DIYstompboxes.com

The transistor and first opamp form a noise generator, stolen from the Maestro FSH1. The transistor must be handpicked for noise. I recommend a really old mushroom type BC208 salvaged from a broken '70s Farfisa home organ. The second opamp is the filter part of Dr Q/Nurse Quacky, but with a frequency pot instead of the envelope follower. You can have at least an hour of fun twiddling the frequency control. That fun time doubles to at least two hours if you feed it through a phaser and delay. Also fun to make the resistor between the filters -ve input and output into a pot for adjusting the filter characteristic, though this also affects the volume.

Alternatively, ditch the noise generator, plug in your guitar and you have a stuck wah.

(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/frequencycentral/WindMachine.jpg)

That looks absolutely awesome, I'm well up for having a go at that. I've been wanting to mess around with some noise generators for a bit, maybe use a basic sequencer to control them, sort of a pseudo rhythm maker.

Top notch matey  ;)

Thanks!

Soundclip:

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeoooooouuuuooooooshhhh!"

Why not use a quad opamp and add in LFO modulation (volume or frequency) and guitar envelope modulation? :icon_twisted:

Quote from: CynicalMan on January 17, 2010, 10:04:10 AM
Why not use a quad opamp and add in LFO modulation (volume or frequency) and guitar envelope modulation? :icon_twisted:

Cool! Can you type in an approximated sounclip?  :icon_mrgreen:

Quote from: frequencycentral on January 17, 2010, 10:05:30 AM

Quote from: CynicalMan on January 17, 2010, 10:04:10 AM
Why not use a quad opamp and add in LFO modulation (volume or frequency) and guitar envelope modulation? :icon_twisted:

Cool! Can you type in an approximated sounclip?  :icon_mrgreen:

ummm..  wsshheeiieeoouuooeeiieeoouuooeeiieeoouuooeeiieeoouu
or maybe sheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusheiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuu  :)

Make the freq pot an LDR and make it light controlled.  Wave your hands to create wind sounds.  Thanks this looks like a cool project.

I got sounds I liked when I used a not so high q notch filter

been thinking about a machine like this that I can make for my girlfriend- modulated white noise helps tinnitus sufferers to drown out the ear ringing. She's got bad tinnitus and I thought something like this would be good for when she is preparing for final exams, etc.

- Strategy

I used to get ringing in the ears when I was stressed out and noticed it especially when I'd lay down to rest. Okay maybe thats not tinnitus... or maybe a really mild form but I used imagination to eventually cancel it out and it works.

First I'm try and sort out a dominant frequency and then I'd imagine that frequency and flip it over, invert it, then "play it over the noise and it would cancel... repeat until noise is gone. The first time took ages but over the years it got easier and the actual occurences became further apart to the point where I think my mind knows the drill and gets rid of it naturally now.

My Dad suffers badly from the affliction but won't hear of it being self cured... I think some people just get off on their maladies. Underlying self importance issues going on maybe.

Now I'm going back up the top to copy out this schematic... I love noise machines Rick... Good man.

Actually, could you replace both the 470k reistors, one on the - input and the other between the - input and the output, with a dual 500k pot so when the resistance in the feedback goes down the resistance to the input goes down as well so the volume way well stay the same but the impedance changes and would that effect the volume and/or the filter characteristics.

I know, as Pete would say, breadboard it and find out!

Thanks, Rick! Awesome work!
You rock!  :icon_mrgreen:

Rick,

Does it sound like either of these?

TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME BEFORE DOWNLOADING!!!


http://home.comcast.net/~gprause/track2.mp3 (http://home.comcast.net/~gprause/track2.mp3)

http://home.comcast.net/~gprause/track3.mp3 (http://home.comcast.net/~gprause/track3.mp3)


-George

What kind of a name is "wind machine?"  C'mon, Rick.  That just blows.

who needs electronics anyway? :p
(http://www.natf.org/wad/pix/wind_machine.gif)

http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm

Quote from: chi_boy on January 17, 2010, 10:53:16 PM
Does it sound like either of these?

The noise generator itself is closer to the first clip you posted. Or course the resonant filter makes it sweeter and (a little) less monotonous.

Quote from: earthtonesaudio on January 17, 2010, 11:54:35 PM
What kind of a name is "wind machine?"  C'mon, Rick.  That just blows.

Well it's working title was "Johnny Fartpants".................. :icon_eek:

hmmm..the hawkWIND MACHINE?...........sorry couldn't resist..!. :icon_redface:

the wooden one looks good...any clips?.......????? :icon_mrgreen:

Rick, any chance you could post a clip? 

