low-fi project! need advice and schematics

[adrian]

heloo!
i've a project with a band, we wanna do a lo-fi live configuration to play with a very strange sound inspired by gramophones sound… we gonna use indian trumpet as speakers and 100v line speakers, megaphones etc… and many piezzo as microphones,
our music is between Konono n°1 (http://www.crammed.be/craworld/crw27/f/index.htm) , aphex twin and tom waits….
so i'm looking for some lo-fi mic preamps which could give us different types of sounds, grainy, overdrived, etc….
i need trying different preamps for each instrument, (we have soprano, little drumset, trumpet, french horn, accordeon, mandolin, banjo, guitar, soubasophone etc etc…)
i know there is a lot of schematics on the web but i need your experience about what kind of technology is "better" for it...
and if you have gear ideas that could help me for this project…

 

[kazper]

Not a Mic pre but a fuzz and distortion effect and is fairly low parts count. You can use 1N4148 or 1N4153 in place of the 1N34A's. I've seen a slightly modified circuit around using a few resistors connected down the diode ladder.

http://home3.netcarrier.com/~lxh2/tapesat.html

 

[substitute]

I built this clone of a zvex woolly mammoth, I followed the schematic exactly but something is weird, in a kind of great way.  The knob labeled pinch, if I turn it ccw it makes things sound broken. 

Very few parts, you can easily bread board it in an afternoon.


http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=35104.0

 

[briomusic]

great thread, I am looking forward to many posts as to how to f*ck up the pristine signals that we spent endless $$$ to record with all the great pre-amp projects around.  ;D

I built this clone of a zvex woolly mammoth, I followed the schematic exactly but something is weird, in a kind of great way.  The knob labeled pinch, if I turn it ccw it makes things sound broken. 

Very few parts, you can easily bread board it in an afternoon.


http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=35104.0

I think this is quite intentional. the pinch knob acts as a pulsewidth-reduction/gate control, the sound gets really thin and reedy until it fizzles out. absolutely great on distorted acid-synths!

as a general contribution towards the OP's question, I think you want to be looking into boxes that distort in a 'pleasant' way. In terms of mic-pres an EZ1290 with a level trim on the output would be more suited than, for example, an SSL9k or other op amp designs. a very simple thing you can do is add an output trim to your existing preamps and check out the 'cool' analog distortion while making sure your A/D converter is not overdriven (not so cool sounding).

then of course there is tube distortion....

 

[W DeMarco]

cheap mics through gtr amps? Or reamp and create soume fuzzies during mixdown...

 

[diyfanatic]

when I want go lo-fi I use an old analog delay (Aria AD-05)
no delay level and I play with the gain till I come up with a nice rough distortion...

how to f$*k up any sound but in a nice way...
absolutely...lo-fi...on drums especially snares!!! :

cheers!
Jr

 

[adrian]

yes men!
that's cool!
i gonna build these schematics and try it!
it's a great idea to use guitar amps... we already tryed it with piezzo on instruments, and it woks well with some very bad little amps like laney, peavy etc... i take the line output and feed my desk with it but i'm not an expert and few of these little amps doesn't have line output and i don't really know if it's possible to take the signal,
the goal is to disassemble these amplifiers and rack it as preamps with some others things (like delay!), i'm building a special mixing desk....with some summing-distributors sections to feed every speaker independently,
i gonna use all this gear at "FOH" during our show.... we don't use a traditional pa system we build our own pa with some special components (100v line spekers etc...), that's really exiting for me to change all my way of thinking live sound!

if you want listen, the band i'm working with is :
http://www.myspace.com/mazalda  (but as the project i'm talking about is new it's not the same music...it's gonna be a link between the accoustic and the electrical version!)

 

[sahib]

great thread, I am looking forward to many posts as to how to f*ck up the pristine signals that we spent endless $$$ to record with all the great pre-amp projects around.  ;D

Won't be very difficult. Make sure the jacks/connectors you use are old and oxided. I keep a lot of them for particularly that sort of application.

Also look up old, 70s cassette decks on e-bay. Youll pick up things for cents. Cut out the mic-amp sections from the main board. You can't get lower fi than that.

 

[Nadege]

Hello,

I've recorded some track with konono n°1, their sound in the studio was based on their DIY thumb piano thru old valve guitar amplifier like Vox AC30 or fender bassman, full volume, to have this nice distorded sound.

