MAKE: 5euro synth / atari 'punk' sound fx unit..

[playthatbeat]

Blurrymachine's 'dark side of the moon' i think...

[brain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRbAg...el_video_title just added the delux upgrade a water pump. Feel the win.

[playthatbeat]

There is a tidy kit available now: http://www.getlofi.com/?page_id=1395

[brain]

http://www.vimeo.com/8931636 me too. 556 off

[playthatbeat]

OK, so built one of these.. Using a little speaker to do the tests, and its LOUD! like very loud!

So, will have to drop that to line level as it's no use as is..

The real fun comes from twiddling the knobs.. Like REAL mad crazy phaze-distortion stuff.. I think the only way to make this cook is to add voltage control to as much of it as possible and get it animating..

i can see it as a wonderfull source of farty sound alright. In fact, Fartsynth supreme.

here is a quick 2 min of me twiddling it.. crap quality, but thats $5 synths for you all over

[playthatbeat]

More on a 556-based APC.. Stupid gif is transparent, so you'l have to look at it on a white background!

[playthatbeat]

Brain has been stalking alot of Video-circuit bending sites, and as a side-effect, this came up from http://www.lushprojects.com/apc/index.html

[playthatbeat]

Today 10 x NE556N chips arrived.. Don't think we are gonna get to do anything with this till after Xmas.. It's the first on the list for the new year..

[playthatbeat]

If you have been lurking on eBay recently, you may have seen lots of DRONE synths, or SQUARE WAVE synth modules for sale for very little..

These are mostly based around a single chip - the 555 timing IC (see the wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC ) and are referred to is APCs or ATARI PUNK CONSOLES ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Punk_Console )

Nice vid of a spanish bloke playing one of these chips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leqqSvggq68

It seems to make some nice digi REVVVVVV noises - that sound very like the SFX in Williams' JOUST, or the awesome POKEY sounds made by the oldschool Atari consoles...

So, because we can, i have ordered up 10 of these chips from eBay - i actually went for the variant on the 555 - the 556 - which has 2 gennys on the chip for like 30c a pop inc. shittping from like malaysia!

We SHOULD be able to bridge a couple of legs on the chip with knobs and make some interesting sounds.. So, this is now on the list of things to do for 2010 - make a decent and patchable (so we can use it with the other modular gear in the studio) atari soundmaker thingy..

I imagine it can be done with crap found in a skip by twisting wires together, using a 9v battery, or more professionally on a board - we will see!!!

Attached: the pdf of the cheapest 556 chip i could find. these go for 11c each in batches. There are better 'high resolution' versions, that i expect are more sensitive to voltage changes, or will 'step' less - but i want the lofi angle!!! You can work out what the pins on the 556 do in relation to the 555 that most of the punk's are based on.. looks interesting..

a nice explination here: http://www.robthefiddler.com/electro...-punk-console/ - i've included his diagram attached here showing a 2 osc design using a 556 chip that originally appeared at http://www.getlofi.com/?p=518

and more here: http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006...k-console.html

People build these in Old tins, lampshades, whatever, and use various methods to provide an adjustable resistance to make the thing scream..

A synth for 5euro? yes, yes we can.