a different kinda scrambler

[pinkjimiphoton]

i was nosing aroung allelectronics trying to find enough crud to merit free shipping, and i found this...

https://www.allelectronics.com/mas_assets/theme/allelectronics/spec/MX128DW.pdf

since it has ins and outs, and is intended to scramble audio, i got to thinking.... fuzzy goodness???

maybe a ring modulation dealio? thinking about ordering a couple to play with , what do you guys think?

still kinda above my paygrade, but i was thinking it could lead to a modulated distortion that may be kinda cool...

waiting to pull the trigger.... ahh, hell, gonna pull the trigger anyways just for shits n giggles...

thoughts? advice?
"pink, lay off the blottskies"?

[patrick398]

A few years ago i spent many days fruitlessly searching the internet for 'signal scrambler' or 'audio scrambler' pedals or circuits. Can't remember exactly what i was after but anything that completely destroys signal is usually good with me. I'm very interested to see what you do with this!

[pinkjimiphoton]

have ya tried an ampeg scrambler distortion?



i ordered two of the chips just to try 'em. see what happens. hopefully someone (read:ANYone) smarter than me can advise

[patrick398]

have ya tried an ampeg scrambler distortion?



i ordered two of the chips just to try 'em. see what happens. hopefully someone (read:ANYone) smarter than me can advise

Yeah i seem to see that circuit cropping up all over the place but haven't tried it yet. It's pretty cool but tame compared to what i think i was after. I think it was probably more like bit reduction/destruction i was searching for but lacked the knowledge to find anything suitable. I've got a Malekko Charlie Foxtrot now for whenever i just want to destroy everything 

I wish i could be any kind of help but if it's above your pay grade i'm not even on the pay roll. I'll keep my eyes peeled 

[patrick398]

If it can get anywhere near this thing i'll buy a thousand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAf7IEUbgNY

[amptramp]

This is a frequency inversion device with a carrier at 3300 Hz.  Subtract the input frequency from 3300 Hz and you get the output frequency.  If you feed in an A440, the output is 2860 Hz (3300 - 440).  It has input and output filters where the input filter stops anything above 3100 Hz so you don't get aliasing (where a higher frequency than the carrier comes in and you get the input frequency minus 3300 Hz).  This will give you some strange outputs that are definitely not on any tempered scale.  It may make for interesting sound effects, so try it and see.

[Mark Hammer]

have ya tried an ampeg scrambler distortion?



i ordered two of the chips just to try 'em. see what happens. hopefully someone (read:ANYone) smarter than me can advise

Obviously, the chip has very little to do with the Ampeg circuit.  The stock Scrambler can be interesting, but suffers from the lack of any way to adjust its sensitivity, or filter the input signal.  The result is that a lot of the time it seems to be doing too much.

Of late, I have been going through my various octave-up pedals and replacing Ge and Si diodes with Schottky units, with a clearly noticeable improvement in the ease with which I get octaves.  I have not yet done this with a Scrambler, though with that pedal it is hard to tell whether the same strategy would work as well.  I'm wondering whether a 1k pot in series with the emitter cap on Q2 would help to reduce the sensitivity (and overabundance of splat).

ADDENDUM:  Half confirmed (too late in the evening to do the diode swap).  Sticking a small resistance in series between the emitter of Q2 and the electrolytic cap to ground (100uf to 125uf, depending on the schematic) does indeed reduce the "drive" of the doubling section and make it more usable.  A 500R pot seems about right for tailoring the sensitivity of the unit to the input being used.

[EBK]

My S.M.O.G. circuit (still in the early design/prototype stage) does something similar to a voice scrambler.  It does frequency inversion around a swept carrier (instead of a fixed one) using an analog multiplier chip, followed by a narrow LP filter.  I'm only using the result as a control voltage for a VCA though, but once I get it cleaned up a bit, I'll see if I can record some audio with a different filter.  Might be fun.

[blackieNYC]

Don't forget the crystal. Have at it!
Once you build this you can finally call the Feds from a payphone, and drain the swamp for real.