Tuesday 23 June 2020

Synthesizer Build part-34: TRIPLE WAVEFOLDER.

A wavefolder with three folding stages which produces amazing sounds and it's very easy to build too!

I came across this project on YouTube when I watched a video by YouTuber Adamski A. called "DIY analog synth project part 18 - The Wavefolder".

So I set about building it and it came out very well so I asked Adam for permission to write an article for my website, based on his project, to which he very enthusiastically replied in the affirmative so here it is; The Triple Wavefolder.
Like I said, it's a very simple design and in my experience those work the best. This wavefolder produces sounds that I would describe as sharp or hard and accurate. In some settings it almost resembles a Harpsichord or an electric piano. They can be real speaker rippers too. If you watch Adam's video (see link above) you can listen to the wavefolder in action. The latter part of the video is full of sound samples in different settings. I also made a little demo video myself which is at the bottom of this article. The sound is very different from that of the filters we've become so used to, with their resonance and cut-off frequency. It sometimes almost sounds like an FM synthesizer. That's why this is a very useful addition to any modular set-up because diversity in sound is what we all want don't we?
Now, I built the Yusynth Wavefolder after first building this because I thought that this triple wavefolder was more of an experimental thing and the Yusynth one would be the official implementation to go into my synthesizer. But the Yusynth one only has a single folding stage and eventhough that sounds amazing too, I found that this one actually sounded even better. So I made a panel for it and mounted it in my synthesizer. The voltage it runs on has an influence on the number of folds you can get so changing the value of the 22K resistors going to the emitters of the transistors influences the behaviour of this circuit.

This wavefolder works best with Triangle or Sawtooth waves or even Sinewaves but Squarewaves pass through almost unchanged. That's convenient because squarewaves are best used for conventional filters because of their harmonic content.

Adding CV control to the parameters:
This wavefolder has in it's original form only three controls; the input level or 'Amount', the Dry/Wet control and a Saturation control. As an experiment I added voltage control to two of those, the Amount and Saturation by means of two self-made Vactrols connected between pins 2 and 3 of the respective potmeters.
These vactrols are made up of a bright white LED, a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) and a 2K2 current limiting resistor connected together with some heat-shrink tubing that seals it off from any light from the outside.
These Vactrols both have their own level potmeter too so you can dial in the effect it has very accurately. I've had questions about what LDR's you should order for these and I really can't tell you. I had mine in stock for ages. A while back I ordered a batch of 5 x 10 LDR's from China. 5 different values with 10 of each value. They all have a dark-resistance of at least 100 Mega Ohm and a full light resistance around 1 Kilo Ohm or lower. That's all I can say. You can also buy Vactrols ready made like the VTL5C3 which should work fine here.
Even better than a Vactrol, at least for the Amount parameter, is to use a VCA on the Wavefolder input, That way you can control the level and thus the Amount by sending a Control Voltage into the VCA. This works much better and it's what Adam also demonstrates in his video. (See the 'Metalizer' project elsewhere on this website. That is in principle a quadruple wavefolder with a VCA on the input.)
In the video demonstration the vactrols didn't have that much effect but I had forgotten that the potmeters for Amount and Saturation need to be set a good way counterclockwise for the Vactrols to take full effect. And in that sense you could in principle do away with the CV Level potmeters because the Amount and Saturation potmeters have that function too for Control Voltages. But you must not forget that this module was built first and foremost as an experiment that I didn't think I would publish. 
Anyway, you could decided to leave the CV inputs out alltogether, it's up to you.

THE GAIN CONTROL:
The other thing I addressed was the fact that the Amount control is also the Amplitude or Volume control so turning it up increases the volume and turning it down decreases it. For that reason I added a Gain potmeter to the output opamp which increases the volume by a factor of 2 to 22 times!! This option is a game changer for this wavefolder especially with this much Gain! This gives you the possibility to really boost the sound output and it sounds awesome I can tell you. You can really boost the lower and mid ranges of the Amount potmeter to match the high output level when Amount is fully open. I even found that opening up the gain helps to level out the output amplitude across most of the Amount potmeter throw without really clipping the output. But even if it does clip, it adds a very musical sort of distortion to the sound. It's never unpleasant to listen to.

