"Luchansky Noisator" - 567 hack with no whine

[polivox]

Luchansky Noisator

It's my very first design\hack and I have to worry you - it's not an effect for everyone. You can tell it from its name (I started designing it for my friend and wonderful musician Vladimir Luchansky and without his support there would be no noisator). Ok, let's talk about the effect itself.
At first - the demos:
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/audio2
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/audio3
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/audio1
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/synth1
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/synth1
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/synth
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/drum4
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/drum3
https://soundcloud.com/ezhi_aka/on-bass-var


Like any other noob I searched the web for some basic projects (by the time I started working on noisator me and my friend and collegue Ezhi have only build two pedals) and came across the famous 567 pseudo-ringmodulator design. I tried to build it and got an interesting and yet ususable effect - due to the constant background sound. I also found some 567 projects that used the cmos version of the ic and probably killed the whine - but i never had any cmos 567s and couldn't try them. So I started breadboarding the common cheap 567 (got 25 of them for 5 or 7 bucks off ebay) and after a months of trying and failing the noisator was born. Basically, there is nothing new in this design, so I really shouldn't call it "mine" - I just put together some ideas and made them work.

I post here the scheme for the complex modular pedal I built. So if you want to try and build the basic noisator, you would only need the following "blocks":
1) the power supply (78l05)
2) the input booster
3) one 567 noisator block
4) the output booster
Basically, these "blocks" helped me solve the 567 whining problem - I figured out that if you feed the 567 with something just above 3 volts and a boosted signal you get this fuzzy and noisy pseudo ring modulation whithout any whine. The current is controlled by the 20k trimmers. Apart from them you would only need a timing capasitor between legs 6 and 7 - i have different values on different blocks, you should try them all or even make them switchable; and a couple of other components (the most important one is perhaps the 0.033 uF capasitor to ground - together with the 10k resistor in the input booster block it forms an rc filter which prevents crazy whine happening when connected to some other pedals). And, of course, you have a 1meg pot to control the pitch. On the highest setting it won't give you any pseudo ring modulation but it will give you some pretty cool lofi fuzz.
After this "567 block" the signal goes into the output booster which has a severe effect on the sound (without it everything is just weak and muddy).
As you can see, the boosters are basically the LPBs with some minor changes. The power section uses an 78l05 to give accurate 5 volts to the 567s (and then you just adjust the trimmers the way there is no whine but there is the effect going on). Another block is a pretty common 386 set to "track" your sound and light up a led that changes the resistance of the ldr we use instead of the pitch pot on the "envelope block" and lets you make some cool synthy quack sounds. And you know - you can put an lfo there and wobble the heck out of this circuit.

I believe it's enough to say about this design\hack, feel free to ask questions and thank you very much for your attention.

P.S. - the pedal we build for Vladimir Luchansky is modular - so we arranged a little patchbay, hope you like it - it was a pain in the a to wire)))

[theehman]

pretty wacky!  I may have to build one for my bass pedalboard.

[polivox]

thank you!

i am thinking on a special bass version with an op amp blender to mix the dry and the wet signal so you don't lose any bass frequencies on certain settings. but if you use the "low block" it can give you some very thick but glitchy sub-bass

[garcho]

nicely done! will have to mess with this later...

[polivox]

thank you very much! feel free to ask questions - you can pm me anytime and i'll try to help

[moosapotamus]

Very cool!
I only had time to listen to the first couple of clips, but I like it!
Nice etch on the enclosure, too.

~ Charlie

[polivox]

Thanks! The use of this effect is a bit limited as it likes to be the first pedal after your instrument or doesn't like polyphonic playing but you can get some vey interesting glitchy tones out of it and it doesn't seem to cover them all with lots of fuzz dirt. I really like the sub octave sound this pedal can give.