sound effects generator

7-58 elektor july/august 1980 This "black box" should prove quite popular with (electronic) guitar players. It offers all kinds of possi- bilities for enriching the sound. There are three controls; the effect of the most important of these (P3) is illustrated in figure 1. The original input signal is shown at the top. With P3 set to zero, this signal is simply clipped as shown; as P3 is turned up, all kinds of other wave-shapes are obtained — includ- ing frequency doubling, even. As will become apparent when we come to the circuit, P3 determines the basic waveform; a further control (P2) determines the "degree" of the effect; and a final control (P1) sets the sensitivity. As with most circuits of this type, the final effect depends on the input signal level (surprisingly, musicians seem to like it that way!), so that a sensitivity control is both necessary and useful. The overall gain of the circuit depends on the various control settings; it can be anything between x3 and x30 (...