On this page I will gather links and other sources of inspiration for interesting hacks and/or possible topics for future workshops and/or links to information about electronics and stuff.

General resources

The Logic Noise tag on Hackaday is a near infinite source of interesting music/sound related electronic hacks. https://hackaday.com/tag/logic-noise/

If you are really into guitar pedals, and how they work, this is a site that is full with guitar pedal schematics. http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/how-to-build-it/technical-help/schematics/

Here is a site that has veroboard/stripboard layouts for pedals. Unfortunately not that much schematics (which are easier to read and learn from). This is one that I have built: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.se/2017/01/wren-and-cuff-phat-phuk-b.html

Another place with a lot of pedal schematics: http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Verified-Layouts-f23984.html

Ideas for future workshops, or maybe just something you could work with at home.

Atari Punk Console

This is a small noise making circuit made from the world’s arguably most famous chip – and the world’s first – the timer 555. http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-an-Atari-Punk-circuit-on-a-breadboard/

It doesn’t have to use photo resistors to control the sound, regular potentiometers work as well. Here’s an example of that: https://makezine.com/2011/09/13/collins-lab-atari-punk-console/

A bit more dry page, but with a lot of explaining, for the curious: https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/diy/ataripunkconsole-kit.html

Chaos NAND synth

This is another really simple sound making circuit, this one based on a digital logic circuit, the NAND gate. http://www.synthrotek.com/products/lo-fi-synthesizer-circuits/chaos-nand-synthesizer/

http://kinasmith.com/tutorial/quadNANDgate/index.html

Contact microphones

Contact microphones could be interesting, they pick up vibrations from the surface thay are attached to. http://www.electroschematics.com/13114/simple-contact-microphone/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_NqX_Bvfxs

Such contact microphones, or piezo elements, could e.g. be used to make a drum trigger: http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/SOUNDLABMINISYNTH/drumtrigger/drumtrigger.html

Note that this only produces a trig signal, to be used for making something else sound, it doesn’t produce sound of its own.

Bridged T-network

On the subject of generating sound for drum triggers, one thing I am interested in trying out is the kind of drum sound circuit used in old analogue drum machines. They are surprisingly simple, very few components. http://mickeydelp.com/blog/anatomy-of-a-drum-machine

It is highly recommended to look through the schematic for the legendary TR-808 drum machine for instance (in addition to the schematic, there is also quite a bit of describing text to go with it, a paragraph for each sound): http://manuals.fdiskc.com/tree/Roland/Roland%20TR-808%20Service%20Manual.pdf

Hackaday also has a little bit about bridged T-networks: https://hackaday.com/2015/03/25/logic-noise-filters-and-drums/

Electro-magnetic microphones

A least I think that is an OK formal name for good old guitar pickups. These do not pick up vibrations from the surface or from air, but vibrations of magnetic objects nearby – like bass or guitar strings. They are made from a magnet and copper wire. I have never done it myself, but I know it is possible to make one, and I found someone on YouTube who created such microphones from old parts. http://www.instructables.com/id/cheap-and-easy-guitar-pickups/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkRVgLDgho

If you want to use scrap parts, you’ll need a coil of some sort, and some powerful magnet(s) (see the two links for inspiration). It is also possible to wind insulated copper thread to make your own coil, like in this link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Far more work, though.

Delay

Would be nice to build a digital delay, inspo here: https://www.electrosmash.com/pt2399-analysis (Could perhaps be used for trigger pulses as well.)

Also, try building something with a bucket brigade delay line, especially (if possible) with a way to modulate with audio frequency, to get FM on audio in real time.