#5

Thanks! No, no pull down resistors were used. Everything is in parallel till a few more jacks arrive in the mail. At that point, I think I may have a few break off to another jack, thus allowing for even more craziness. Actually, at that point, I may add pull downs…

1 Like
#6

Hey man. What did you use for the wire. I’ve finished one similar and I think I’ve chosen strings that are too thin.

#7

I used nice, thin brass rods of varying gauge and old guitar strings. the rods are quite rigid vs the strings which bounce around more. Another reason I wanted to have mine be a modifiable hollow “trunks”, so I could find what worked and what didnt without building a prototype.

#8

Cool thanks. I had some light guaged guitar strings in my cupboard so used them, but i’m not reallly happy with the variety of sounds From them.

#9

IMG_8120.JPG3264×2448 1.89 MB

I use those guitar pre amp eq’s - the obscenely cheap ones from china. My stuff is usually quite distressed / junkyard but they dont sound lo fi at all. Obviously they are not fishman quality.

hammering brass rod into mdf here was only partly sucessful - only about half og the rods ping nicely. the springs and old coaster sound great.

by the way ssemblr - forgot to say how much i liked your sound on these clips.

richard

4 Likes
#10

Holy cow, those clips sound tremendous!

Oddly, considering how they used no synths, the first clip reminds me a lot of some of Velvet Underground’s/Lou Reed’s more anarchic moments, and the second reminds me of early Sonic Youth.

Both very good things.

I’d LOVE to be able to get sounds like that out of a synth rig.

Well done!

4 Likes
#11

thanks so much. funny enough, there isnt much synth-ing going on here, mainly just reverb and delay through clouds and the PG. It does work very well with triggering things though. I am going to be making more of these that have more outputs and a bit more complexity soon! Quite excited to begin!

#12

Yeah, I suppose not. I guess it actually isn’t surprising that it resembles a racket of distressed electric guitars, given that the source is a construct of resonant wood body, thin metal parts, err, guitar strings, etc.!

It’s so cool.

Would you mind posting the link/source for the piezos; a model or name, etc.?

1 Like
#13

thanks. the piezos i used here are just from a big 20pack i bought on ebay from korea years ago. i buy them without wires as well. should be around 10 bucks with shipping for a dozen or so… think thats about it! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#14

I am curious about the pull down resistor mentioned in a few of the posts. Is this just for the triggering outputs? or for the audio output as well. I have never used them - neither Bart Hopkins or Nicolas Collins mention doing this in their books. ( I dont think) - my reference manuals for this kind of thing. Maybe I am solving the same problem in an acoustic way. On metal i use a sliver of wood between the metal and the piezo this takes out some of the peaking and overload- and a bit of treble too.(wooden chip forks work well) Collins recommends 2 coats of plastidip - a thick spongy double sided tape also helps.

This has made me curious - What value R would you use? something quite high 1M or something like that??

Piezos in this format aren’t sold branded - i just get the batches off ebay too- or pull apart buzzers. I would definitely get ones with wires as they are hard to solder. you need a good iron.

#15

Another vote for bulk buying piezos on ebay.

#16

pull downs tend to limit the properties of a piezo and make it more into an “on/off type” situation vs a very open, unobstructed frequency range. i learned that just by messing around years ago with components and then found there is an actual term for that! what you can learn by messing around! :slight_smile: in terms of what resistance, i would just go with what works best. you all probably have a little batch of odds and ends to experiment with. i did not use a shim with the piezos and do not plan to for this box and future ones as i want the overload you mention. i want that direct contact. Indeed! Get a good iron too! :slight_smile: 40w Wellers are like $20.00! i would like to learn how to make a simple but clean preamp but that can come later…

1 Like
#17

vers II prototype. not quite done and some of this was dry fit so no sound. i think looks pretty neat though!

2 Likes
#18

That’s a nice looking box - where did you get it?

//// pictures of our sound-making machines ////
#19

They are Hammond enclosures from the Endangered Audio Research AD4096 delay pedal. Around the size of the EXH Cathedral or Memory Man. I bought all nine of them though.

#21

Here are the three proposed designs…

Photo Jan 28, 4 10 08 PM.jpg3264×2177 1.43 MB

Here’s this too…

9 Likes
#22

Great stuff. Where did you get the brass panels? Did you cut them yourself or are they off the shelf?

#23

Looks/sounds great! What is the surface finish of those boxes? Are they painted/baked or something a bit more involved?

#24

think its baked on. bought them that way. main thing i wanted in terms of finish was it to look good next to my make noise cv bus case.

1 Like
#25

Thanks, they do look very stylish.

1 Like