The so called “Atari Punk Console” device is a great start for builders interested in working with components and circuitry to produce Bleepy-Bloopy-Gitchy goodness. Using a 556 dual timer IC and a handful of other components one can be built quickly. The basis for this noise maker was a schematic originally published by Forest Mims III
, which now can be found around the web and posted above for easy reference. The APC can be built into any case of your desire, and in the case of The SquareWave Parade even a vintage Atari joystick. The circuit is not only easy to build, but it is also easy to modify. The 556 IC is very resilient and cheap so don’t be afraid connect various pins to each other in order to discover new sounds. Touch contacts can be added in conjunction or as a substitute for the potentiometers and different values of capacitors can be swapped in to change the tone color dramatically and provide greater expression. Lots of links are available on this great little circuit:
Atari Punk Console is now available as a Kit from GetLoFi for only $24.
Worth Ekik
Kaustic Machines
MatrixSynth: Entry
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[...] atari punk console(uses 556/555 timers) [...]
I’m curious about the -4dB output as I’d like to make this mod on other circuits sometimes. What’s the math to figure out the voltage divider I need there to make it -4dB? Thanks!
Voltage divider is basically what a potentiometer is. So if you connect the output of the APC to the center leg and the outer legs to Ground and Positive respectively you should have good volume control.
Then if you measure resistance values between the center leg and outer legs you can replace the potentiometer with two fixed value resistors to achieve the volume.
Hope this makes sense
[...] PicoPaso is a stepped tone noise noise synth by Dr. Bleep. It’s similar to the Atari Punk synth, aka Forrest Mims’ stepped tone generator, but uses two triangle wave oscillators that can be [...]
I built an APC using a stripboard layout. My blog post includes a downloadable DIY Layout Creator file if you want a pre-made schematic to work from!
http://www.funkallstars.net/jblog_post_detail.aspx?id=129
[...] Atari Punk Console schematics [...]
[...] Schaltplan und Aufbauschema der ACP mit NE556 (Englisch) [...]
[...] tools can I use to make my day a little more productive? My current DIY project is building an Atari Punk Console. It’s a simple circuit that produces a sine wave that can be modified with 3 potentiometers. This [...]
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