McMeat - Clone of a famous envelope filter

Started by Joep, February 14, 2004, 05:05:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Chris R

there are sounds at the bottom of the pisstones site.

C

Manolo Dudes

Quote from: Chris R...pisstones site

"pisstones"???

Oh, boy!  :lol:
a.k.a. "Calambres" in www.pisotones.com

Chris R


Mark Hammer

For those wondering how the heck they can fit all of *that* into a 1590BB or some other modest-sized chassis, might I suggest a "McMeat Lite"?

There are a number of functions that can easily be collapsed into more compact toggle-switch function, sacrificing only a little tone-palette and flexibility in the process.

1) The filter range switch that selects between 4 sets of caps to determine the range over which the filter sweeps is essentially intended to cover every base for every customer.  You can easily replace it with a 3-position on-off-on DPDT minitoggle.  Pick the 3 ranges you feel suit your needs, select a "default" cap value and use the two side positions to select caps to add in parallel.

2) I like variable attack and decay as much as the next guy, but often people end up setting the control to one end or the other of rotation or just somewhere in between.  Here, again,  a 3-position toggle (SPDT this time) can sub nicely for a bigger-footprint pot.  For the attack control, leave the 100R resistor in place, stick in a 4k7 fixed resistor in series.  The toggle can be used to either apply no path in parallel with the 4k7 resistor (max attack time), shunt it (fastest attack), or tack on another fixed resistor (I'd suggest 820R) in parallel for a medium attack time.  Similarly, I'd suggest replacing Vr3 with a 100k resistor and a 3-position toggle for either applying no parallel resistance (max decay time), a shunt for fast decay, and a moderate resistor (e.g., 15kk) for medium decay.  If you *really* need to conserve space, you can always consider using a DPDT 3-position toggle to create a "fast", "medium", and "slow" response time, adjusting both attack and decay simultaneously.

3) The external processing loop is a nice treat and adds to flexibility, but a lot of folks don't think much about using such things.  There is no problem in simply bypassing the send/return loop, omitting the jacks, and running the send connection directly to the return pad on the board.

4) In some respects, the "intensity" control is helpful, but it is also a bit redundant (though not entirely so) with the sensitivity control, since both are related to sweep width.  You can easily replace the Intensity control with an on-board trimmer, or even a fixed resistor if you want.

That leaves us with 3 pots (sensitivity, blend, and colour), 2 or 3 toggles (range, attack, decay), two audio phone jacks, and a power jack.  That should fit.  Not quite the same beast in some respects, but if all you want is a meatball sandwich, and not the whole plate of pasta, you'll get pretty much all the sounds you've come to appreciate.

Doug H

Looks very nice! And the sounds at psst's site are fantastic! What a project!

Thanks,

Doug

moosapotamus

psst - WOW! Awesome! Fantastic job on the web page, too!

For the non-Spanish speaking folks interested in a translation (of sorts)...
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

~ Charlie
moosapotamus.net
"I tend to like anything that I think sounds good."

psst

BTW, about the box:
It's bigger than the 1590BB, actually mine is 125x175x45mm, smaller than the original but definetly bigger than that typical Hammond.

It's very interesting what Mark Hammer said about Meatball-lite, actually I thought of suggesting he idea in my article, but I forgot to do it.
It could be a nice option for certain people...

About the PCB, I used Joep's but I'm pretty sure Moosa's one works too...

sirkut

Is there any way that it's preventing it from being a true bypass?

SaBer

I just built my own envelope-filter with the Mu-Tron III instructions from geofex. I made some changes to it, which were just about the same as the meatball: attack, decay, range and sweep. I'm pretty surprised to notice that these are done almost the same way. I also put the envelope detector and the filter itself in different enclosures. Maybe I'll use the envelope detector for something else fun also...
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

markusw

Thanks a lot to Moosapotamus and Joep !!!!!!

This is definitively going to be my next stompbox.

Just a question (maybe a stupid one): :?:
The pots in the schematics are labelled e.g. 10kb-Blend. What does the "b" mean? Piher pots are labelled with a "b" when they are log pots and they have an "a" if they are linear ones. However, in this case I suppose it means something different. Because otherwise all the pots except the decay pot would be logarithmic ones.

So is it correct that only the decay pot is logarithmic?

Sorry for asking so circumstantially. I just want to be sure to order the right parts.

Thanks to all in advance.

Markus

smoguzbenjamin

I don't like Holland. Nobody has the transistors I want.

Joep

B means linear on the Alpha (american) pots. On Piher, B means log.

The schem assumes Alpha pots. I you use Piher switch A and B around.

Regards,

Joep

amz-fx


markusw

Thanks for your help.

Another (stupid) question:

in Joep´s schematics there are two pins labelled "E" and "F" (close to the range switching caps). What are they for?

Markus

uncle boko

The Sonidos tipo phaser sound is mucho dulce de leche - looks like it's one for the breadboard!
better to be in bad taste than to taste bad

Joep

Hi Marcus,

C14, C15 and C16 are on one side connected to Sw3 and other sides should be connected together and to E. The same goes for C9, C10, C11 and F.

The six capacitors are directly mounted to the switch and not on the PCB.

Bye,

Joep

snorky

Hey guys,

How about some MP3's??

(I think I'm gonna have to build one of these...)

- Mark
Elephants are the new skulls.

keko

Joder tío!!!!

los mp3 te quedaron buenísimos!!!

Guys, everybody should check out the mp3 on the bottom of this page. They are SO cool.

On the second, Mike Eizingers would surely drool...heheheh

http://www.pisotones.com/Meatball/psst/meatball-psst.html
.::keko::.
www.qpd.cl // desahógate ahora!
www.basa.cl // Digital « Design » Atelier

Manolo Dudes

Quote from: snorkyHey guys,

How about some MP3's??

There are 7 mp3s at the end of the Meatball page. As you might already know, my Piso-tones page is only in spanish... there are some kazillion different pages in english so it was about time for one in spanish  :wink:  :P

But due to the popular interest in this wonderful collaboration by my friend Alvaro (psst) I'll try to translate here the seven mp3's descriptions and links so you can dig the sounds of this wonderful tone machine:


- Short Decay
- Longer Decay
- "Down" position, deep and quick
- Phaser like sound
- "Ambient". Lotsa ramp-up
- Another one with great ramp-up
- "Lasers". Much better if you add delay
[/list:u]
Hope you like it!  8)
a.k.a. "Calambres" in www.pisotones.com

markusw

Hi Joep,

thanks for your answer. I have added the caps to the PCB layout and simply forgot that in your layout the caps are mounted on the rotary switch.

Regards,

Markus