Dub shot noise box project....

[kitsophrenik]

righteo!

how is every one!? havnt posted in a while... starting a new project.. sort of a Dub shot/siren machiene... basically im gonna take a digitall multi tone car alarm/siren (as per s-cats design! =D) bend it so i have a pitch controll, repeater... etc (things i seem to have gotten the hang of!)...

i was trying to create some thing with an option for a digitall one shot sound such as a Ray gun or lazor sci-fi sorta thing!

i was thinking dismantleing a toy gun or other sound effex keyring or sumts like that... any ideas? so far ive only found stuff with then fiddley micro circuits and seem to break them all when im trying to add push switches for their operation...

could i just piggy back the audio out and the power from the siren circuit and the toy gun (thingy) into one?.. or would this not work... i cant forsee a problem innit butttt ive been wrong before....many times...

ive bought a load of them big red arcade style push buttons for firing all the different siren and noises i choose.. (thanks to paul for the gremlinsolutions post for that! i do love the big red fire buttons!!)  im trying to get hold of a decent housing for this... i was thinking of using the casing for one of the old commodore 64's... the big chunkey one, slightly greyer model... if anbody understands me! lol any body got an ideas where i couldd grab one from? keep tryin 2 get round car boot but havnt managed!

any of u lot got one!? or indeed just the case off a busted one!? would love it if willing to share! =D

thanks alot guys ill update soon as i get further on... got me buttons a load of new pots a ansering machiene, a ben 10 keyring and got knows what else to go and mash together!

cheers!

[Circuitbenders]

I'm pretty sure theres a decent velleman kit with loads of those 'classic' dub sound FX. I think i recased one for someone a while back. It had individual push buttons for each sound and you can easily add a pitch control.

You'll probably need a mixer circuit to combine them. This has been asked about a few times on here recently so do a search for simplemixer circuits or similar.

[Gordonjcp]

You can make a good laser zap effect by sweeping the pitch of a shift register digital noise generator.  At high clock rates the noise is pretty much white, but as you sweep it down it becomes more obviously digital in character.  Divide down the clock and mix some in for a bit of pitched content, and you've got a lovely "PZZCHHHHEWW" laser zap!

[kitsophrenik]

Cheers for the quick replys guys! Ill have a search for the joined circuit majigger....

http://www.velleman.eu/distributor/products/view/?id=9222

is that the vellemAn kit u was on about paul???

[Circuitbenders]

well it certainly looks the same although is seems to have half the list of effects missing

This link below appears to be the same and lists  machine gun, European siren, phasor gun, racing car with motor howl, screeching of car tyres on a curve, explosion, mortar fire followed by explosion, music, wild charge tune, snake charmers tune and US siren

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrical-Power/PA-Audio-Video/PA-Audio-Kits/Sound-generator/74667

so i guess it is right.

[kitsophrenik]

Thats pretty much the thing i was after mite purchase one... Still gonna try fora lazor gun tho! Just been online for a c64 ...... Since when do they cost 69.99 and up! Mental! Mite have to rethink the casing options... After some old skool looking casing... Maybe a flight case if i can get one cheap enuff!

Was gonna use the casing for the c64 cos it lookd simar to the projject box i used for my dub siren... Did anyone see the vid i posted!?

[jamiewoody]

i'm going to say something stupid here...with these velleman kits, since the boards are pre-printed, how much do we actually LEARN about what we are doing?!

i want to become more intuitive about electronics. so far my (backwards i know) method has been to hook things up by hand. i have never made a PCB. i know, when i learn to make these , i will be "like the big boys"!

but, just dropping components in holes, then soldering them together...am i missing something here?

[Circuitbenders]

well they have a schematic and often have notes explaining how they are working. I think the whole point of any kit, is that you don't have to know how its working unless you actually want to.

Surely the best way of learning how something works is by sitting down and working out what its doing from a schematic?

[kitsophrenik]

I think i am gonna get wannah them kits.. Built a couple of that sorta thing, distortian box and suchlike, i jus like twiddling wiv em and building them up as much as i like creativly breaking kids toys!