I made R.G.'s lofi telephone pedal and it also has a noise generator. It's a nice simple white noise from the first clip. I was looking for something with more "character" and was curious what you had there.

The second clip is a bastardization of RG's white noise. I just added stages and some caps. Not elegant, but is noisy. My plan is to blend both of the sources to make a composite sound.

So curiosity got the best of me and I breadboarded it. I haven't got any bc208's or much in the way of mojo so the best I could manage was a 2n2222 and while it's probably not ideal for white noise generation is does the job a sight better than a 2n5089. Part subs include a 50k(b) frequency pot instead of 47k(b) and two .0022uF caps in parallel instead of the requisite .0047uF.

I played around with the caps and there isn't a huge difference until you make large changes as far as I can tell, with higher values yielding more low-pass filtering.

One thing I did notice is that anywhere below ~4.6k Ohms on the frequency pot I get a hiss/whistle/oscillation. Otherwise vowel sounds galore  :icon_lol:

Thanks Rick!

You might try shorting the base of the noise transistor to the collector. The resulting sound should not change, but it will have a DC voltage closer to the middle of the power supply, easier on the opamp biasing. Right now all the base-emitter adds is one diode-drop offset on bias.

Ummm...I seem to have created my own wind machine but I think it's from eating too much Tex-mex food while I was in Houston.  It has the added benefit: you know it's working even if it's completely silent... :icon_redface:

Just breadboarded it again in order to do a soundclip to post for chi_boy .

Quote from: R.G. on January 19, 2010, 10:20:13 AM
You might try shorting the base of the noise transistor to the collector. The resulting sound should not change, but it will have a DC voltage closer to the middle of the power supply, easier on the opamp biasing. Right now all the base-emitter adds is one diode-drop offset on bias.

ie base to ground. That actually does make a huge different! And it also makes picking the transistor much easier, it now works with a much broader range of transistors, 2n5088, BC547B, BC107A etc. Genius RG! I'll modify and re-upload the schematic. And I'll post some soundclips later.......


EDIT: As I stole the noise part from the Maestro FSH1, it now makes me wonder why on that circuit the base of teh noise transistor has no connection, as it obviously works so much better with the base to ground. Hmmm.....

Here's (real) a soundclip:

Not On The Run (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/967492/NotOnTheRun.mp3)

The first 30 seconds is clean, the following 3 minutes is processed through the following pedals: Phase Evolution (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=76657.0) phaser, Vibracaster (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=70160.0) submini tube tremolo, Magnus Modulus (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=72527.0) delay. I enjoy doing this sort of thing far too much.............

No overdubs! No rehearsal even!

I thoroughly enjoyed that soundclip, and quickly got 'back to work' while listening to it, forgetting it was a sound sample..... 

I think I need to build one of these and make a recording of myself tinkering and knob twiddling similarly..one long track of white noise+ effects.   It would help me avoid some of the nosey questions and to hear less drivel, gossip, and nonsense from the people around me here at work, so I can get back to my job- or get back to thinking about pedals here at my job, with fewer of these personnel and work-related distractions.

Thank you!

In one of his early books Penfold used a Ge transistor to produce white noise and then filter for pink noise. I quote; "germanium transistors seemed to give the highest output. Audio types such as OC72s, OC81Ds andd OC81s seemed to give good results but RF types such as AF117 gave a much stronger output and an AF114 VHF device gave an even more substantial output. The reason for the high output from RF and VHF devices is simply because these are not optimised for a good audio noise performance but for low noise at their intended operating frequencies. "
Penfold used emitter to ground, 8.2k resistor from collector to -9v, 1.5m resistor base to collector and the output to the amplifier via a 1uF cap from the collector. The shield (this is a 4 pin device) was left unconnected. Seems like a great use of those crappy noisy Ge transistors that get left in the drawer and any pnp device would slot straight in here.

I've drawn a perf layout. I wish can be useful for the community! It's still not verified but it should work... I'll try it this weekend because I'm very busy now.

(http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1353/windmachine.png) (http://img191.imageshack.us/i/windmachine.png/)

(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5333/windmachinebom.png) (http://img695.imageshack.us/i/windmachinebom.png/)

Thanks for the schematic! You're great!

Davide

^^^

R1 looks wrong to me. It should connect directly to the emitter of the transistor.

By the way, out of my over-developed sense of irony, I used a NE5532 low noise opamp.  :icon_lol:

oh yeah, thanks for the catch! Tomorrow I will post a correct version! I'm very scared and tired: there are few hour between me and my exam (analisi matematica 2= math. analysis 2, E.E.)

