PhishNoise
PhisNoise is a compact dual dBm oscillator in a fish can. Although i uses only 1 hex inverter, 5 transistors and some passive components, it can create its own universe of strange, chaotic, analog sounds , which would be demanding to create even with a big modular system.
[pic]
what's inside
2 coupled RC square wave oscillators, each with a tune potentiometer , are supplied by voltage controlled power starving. There are 2 potentiometers to set supply voltage and current limit . Voltage and current also have 3.5mm input jacks for CV. A 5th potentiometer controls an internal capacitive load, which strongly affects the chaotic behaviour of the starved oscillators. this load can be switched between the oscillators, with the Left-Off-Right switch. Each oscillator has 3.5mm mono output jack, L-out and L-right.
PhishNoise can be supplied by any USB-C 5V source . If Power banks are used, make sure they don't switch off due to the tiny mA load.
how to play
The nonlinear, chaotic behavior of the circuit makes sounds creation with PhishNoise not really intuitive ;-)
It's all about finding the sweet spots. Turning the same potentiometer will produce different effects depending on the current state of the oscillators. Sometime you turn it from 0 to full and nothing will happen, sometimes a slight touch will shift the sounds to something completely new. It is even possible that turning a potentiometer from A to B, then back to A, the sound will be different because you altered the internal state. So the only advice we can give is: experiment, turn the knobs, and listen :-)
the bigger picture
There are 2 main use cases for PhishNoise. One is
Although PhishNoise is a stand alone instrument, it makes sense to extend it with other devices. Also you can use patch cables to connect the sound outputs to the CV inputs, it is obvious that an external feed back loop with a mixer or modular synth will extend the capabilities and moving phishnoise closer to a playable musical instrument. A typical setup uses a sound mixer