Really want to get on building this dub box.. Jus waitin on a few bits thru tha post... Aparently its been snowing or something...

[Gordonjcp]

with these velleman kits, since the boards are pre-printed, how much do we actually LEARN about what we are doing?!

How much you learn depends on what you do with it.  If you get the kit, unbox it, and follow the instructions you *should* have a working project at the end of it.  Doing things this way removes a lot of the variables.  They're also good for getting your soldering up to scratch, which is where most people go wrong.

Once you've got your wee project up and running, you can study the circuit to see how it works, or even modify it.  You can go out and design a PCB but until you've got a good grasp of how everything will fit together the chances are it won't really work well for you.  If you're just prototyping stuff, you can build it on veroboard if you want something fairly permanent, or go for "dead bug" construction like my Synthacon filter:
http://www.gjcp.net/media/filter.jpg

I use this technique because I can quickly build up a circuit and change components to see what effect it has.  I also use the same construction method at RF - right up to microwave frequencies - because I can keep the component leads very short which reduces the inductance.  This starts to become critical above a few hundred megahertz ;-)

So, no, not a stupid question at all.  Yes, kits can be a good learning resource, depending on how you approach them.

[jamiewoody]

well they have a schematic and often have notes explaining how they are working. I think the whole point of any kit, is that you don't have to know how its working unless you actually want to.

Surely the best way of learning how something works is by sitting down and working out what its doing from a schematic?

i can appreciate that perspective. i have enjoyed my method of actually building  things "from scratch" for a "hands on" method of learning. though, i need some theory too. most colleges teach theory over application. to me, application is much more important than theory...after all, it is a "theory"! i think still there is so much we do not really know about electronics...

its kind of like music. learning theory is good, and not a waste of time, but, if you are doing nothing but playing scales, and not bending a note here or there, and not letting your intuition rule your playing, or "soul"...it becomes kind of dull...

[kitsophrenik]

Gettin a bit deep in here... I jus like to smoke weed and make strange siren noises... Oh and echo, gottah have echo...

[Gordonjcp]

Aha, but as Picasso said, you must know the rules before you can break them.  It does help to have a bit of grounding in theory, so that you're not just randomly stabbing components into things and hoping it works.

I get really, really annoyed and frustrated when I read posts by people saying stupid shit like "I wired an LED in series because I wanted it to light up and now it doesn't work but it should work and it doesn't because it's an LED and theory is hard and Reed Ghazala says you don't need theory.  How do I make it work?"

Well, read a bloody book on simple electronics, then!  Jeez, it's not hard.  At least learn some of the terminology, what it means, and how to apply it.  The only way to learn how to do things is to actually *do* them - try stuff, and learn from what doesn't work.  *But* - you need to know what's *likely* to work, and for that you're going to want a bit of theory.

We know intuitively that some combinations of food work well.  Putting salt on strawberries?  No, you put sugar on strawberries!  How do we know that?  Well, it's not innate - we learn that sweet things work well with sweet things, mostly.  Occasionally something comes from way off out the side, like strawberry jam and cheese on a sandwich (it works well, try it with a particularly strong Cheddar) and you think "how the hell does that work?"  But then you discover that it's not about the sugar and the salt, the fats involved come into play as well.  It's definitely not as good with marge or low-fat spread than it is with butter - you've got to get the fats right.

Electronics is the same - you learn how to build things up intuitively, just as with music, and just as with food.  The theory gives you a clue for where to start.

[Circuitbenders]

so anyway............... about dub sound FX kits 

[kitsophrenik]

Maybe im not the one smoking all the pot....

Anyway progress issss....

Ive wired the buttons up to the car alarm, got a pot in there for volume and pitch, the pitch one does that thing where it kinda increases the rate of the sound,.. But i like that! =D

ive got a reload sound from a keychain that im including as a one shot noise on the box...

Got 1 of them velleman kits and a toy lazor gum comeing thru aswell.. Well when the postman and the snowman stop having this spat there on with at the mo.... Anyway!

Im still after a casing from a c64 if anybody has one kicking about!?

Aaaa thank you!