Easy way to get 3rd harmonics

[WermooZ]

The problem is - to get 3rd harmonic in easy way - i need it to my project. Thanks

[smoguzbenjamin]

Welcome to the forum!

What are you building that requires a 3rd harmonic? I'm not sure how to achieve this goal but it has to be pheasable... But I'm curious, whatcha making?

[WermooZ]

I want to make some kind of distorsion - but in unusual way - somewhere i saw a simple octave doubler made of 2 transistors - this is an experiment

[smoguzbenjamin]

well the distortion that makes is definately going to be strange... as far as I know it's the even-order harmonics that sound good, and the odd-order hamornics that sound... well odd. I remember reading something about how to do that... but I can't remember where :x Sorry.... Maybe someone else knows

[WermooZ]

of course it may be a bit dirty - 3rd 5th 7th and other harmonics - i have some other strange ideas but first i must get some schematics :]

[smoguzbenjamin]

Kewl :mrgreen:

[petemoore]

And related items. At Runoff Groove.
 I don't know specifically about odd or thirds or what not. They do distort and get octave [one of them does anyway], and fit the two transistor criterion.
 With two tranny's something like that will probably get you as close as anything.
 There's a one transistor job that gets a little octdown. I believe it's the Easy Drive [not sure] but it's at runoff Groove also.

[WermooZ]

I mean something else - it may have more transistors but it must be quite simple - any strange circuits -

i seek a something that pick a sound on input and produce another with frequency 3x greater  - for example:

110 Hz -> IN ------ > ##### ------> OUT ---> 330 Hz

[Brian Marshall]

distortions typically produce more od harmonics than even.  many create only odd harmonics (square wave)

most distortions the 3rd harmonic is by far the most prominent.

if you are actually looking for a circuit that is like an octave effect, but instead produces a tone 3x higher instead of 2x... that will be a bit more complex.

The Zvex machine uses a frequency trippling effect to calculate it's cross over distortion, but it is not direcly in the signal path.  somehow you would have turn arround the direction of the wave as it approached its peak.  you could use clipping to do it, but then you get other hamonics as well, and would only work with a specific signal level... as you can tell this could get pretty complex.

[Hal]

some diodes do it naturally better than others....i did some sort of experiment on this.  I might post results at some point.  experiment youself....and either use a scope, or just see what sounds better.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Since differenbt distortion units &methods give different mixes of harmonics, it might be possible by combining distortion units (adding or subtracting outputs from each othert in various ratios) to null out the second harmonic, and maximise the third harmonic.