I will use 4558, or tl082 or -72; in my next order i will pick up some ne5532, because in many application they are more useful than 4558!
For the NPN, can a 2n2222 work well?It should not be very noiseless. I have a great amount of trannies to try in it, including old Ge and old Si (VHF, UHF). I saved them from my grandma's spring cleaning...

how about a second noise source to the filter for a whining noise? with a volume control in between. for wind under doors and between buildings :p

Rick!

Thanks for the clip!  That thing is wild!

Is the pulsing portion of the sound. Generated by the quacky filter?  I had a hard time distiguishing the changes in the clip.

Birt; regarding the whining, I was playing with a 555 chip last night and found some varying pitch tones, but not really a whine. You have any thoughts for a filter to get a whine?  Something like an car alternator whine would be interesting. I'm actually going to try an LFO and some filtering with the 555 to see what I can find. 

- George

The first 30 seconds of the clip are just the Wind Machine. The rest of the clip is more an example of what you can do with it with a bit of additional audio processing. The phaser is set to a pretty slow sweep and just left like that. The pulsing to which you refer is a tremolo pedal, I'm just tweaking the speed and depth a little. That's fed into a delay with a lot of repeats and heavily wet mix, with the delay time tweaked a bit.

Here the correct layout (i wish), this afternoon with soldering iron in hand i'm going to build it

(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/586/windmachine.jpg) (http://img27.imageshack.us/i/windmachine.jpg/)

there is an error in the bill of material: 4550->4558 (well known dual opamp)

By the way, the old PAIA surf machine - I forget the actual name - used a set of three relaxation oscillators to make a control voltage for a filter. I think you could use one CMOS Schmitt trigger gates package (http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/LFOs/psuedorandom.htm (http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/LFOs/psuedorandom.htm)) to generate a randomish-but-repeating control voltage for controlling something like a Dr.Q or other voltage/current controlled filter to get a more automated sound.

Quote from: R.G. on January 22, 2010, 08:44:36 AM
By the way, the old PAIA surf machine - I forget the actual name - used a set of three relaxation oscillators to make a control voltage for a filter. I think you could use one CMOS Schmitt trigger gates package (http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/LFOs/psuedorandom.htm (http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/LFOs/psuedorandom.htm)) to generate a randomish-but-repeating control voltage for controlling something like a Dr.Q or other voltage/current controlled filter to get a more automated sound.

this just wrinkled my brain. i've got a 40106 around here somewhere, i'm going to try and breadboard this

I'm writing to you while a sweet wind sound blow out from the speakers of my pc...
the layout is now verified! I'm swapping the transistor. In fact the sound that you have is extremly conditioned by the transistor. I've tried metal can bc208c but it doesn't satisfied me because it's too loud. So i tried another metal can (from my father collection) a bfy50 with the collector's bottom plate and pins golded but it's too trebly. I have my optimal situation with bc238b and bc547. If i can i will post some samples!

Cool. You've probably found out by now that the output is super-hot! It's probably worth adding a 100k log pot volume control at the output if you plan to feed it through guitar effects. Then feed it through your Phase 90 and Zombie Chorus and post some soundclips!

I can't add it now but I'll do soon! It's amazing with phase 90. The Zombie Chorus add some particular tones like a sea-in-a-shell. With my pedalboard now I can emulate wind and seawaves... now I can write "done" near one of my DIY dreams... Thanks Rick!

Has anyone thought of a way to put an input on this so that it can be used on a pedalboard? Think of the live possibilities...stepping on this thing for an intro, outro, bridge, etc.

Just build an onboard mixer. Guitar in -> mix -> Sweet sounds out.  :icon_wink:

I haven't touched an onboard mixer yet. Easy?

Easy. How easy is up to you. You could use a simple resistor mixer (which would drop some signal), or simple buffer, 10k out of that joined with a 10k off the Volume (output) of the wind machine, into another buffer. You could use a dual OP Amp, or just a pair of JFet buffers. I'll see if I can find a better example than that explanation, search for "simple audio mixer" and should find quite a few somethings in Google images.

eta: Aha! Found the page I was looking for: http://sound.westhost.com/articles/audio-mixing.htm (http://sound.westhost.com/articles/audio-mixing.htm)

I love Elliot Sound (http://sound.westhost.com/)... IMHO, every bit as good as Play Hookey (http://www.play-hookey.com/)! ESP tends to stay away from the "mystical" side of audio, and focuses on fundamental through working higher-ended design in very few steps. Great at explaining the math in a simpler form, too.

Thanks! I was planning on circuit bending an input on there, but now I have options.

