The Nonlinear Circuits Thread

[nonlinearcircuits]

It should run nicely without any CV input, I guess not a big deal if it works with CV, better than not working.

The build guide explains how to select a resistor to get good noise levels, ideally 10V p-p. The ability of transistors to generate noise varies a great deal so the circuit was designed to be flexible for the different types, in hindsight a trimpot would have been best but where would it fit? It only needs one resistor changed to bump them up.

[hinterlands]

Thanks for the reply! Any thoughts what might be going on with the random output? I’m guessing the CV knob is supposed to normaled to a voltage - maybe it there is something amiss there? It’s a DIY build (and not by me) so I’m sure something is off. Like you said, at least it works well with CV (and the stepped random works perfectly).

Maybe I’ll look into switching the resistors for the noise - I’m not so handy with a soldering iron but I might know someone who owes me a favor.

[jwm]

latest build - el clump. pretty jazzed that andrew made this happen. hit a snag with part of the build but it was an easy enough fix once i actually found it (triple check your transistor flows people.) i also accidentally made the panel 2mm instead of 1.5 and its amazing how that and the hardware gives it that much extra heft. i also maybe do not recommend naming things the way i did. its partly due to matching some other naming conventions on my end, but it ended up confusing the hell out of me when i was trying to calibrate it.

[forrest]

Have to share again, I spent the last two weeks creating new images for every NLC module and updating the store with new images, these will be available in modulargrid at some point in the near future, hopefully makes your MG rack NLC modules look nice!

If anyone is looking for a technical graphic designer please send them my way, I’d like to do more of this kind of work

On the subject of great NLC modules, I’ll share my two recent favorite builds, BEAT FREQ and BADUM TISSS … Been enjoying putting lfo + audio rate inputs to beat freq and getting some really chunky sounds out of it, and honestly it gives the best light show in my rack. I tweaked the HELL out of badum tisss with about 6 resistor/cap changes total. Customized it to a percussion module I truly love the sounds of, permanent rack member. Andrew notes a bunch of possible cap/resistor changes in the schematic, but if you are building it and want help tweaking it let me know, was a lot of fun.

[anosou]

You are an absolute fucking legend, friend. I’ve thought about this so much lately as I’ve been building more modules and putting them in a case on modulargrid.

THANK YOU

[jwm]

d a m n. level’d up!

[anosou]

Found a bit of a “bug” by the way, Triad should have 3 LEDs and 6 jacks. Not 9 jacks. Though now I totally wish it had CV for release…

[keinexco]

Would love to hear your Badum Tisss mod! Used to have one and recently regret selling…

[forrest]

Oh good call! I’ll update this one, once I got going I knew there were going to be some issues here and there, thanks!

Update: Fixed!

[forrest]

I basically made it extremely snappy, halved the VCO range and modified the noise gain / gain pot to be a little more gradual / louder… How do folks share audio these days? I didn’t like the soundcloud “social” experience, though it seems like a great web player which makes me want to get on board just to share audio from it…

[gnome666]

@forrest

BADUM TISSS

AMAZING! Thank you! Now, I i can start dreaming for someone to take my money and start making 4u BananaJack Panels of NLC stuff again!!!

[license]

Which resistor/cap values did you tweak? Was there more to the mod?

[keinexco]

Sounds fantastic. More curious now than before!
For sharing audio, SoundCloud is definitely easiest----just make a random account for purposes like this. I also believe you can share audio files directly here too with the upload function, though one might consider that if done repeatedly, that might increase server costs for the forum

[forrest]

Since I only had Linear 1M pots on hand I used a 100k resistor across the wiper/positive/left leg for the frequency pot, I changed out the 10k and 10n under that pot on the board for 47n and 47k to reduce the range, you can make it into a bass drum by making those 100n/100k, turned up the hiss by swapping the 100k in the bottom left of the board for a 180k, the other mods are listed in the BOM/Build guide for the decay change and the log response to the noise pot… I did a few other changes to the noise -> vco mixer section that make the noise a little more prominent but I’m not sure if it’s just my ears or what…

Honestly I don’t know that what I did to mine is anything groundbreaking, but the tweaking made it sound right with the other drum/percussion modules I have in my rack. The process of staying up till 3am desoldering/soldering new resistors/caps to see what changed, checking out the waveform & voltage changes with the oscilloscope, and really learning something about electronics, was what was really rewarding. You don’t generally get that kind of fun/flexibility with other DIY builders/kits, and Andrew encourages it in pretty much all of his build guides… It’s very unlikely you’ll blow anything up, and hey if you do it’s likely just a $0.50 CMOS or Opamp…

[anosou]

Sweet, thanks for the info.

I recently built Hyperchaos Deluxe and had a similar experience. Most his chaos designs has a couple components that would change the rate or behavior a little bit, it’s good fun to try different ones out. Particularly excited about building a super duper slow Brain Custard next.

[lohacker]

Thanks for doing this, I’ve updated some images on MG for the ones with ugly graphics

[grey]

Speaking of panels. Whose panel is that?

[jwm]

its my layout/design, made via fpe based on andrew’s graciously provided panel files. i have a thing for the clinical lab equipment vibe (and aluminum panels) and this was a chance to apply what i do for a living (design) to machining/fabrication, which i hadn’t had much experience with prior. here’s a couple others i’ve done, got a hyperchaos deluxe on the way…

[grey]

I really like them and 20 chars.

[derangement]

These are beautiful. Getting Xaoc vibes from them.