I saw that box at effetor13 and I think I saw either Colin or Ansil with a mod for somethign using one.
So....how and when can these be used to good effect.
I am guessing anywhere you might want variable resistance right?
Jeeze I could just seee me with a box with a whole mess of these and switches on it....LOL!
Anyway I think I might try to use one on my uglyface.
Could I just put an LDR on top and have it switch from the place where the LDR/LED combo is? Then I could control the envelope with my foot right?
Well anyway I have started toi see these crop up but no talk about it so I thought it might be a cool subject to bring up.
Trying to figure out how one could make a Tremolo using LDR as the variable resistor.
I'm sure it's been looked at or done {EZ Vibe Mod?]\
Just the LDR part ... is there a way to make an LDRs variable resistance
vary resistance to the signal path and make an effective [if limited] Tremolo?
ie volume change controlled by the lumens changes [light/dark] 'seen' at the LDR?
The 4ms Tremulus Lune uses an LDR/LED for the tremolo.
LDRs are fun.
I think an LDR would be really cool to control filter sweep :mrgreen: Aren't LDR's also called photo-transistors? :?
photoresistors perhaps?
I donno I got an old electronics kit from the 70's which I could pluck good bits out of. Not much there but there was a LED-like object which they called a phototransistor and it basically was an LDR. It was drawn like a transistor but then with light arrows pointing at the base... :? Wierd...
There are infrared devices like what you speak of. This is probably what is being referred to. Although LEDs apparently have a photovoltaic quality that reacts to light. In this case though, they certainly aren't drawn like transistors.
Tim Escobedo's idiot wah (or whatever it's called) offers an LDR as the Variable resistance of the filter. I tell you, I probably looked real cool with that flashlight in my mouth (while playing guitar) after building it. :wink:
i did the mod to the hollis compressor. i also added the same thing to the judas pedal. i used an ldr to create a capcophony of noise. and i used one in a feedbacker pedal.
Could have been IR. Actually I'm damn sure of it being IR because there was an IR LED that came with the package, but I couldn't find it :D
I'm going to buy some LDRs! :P
There IS a difference between LDRs and phototransistors. Phototransistors are not going to give a variable resistance, merely a light dependent transconductance, so you could create a tremolo effect by modulating an LED with your guitar signal, then put a mechanically controlled light filter in front of the LED and put the phototransistor on the other side so the light filter controls the amount of light that gets through to the phototranny.
An LDR is not used as an amplification device. These are often used as light sensors, such as the sensor that gives the signal to turn on the street lights when it gets dark...
LDRs are what you want to use for modulating filter and tremolo effects. These ARE used in many circuits such as a DOD compressor, Small Bear's Tremulus Bear, some filter FX etc..
LDRs are very simple, very controllable, and when you don't want it to be a perfect, fast, square wave, they're very very useful. I don't think Tim even knows what an LDR is. The tremolo pedal he's using mostly uses caps and transistors. The ability to convert voltage to resistance is incredibly useful... it's very simple once you understand it, too. I'm working on a pretty complex LDR based tremolo. I mean, the concept is simple, and it has tons of applications, so why not?
I think you were talking about my LDR based envelope control for the frequency analyzer.
-Colin
Yep that it!!! :D
I saw that and another pedal (Doug Deepers at effector13 I think) on the same day and I began to wonder why I didn't see these more often.
I guess it would react differently in different light situations?
Gonna have to look for useful places to try this.
Fun idea. Hope no one minds if I nake it for use with my own pedals.
I was wondering, If I used an LDR on the outside of an envelope filter and had a mode selector switch between envelope and LDR, then I could in principle control the wah with my foot. But what about ambient light? :?
QuoteI was wondering, If I used an LDR on the outside of an envelope filter and had a mode selector switch between envelope and LDR, then I could in principle control the wah with my foot. But what about ambient light?
Lovetone has exactly this option on some of their pedals. A ldr mounted on a jack plug can be inserted into the input for the expression pedal.
