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#71
Open Discussion / Re: Bots as far as the eye can...
Last post by BricksnBeatles - June 08, 2025, 02:10:09 PMBots are in full force this week
#72
Open Discussion / Re: What are you playing? (gam...
Last post by mjg - June 08, 2025, 12:14:58 AMI'm about 100 hours into Baldur's Gate 3, which means my party has finally actually arrived at Baldur's Gate. Having a lot of fun doing all the quests, and the character and story development is very well done.
#73
General Questions / U-boot with treble cut filter
Last post by thomasha - June 07, 2025, 09:05:06 PMHi,
today I was playing with the U-boot octave down circuit, and,
as you know, it works better with the neck pickup and the treble completely off.
Would it be possible to add this kind of filtering just to the octave side of the circuit?
It would make it more intuitive to use, and only remove the treble from the signal that is actually being used for the tracking.
How would one achieve the same kind of filtering expected from a neck pickup? Has anyone tried this?
today I was playing with the U-boot octave down circuit, and,
as you know, it works better with the neck pickup and the treble completely off.
Would it be possible to add this kind of filtering just to the octave side of the circuit?
It would make it more intuitive to use, and only remove the treble from the signal that is actually being used for the tracking.
How would one achieve the same kind of filtering expected from a neck pickup? Has anyone tried this?
#74
Open Discussion / Re: what's been good?
Last post by jessenator - June 06, 2025, 02:51:11 PMQuote from: peAk on June 05, 2025, 09:58:49 PMNice build!!!Thanks! I hope the caps on the levers stay on, but they were pennies, so I'm giving my friend the surplus of what I bought just in case.
Sadly this weekend is full of exciting things for the kids, but next week we're going camping. Stocked up!
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Tried out "chicken chunks" which isn't nearly as bad as that name implies. It's basically canned chicken, but in a flat retort pouch like the posh tuna fish. Those tortillas? they tasted like they just came out of a fresh bag; food science is crazy. The cheese spread has come a long way, but that's not how it's supposed to be! I grew up with these things back in the '80s. MRE cheese spread isn't supposed to taste like mac 'n cheese flavor pack, it's supposed to taste like Cheeto dust in margarine!
#75
Open Discussion / Re: what's been good?
Last post by peAk - June 05, 2025, 09:58:49 PMQuote from: jessenator on June 04, 2025, 02:24:03 AMWorked on another Kewpie for a friend of mine. Had some fun working on it and improving the design a bit.
I will say, it'll be nice if I can use my nephew's work laser. I've got this 5W guy that has to move at 1500 mm/m (1h34m) to get through the paint (2 passes) but it'd take a matter of seconds with their 60W guy!
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Nice build!!!
Went with monochrome (ivory white) per his request. Bought the lever caps on a whim, but I like it. Super cheap at Tayda.
#76
General Questions / Re: Glasshole - LFO is very as...
Last post by jimilee - June 05, 2025, 08:04:47 PMCheck your resistor values and reflow
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
#77
General Questions / Glasshole - LFO is very asymme...
Last post by slowpogo - June 05, 2025, 05:25:07 PMI built the Glasshole and while it functions overall the waveform of the LFO is not smooth. The phasing is "bunched up" in one area of the cycle rather than smoothly ramping up and down.
For example, when I set the rate very low so the cycle is about 10 seconds, D2 only lights for 1-2 seconds of the cycle, quickly ramping up and back down to nothing. Shouldn't it be very slowly getting brighter/dimmer when the rate is low?
I've played with the trimmers a bunch but they can't fix the issue of the lop-sided LFO. Any ideas?
For example, when I set the rate very low so the cycle is about 10 seconds, D2 only lights for 1-2 seconds of the cycle, quickly ramping up and back down to nothing. Shouldn't it be very slowly getting brighter/dimmer when the rate is low?
I've played with the trimmers a bunch but they can't fix the issue of the lop-sided LFO. Any ideas?
#78
Open Discussion / Low wattage amplifier for a sm...
Last post by thomasha - June 04, 2025, 04:57:15 PMI got a small PA speaker that looks like a lunch box
and was thinking about building a mini amplifier with it.
When I opened it up I noticed that it uses a 50 ohm speaker, and not 8 ohms as I am used to.
So, the class D amplifier I was going to use got shelved again and I tried something with the well known LM386.
The schematic is the basic configuration, with a gain of 20, without any other stage.
The IC alone has enough gain to reach its maximum output before distorting.
Using a 12V power supply the maximum output before distorting is something like 10V peak-to-peak for the 50 Ohm speaker. The datasheet shows that the output before distorting is considerably higher, than at 8 ohms.
With a gain of 20, the +-5V (10Vpp) is only 0.25V (0.5 Vpp) at the input. So, no other stage is required, IMHO, unless one would reduce the amount of signal coming from the guitar.
I also added an overload meter, as in the DMM, using a 2N5087 transistor, 22k resistor bias to Vcc and 180K resistor to base. Falstad simulation here. It lights up when the output is at the +-5V (10Vpp). So I have an Idea when this thing is actually reaching distortion. The 180k ohms is quite high though...
