Block Ideas

[Pehr]

[danielwarner]

Maybe some 5.1V zener diodes on inputs, that way one could safely experiment with interfacing with other synths, drum triggers, microphones, without damaging the ICs?

[blue hell]

[mosc]

What I've been calling Lunettas don't represent everything that Stanley Lunetta has designed and built. My experience with these is from the early 1970s.

I don't know what Stan did later, but I bet he didn't change the spirit. The basic elements of the sprirt are - you learn by trying and experimentation. You build just for yourself (share ideas and techniques, but they don't have to be "products" or even things that other people could build.)

So, if reading Stan's interview inspires you to develop something similar to what he describes, then by all means go ahead and try.

Often, I would ask Stan, "How did you figure that out?" He would say something like, "I just hooked one of these chips up and started fooling around." Sometimes, a design would only work on one chip!

I do know that Stan liked mercury switches. I bet his hat have many of those mounted inside (just a guess). I saw the hat once, but never got to look inside. I love mercury switches and micro switches. Put 4 on a modulo-n divider and you've got a position sensitive sequencer thingie. You can also route signals through them.

Build - Learn - Play - Share

[loss1234]

thanks for the tip and the great ideas!!

i appreciate the perspective on all of this

[Photon]

speaking of blocks...

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[Uncle Krunkus]

Now we're talking!!!

Well,... If we're gonna talk blocks, we may as well go for the block of all blocks, the block's block, the block to get the party started, the block party (great name for a band!?) The "I'm thinking of a block between 1 and 10, guess which one" kind of block. LEGO.
But do Lego do a block which is big enough for the inputs and outputs of a dual 4bit binary counter?
Hey! (sound of machinery crunching concepts) Why not just glue Lego together? Make little shapes which are big enough for any CMOS chip you like! Possibly still supply power through the baseboard!
There are very good prospects for a dam sexy Lunetta here!!

(Well, I've always found Lego sexy. There nothing wrong with that is there? )

[CJ Miller]

I am a digital n00b, but am becoming somewhat familiar with most of these kinds of ICs. But what is a "pulse modifier"? I can think of many ways to modify pulses but I don't know whether or not this might be a CMOS chip I've never heard of.

[williamsharkey]

[Adam-V]

A Pulse Modifier merely shortens or extends the length of a pulse by a given amount. You sometimes see them in the modular synth world as Trigger/Gate modifiers or delays. Something as simple as a 555 timer set up in one-shot mode would do this very nicely.

Cheers,
Adam-V

[scriptstyle]

so glad i just read this whole thread!!! those quotes on pagr 1 are great, i need to read that interveiw. yo uncle block party is a really good band. i have already built a wsg, and some other small stuff tonight im hopeing to breadboard bug brands ocs schematic. but what is the sugested next step i have some 4017s and 4016s, maybe a baby 10 or somthing similar? and im still alittle confused on how this system is powered? or what is really suggested, this is one thing that is confusing me with getting into modular diy, i just dont want to build a bunch of stuff that dosnt work together.

[bingmachine]

Hi,

I'm wondering about a couple of the suggested blocks. What good are the 4 Bit Adder and Binary Comparator, other than as pieces of combinational logic that might give some unexpected(?) result. Does anyone use them for anything predictable?
Examples? Mp3s? Anyone?

/Erik Forsling

[slacker]

I haven't tried it, but you could use the adder to create 2 versions of the same pattern but with a "delay" between them. If you fed the outputs from a counter into one set of inputs and set the other set to a fixed number, the pattern out of the adder would be the same as the counter but so many steps ahead of it.
You could then use this to create canons in the same was that mosc describes in this thread http://www.electro-music.com/forum/topic-23881.html.
Or you could use it to create a third pattern from 2 others by feeding 2 different patterns into each set of inputs. The output would then be the sum of the other 2 at any step, this wouldn't necessarily be predictable though.

Not sure about the comparator.

[mosc]

[bingmachine]

Aaah. I see. Good thinking.
Ok. I have to add one of those as well.
Still don't see why you would want the comparer, but now I'm sure there's a good reason to add one of those as well!
I've already added everything else from the list in the first post to my design. Gotta start building this thing now!

/Erik

[slacker]

The way I see it , basically what you're trying to do with a lunetta is create interesting streams of pulses either to listen to directly or to drive other things.
So I guess the comparator is just another way to do this, you feed it whatever you like into it's inputs and you get a stream of pulses out of the output(s).

I reckon the adder would also make a great modulator type effect at audio speeds.

[Uncle Krunkus]

[mosc]

My personal experience is that with these Lunetta style things one first builds quick and dirty or throw-away prototypes. Once you find something you like you can build more permanent versions, if you like. So, maybe after building a comparator, which takes only a couple of chips, you might not want to use it, or, then again, you might.

[Pehr]

[bingmachine]

Eeeh. Aren't we talking analog comparators then? Or could I somehow make a 4-bit ADC using a 4-bit binary comparator? I don't see how.

But I definitely have to add a couple of analog comparators. (Puuh, it never ends.)

/Erik

[Pehr]

[RF]

[synthmonger]

I'd suggest adding my easy peasy 40106 vco in there somewhere! You can build 6 VCO's outta that chip!

[scriptstyle]

[bingmachine]

Haha!
Thanks for the concern and the support, guys! I'm planning a design at the moment that definitely will allow me to build a little, play a lot, build a little, play some more. But I need to get a better picture of what to build. The final design will resemble a breadboard, but in a box: patching being made with wire in the central area, pots and switches surrounding that. I can post an fpd-file when it's finished.
At the moment the design contains at least:
4 VCOs (Synthmonger design + sync if it works)
4 "ordinary" clocks
4 high speed, fixed rate, PWM-clocks (i.e. settable probability kind of)
dual 4bit counter
presettable 4bit counter
10 step Johnson counter
switches (1x4053)
4bit mux
8bit mux
16bit mux (yes, all of them)
dual 4bit latch
dual 4bit shift register (serial in-parallell out)
2x8bit R-2R-network
2 passive mixers
2 ordinary mixers
4xTrig2Gate (NE558 with pots)
4xGate2Trig
4xAR-env
4x"VCA" (diode style)
4bit adder
4bit comparator
2 analog comparators
quad or
quad nand
quad xor
PLL
hex inv
8xTrig/CV input(/output) (e.g. 8 triggers coming from a TR505)
speaker
headphone ampl.

I might have forgotten something. I will start with the output section and some oscillators soon. Then I will keep adding stuff as I get bored with what I have (and get the time). Which makes me think that I might acctually succeed in building something. I won't even need a frontpanel to start with.

/Erik