitless number of other drone labs to create a rhythmically linked drone orchestra. Alternate clock sources may be used such as modular synth clocks, drum machines, piezo triggers and simple DIY clocks such as the 555 timer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battery or wall power
The Drone Lab draws very little power and will work for days straight on a single battery. In the event the you don’t have a battery it can also be powered using a standard 9 VDC wall wort power supply.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add your own circuits!
It may be small, but a proto area has been added to the board to allow for simple circuit addition. We’ve got oodles of ideas that we’ll post as the project goes on. Hopefully others will contribute their ideas and designs as well.
I already wrote this post, it was a sprawling epic covering how to make tape distortion pedals and how they work. HOWEVER my internet decided to leave me when i needed it most and i lost the whole post. im now pretty angry so this will be s hort summary of what i wrote. DAMN
TAPE DISTORTION PEDALS
this a simple project that produces some very nice effects!
bassicly you can turn any old tape walkman into a dirgy distortion pedal for next to nothing. you can pick up walkmans from any market or jumble sale for less than a pound and all you need is some solder, a little wire and 1 output jack!
you remove the magnetic tape head on any walkman and simply replace it with a 1/4 inch output jack, iuts that easy. the signal; from your instrument is fed through the walkmans circuits and a hefty amount of distortion comes out. genraly it produces a low distortion with alot of background hiss. however ive found that older walkmans work best as they cut out the hiss and replace it with strange self modulating booms behind the original signal. sanyo tape players do this extyremely well. ive found one model that extends the attack of your input signal dramaticly. the sound you play builds up slowly to its full volume then imediately cuts off no matter how long you hold the note. it works extremely well with drum beats and short sharp sounds. you can achieve some amazing sounds with this project. ive made 4 pedals so far, each with thier own different sounds and qualities.
the fist picture is my sanyo pedal in a small box to make it more robust. the rough scan is to show the varying shapes and design of these circuits. i always scan circuits that ive reoved from instruments as sometimes you have to remove wires and components. i normally label these images later wiht polarity and any other parts that are missing. luckily walkmans are well labelled and you can remove allwaires and come back to the board later to finsih the project.
TAPE DISTORTION PEDALS
this a simple project that produces some very nice effects!
bassicly you can turn any old tape walkman into a dirgy distortion pedal for next to nothing. you can pick up walkmans from any market or jumble sale for less than a pound and all you need is some solder, a little wire and 1 output jack!
you remove the magnetic tape head on any walkman and simply replace it with a 1/4 inch output jack, iuts that easy. the signal; from your instrument is fed through the walkmans circuits and a hefty amount of distortion comes out. genraly it produces a low distortion with alot of background hiss. however ive found that older walkmans work best as they cut out the hiss and replace it with strange self modulating booms behind the original signal. sanyo tape players do this extyremely well. ive found one model that extends the attack of your input signal dramaticly. the sound you play builds up slowly to its full volume then imediately cuts off no matter how long you hold the note. it works extremely well with drum beats and short sharp sounds. you can achieve some amazing sounds with this project. ive made 4 pedals so far, each with thier own different sounds and qualities.
the fist picture is my sanyo pedal in a small box to make it more robust. the rough scan is to show the varying shapes and design of these circuits. i always scan circuits that ive reoved from instruments as sometimes you have to remove wires and components. i normally label these images later wiht polarity and any other parts that are missing. luckily walkmans are well labelled and you can remove allwaires and come back to the board later to finsih the project.
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