Thing Modulator

[pedaltastic]

Is the LMC567 chip the Thing Modulator uses same as the LM567 I picked up from my local shop? Does the missing "C" matter?

Sorry for what is probably a stupid question...

Thanks for your help in advance!

[nordine]

matters because the "C" stands for CMOS version, which is said to be lower current cunsumption, and therefore, lower spikes generated in the internal oscillator, AND then, lower carrier feedthrough

[tcobretti]

The C is critical.  It'll work without it, but the oscillator bleed thru is very loud.

[Threefish]

I can second the other two posts. Bleedthrough is loud enough to build a song around. I actually did exactly that. It was crap though.

Anyway, I built one a while ago with the plain LM567 chip, and fiddled with it a while to see if I could quieten it down without much luck. Then again, it's not really the ring mod sound I play with - it's the other weirder videogame noises you can get at the other end of the pot's rotation. There's atonal synthy sounds, tones that go down as you go up the fretboard, no note at all (still trying to work out how to use that feature...) and for a bit more noisy fun I put an LDR in line with the pot like the Christian's Noise 567, that the Thing Modulator was derived from. By varying the amount of light hitting the LDR, you can get a wah-like range of tones. Twiddle the knob, fiddle the LDR. Yeeeha.
Not much of it is tuneful though. Think crazy out-of-time stoner rock guitar solo via Soft Cell or Depeche Mode. Sortof.

[any]

I'm currently finishing development on a new effect using the KE567 wich is also a "non cmos" 567 variety.
It uses part of the "ugly face" circuit to extract an envelope signal to gate the 567 when no notes are played.
This will enable you to use any 567 regardless if it is cmos.
Basically a LM386 driving a led-ldr combo as in the ugly face where the ldr acts as a gate on the 567 output.
I've tied the 567 output to ground through a 100k resistor after which it is led through the LDR to the output.
When no notes are played the LDR resistance is >1m so the "bleed through" noise is shunted to ground through
the 100k resistor. When something is played the LDR goes to <1k and lets the sound pass to the output.
It works reasonably well allthough I'm still refining it. I'm still looking into a simple transistor shunt switch wich
I can hook up, but it works well as it is right now.

The big plus of a non cmos 567 is the abillity to starve the voltage and get all kinds of "MXR blue box" type effects!
some more disclosure to come if interested... or check out my "MayheM!" layout in the layout gallery.
(MayheM! is the non envelope version of my circuit)

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/MayheM%21

[tcobretti]

Any, that sounds awesome.  I certainly look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[pedaltastic]

Thanks for your help! That is a little bit of a bugger... anybody know where I can get the LMC567 chip from before christmas??

MayheM sounds cool! I'd like to hear some sound clips if you have any...

[tcobretti]

http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref=66523&Row=530937&Site=US

Digikey is the only place in the US that I know about.  I'm sure there are more.  Be sure you order DIP not SOIC.

[pedaltastic]

Cool thanks again