(Figure
A
).
NOTE: Never built an electronic circuit before?
No problem! Check out this shopping cart (dogbotic.
com/undertoner) with all the requisite parts.
This project is adapted
from the upcoming book
Make: Electronic Music
from Scratch, available for
pre-order at the Maker Shed
(makershed.com) and other
booksellers.
ABOUT THE NAND GATE CHIP
Let’s meet your 4093 integrated circuit. This lil’
fella is remarkably simple. It’s a NAND gate: a
doodad with two inputs and one output. If you
connect both inputs to 0 volts of potential energy
(assuming you’ve powered the chip correctly),
the output will spit out current. If you connect
both inputs to the positive voltage powering your
circuit, however, the output will abruptly shut off
current, just like that one time you forgot to pay
the water bill.
Your computer probably has millions of
NAND gates in it — it’s an essential ingredient
for delicious digital logic. Your 4093 looks a
bit different than the NAND gates inside your
computer, though; those are miniaturized to
make space for everything else, whereas this
one’s in a dual-inline package (DIP) form factor.
That’s fancy-speak for “big enough to be used by
human fingers.”
Also of note, your 4093 has not one but four of
these magical gizmos inside it. That said, what
we’re about to do will surely make you appreciate
NAND gates a lot more than you did already —
likely a low bar for success.
MAKE YOUR UNDERTONER
SYNTHESIZER
1. POWER THE CHIP
To begin, put the 4093 IC somewhere on
yourbreadboard. Anywhere on the central trench
will do. Make sure the semicircle on the IC is
facing to the left, as shown in Figure
A
on the
following page
.
As oriented here, IC pins are numbered from
Every once in a while, along comes a circuit
so simple yet so profound that it makes you
reconsider the very notion of musical culture.
But more on that in a minute.
The Undertoner is a synthesizer project perfect
for beginners looking to dip their toes into the
world of electronic music from scratch. This
irresistibly musical circuit is built from a single
integrated circuit (IC) chip — by name, a quad
two-input NAND gate (catchy!) — that was not
primarily intended for artistic use. However,
thanks to an interesting property of said NAND
gates, we can conjure a consonant array of
musical pitches from mere wafers of silicon.
Somehow, the brainless handful of wires you're
about to construct knows how to play in tune!
But first things first. We’ll start by explaining
how to put together this simple circuit, with no
presumed electronics experience. We’ll then
explain how this marvelous musico-electronic
quirk works, and even walk you through a
variation of it in which a flickering light composes
melodies before your very ears! Just in time for
your next candlelit soirée.
53
make.co
TIME REQUIRED:
20–30 Minutes
DIFFICULTY:
Easy
COST:
$10–$15
MATERIALS
» CD4093 quad NAND gate integrated circuit
(IC) chip
» Jumper wires, male-male
» Potentiometers (3) 100k
Ω
to 500k
Ω
is a good
place to start.
» Photoresistors (2) aka light-dependent
resistors (LDRs)
» LEDs a few to experiment with
» Resistors a few in the range of 330
Ω
to 1k
Ω
» Electrolytic capacitors: 0.1µF (1), 1µF (1), and
10µF (1) Note that 0.1µF (microfarad) caps are
also known as 100nF (nanofarad).
» Solderless breadboard
» 9V battery and battery terminal connectors
» Alligator clips
» Amplifier Guitar amps or old computer
speakers work great!
» Cable to plug into your amp
TOOLS
» Wire cutters/strippers (optional) to make
neat little jumper wires
M85_052-57_SS_BEx_Undertoner_F1.indd 53M85_052-57_SS_BEx_Undertoner_F1.indd 53 4/10/23 3:52 PM4/10/23 3:52 PM
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.