building a tone generator

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jrlemonz

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I'm sure someone on here understands how to build simple elctronic stuff, and can help me. I want to build something very small that produces a constant tone. I need it to send the tone out of a 1/4" output jack. I know this can be done very cheaply/easily, I just have no idea how. It doesn't matter the pitch of the tone. Just need a tone.

For anyone who cares why I want this, I experiment slightly with doing "live" electronic music. I do this by running a drum machine/rebirth on a laptop to get 808 and 909 sounds. I also run a MIDI controller or 2 to a Sound Module and use either a sequencer, rebirth, or fruityloops to do a bassline. I want to get some other kind of melody instrument, so I want to build this thing and run it into my whammy pedal. That thing has the expression pedal I could alter the tones pitch with, making it possibly to play a really weird thereamin-sounding melody very cheaply. I would just buy a theramin, but I dont' have any $$, and if I'm gonna invest anymroe money into this, Im gonna buy lights. I know this project should come in under $20-$30 absolute tops, so thats dealable.

Jake
 
could you use the tone from a cheap electronic metronome? they usually have a tone at A440 for tuning.
or may be you gould get a radio shack kiddie project kit...they usually have tone generator projects in them

lates,
Matt
 
Check out this link, especially the cookbook:
http://www.geocities.com/efm_gc/index.html

There are lotsof schemo's. What you want to build is a VCO. Which even has a pot, allowing you to tune and play with it (1V/Octave input), and a tone pot. No need for the whammy. I've had one of these things working. Don't know which VCO. I've got a pcb layout for it, could look it up and send it to you.

Here's a picture of the finished PCB... It's the only synth-part I have actually working. Others just aren't finished. I'll get back to them in this month.
http://www.geocities.com/roelrules/pictures/VCOdetail.jpg

You could also build the therman from that site, which is a light controlled theremin. The light sensors are resistive, so if you just want one tone, you could try different resistor values, and just fix them in their place.
 
Whew, Thansk Roel, but that site is a bit over my head. If you have any suggestions for a book I could buy that would teach me how to build things like these so called "simple"circuits, please tell me. I'm sure if I was taught what the charts meant, and what I had to do to make something that matches the cahrts, I would be able to. I'm gonna check Radio Shack, hgopefully they have something I could use. I've heard of people taking apart a phone and using that to do things similar to this, anyone heard of that?
Jake
 
Sorry... Sometimes I forget that not everyone has had electronic courses. You can get books to learn it, just a basic electronic course to start with. But it is heavy stuff to study, you need quite a math background... Don't know of any books that cover the basics. We had a course that our teacher wrote himself to start with.

But if you wanna go further on this, don't bother asking. Otherwise, well... You're absolutely right. It's alot of work if you just want a basic tone generator. :)
 
I'm quite good at math, and I know a very small amount about this kind of stuff. I understand enough to wire together speakers, and I can solder and all that. I just never really learned how to read those charts that were on that site. I found some shit that Radio Shack sells that I'm gonna go for. Prebuilt and all under $20.
Jake
 
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