Neovibe vs Easy vibe pics and clips inside

[The Tone God]

So your LFO is set up to reverse the cycle of the LED? Is that what you meant by reversing the polarity?

No. The LFO still runs in the same manner as the stock version but by swapping the polarity of the LEDs to run on the other edge of the LFO's sweep it fit my tastes more. I also added a bunch of other features like the speed pot now only needs two connections and wider speed range.

Andrew

[tungngruv]

Very cool post John! That Neovibe sound kills!!!!

[petemoore]

  I don't think there are voltage differences great enough in any of the phase stages to meet a diode threshold, ie to introduce clipping.
  Generally, 'clean' is the hard end of the stick to hold down, I suppose the idea is to keep opamps clean [because the rough OA clipping sound]. But there are many ways to dirty up opamps to sound more like tubes...rambling I know..
  Just thinking there must be a way to trick opamps that'd normally be very clean..to dumb them down and give them more character.
  I know the easy vibe is designed for low current consumption, but perhaps input impedances could be dropped to a more 'lo-fi' level?

[SteveB]

So your LFO is set up to reverse the cycle of the LED? Is that what you meant by reversing the polarity?

No. The LFO still runs in the same manner as the stock version but by swapping the polarity of the LEDs to run on the other edge of the LFO's sweep it fit my tastes more. I also added a bunch of other features like the speed pot now only needs two connections and wider speed range.

Andrew

Now, this seems interesting. While trying the EZ-vibe, my initial feeling was that it was backwards, but never could quite figure it.

John, it would definitley be worth a try when you get it back.

Steve

[petemoore]

  Two sheets to the wind, is just a bit too much damping, not enough intensity.
  1.5 sheets is just right.
  Adding two thicknesses of paper dulled it down too much, full setting = not enough wobbel.
  with the LED's LDR's offset a slight, and a sheet of typing paper across all four [between the LED's and the LDR's] and another sheet between only two of the four...I moved the small sheet [covers about 2 LED's] around and hear the differences..my caps are in UniVibe order, one side dulled sounded different than having the second thickness of paper cover the right two.
  I have a nearly light sealed box and a light breaker where the light doesn't come in much, since I'm not going for settings where the LED's go fully off much..I figure a tad of background light might be a good thing.
  @@ Rate this mod was easy since I have the LDR's in one 'board' the LED's in another [components stuffed in cardboard stiffened with toothpicks], each opposing board is held in place with wire struts [basically they're kinda laced together], the sheets go right in there, make the intensity knob go less at max.

[John Lyons]

Running the LEDs off the opposite wave form seems interesting. I'm not sure what the waveform looks like but I assume it's not symetrical or else there would be no difference in the operation. Any one have a scope shot of the wave form?

tone god
Can you decribe what the difference is...does it produce a more vocal sound?
I need to study the schematic on your site more to under stand the differences.

Pete. It really depends on how each person made their board but the paper trick is kind of fun. basically sets different phase intesities per each phase stage (by varying light to each LDR)

John

[tonefreak]

I just got my Neovibe board from GGG the other day... this post couldn't be more timely.

Great job on the clips and starting the conversation on the builds!!

[joelap]

I would like to correct my previous statement:  First time I was listening, I was listening on campus through 10 dollar earphones.  Since coming home I gave them another listen through a better set of speakers, and I now can DEFINATELY hear that lower yow on the Floyd song I couldnt hear before.

I'm still going to continue on with my Easyvibe build.  I guess that means I'll just have to build a Neovibe too!

