With this Ring Modulator, I thee wed

[honcho at paia.com]

Zontar13 at aol.com, said:

>I just built a Paia ring modulator. It seems to work, Im getting 
sounds that I recognize as being Devo like. The things im confused 
about are that 1.This thing Howls constantly (as though it had liver 
damage or something else really painful). Ive adusted the internal 
trimpot to minimize this, but its pretty loud. Ive never played with a 
Ring modulator before this. Is this something it should be doing. The 
kit came with a heavy gauge Insulated wire that wasn't (at least to my 
understanding) explained, I did not use it. Could this be the problem?
Also the signal gain is massive when the effect is on, like a super 
pre-amp.
>>>

I asked Scott Lee, who knows every weird thing every PAiA product has 
ever done, about this and he passed this along:
------------
High gain at the input stage of the Ring Modulator project can cause 
noise to be modulated and this would appear as excessive bleed.  The 
noise can be hum introduced through the input connection (guitar 
pick-ups/cable) or right on the circuit itself due to less than 
optimum shielding or bad ground circuits (loops/resistive).

Resistor R12 can be selected for different amounts of amplification of 
the input signal.  We include 33K, 100K, and 330k resistors in the kit 
for R12. The higher the value of the resistor at R12, the higher the 
gain of the input stage.

If you're connecting a guitar, try turning the volume control down to 
find out if this reduces the bleed.  Single coil pickups are good hum 
senors. Grounding the input by shorting the tip and sleeve contacts of 
the RM input jack is another way of determining if it's noise from the 
input connection that's being modulated.  If the bleed stays or is not 
reduced, maybe there is a problem on the circuit board or wiring.

Our RM kit is packed with #22 insulated stranded wire and shielded 
wire for the input and other sensitive connections.  The I, E, and F 
wires could pick up noise and would benefit from shielding.  Enclosing 
the project in a metal enclosure with a connection to circuit ground 
would help shield external hum and noise.

>2. A friend of mine would like me to make one of these for him 
(assuming I can stop the howling -the terrible terrible howling- ) but 
would like me to replace the in/out switch with a pot that would 
control just how in or out this thing is.
How would I wire that?
>>>

The kit already works this way.  We don't provide a switch in the kit 
for In/Out switching.  The Ring Level and Straight Level 
potentiometers, Rs 10 and 11 provide adjustment of the wet/dry mix.

-over and out.
-Scott
-------------------

-John

---------------------------------------------------------
John Simonton                  PAiA Electronics, Inc
3200 Teakwood Ln.              honcho at paia.com
Edmond OK 73013                http://www.paia.com
405-340-6300                   fax 405-340-6378