LDRs are for softies! What I've always fancied doing is using the treadle of a wah to control the flame on a blow torch, use this to control a heat sensor rigged up to a filter and you've got one hell of a stage show!...er, I mean wah...I need to lie down now.
Gez man that is too flippin funny!!!...Uh your kidding tho....uh right?!?
Arno, that is aweseom man thanks for sharing that! I think sounds like a great thing to try. My friend has a BlackCat RM he just got but no expression pedal. I am gonna make him one...very cool!!!
Quote from: BillyJGez man that is too flippin funny!!!...Uh your kidding tho....uh right?!?
One pair of singed sequin-studded flares says not! :shock:
Sounds like I'll be making an envelope filter with ldr control then. But I'm still wondering if ambient light will affect it. I want to wave my foot over the pedal and make it wah that way :twisted: Sounds really cool to me, but my mind keeps screaming "BUT WHAT ABOUT AMBIENT LIGHT!!". :? Anyone have any prior experience?
I'm assuming ambient light is what it is all about. Different light, different response.
Put it on a switch and don't expect it to work as great as a rocker :wink:
You might try putting a lamp near/over it. That might help to create a somewhat more reproducable thing out of it.
I am thinkoing of using them in places where it iwll just mess the sound up. I'm not gonna shoot for any real great control over things. Then again I have never used them outside a box so I am all guesses here.
Even without super control I think they could be a lot of fun..
Yeah, It'll be an EF with switchable modes :D Or maybe 2 LDRs that react differently to ambient light like one for darker rooms and one for lit-up rooms. And of course simple Envelope Control. Or maybe a 3-way mode switch, LFO controlled, Envelope controlled and LDR controlled.
Whoah. Too many options :twisted:
For some time now I've been thinking about using an LDR for VR in a ckt and have the light varied something like this...
A tube with a bright light at one end and the LDR at the other and a 'light blocker' the comes between the two thereby blocking all or part of the light hitting the LDR...[ala Morley?]
Could do. No physical parts to wear out that way... :?
J.007B
Forgot to mention that I am Gez's band biggest fan now. :D
Who cares if they even sound good the guitar player plays with fire!!!!! :twisted:
Your a sick sick man Gez :wink: :D
Quote from: BillyJForgot to mention that I am Gez's band biggest fan now. :D
Who cares if they even sound good the guitar player plays with fire!!!!! :twisted:
Your a sick sick man Gez :wink: :D
i would think that in light of what happend with great white last year palying with fire in a club woudlnt' be advisable.
althought i know that it is only a joke. but my old band did do somthing similar to the opening of the movie triple x with ramstein spitting fire like that. i did it with vodka
I liked rammstein for a while... :roll: nowadays I can only listen to it for 2 minutes and then I want to listen to jamiroquai again :mrgreen:
... and then there was the guy who set a video camera pointed up at the sky (and moving clouds, etc), wired it directly to a television and glued some obscene number of LDRs to the television screen to use that as a controller...
I think Paul Perry was the person I heard that from first, and then other sources.
LDRs are way cool, but it's important to at least consider that it will sometimes be difficult to replicate the same sounds over and over again because of ambient light, etc.
Quote from: Ansili would think that in light of what happend with great white last year palying with fire in a club woudlnt' be advisable.
althought i know that it is only a joke.
Of coarse, I was only joking, but there does seem to be an obsession with fire in my family. Bonfires were always a big thing with my father (I think this is an English thing as most of my friend’s dads were the same), and my brother and I caught on pretty quick…though petrol tended to enter into things quite a bit.
As kids we set light to the garden shed (managed to put it out and shift the compost heap so that the scorch marks didn't show), almost set light to the kitchen (managed to stamp that one out in time) and I burnt a huge hole in the family tent one summer with my improvised ‘jiff flame thrower’. I hurriedly packed it away and my parents were confused when I didn’t want to ‘play tent’ any more. Thankfully, they bought a new one for the next season so nobody was any the wiser (I think I’d have been severely thrashed by my old man had he spent a few hours - he’s pretty inept when it comes to practical things - putting up the thing only to find a gap the size of the ozone layer in one side!).
I no longer smoke...