[petemoore]

Running the LEDs off the opposite wave form seems interesting. I'm not sure what the waveform looks like but I assume it's not symetrical or else there would be no difference in the operation. Any one have a scope shot of the wave form?
 I was about to comment that TG's mod might be easier, especially with closed opto's or photo enclosures, until I saw your related comment.
 The way I wired it has the LED Driver OA buffered...under the board with a wire soldered across the two socket pins, I'm thinking pull one leg like the output so it's outside the socket, quick solder [heat sink] to it for that connection.
tone god
Can you decribe what the difference is...does it produce a more vocal sound?
I need to study the schematic on your site more to under stand the differences.
 ...I'm trying to sort out what it does, it looks like the two LED's now on the V+ side of the LED Driver are on the other side of the LFO Signal so the LED's light two on one side, two on the other, thus 1/2ing how many led's are lit at any time [two at a time] and doubling the rate at which LED's are lit?...then the other mods are to compensate for the speed and the LED intensity...probably wrong but that's my theory I'd like to test, maybe it saves you time typing.
 Pete. It really depends on how each person made their board but the paper trick is kind of fun.
 It is pretty good, dampens the intensity [of which I think there's still 'just plenty], and moving it back and forth, the 'thick' cap [I believe...whatever] on one side the 1/2 sheet changes the sound a bit more than the other side..with the 'noise on [FF whatever] and not playing, there's even a big difference in the amount of noise rush associated with that part of the sweep...pretty interesting, and..it probably doesn't matter much what the papers say, I'm believing I can turn the intensity up for wobble with less tremolo like effect I was having, subjective results at best.
 Not only that...the other EZ Vibe I had kinda going, and still have, it shut off sometimes I put a regulator on it, acted funny on the PS depending on venue etc., it was made from whatever Photocells RS was selling and red leds, and had something wrong with the pin voltages and all...that one had a deep sweep, lotsa wobble, this one's built with 'spec' parts and sounds more 'clinical'...of course I messed around with caps, that one was on a different voltage etc., had a 47k stuffed in because it caused the sweep to continue longer between power downs [I had a momentart switch to power down, made for really cool fading phase effect, thick sweep for about 15 seconds, no sweep after about 45].

[John Lyons]

Joelap and SLacker

Somehow I skipped over your posts the first time round, didn't see them.
If you set up the clips so you can go back and fouth you really can hear a good bit of difference in the vocal like sound in the lower sweep on the midrange not unlike a wah.

Setting up the LDR to read light from the side does make the LED look more like a bulb filament. Les light and a a pin pointed light at that.
Seems that a lower light situation is beneficial.

With any luck we can get the last 10% percent out of the Easyvibe and more toeards a NEO/univibe!

John

[joelap]

John, with the easyvibe you have on hand, theres those two 10k resistors that come together... I saw a mod in which you replace the two 10k's with say, a 5k or 8.2k, and place a 5k pot between them.  That was supposed to make it so you can fine tune the sound.  I dont remember exactly, but I remember reading it improved the sound.  Is your easyvibe set up that way?  Maybe you could try that out and see if you can choke out that last bit from that?  Sorry for this post being vague, my laptop crashed three weeks ago and I havent had a chance to get my data off of it yet, so I dont have the schematic in front of me.

[John Lyons]

Yes, I have that in place now. The Build used carbon film 10% resistors so I figured I'd put in a trimmer to balance more accurately the phase between the original and phase shifted signal. I just put in a 20K trimmer pot and set it so both sides are exactly 10K. With metal film 1% resistors this wouldn't really be necessary. Plus I wanted to see how it affected the balance. Basically wet dry blend control. Not worth making it a panel pot though.

John

[The Tone God]

Can you decribe what the difference is...does it produce a more vocal sound?
I need to study the schematic on your site more to under stand the differences.

Due to the vanacular that we use around here it is hard to describe but it had a better "swing" feel on the ends I felt. I often use my vibes at higher speed and most vibes' effect get mushy and lost at high speeds. I can't comment on tonality changes since I did not use the audio portion of the easyvibe circuit but my own.

I don't have any scope traces handy since it was a while back when I did it but maybe sometime I'll get around to it.