So, the only transistors that worked for me were 2N5088 and 2SC1815. The C1815 sounded great, more like pink noise, while the 5088 was definitely in the white noise territory. Also, blown LED's work, too... lol.

I think I found the "Vom-Tune", lol. I had it running through a distortion into my phaser into Nurse Quacky. The attack on NQ softens the peak sweep of the phaser, and follows a bit behind, adding some extra phase depth to the sound. I unplugged it to show off to the woman and started twiddling knobs and she started turning green! I was getting the same sound you get when your ears start to plug up right before you vomit.  :icon_twisted:

Something worth trying in any BJT-based noise generator circuit is to simply replace said BJT with a Zener diode. You put the Zener in the circuit with the anode grounded and cathode receiving the biasing voltage. Zener diodes are designed to operate continuously in reverse breakdown and also happen to make a LOT of noise when biased at the right point. The cool thing is the Zener trick produces VERY broadband (white) noise, we're talking DC to daylight here. Yet another bonus is you don't have to sort through them, every Zener diode I've placed in a noise generator circuit made just as much noise as the one before and after it (or at least good enough for rock and roll, and definitely much more consistent than BJT's!). Something like a 6.8V Zener should work very well with our standard 9V circuits.

Would something like this work, or would the 1M be too large to generate sufficient current through the zener?

link to javascript sim (http://falstad.com/circuit/#%24+1+5.0E-6+11.086722712598126+50+5.0+43%0Aa+656+320+800+320+0+15.0+0.0+1000000.0%0Ar+480+560+480+656+0+10000.0%0A174+480+560+512+464+0+10000.0+0.401+Resistance%0Ag+480+656+480+688+0%0Aw+480+560+432+560+0%0Ac+432+560+432+656+0+1.0E-5+4.499999999993437%0Aw+432+656+480+656+0%0Aw+480+464+400+464+0%0Ac+400+464+400+656+0+1.0E-5+9.0%0Aw+400+656+432+656+0%0Aw+512+512+656+512+0%0Aw+656+512+656+336+0%0Aw+656+304+656+256+0%0Ar+656+256+800+256+0+1000000.0%0Aw+800+256+800+320+0%0Aw+656+256+576+256+0%0Az+576+368+576+256+1+0.805904783+6.8%0Ag+576+368+576+400+0%0Ac+800+320+912+320+0+1.0E-7+9.548133756547742%0Ar+912+320+1008+320+0+470000.0%0Aw+1008+320+1008+352+0%0Aa+1008+368+1136+368+0+15.0+-15.0+1000000.0%0Ar+1008+320+1136+320+0+470000.0%0Aw+1136+320+1136+368+0%0Aw+480+560+1008+560+0%0Aw+1008+560+1008+384+0%0Ac+1008+320+1008+256+0+4.700000000000001E-9+4.499955000443473%0Ac+1136+320+1136+256+0+4.700000000000001E-9+4.4999550000447694%0Aw+1136+256+1008+256+0%0Aw+1136+256+1136+208+0%0A174+1136+208+976+176+0+1000.0+0.41090000000000004+Resistance%0Ag+976+208+976+240+0%0Aw+1056+176+1136+176+0%0Aw+1136+176+1136+208+0%0Ax+518+478+573+482+0+14+10k+Trim%0AR+400+464+400+400+0+0+40.0+9.0+0.0+0.0+0.5%0AO+1136+368+1216+368+0%0Ao+23+64+0+35+10.0+9.765625E-5+0+-1%0A)

Not quite, this is how I do it: (http://www.n5ese.com/noise_ckt.jpg)


Of course replace the "RF amplifier" with an op amp with some gain (maybe 100 V/V or so). Something to keep in mind is that the gain-bandwidth product of your typical TL0xx op amp is only 3 MHz(ish), so a gain of even 200 will already bring your effective bandwidth down to 15 kHz which may or may not be noticeable depending on who is listening.

Also IIRC the trimpot I used was like 25k and somewhere near the middle of that range was the optimal noise biasing point. It's a simple circuit that at least saves you the hassle of sorting through BJT's, I highly recommend you guys give it a shot before wasting too much time sorting for the worst BJT's in the batch!

Quote from: earthtonesaudio on January 17, 2010, 11:54:35 PM
What kind of a name is "wind machine?"  C'mon, Rick.  That just blows.

Definitely not what came to mind when I read the thread title. Different wind, I s'pose. And yes, I can type out a sound demo, but it would be rude.

I love this circuit so I decided to make a vero layout. Verified.

