[sdiy] Weird Sound Generator

[Andrew Beeton]

Colin Hinz and I have been discussing the WSG. I thought I'd give this 
thread its own home, as things seem  fairly civil here! Any thoughts or 
comments on the WSG are more than welcome.

I am alternating between using one of those cigarette pack mini amps 
and a regular guitar amp. Perhaps I should add a volume pot to the 
unfiltered output. The filtered output is giving me a reasonable level.

One other question I had about the WSG is in regards to using the other 
half of the chip. What order do the pins correspond to? Should pins 13 
and 12 correspond to 1 and 2, etc.?

I tend to go between Honson/Supremetronic and Creatron to buy parts in 
Toronto. I should be able to scrape together enough for a few more 
pots.

Cheers,

Andrew

> I've built my WSG using the PDF from Ray Wilson web site. Mine is the 5
> pot version, as I don't have enough pots to add the use the other half
> of the chip yet. What I have found is that the unfiltered output is
> extremely loud. So much so that the neighbours can hear it even when
> the volume on my old amp is turned to 0. Before I put it on perf board,
> I'd like to figure out why this is. Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot
> this would be appreciated. As I said in an earlier post, I am new to
> this whole electronics world.

I don't think there's anything "wrong" with how you've constructed your 
WSG. Although I confess I haven't actually looked at the output with an 
oscilloscope, I would expect the non-filtered output to be pretty close 
to the battery voltage.....that's assuming your amp has a pretty 
high-impedance input. That's a pretty "hot" signal if your amp is 
expecting a line-level input.

I anticipated this sort of problem when I built mine, which is why I 
modified the circuit to include volume pots. (And in my case I overdid 
it a bit, as even with the volume turned all the way up, it is pretty 
quiet. Back to the soldering iron!)

> Also, I was wondering where you perform, as I am also in Toronto.

Well, I have to admit that I don't get out for gigs nearly as often as 
I like. Last Thursday was just a PWYC kinda thing in a friend's living 
room. Still, it was a really PACKED living room......the previous 
occasion was over a year ago (but that was at the Drake Underground). 
With any luck the next one will be sometime before (!!!!) 2008.

I do my solo stuff under the name 'Forktine' and I'm also in a 
improvised noise group called 'Six Heads'.

How about yourself?

- Colin

PS: Where are you getting your parts? If you need more pots, they're 70 
cents each at Honson/Supremetronic.