I accidentally bought a big set of these instead of cd4049ube ic's... luckily they weren't expensive...
But not realizing it, I wired one into a red llama circuit, and... I'm getting some really interesting sounds. Like, ultra-saturated, fine-grained distortion with a really odd, spatty, short decay pattern. Has anyone here ever heard of these being used in stompboxes? I'm going to start experimenting more with them, see what kind of sounds I can get.
I think the HC4049 is the same as the CD4049 but from a different manufacturer. It's possible they're made slightly differently and sound different, but they also vary a bit from chip to chip.
It would be interesting to know if all the chips from your batch sound the same, or if it's just a funky chip.
The HC series is an update of the CD series. It's faster, cleaner, works better in most ways - as a logic chip.
"HC" stands for "High speed CMOS", or did, and it's specified for a 5V power supply, where the CD4xxx family goes to as much as 15 or 18V. CD can be used in effects powered by 9V, HC has some problems with it; the data sheets say that operation above 6 or 7 volts can cause permanent damage to the chip.
IIR, the Lama uses a current-limiting resistor to reduce voltage to the chip to around 5V. So, it shouldn't be toast. Wrong chip for the job, though.
Ah, the importance of getting more than one point of view... :D
...Listen to R.G. and Gez. They know their stuff. Me, not quite so much.
Thanks for the insight. I'm going to make another tomorrow or sat, so I'll see if they all sound the same. I also have a power starve-er pot-in-a-box kind of thing, and I want to see if the sound cleans up with less voltage. Since there's the resistor, I don't know if it'll change anything.... logically it doesn't seem like it would, but Ima give it a shot.
WOAH! IT WORKS! As I turn the voltage down, something much more llama-esque emerges. Since the rest of the board isn't getting enough power, it sounds a little queasy, but much more like a blues/od pedal.... I guess it was the resistor then? I like the ridiculous sounds it can get at high voltages though, so maybe I'll wire in a new resistor that's switchable on-off (destroy the chip though maybe...?).
I did take the resistor off a board from an old radio. I don't really know that much, but are resistors temp sensitive? I didn't think they were, at least the kind I'm using... Maybe I got the wrong value. I'll check it out. Anyways, thanks for the help. I'm super happy right now... It's like a blessing in disguise or something.