tiny tremoloOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[deadastronaut]

exclusive to diystompbox...its nice to give something back!...even if its simple

hi guys....been twiddling with bits again..'oh no not again i hear you all cry'!!!!......
heres a very very simple one knob tiny tremolo?. it works great!..and is only 6 components.....thats it!..
i started off wanting to control the speed of a 555 with led..then i thought well why not use an ldr to break the
sound up...here ya go!.....be nice with a chorus /delay....im quite pleased with it...its my first 555 project ever!.
so be kind...
SOUNDCLIP...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7464107/tinytrem1.mp3




ive still got it on a tiny breadboard but the above vero will work...going to try a dimming mod too...as well as on and off..
for hard or soft...

i know there are plenty of tremolo's much better than these out there to build ,but i enjoy the pain and pleasure
of creating!!!!i find it much more rewarding than simply copying....thanks for stopping by..

[aron]

Cool!

[deadastronaut]

wow..thats nice coming from you man!..thanks .rob.

[John Lyons]

It's pretty square. I wonder if you could add in a smoothing cap to round out the waveform?
Sounds cool for more angular trem, nice!

John

[deadastronaut]

It's pretty square. I wonder if you could add in a smoothing cap to round out the waveform?
Sounds cool for more angular trem, nice!

John

hi john, as this is my first dive into anything other than distortions yes its very simple.! just experimenting really.

i thought it would be improved by some kind of dimming of the led maybe,? instead of or also the blunt on/off of light!..making it rounder!
where would you add a cap to do this?...its open to mods and suggestions by all means..all  ideas welcome.
cheers rob.

[paulyy]

Sounds really nice for something so simple. Hate to ask a dumb question but what is a ldr?

[deadastronaut]

hi paully.

light dependant resistor...shine light in it and it reacts...so the led flashes into it..ok.

same as this..

http://www.youtube.com/user/100roberthenry#p/u/8/rn16DMoTEPw

[Taylor]

Sounds really nice for something so simple. Hate to ask a dumb question but what is a ldr?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-dependent_resistor


Cool minimal circuit, Rob. Since the audio path is totally passive, the performance will depend heavily on what's in front of it and after it. You could add a dual opamp and a few passives to get a buffered in and out, though that would decrease the simplicity of course.

[deadastronaut]

Sounds really nice for something so simple. Hate to ask a dumb question but what is a ldr?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-dependent_resistor


Cool minimal circuit, Rob. Since the audio path is totally passive, the performance will depend heavily on what's in front of it and after it. You could add a dual opamp and a few passives to get a buffered in and out, though that would decrease the simplicity of course.

cheers taylor yep..it was considered..and no doubt it will be modded considerably.....in the end 

[aleister]

   i got this breadboarded up and it sounds amazing for such a low parts count.  real nice trashy tremelo sound going on.   i was wondering Rob what was the light/dark values of the ldr that you used on the soundclip?  i have a bunch of different values from an electronics goldmine value pack and i am having a good bit of fun swapping out and getting some neat sounds. great project Rob, it will be interesting to see what this may evolve into.

[Labaris]

I like tremolos a lot, and yours is very nice!
Is there a little treble loss?

Go on, designing is the best.

[Taylor]

Also, don't know if you're experiencing ticking (common with the 555) but the trick I've seen is to use the CMOS version of the 555, so it doesn't pull as much current on the state changes.

Although, now that I think about it, having the audio path passive means it isn't as closely connected to the same ground as the 555, so that may mean less chance of ticking. You still have to ground the jacks of course, but still, perhaps the passive path is the key to using the 555 without ticking.

[deadastronaut]

  i got this breadboarded up and it sounds amazing for such a low parts count.  real nice trashy tremelo sound going on.   i was wondering Rob what was the light/dark values of the ldr that you used on the soundclip?  i have a bunch of different values from an electronics goldmine value pack and i am having a good bit of fun swapping out and getting some neat sounds. great project Rob, it will be interesting to see what this may evolve into.

hi,aleister it reads 4.5k on the dmm...5k i guess!...bought it ages ago..

@labaris...havent noticed treble loss !..cheers.

@ taylor, i cant hear any ticking even with phones on...the exact numbers on the ic are : ua555ic/f7617
i got a bag full of goodies from a friend who's dad sadly passed away,and there was a lot of these in there..and 741's.

edit: mind you i havent shrink wrapped the ldr yet..i just try it in the dark 

[Perrow]

If I'm not totally mistaken, a pot in parallel with the ldr would constitute a depth mod, wouldn't it?

[skiraly017]

Very cool, I like it! Reminds me of the Walco Sound-Go-Round.

[paulyy]

hi paully.

light dependant resistor...shine light in it and it reacts...so the led flashes into it..ok.

same as this..

http://www.youtube.com/user/100roberthenry#p/u/8/rn16DMoTEPw

Sounds really nice for something so simple. Hate to ask a dumb question but what is a ldr?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-dependent_resistor


Cool minimal circuit, Rob. Since the audio path is totally passive, the performance will depend heavily on what's in front of it and after it. You could add a dual opamp and a few passives to get a buffered in and out, though that would decrease the simplicity of course.

Thanks. I thought it was a photoresister. Just never herd it called that.

[glops]

That sounds really great!  So simple, gonna try this out!

[jdub]

Sweet & simple, man. Very nice!  Lotsa potential, too...

[frequencycentral]

You could add a depth control by adding a (100k?) pot in series with the LED. I think. 

[John Lyons]

With a series 100k pot wouldn't that just keep a 100K (at max) resistance in
series with the In/out? dropping a little volume but not really affecting the depth?

Thinking out loud...Led "off" means (?)megs of resistance between in/out, 5K between out in
with the LED on as "stock". With a pot in parallel you would get less resistance with LED off
and' therefore a less deep trem no? But I wonder how big that pot would need to be.
Probably larger than 1M