Crackle Box DIY Synth Project

[bigtex]

[Wild Zebra]

[shawn]

You're right, it's not the fault of the crackle box but the sounds those things can make certainly haven't impressed me enough. I suppose it has the "ciat-lonbarde" effect. basically really neat instruments but very bad samples showcasing the items. I'll just have to build one to see for myself.

[Blacklight]

My usual method is to rig up a two way switch that breaks the circuit with the speaker and re-routs the speaker outs to a guitar or 14 inch jack so it makes using the speaker selectable. I ordered an actual box from Steim and I fully intend on building one once I totally get the schematic translated. A friend of mine had one and I loved it for what it was. It's fun to play with and I've used his with a mic in some of my music. I love the randomness of it and it sounds really cool with added FX. I have a circuit bent transister radio that I call "Mr Happynoise" (It looks like a round smiley face mounted in a black box) that sounds similar (It's playable with a photocell sewn onto a glove, a photocell mounted on top of a dome of a bendy lamp, and also touching a few brass knobs on it along with a plethora of sound altering buttons). I actually connected a bus wire from one of the knobs to the long metal railing in my house and connected another bus wire from the other knob to my ankle... therefore making the railing into a controller.. depending on where I touched the railing, Mr Happynoise would wail a different pitch. It was really cool. Mr Happynoise is like a theremin from hell and I'm still learning to carry a tune on it. It's so hard to play. 8D

[dnny]

[computer at sea]

I'm very much looking forward to building one of these.

Since the box performs differently as the battery ages, it seems like it would be a good move to install a pot on the +voltage like the traditional circuit bending 'voltage drop crash'. Then you can dial down the ammount of voltage comming into the circuit. Has anyone tried this?

I bet a 1k pot with a small resistor wired in parallel would do the trick nicely.
I'll let you know once I get all the parts.

[mosc]

Computer at Sea

Yes, this is a great thing to do. I have seen this on several Crackle Boxes.

[Blacklight]

My wife has threatened numerous times that she's going to throw my cracklebox in the lake near where we live. Damn she loves that thing !

[loss1234]

does anybody know if this will work? its supposedly a direct replacement for the lm709, although you need to change the pin numbers on the schematic to fit. but as far as the tech specs, it seems to be identical. can anyone let me know if its worth trying?


thanks

[etaoin]

By the way, I have some SN72709 spare if anyone's interested. They are NOS but can't guarantee they're OK, unless someone can point me to a small circuit I could use to test them.

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[loss1234]

i made the mistake of PMing you thinking these were the SNchips thomas henry talks about

sorry. i guess i am not interested. sn76477's are what i am looking for.

thanks

[etaoin]

No, these are 709's from Texas Instruments. The 76477 is much larger anyway (28 pins).

[rubendelacosta]

hi there!

just an idea:

could a crackle box be turned in to a nice cv controller?


just wondering...

[loss1234]

how would you do that



???
id be interested.


dan

[rubendelacosta]

well, forget about the crackle box idea...i couldn't figure out a way to do that anyways...

BUT! i had this random controller idea 30mins a go and it might work
(sorry, it's probably of topic...)

and i hope to get some help

so, the whole idea it's based around the great ken stone's psyco lfo (here is the schematic http://www.cgs.synth.net/modules/psycho_lfo.html here is some samples too http://www.metalbox.com/samples/psychosine.mp3 http://www.metalbox.com/samples/psychopulsefilter.mp3 it sure is a great module!)
hope ken stone don't get mad at me...

and my idea would be something like this:


build something like a tabletop controller that you would use all you fingers on it.

i also did a simple patch that i think would work well (yeah...i got nothing to do) http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8578/patchkv6.png (the word "points" it's misspelled...please don't laugh)

now, maybe some features should be add, and here is where i need some help.

-- a wave shaper would be cool, so you don't have only square waves.
-- and maybe a trigger circuit would be nice too to trigger adsr's or something like that (probably a foot trigger would be smartest...)

any idea?


hope you understood everything... my windows "Paint" skills are lame and sorry for my inglish

thank you for your time,
rubens.

[clarke68]

The first synth/noisemaker thing I've ever built! Shamelessly showing it off here like a proud papa (hard to decide if I should create a new thread or drag up this old one). Overall I'm very happy with the build...for some reason the finished product is a lot louder than it was on the breadboard.



Hardest parts were the transistor "array" (gorgeous & elegant on the schmatic, convoluted & weird on the protoboard) and stuffing the whole thing into this tiny box.



The box was some schwag I got from work for a project I worked on...nice box that has done nothing but hold a pen for the last 10 years. Now it has a new purpose and is getting a good deal more attention! I brought it to a friend's house last night, his 3-year-old son loved it...carried it around and played it all night. Now I think I need to build him one.



The opamp is an actual LM709 I got from bgmicro. The knob on the side is a 1k pot with an SPST switch, the pot used as a voltage starve. Adding a voltage starve is essential on these things (thanks for the suggestion Mosc and Computer at Sea)...it changes the behavior of the instrument quite a bit and adds another level of expression. I tried an LED in the circuit while it was on the breadboard, but it seemed to subtly soften the sound in ways I didn't like, so I left it out.

Short video of a "performance" in a parking garage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zbR4uBJOv8

[mark_olson]

[mosc]

clarke68, beautiful job. Great way to reuse that advertising gimmick box.

I love the video too.

[Danno Gee Ray]

I think your increase in perceived volume is due to resonance with cool wood.

[The Peasant]

I've built probabloy half a dozen crackleboxes, no two ever sounded the same!

http://www.electronicpeasant.com/projects/krakcats/krakcats.html

Take care,
Doug

[clarke68]

[EpicFail]

Hi there! Just found this post on the cracklebox. Definitely want to give this a go and think I've tracked down a supplier of the LM709 from Cricklewood Electronics: http://www.cricklewoodelectronics.com/Cricklewood/search.php?mode=search&page=1

Can anyone tell me whether I need the LM709CH or LM709CP? I'm guessing it's the latter as it looks like the one people have been using the these projects...

Cheers

[clarke68]

[EpicFail]

Thanks clarke68. Good to know.

[mrkva]

For those interested, I've developed a simple cracklebox alternative based around 40106 inverter http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?highlight=hniezdo&t=52008