Components of a Lunetta--First time builder!

[Dr. K]

Hi Folks. I've been spending much of my pandemic down time bread boarding the heck out of a wide range of noise making circuits. I have been tweaking them on a breadboard, and some of the cool ones, boxing up. I'm using small Radio Shack plastic project boxes, putting 1 unit in each. I have some classics--an APC (with a jack for VC). I have some 4093 gated oscillators, a workable dub siren. A cheezy Ebay kit reverb. I have a mound of 40106, 555, 556, 4093, some multiplexer/demultiplexers, dividers.... I learned a great deal so far. Fun (the cat hates it--poor thing hisses at my cheezy little 386 amp ). Anyway, I got my start from Nic Collins, and a lot of googling.

I only recently learned of "Lunettas" and was immediately interested.

I'm curious what would be a solid collection of circuits for one? I'm working right now on an adjustable slope saw/triangle wave LFO. I have some VCO chips, also some XOR chips (they can give some really bizarre sounds).

I realize a Lunetta is not a standardized thing. I'm just hoping to learn what the basic functions should be. I was thinking several basic square wave oscillators, a couple of triangle/saw tooth LFOs, a divider or two, 2 VCOs. Probably some 556 based oscillators (to make for easy "dub siren" effects). Some NAND gates, etc.

I don't know why I never thought of this idea myself. Rather than building discrete modules that can only do a handful of things, build one, super versitile device. It's very cool stuff. Over the past year, I bought a ton of bulk caps, pots, jacks, and IC chips. Thousands of assorted resistors, a 500 count grab bag of LEDs, a butt-load of photoresistors and transistors....

Thanks for any help. It would be a lot of fun to build a big unit, bristling with pots, switches, and banana jacks. 1 power inlet, maybe a built in amp, bad ass swirl paint...

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[JovianPyx]

Lunetta really is whatever you want it to be. Whatever you have, whatever you can find. A lot of people like to use CMOS logic chips because they are still plentiful and low cost. Some folks refuse to use an opamp for some reason - I have no idea why they do nor why anyone should. If you need an opamp, use an opamp.

The main thing about lunettas is to have fun. There are tons of schematics and projects within this forum, lots of them are lunetta. I'd think one could make a synth out of those schematics.

You seem to be on the right track. Before buying stuff, I'd look through the schematics and projects and see what interests you, then buy parts that will allow you to build those.

[Dr. K]

Thanks for the info! I have accumulated a good stash of components. The chips are cheap enough, if you need one, why not buy 10? I have a lot of common chips--555, 556, 40106, XOR, NAND, etc. I bought a ton of assorted perf board, caps, resistors, pots....

I've been spending a lot of time on the breadboard, and soldering up some of the more interesting devices, and the "gotta have one" APC and Dub Siren. This Lunetta idea is cool though. I need to build several board of basic devices complete with banana jack. Build a cool box, little on board amp and reverb... It would be a lot of fun to mess with.

[dk]

I've not been here long enough to state what a Lunetta should or shouldn't be, but I'm taking it more or less as Jovian stated.

This forum is an excellent resource for how to build simple (mostly) CMOS modules. There is some somewhat more complex stuff floating around at times as well. People here are really cool about explaining things, irregardless of how basic or complex the question is. That alone makes it worth coming back here, even if you do find something new elsewhere.