WAVE SHAPER
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAt this thing is doing… the 4040 is a “12-stage binary ripple counter chip, in simple words a device which will produce a calculated delayed frequency output in response to every pulse applied at its clock input. This delay is incremented at the rate of 2n where n is the pinout order in the sequence of its outputs” and the 4006 is a 18-STAGE STATIC SHIFT REGISTER. we somehow managed to mush up these two together into a unit that supposedly shapes waves. We havn’t seen it in an oscilloscope.. shit, we havn’t seen anything in an oscilloscope yet. we do have an oscilloscope, but it’s at amok and we have yet to get it to workshoppe.
anyway… this has two ins and one out and somehow it works. it has a 12 step rotary switch and i’m pretty sure it just runs thru the divisions out if the 4040 chip, that of the oscillation frequency it is fed as one of the inputs. the other input in goes somewhere and modulates the other input, i guess. we didn’t examine it closely, we just smacked in a LED on the output pin.
CHIPS USED: 4006, 4040
Ω GENERATOR
IT’S A VACTROL!! —- only one oscillator is made from the six possible ones out of the magnificent Hex Schmitt Trigger IC, the one and only, the 40106. this one oscillator flashes a LED that is shrink wrapped and sealed next to a LDR and that gives us resistance and we feed that out of our module here. we wanted to have control of the duty cycle, but failed.
CHIP USED: 40106
4-STEP “CV” SEQUENCER
most rudimentary sequencer of 4 steps. it spits out a signal 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 and so on. works fine. gets a bit boring only to have 4 steps for melodies, but it’s nice to run it MEGA-FAST and do some hardcore blip and blop shaping!
CHIP USED: 4017
8-STEP I/O SEQUENCER
I/O sequentiality controlled by a 4017 decade counter (set to count to 8). it’s analogue, so anything can be plugged in for experimental electronic music making. there is no mixing going on here, each step has individual in and out. as we have not built a mixer module yet, we have not really jammed on this one yet. we imagine it could be fun to run in 8 different harsh noise feedback loops into it…. or 8 stevie wonder songs. chop chop chop.
CHIPS USED: 4017, 4066
TWO FAILED CLOCKS
these are running a bit too fast to be in the clock/LFO realm but whatever,, they were built to be clocks and they shall forever be clocks. something happened during the installation of this, one of the oscillators got considerably lower in volume. the circuit is just two textbook 40106 oscillators… sort of. there are likely no pull-down resistors on this and the two oscs are build next to each other on the chip. it should be better to place them apart as that will minimize interference… this is a crap module.
CHIP USED: 40106
HEXIDECIMAL TERROR SYNTH
most ambitious module yet and quite successful – especially considering the fact that is was completely freestyled!. taking on a 24-pin IC was daunting, we realized that it is actually quite very simple, really. the 4067 is a 16-channel analog multiplexer and demultiplexer.. meaning it functions as a switch that can go both ways. one in and 16 possible outs or 16 possible ins and one out. in this case, we decided to multiplex/demultiplex the capacitance of a simple 40106 oscillator.
16 different values of caps are in there and the selection is managed by our 4 control pins which navigate the truth table.. a high signal on A, B and D, but not C selects cap number 11, for instance. if we have 4 LFOs plugged in, running at different speeds, we have pseudo-randomness!!!
CHIPS USED: 4067, 40106
next up:
- SLOW AND STEADY CLOCK/LFO, very needed
- HARD AND DIRECT SIGNAL MIXING… we’re thinking a diode-mixed, 8 in and 1 out, kind of thing. no pot as it’s for mixing digital signals, maybe a matrix signal mixer? we would probably also want it to have a sequential option.
- RESISTANCE LADDER MIXER–
- 16-step sequencer, with multiplexed step count! smooth running from 1 step to 16 steps while still running the sequence seems very intriguing.