We also put some distortion pedal in between if needed.

It was a very simple setup, but very effective!

 

[adrian]

yeah! great idea to use old cassette deck!

 

[briomusic]

Not a Mic pre but a fuzz and distortion effect and is fairly low parts count. You can use 1N4148 or 1N4153 in place of the 1N34A's. I've seen a slightly modified circuit around using a few resistors connected down the diode ladder.

http://home3.netcarrier.com/~lxh2/tapesat.html

I just breadboarded this little circuit and quite like it. How would I go about making it +4dB balanced? I am thinking of a THAT line driver 1646 on the output, do I need a line receiver at the front or can I use a unity gain op-amp in differential mode? I seem to have one left on the TL074 that I am currently using for the other three op-amps...

 

[MartyMart]

I have a great little Sony 70's mixer that has a little "Echo" send in it
( Springs I guess )
Can be used for mic/line and adds a nice "grunge/Hiss" to stuff !!

Overdriving it sounds wicked !!! plus it's shiny chrome with wooden end cheeks

MM.

 

[clintrubber]

In case non-hardware is allowed too, these's still also the old Grungelizer:

 

[clintrubber]

I just breadboarded this little circuit and quite like it.

This circuit since long on the to-solder list... do you happen to have some samples with/without ? Might influence its position on mentioned list 

Thanks,

  Peter

 

[kato]

I just breadboarded this little circuit and quite like it. How would I go about making it +4dB balanced? I am thinking of a THAT line driver 1646 on the output, do I need a line receiver at the front or can I use a unity gain op-amp in differential mode? I seem to have one left on the TL074 that I am currently using for the other three op-amps...

For the output, you could probably use half a balancing board from the SSL9k if you have any leftover.

Don't know about the input but I'll be interested in hearing what you come up with.  :thumb:

 

[volker]

Easy solution without having to build anything: use any mic preamp and slam a tube preamp with it. By regulating the gain of the first you control the distortion of the tube preamp. Experiment with (extreme) EQ before/between/after the two to get different distortion characteristics.

At least with the equipment I've had until now, that gave more pleasing results, yet still no-fi, than bashing the front end of a console for example.


Volker

 

[bananamoon]

+1 on cassette tape recorders (just using the mic inputs for distortion works well) and reel tape recorders.  I've used an old Sony that had an echo switch and it worked great for grainy saturated sounds.  Cheap integrated microphones (answering machines, boom box, walkman...) are nice too.

I've used an impedance buffer preamp for my piezo mics (google mint box piezo buffer).  It brings out the low end for the typical line in impedance and just adds more depth and "thump" to the sound.

Have fun
Nic

 

[adrian]

hello! thank you men! i'm now trying to find cassette deck(my grand dad have some of it i think!) and i'm waiting for germanium diodes to try the "tape" saturator schematic.... i will let you know how i feel with it!

 

[hymentoptera]

Zombie Thread!!  Look out!

Does anyone know what the project linked to in Reply #1 was? A simple tape saturation using 1N34A diodes. probably a guitar pedal or something? I found a schematic, but that's it. Was hoping to find more info on that specific project, or at least something similar. I want a simple project to knock-up over the weekend just for S&G. Thanks

 

[JohnRoberts]

heloo!
i've a project with a band, we wanna do a lo-fi live configuration to play with a very strange sound inspired by gramophones sound… we gonna use indian trumpet as speakers and 100v line speakers, megaphones etc… and many piezzo as microphones,
our music is between Konono n°1 (http://www.crammed.be/craworld/crw27/f/index.htm) , aphex twin and tom waits….
so i'm looking for some lo-fi mic preamps which could give us different types of sounds, grainy, overdrived, etc….

To make a lo-fi mic preamp using something like a old 741 opamp will run out of gas at high gain. Fior even more distortion and dirt, maybe make a gain stage from a single transistor gain stage.

Sorry I have no more advice about making things sound bad...

JR

i need trying different preamps for each instrument, (we have soprano, little drumset, trumpet, french horn, accordeon, mandolin, banjo, guitar, soubasophone etc etc…)
i know there is a lot of schematics on the web but i need your experience about what kind of technology is "better" for it...
and if you have gear ideas that could help me for this project…