(http://i.imgur.com/agZgzsW.png)

Hi guys, i'm thinking on make this noise gen, but i'd like to generate pink instead of white noise! Any idea? Thanks!

Google "pinking filter".

Well, i have to apply a -3 db octave filter. I had found something previously, that was something like "a lot" of caps + resistors in parallel... but, where does i have to put them? Could something like this work properly?

(http://www.poulpetersen.dk/xfiles/cir/pinkfisch.gif)

Last question: that u41b???

Here's a simpler one:

http://sound.westhost.com/project11.htm

Thank you very much!

Another pinkening filter- very accurate between 20Hz-20kHz:
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j207/merlinblencowe/Pink_Filter_zpsdbfa060d.jpg)

Great! Thank you merlinb, too :)

Hey guys!
I tried testing the vero layout by mafew129 and i experience some problems with it.
The signal I get is too quiet even at full volume. I'm using the indicated IC and Q but i'm wondering if the problem is with the R1 and R7.
See I can't really confirm the numbers 1 and 7 in the picture of the layout.. I tried swapping between them but the result is the same.
Any ideas would be really appreciated!  :)

Quote from: mafew129 on July 01, 2013, 10:42:45 AM
I love this circuit so I decided to make a vero layout. Verified.

(http://i.imgur.com/agZgzsW.png)

I verify this schematic for vero as well. Works perfect!

But the schematic is a bit vague though, especially the R1 and R7 values...

If using both leads of a capacitor results in a 6 dB/octave filter, wouldn't connecting just one lead give you the desired 3 dB/octave?

Take it easy on me guys, after all I'm "Digital".

Hi! I made a wind machine some years ago and it works great.
Now a friend asked me a clone, but with a mod: he wants to have input from guitar -> footswitch that selects A = guitar on/noise off B = guitar off/noise on -> output.
I made the circuit on a stripboard (using the layout provided in this thread) but the volume of the noise is really low and there is AC 50 Hz hum.
Maybe i connected my grounds wrong.
How do i have to connect them?
Thank you for the support

Hi, all,

I breadboarded the bandpass and vref section, but it doesn't seem to be working too great. Only thing i didn't have was a 47k pot, so I just used a 50k in the hopes it would be close enough. Here's a layout of the breadboard (Sorry for the rats nest, not very good at this).

(http://oi68.tinypic.com/xqj5er.jpg)

Can anyone spot a problem? I'm at a loss. Thanks!

Quote from: GiulioGratz on April 10, 2016, 09:41:57 AM
I made the circuit on a stripboard (using the layout provided in this thread) but the volume of the noise is really low

Not all transistors are equally noisy in Zener mode. If you want one that's guaranteed to hiss loudly:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/2n2712-work-alike-noisemakers/

Input to op-amp pin 6 should go through a capacitor - as was done from the noise generator in Rick's original drawing. That cap was 100nF but anything from there down to 10nF should do.

I put the cap in, the result is the same. Here's a clip of some white noise, while I sweep the pot.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0SeoIbjnl6p

thanks to the folks who contributed to this thread .

, built this from the vero . added a moded delay board froam a hanna montana kiddie guitar toy . it has a lm386 to . i used some old slide pots in  a larger chassis with a 4.5 oval speaker , and a automotive alarm horn (gold and gaudy) . i did build an amz 2 channel mixer in it , so i also have a reversed crybaby circuit ( thanks Dino digi2t ) .

easily replicate pink floyd echos sfx section in a standalone box with a single power supply . with the echo unit going into self oscillation , the wind and the seagull sounds from the crybaby its really a fun little lap top sized box of ridiculousness .

i ran it on battery power at a local pink floyd tribute show but i didnt turn it on during their performance which .... i should have . i would have been doing them a  lot of favors . we will be using this in the future during noise sessions as it is , extremely handy and surprisingly loud too , thanks to the warshowski and co golden horn.

the wind circuit was what really pulled it together . i feel it works well if one operates both the freq and the volume control simul , which are on like like 40mm or so slide pots .  what a fun project ( for me , but i am not as serious of a analog tone guru germanium master  so forgive me ) .

Zeners and reverse-biased emitter-base junctions are not the only way to generate random noise - I have a General Radio 1390-B noise generator that uses a 6D4 gas triode operating at its sustaining voltage of 16 volts with the grid tied to the cathode.  It has a transverse magnetic field applied across the tube to eliminate high-frequency oscillation and increase noise level at high frequencies (it goes up to 5 MHz).  I doubt anyone would want to build one, but I bought mine for $10 at a musical instrument / DJ equipment store that was going out of business and you may run into one at some time too.