Rob the Fiddler

This experiment centers on the 4060 Ripple Counter. This is basically a counter with a built in inverter that can be used as an oscillator. Its not like its a really super chip or anything, I just had a few sitting around and figured it needed to be poked at. I seemed that since the range of the division was so big, you could get both audio signals and their suboctaves as well as pins that were low enough that they could act as LFOs.
There are a few things to note about this chip. The internal oscillator is really just a schmitt trigger. It can be used as a wave shaper to square up the input for the clock or be part of a RC circuit so it becomes a square wave generator.

As its a “Ripple Counter“, (or here) the output of the counter is subject to noise and glitches, but for audio purposes, this is not so important.

Also, the first divider is Q4 which is the clock divided by 2^4=16.

So for the values that I used (C=.001uf and R=10K)

Which is pretty close..the resistor was a little higher actually

The circuit sounds like this:

SimpleChip Sound
In this case, Im just tapping the output wire between all the outputs.

As you can see, Q4-Q7 are good audible tones while Q12-14 make decent LFOs. All on the same chip!

Circuit with Vactrols
Seems like the easiest thing to modify a circuit with is a Vactrol (Assuming you can get em). The one thats fun is the Vtl5c2. Prices range wildly from 5 bucks (http://www.smallbearelec.com) to very cheap if you want to DIY. I found another guy on ebay that was much cheaper. There is a great electronics place in Dallas called Tanners that has em for under a dollar.

In any case, the point here was to use one of the lower frequency pins to drive the Vactrol in the RC circuit for the oscillator and give a vibrato effect. (remember kids…volume variation = Tremelo while frequency variation = Vibrato)

So that the swing was not so wild, I put the Vactrol in parallel to a like valued resistor.

Samples of the sounds are here:

10k Resistor in Series with Vactrol (as in Diagram..and trying different outputs)
Remove the Resistor for a wider swing.

Note that the frequency changes with a slow response. Thats because the Vactrol is pretty slow.

Replace the Vactrol with Transistors

Not particularly elegant, but we are looking for a noisemaker. The nice soft (long response) is lost when a Transistor is used to short resistors in the RC Network. It works though. 3906s are WAY cheaper.

In this case, the transistors are shorting resistors in the RC network giving the four notes. The transistors are driven by the lower frequency pins. (aka LFOs)

Some examples of the sound are here:

4 Tone 4060 SubRippler.

Adding an Op Amp as a mixer

What I was really going for was a note and its suboctaves for a fatter sound. Using the 4060 is pretty much overkill as it seems that the usual method was to use flip flops (I guess ICs were much more expensive a long time ago). You can see examples of this by checking out schmatics of octave pedals like the Boss OC-2. Here is another example.

The basic circuit is this.

The 4060 is not particularly a good chip to use if your using an audio signal to drive the clock because that first output is f/16.

Here is a sample of the circuit going as I add in each suboctave.

Here is a variation where I put that Vactrol back into the RC circuit. Beefier sound eh?

Man those PNPs were fun

Ok, so now I just get silly and put those transistors in the summing path. I noticed that the top signal was really weak, so I just eliminated the resistors. Im sure there is an explaination (blah blah math) but its just for fun. It would be better to use a 4066, but I dont have a that chip yet. Besides, Im just messing around.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Finally, an optoresistor was added in R1 to control the overall frequency. Kinda cool sounding.

SubRippler V1

Update:

AntaBaka built a version of the circuit with an optoresistor into a mouse. There is also a really nice layout for perfboard.
Looks pretty neat.