After SITS oscillator, let’s try making combining some oscillators into one sound output. There’s many ways for us to build a lo-fi instruments from cheap electronics part that we can easily find in the nearest electronic store on our town. For an example is the Quad 2-input NAND gate CD4093 (Integrated Circuit / IC) which is only about Rp. 2000,-. Like the name, this IC have 4 nand gate which each of the gate can be easily transform as an oscillator. The oscillator will produce square wave sound as Nandgate produce binary signals as the output. There are many tutorials about using this IC, my personal favorite is micro-noise from Swiss Mechatronic Art Society (SGMK) and this simple 4 block Quad Oscillator from Flux monkey which I highly recommend for those of you would like to learn basic understanding on oscillators. In this post, I’m sharing the Quad osc that I modified from flux monkey along with schematics, PCB layout and print in EagleCAD files. Check the video above to see how it sounds. :)
Schematic
Part List:
- CD4093 IC
- 4 Potentiometer (R1-R4), I used 10K, 20K, 50K and 100K
- Resistor 600 ohm
- Capacitors (C1-C5), I used 10uF, 2.2uF, 0.1 uF, 0.01 uF and 1uF. Try different value and type of capacitor will result different sound (the higher the value, the lower sound the oscillator will produced)
- 3.5 mini audio jack
- 9V Battery Clip
- Switch On/Off
- LED
Board Layout
PCB Print
4093 pinout
Picture
EagleCAD files:
Quad Oscillator 4093 Schematic [>>download<<]
Quad Oscillator 4093 Board [>>download<<]
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Hi, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog site in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Other then that, wonderful blog!
thanks!
IDK why, maybe IE is just sucks. hahah.
I didn’t do anything, I used the basic wordpress setup. :)
hey, great tutorial. i’m about to build such a little thingy. just two questions: are you using linear or logarythmic pots? and can i really use any kind of value, as far as the capacitors are concerned? i would like to have a rather low, dronelike sound.
cheers!
thanks! i’m using a linear pot because i don’t have log pots here in indonesia :( but log pots definitely better for the circuit. and yes you can use any kind of value of capacitor, i definitely recommend you to experiment to get the frequency you desire off. just remember that bigger capacitor value will result lower frequency. and in the case of sound circuit, you might want to avoid using ceramic capacitor (for high frequency) as their characteristic is not very suitable for sound signal. hope this help :)
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what is the function of 4093 ic plz expline me
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This is awesome! Space sounds synthesizer music from the 70’s! I am going to build one…
Hi, years ago I built one of these and it works great! Now I would like to turn it into a modular oscillator. Do you think there is any way to include a CV input?
yes, changed the 9V to CV to the input of pin 1 4093. it won’t be 1V/octave though. that’s the easiest way.
Looks good. Thanks for it!
Is the capacitors are polarised? in the schematics it seems they aren’t
you can use polarised too, just put the negative side to the ground direction of the schematic and you’re set to go.