The sound is quite OK, but I thought it could use a cabinet simulator in front of it.
For testing purposes I used my Astrosim Cab. sim. and it improved considerably. I mean, why don't we always use cab. sims in front of such mini amplifiers? It takes away a lot of the high frequencies making the sound considerably better.
What is your opinion? Anyone tried using cabinet simulators with other mini amplifiers?
In the age of digital stuff, I see that much of what we think sounds good is actually created by software, like the fake bass, our brain hears when all the other frequencies are there. Could one achieve something similar without going full digital?
I found some info about the blackstar mini amp, which uses a gyrator?
Has anyone tried something like this? It should, theoretically, make the box sound less like a small box.
and was thinking about building a mini amplifier with it.
When I opened it up I noticed that it uses a 50 ohm speaker, and not 8 ohms as I am used to.
So, the class D amplifier I was going to use got shelved again and I tried something with the well known LM386.
The schematic is the basic configuration, with a gain of 20, without any other stage.
The IC alone has enough gain to reach its maximum output before distorting.
Using a 12V power supply the maximum output before distorting is something like 10V peak-to-peak for the 50 Ohm speaker. The datasheet shows that the output before distorting is considerably higher, than at 8 ohms.
With a gain of 20, the +-5V (10Vpp) is only 0.25V (0.5 Vpp) at the input. So, no other stage is required, IMHO, unless one would reduce the amount of signal coming from the guitar.
I also added an overload meter, as in the DMM, using a 2N5087 transistor, 22k resistor bias to Vcc and 180K resistor to base. Falstad simulation here. It lights up when the output is at the +-5V (10Vpp). So I have an Idea when this thing is actually reaching distortion. The 180k ohms is quite high though...
The sound is quite OK, but I thought it could use a cabinet simulator in front of it.
For testing purposes I used my Astrosim Cab. sim. and it improved considerably. I mean, why don't we always use cab. sims in front of such mini amplifiers? It takes away a lot of the high frequencies making the sound considerably better.
What is your opinion? Anyone tried using cabinet simulators with other mini amplifiers?
In the age of digital stuff, I see that much of what we think sounds good is actually created by software, like the fake bass, our brain hears when all the other frequencies are there. Could one achieve something similar without going full digital?
I found some info about the blackstar mini amp, which uses a gyrator?
Has anyone tried something like this? It should, theoretically, make the box sound less like a small box.
#79
Open Discussion / Re: AI music is no longer a jo...
Last post by Willybomb - June 04, 2025, 03:12:24 PMQuote from: lars on May 10, 2025, 12:58:10 AMQuote from: Willybomb on April 22, 2025, 04:08:14 PMIt certainly doesn't have the X factor.99% of the time, the "X factor" is just perception. You tell someone they're listening to AI music, and they spit out the wine, gagging over "how terrible it is". You don't tell them what it is, and they think they're drinking something good. I tried out making 80's adult contemporary music on Suno, and it knocked it out of the park. There is no way an unbiased, non-cork sniffery, going in blind person would think this was a computer:
https://suno.com/s/1M8g9zEKJy0wHKYp
The days of "the only way to make music is plugging directly into a vintage amp with a guitar nobody can afford" are over.
Deal with it.
It's not about dealing with it, or perception, it's about sounding *really* generic tonally and stylistically because it's been scraped off a multitude of bands within the genre they're aping. One of the songs my friend posted had vocals where you could really hear Billy Corgan or the riffs were an inch off an STP riff.
With training and refinement, I'm sure you could get something happening within your "voice". Straight off the bat, it sounds "good", but it isn't anything special and the vocal phrasing is often a bit weird.
When my students have used AI for their essays, you can easily tell because stock ChatGPT is too wordy and likes to show how fancy it is. Likewise, when it's used for a band blurb or advertisement it's a starting point at best because it's too over the top.
I'm not against AI, it's a bit of fun and can help you get started - but at the default settings (which is how most people use it) it's generic, inoffensive, and not particularly imaginative (and in ChatGPT's case, often wrong).
For poops and giggles, I put this together as a reel to promote a gig. One day I'll pay to get the watermark removed but today is not that day:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DI_PHJhMNVn/
#80
Open Discussion / Re: what's been good?
Last post by jessenator - June 04, 2025, 02:24:03 AMWorked on another Kewpie for a friend of mine. Had some fun working on it and improving the design a bit.
I will say, it'll be nice if I can use my nephew's work laser. I've got this 5W guy that has to move at 1500 mm/m (1h34m) to get through the paint (2 passes) but it'd take a matter of seconds with their 60W guy!
You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.
Went with monochrome (ivory white) per his request. Bought the lever caps on a whim, but I like it. Super cheap at Tayda.
I will say, it'll be nice if I can use my nephew's work laser. I've got this 5W guy that has to move at 1500 mm/m (1h34m) to get through the paint (2 passes) but it'd take a matter of seconds with their 60W guy!
You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.
Went with monochrome (ivory white) per his request. Bought the lever caps on a whim, but I like it. Super cheap at Tayda.