...I'm trying to sort out what it does, it looks like the two LED's now on the V+ side of the LED Driver are on the other side of the LFO Signal so the LED's light two on one side, two on the other, thus 1/2ing how many led's are lit at any time [two at a time] and doubling the rate at which LED's are lit?...then the other mods are to compensate for the speed and the LED intensity...probably wrong but that's my theory I'd like to test, maybe it saves you time typing.

Correct to a degree. I swapped the LEDs from ground to V+ but I did that to all of them not just a pair. You could try going to a pair but I think the vibe sound would be weaken.

Andrew

[oldrocker]

I would like to give John Hollis's designs a credit or two.  Hollis tries with most of his designs to use the least amount of parts with as simple as possible circuits to do the job.  The Easyvibe is just that,.. easier to build than the Univibe or Neovibe and works off a 9 volt battery.  If you really wanted to you could buy all the parts at Radio Shack.   Many would find that useful.  For what it is the Easyvibe is great alternative to higher voltage and more complicated phaser builds IMHO.  It's not a perfect Univibe clone but for what it is it's a clever design.  Having said that,  at this point in my effects building I think I'm ready to try effects using different voltages with more complicated circuits and the Neovibe would be a good place to start.  But I'm starting a new job soon and I won't have as much time so this may take a while.  I'll order the parts and see if I have time to put a Neovibe together.  When I'm done I'll try posting some clips.
John Hollis is da man.

[petemoore]

  Well listening to the clips and not having a Neo or Uni...
  And noting that the differences are well documented I think...
  I have built two Easy Vibes, one from 'whatever' photo schtuff [LED/LDR], the other from 'high spec' photocomponents.
  Besides the subjective and 'whether or nots', the 'whatever' vibe had a more earthy tone.
  I can say put some 'lampshade' material in...this made quite a difference, IMCase, making the sweeps less 'clinical' sounding..it changes the way the sweeps...for one thing the intensity knob can be turned up more...@@ rate, after trying the photos with lampshades, no paper, 1 sheet, and 1.5 sheets [2 sheets] I chose 1.5 sheets, the .5 sheet being two thicknesses of typing paper which are like 'sandwich slices' between the LED/LDRs, and the 1rst sheet between all four photocombos.
  I included inside the TB for the easyvibe, on the output, a bypassable Mosfet transistor to adjust level. Nice addition, adds a Mos-tone, also deepens the sound a touch, also allows it to drive whatever's next in line, perhaps the easyVibe doesn't sound quite as 'thick' or what compared to a Neo or Uni, it does sound excellent, and is easy like the name says.
  I was about to make a mechanically movable .5 sheet lampshade, moved to the right side of the photosection, it enhanced the wobble, moved to the left side, it negated some of the wobble.

[3/4 North]

This thread inspired me to finish the neovibe I started last year. It fired right up and sounds great. The hang-up has been building the light box (I made a pyramid out of brass sheet) and finding a box to put it all in. I made the #1 input buffer on a daughter board but I'm still debating using it, sounds great without it but I haven't tried an active pickup yet.

I also went with the 120 ohm and 47k resistors on the light that was suggested in another thread.

I'm trying to add an actual on-off status light (not a LED) like on the original but keep frying resistors 1/4w and 1/2w aren't big enough, they cook up like hot dogs.

[nico13]

Just in order to have a better point of comparison I would have liked the sample #1 to be the same for the easy vibe as the neovibe one.

Too bad.

[nico13]

Anayway the sound of the easyvibe is very close to the Neovibe.
And it may not be obvious to make the difference between easyvibe and neovibe inside a mix !

[remmelt]

Very interesting. It would be really cool to have a kind of library of these things. I wonder how the Phase 45 would sound with that setup?

You may want to save this post in the Wiki, you know, for posterity?

[John Lyons]

niko13

Although the easyvibe sounds nice in the clips i much prefer the smooth, deep vocal impact of the neovibe.
The easyvibe is to subtle for my tastes.

Remmelt

I'll try and post this in the wiki

john