Here's the schematic drawing of the Triple Wavefolder by Adamski A. I have re-drawn it and added the Vactrols to it. I mention on the schematic that you can also use BC transistors instead of the 2N transistors I used, but that will influence the sound or the number of folds you get because BC transistors have a greater multiplication factor. You can of course experiment with that by setting up the circuit on a breadboard first. (Btw, the BC548 and BC558 can also be BC547 and BC557 types.) The CV-Level control potmeters are not included in the schematic. This is because I added the CV control as a bit of an after-thought to see how it would work out. Like I mentioned before you don't have to include the Vactrols and CV level controls. I leave that up to you.

(Last revised: 11-July-2020: Changed GAIN potmeter from 20K to 100K.)

Here's the stripboard layout. It's verified because I used this for my own build. All potmeters are viewed from the front side with shaft facing you!
(Wiring diagram):

(Last revised: 11-July-2020: Changed GAIN potmeter from 20K to 100K.)

Print only. Note that pins 5 and 10 of the TL084 are connected underneath the chip!!:



Bill of Materials.


15V vs 12V and de-coupling:
As you can see a very simple and easy to build project and it sounds amazing so I can really recommend trying this one out. The circuit is meant to work on a dual 15V powersupply but I tested it on 12V and it works just fine but changing the voltage does influence the number of folds you get so it sounds a bit different but it still works fine, trust me =)
I did not include any de-coupling capacitors in the schematic because I didn't use any but if you need to have those included just put a 100nF from plus to ground and a 100nF from ground to minus and place them as near to the TL chip as possible. Should you have problems with hum, you can also add a few electrolithic caps (22µF or 33µF) on the plus and minus rails like the other caps and you can also try putting Ferrite Beads in series with the plus and minus power supply input, or if you don't have them, a few 10 Ohm resistors. There's plenty of room on the stripboard for that. But you only need to do that if you're having problems with hum or noise in the audio output.

Here's a picture of the finished panel:


Here's a look at the stripboard: I see from these pictures I added an extra opamp to the output but because I actually built this module a while ago I can't remember why I did that. Probably to have more room to experiment with the output and add the Gain potmeter. Anyway, it works the same so you don't have to include that.




And, to close off this article, I made a video demonstrating the different settings and the sounds they produce. As you can read in the article, I recently changed the GAIN potmeter from a 20K into a 100K one giving a total gain of up to 22 times. This gives the option of boosting the middle range of the Wavefolder which sounds really awesome!!


Here's a video that's also posted in the "Sample and Hold" article. It's a triangle wave going through the Triple Wavefolder and then through the Steiner-Parker filter, fed by random notes from the Sample and Hold connected to the CV-2 input of the VCO.


Okay that's an other project done. I hope you enjoyed it. Check out Adamski A. 's youtube channel. It is full of awesome synthesizer projects and electronics tutorials. It's an enormous source of inspiration for anyone interested in building synthesizers.
As always, any questions or remarks, please put them in the comments below or post them on the new EB Projects Facebook Group.

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28 comments:

  1. hello eddy,
    what photo resistance do I need, there are different resistances here, or it doesn't matter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Maik. I'm not exactly sure. I took mine from some bicycle LEDs that turn on when it's dark so I don't know what types they are. The dark resistance should be above 1 Mega Ohm if possible and when fully exposed to light as low resistance as possible. I don't know what else to tell you. Most LDR's will work fine I think.

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  2. Replies
    1. LOL, well I'm sorry I couldn't be more precise but you'll get it to work, no problem ^___^

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  3. Hello Eddy,
    I have a somewhat unusual question for you and I found this page on the Internet:
    https://www.mtileman.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=117339

    I was looking for the VCF74 filter, here on this Dutch website the module is offered at an exceptionally low price, normally the module costs € 240, what do you think?

    greetings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That site looks a bit sketchy. Really low prices and loads of template text in some pages.

