Friday 10 June 2016

4ms Noise Swash

Another project by Commonsound/4ms.
You can find all info and schematic on their website here.
The original circuit uses a 1M Lin Pot with internal switch for the "Self Oscillation".
I've used a regular pot and an extra SPST switch but you can just use the original if you prefer.


35 comments:

  1. Man, this is brilliant! I have to build this. Ordering parts this second, thanks!

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  2. it's kind of amazing to me that so much noise and chaos and tweak-ability and range of sounds can come from so few components.. two ICs, four diodes, a few caps and resistors, and a bunch of pots and switches. no transistors, no exotic parts.. kind of blowing my mind.

    this pedal is really similar to the Mantic Flex.. this may even span more sonic territory than the Flex does. Check that pedal out though if you like noise boxes like this.

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    1. oh, and I think LowPower and NoiseGate should read B1K instead of B10K

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    2. Looks like I found my weekend project. This looks like a fun build. Thanks Alex!

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    3. Thanks, mate!
      They are B1K.
      That was a copy & paste error.

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  3. Really i nice Blog post. Thanks For Sharing this technical blogpost. It's Really helpful. Anybody wants to but pcb Board may follow : PCB Board

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  4. My guitar sounds like robot birds being massacred in a malfunctioning blender....
    Verified!

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    1. I'm going to change that to 'mostly verified.'
      Since the knobs are extremely interactive, it's difficult to determine if they're working exactly as they 'should.'
      My only concern is with the PostGain knob. After more messing around I've yet to hear it do anything at all to the signal..

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    2. Found the culprit: the 10K from PostGain 2 goes to pin 1 instead of pin 2! I've corrected it.

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    3. Ignore my comment below, you can verify it!
      I meant the postgain and it works now. The volumedrop from the switch 3 seems to be fixed now as well. Don't know if this is what caused it.

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    4. As in: I changed the 10K

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    5. Thanks for verifying it!

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    6. Happy to finally have done it :D Thanks for the layout!

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  5. Alright... Hard to say if it's verified or not haha. I have to compare it to videos I guess.. The pregain pot doesn't seem to be doing anything. Eventhough there is so much noise, the rest seems to have an obvious effect.

    Switch 3 influences the volume a lot. In position 1, the volume is at unity at 7-8 o clock already. In position 2, the volume drops considerably. Again, this could be normal.

    This is what I get out of it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0JjLD6pY3s Unplug my guitar at 2:45.

    The rest is pretty boring haha

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  6. hey guys, Alex, thanks a lot for this post!
    we've built this pedal and it mostly "works" but there is an constant annoying high whistle coming from what i suspect is the circuitry around the TL062... it's definitely not part of the noise this pedal is trying to do.
    anybody observe the same and know how to get rid of it?

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  7. I built this and everything worked except there was no guitar signal when the pre clip switch was off. I switched out the tl062 for another one and now everything works and it seems a bit easier to control. Worth trying different chips if something seems wrong, I also noticed when looking at the 4ms website that they say each noise swash sounds different so may be worth trying different chips even if everything is working.

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  8. Its not in the schematic, but now i think they have a 9v regulator (L7809) and a 100uf power filter cap.

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  9. I confirm there was 9V regulator (LM7809 and 100uf on the kit I built. See the wiring diagram link.
    http://www.commonsound.com/swash/mNS/wiring.pdf

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  10. Could someone tell me what type capacitors are marked as red and yellow? Does it even matter?

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    1. Doesn’t matter...any non polarized cap will work!

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    2. Yesterday finished mine, verified.
      Although I have ordered 3pieces 1uF electrolytic capacitors instead of the non-polarized ones (the original bom tells 6 1uF http://commonsound.com/swash/kit/kitparts_v131.pdf ). But I couldn't wait until the non-polarized will arrive, so I finished with the polarized ones at weekend. And I have to say, AFAIK it's working perfectly! And it's awesome, thanks for the layout Alex! (this is my very first diy stuff) So the 3 non polarized 1uF caps were replaced with 3 electrolytic 1uF, and the orientation is negative down at all of them, although I think it doesn't matter. I think, that if You have to use polarized ones, then You should, and the orientation is also important. But if it's not necessary, then You CAN use polarized, at least in this case,
      It was fun to build this, and the reward is overwhelming!

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  11. Super dumb question but this is my first tagboard build and I want to be sure: since there’s a spot on the board labeled LED+, I can just connect the LED there instead of the normal way that’s outlined on the offboard guide, right?

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    1. Cheers,
      yes, just connect the longer (+) lead of your LED to the LED+ point on the board. And wire the ground through the bypass switch: so if You turn the switch on, the LED gets the ground.
      It's just more convenient: the board already contains the Current Limiting Resistor (in this case, a 4k7).

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    2. Thanks! This worked perfectly!

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  12. Is this pedal supposed to make noises even when it's turned off? I've seen a few youtube demos that have the same issue as me. The pedal sounds amazballs tho.

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  13. Maybe it’s how you wired up your bypass signal? Here’s what mine sounded like fwiw: https://youtu.be/7WfDTLwi1Pg

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    1. Mine sounds similar. How did you wire your switch?
      I did it like this.
      http://www.muzique.com/news/images/3PDT_3.jpg

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  14. Did a mostly successful build.
    Though the Tone pot has very small variations. Someone on effectslayouts notices the leg 1 of Tone should have a 10nf instead of the 100nf. Did anyone experience that ?
    http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2017/06/4ms-noise-swash.html
    Also the self oscillation switch doesn't bring any difference... It'll need some more investigation.
    Great circuit anyway ! Thanks

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  15. Yep, just confirm it : the 10nf cap makes the Tone much more efficient !

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  16. Howdy folks, i just stumbled upon this website and instantly fell in love with it. Now i have 10 pedals on my to-do list and this here will be my first one.

    As i am not quite familiar with these build layouts i have one question:

    What exactly does this part in the graphics mean:

    SelfOsc 2 -> Sw 1 - 1

    ...and how does it coincide with this statement:

    "The original circuit uses a 1M Lin Pot with internal switch for the "Self Oscillation".
    I've used a regular pot and an extra SPST switch but you can just use the original if you prefer."

    I have no idea where to place my wires...

    Cheers from Germany, Jörg

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  17. SelfOsc2 is a potentiometer. The middle lug of the pot goes to the first lug of the first switch. There are 3 switches in total and 8 potentiometers in total.

    The statement just means that in the original circuit the self oscillation was always on. If that makes any sense.

    I think this is a pretty hard pedal for a first pedal.

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  18. In truth, the original uses a pot with built in switch (yeah, there is sg like this). So it was not always on. At CCW it was off, and when You start to tun ut up, the internal swicth turns it on.

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  19. But yes, I agree. It's not a good starting pedal (though it was my first too).
    Not because of the complexity, but troubleshooting is hard. Because it's not an ordinary soundinf and behaving pedal. It took months to me to realize what sounds are genuine, and what are fails and erros.

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  20. Can I use two TL072 instead of the TL062?
    or any other op-amp to work instead of the TL062 That I don't have.
    Thanks

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    1. Good question. I didn'T try it yet. Socket it, and try them. The pinout is the same, so big trouble won't happen, but the sound will be a bit different. Power consumption is different, and the TL072 is less noisy. Both are affecting the character of the Swash.

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