Module Idea

[Dan Higdon]

I'm designing my first custom module, and I thought I'd get some 
input from the masters.  (To date, I've been building from existing 
schematics only.)

Ok, here's the gist of it:
    Take any signal as input, and convert it into a square wave
        (zero cross detector) ala Craig Anderton's Ultrafuzz.

    Feed the resulting square wave signal into a 4-bit binary counter
        to octave divide it (ala Terrence Thomas, and probably others)

    Output each "bit" separately with an LED.  (And maybe a level/pulse
        switch that chooses an integrated version of the pulse?)

    Also feed each bit through an attenuator into a mixer to output
        the composite signal.

To make this a little more clear, this is the panel layout I'm thinking of.
(Thanks to Ric for encouraging me to put all my jacks on one side to avoid
cable tangles)

_____________________________________________________________
Sens | V1x V2x V4x V8x V16x | In | V1o V2o V4o V8o V16o | Out

Where Sens is the sensitivity (preamp)
      V?x is a knob for the mixer level (and an LED)
      In  is the input jack
      V?o is the output jack for each octave
      Out is the composite output jack

It seems to me that such a module would allow not only the standard octave
division of any signal (not just square waves), but would also make an
interesting CV processor.  Especially if I let the individual outs be
pulses or gates (if you know what I mean).

So, my first question:  If I sum all of the signals (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x),
that would be a pretty big voltage during certain intervals!  So, should
I automatically divide the composite output by 5 to make sure it never gets
too loud, or should I rely on the user to set the mixer knobs sensibly, and
make sure my mixer can handle the overload?  (Hmmm, maybe a 4049 "tube fuzz"
from the Anderton book as an output stage....)

It also occurs to me that I ought to put AC/DC switches on both the signal
input and the composite out, to remove DC bias.  Or, would it be better
to put the counter between +V and -V (instead of +V and GND) so that it
wouldn't have an output DC bias?  I'd have to be careful not to overtax
the counter, because I get the feeling it wouldn't like a 30v supply. :-)

Are there any other glaring problems I haven't noticed?  Like, do I need
to buffer the outputs of the counter?  I know it's hard to critique
a circuit without seeing the schematic, but right now, it's just a very
simple breadboard experiment that only does the squarewave conversion
and octave division!

Thanks for your time.
Dan Higdon (hdan at charybdis.com)