      Let me know if they delivered to you. I am a bit fearful of ordering with them.

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  4. Replies
    1. Yes it looks like a bargain to me, High and Lowpass in one for 88 euros. I haven't heard of the VCF74 before but I don't think you can go wrong with that.

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  5. Hi Eddy,

    Thanks for sharing the schematic and stripboard layout. Loving Adam’s channel, so nice to see some of his work being shared here as well.


    Regards,

    Bas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes he does excellent work. I love his videos. He was really enthusiastic about me using his design too. Maybe, in the future, I'll write about some more of his projects.

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    2. What doe you recon I need to modify if I turn this into an eurorack compatible module?

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    3. You don't need to modify much I think. Only the 22K resistors. I'd replace those with 18K resistors to counteract the drop in voltage from 15V to 12V. But that's all. It will work on 12V as it is now too btw.

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  6. Hi.
    First of all thanks for this pile of info on your site.

    Could i replace the tl084 opamp. To a lm324 opamp chip?
    My small supplier has these. But doesn't sell the Tl chips.

    Kind regards!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I don't think that will be a problem. Usually you can use LM324 in place of TL084 or TL074 chips.

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  7. Hey Eddy, thanks for putting together this site as it's an awesome resource.

    Is there any particular reason for the varying pot values? Ex. Couldn't all of them be 10K as they all look to be voltage dividers and not variable resistors? I'm still a bit of a noob so might be wrong on that. Just trying to simplify the stock of pots I keep on hand!

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    Replies
    1. You could change the saturation pot for a 100K one but the dry/wet must be a 1M ohm pot,

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  8. Hey Eddy!
    Can it be that there is a small error in the schematic of this one?

    At the Amount CV IN (top left of the schematic) The resistor(2K2) is behind the LED of the vactrol.

    Kind regards!
    Shouldn't this one be before the LED?

    ALso, the amount cv level and saturation cv level are not on the schematic?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh it doesn't matter where you put the LED as long as it is in the current path of the LED. It's the current limiting resistor and works the same whether it's in front or behind the LED.
      BTW, the influence of the CV depends on how the Amount and/or Saturation potmeters are set too, so don't expect too much of an influence. This was afterall an experimental addition to the circuit.

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    2. Oh and you are right, the CV level controls are not in the schematic. I'll made a note of that in the text to avoid confusion. Again this is because it was put in as an after thought/experiment.

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    3. Ok.
      I thouht current limmiting resistors needed to be before the LED. So you don't burn the Led.

      Thanks! 👍

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    4. No it doesn'matter if they are before or aftere LED. They are in the same circuit so the current must go through the resistor either way. Position doesn't matter.

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  9. Hey, thanks for sharing all this and taking the time to explain things, greatly appreciated! I'd like to leave out the pots for the CV Ins and I'm wondering where to hook up the CV Ins. Should they be connected to both the right and middle pins of the Saturation/Amount pots or just the middle ones?

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    Replies
    1. If you want to leave out the Control Voltage level potmeters you need to connect the output from the socket straight to the 2K2 resistor in series with the diode of the Vactrol.

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    2. You can not hook up the CV in straight to the saturation/Amount potmeters without any Vactrols. The voltage from the CV INs needs to be converted to a resistance value for this to work.

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    3. Alright, I understand. I thanks for the fast answer!

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  10. Hi Eddy, thanks for you work. I've built this wavefolder and I really love its sound. I've also added control voltages to it using Xvive vactrols. However their impact on sound is weak even with sat/amt main pot turned down. There is any way to let them work harder? May be lowering 2.2k resistors?

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    Replies
    1. Hey, glad you like it. To get more effect from the Vactrols you might try connecting one leg of the LDR in the Vactrol to the grounded pin of the potmeter instead of the pin where the signal comes in. I have the same experience with he effectiveness of the Vactrols and they were added as an afterthought but maybe switching the connection works better.

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    2. Also you mentioned changing the 2K2 resistors. That could help too if you change it to, for instance, 1K. Maybe the LED shines a bit brighter then and make the resistance of the LDR a bit lower. You can try that too.

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