MaBell 6-5k

[hohumbucker]

My first time trying to make anything foot activated that fits in an effects box. A bit different than the guitar effects you all are building, but thought you might find this interesting. I am using pedal as an excuse to learn microelectronics and circuitry (and other associated skills like soldering). Been enjoyable so far.

For those of you who know the old big band tune Pennsylvania 6-5000, you will remember that at several parts during the song there is a short break for a ringing telephone. Well, in the 20+ years I have been playing in my current big band, we have always just had the drummer ting the crown of his cymbal. I thought that perhaps my introduction to pedal making could be to make an effects pedal that would make the phone ring at the right points in the song.

Used an Adafruit FX Sound Board, loaded a nice ring sound I found online, and started breadboarding. Once I go the circuit to work, I then went to packaging. I tried to do a waterslide decal on the top of a white box. It was not too bad for my first effort, but not pro by any stretch. I then coated the entire box with poly-acrylic. It is not super pretty, but I am not dissatisfied.

There is a slight delay from the button activation to the bell ringing. I will have to be about 1/2 beat ahead to get the ring to come in the right spot of the song. Looking forward to trying it out live in a couple weeks. If This is not the appropriate place for this, let me know and I will take it down.

Sound file is posted here

 

[giovanni]

I’m surprised you have a delay, why is that?

 

[hohumbucker]

I’m surprised you have a delay, why is that?

The Adafruit board will not trigger the output until the button has been pressed for ~125ms. The sound file itself has about 80ms of lead in and ramp up time before the bell fully rings. So ~200ms before the full bell sounds. Pennsylvania 6-5000 tempo is about 140bpm (or ~425ms per beat). Which means I need to be about 1/2 a beat early. Actually if it was not some easy fraction like 1/2 beat that I am already used to counting or subdividing, it would be harder to activate on time. I have practiced with the recording and think I have it down.

 

[giovanni]

Can you not modify the code to remove the delay? And cut the sample so it doesn’t have too much lead in?

 

[giovanni]

Just looked it up and realized it’s not programmable! Bummer.

 

[giovanni]

In case your file is OGG format the delay is longer. WAV format has a shorter delay.

Anyways, cool project! I am also in a big band but I don’t know that song. Gotta check it out.

 

[hohumbucker]

In case your file is OGG format the delay is longer. WAV format has a shorter delay.

Anyways, cool project! I am also in a big band but I don’t know that song. Gotta check it out.

I am using .wav file, so have a shorter delay than the .ogg file. The ramp up time does actually work in my advantage since the entire delay does make it an easily subdividable beat so I can trigger it as I play.

This is one of the classic songs from the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1940. A real standard.

 

[Diynot]

That’s a cool little project! Although we are mostly a guitar/bass bunch, there are def some non guitar pedal projects that pop up from time to time. I am extremely analog so I don’t have any personal experience with it, but you might want to check out the terrarium/daisy seed project:

https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/pcb351/

What do you play?

 

[Robert]

That is cool!

When I saw MaBell I thought it was going to be a blue box. Not the MXR pedal, but an actual blue box. (alt.2600)

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Very cool! I’ve been toying with doing something similar for sound effects using a sparkfun WAV trigger board, but I’ll have to check out this one since it’s a more compact board.

 

[hohumbucker]

That’s a cool little project! Although we are mostly a guitar/bass bunch, there are def some non guitar pedal projects that pop up from time to time. I am extremely analog so I don’t have any personal experience with it, but you might want to check out the terrarium/daisy seed project:

https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/pcb351/

What do you play?

I will take a look at the Daisy, but I think that is waayyyy ahead of my skill and need right now. Thanks for the link though.

I am a 45+ year woodwind player who has become a big fan of The Warning and was inspired by their young bass player Alejandra Villarreal to buy and start learning bass (I have a couple short scales and a bass uke). I firstbought a Peterson strobe tuner pedal and have been playing around with some other pedals since while I learn bass. I also have a mic preamp so that I can play with effects pedals on my saxes and clarinets. That has been a real hoot for sure.

I am also a mechanical engineer who in retirement decided to learn microelectronics and circuits. Figured that I could combine the guitar and circuit learning by figuring out how to make pedals. So here I am.

 

[hohumbucker]

Very cool! I’ve been toying with doing something similar for sound effects using a sparkfun WAV trigger board, but I’ll have to check out this one since it’s a more compact board.

The board is quite easy to learn and use.
I first heard about it in one of Mark Rober's videos. There are also a lot of folks who use them for Halloween and cosplay sound effects.

Courtesy Honk Car Horn

www.markroberbuildinstructions.com

 

[Diynot]

Welcome aboard!

 

[hohumbucker]

Welcome aboard!

aboard -- a board? PCboard? breadboard? I see what you did there LOL

Thanks so much.
I bought the Aion Halo (Big Muff) full kit which will be next up on the workbench. I think I might be more excited to run my bari sax through this than my bass guitar.

 

[Feral Feline]

Don't forget to tape the session (audio and or video) and play it back to us here, SVP!

BTW, Great avatar-name!

 

[Feral Feline]

Got a good example of a big band version with the phone? I'm only familiar with this version and the piano-tinkling plays the part of the phone ringing:

PS: Sorry, but your pedal has sparked renewed interest in making a pedal that has through-signal for an instrument, where the effect (telephone or whatever is loaded into the sampler) can be toggled to either run in parallel with the instrument signal or can cut out the instrument while the sample runs (or just lower the volume of the instrument...)...

I know nothing about Adaraspberryduinofruitpi, but would like to build a pedal like yours — also want to power it from a 9v PSU — please tell us more about the electronics part of your build?

 

[hohumbucker]

 

[hohumbucker]

 

[Feral Feline]

I like those versions you posted better, especially the shout-out aspect.


I see you've already answered some of my questions prior to my asking them; If my posts seem convoluted at the moment... For some reason this thread was hiding most of the replies from me and I didn't see anything initially but the OP and 2-3 replies — twas different than the usual people posting stuff while I compose a missive. I don't think it's the website's problem, but my browser's — I think I need to empty my browser cache, close some windows/tabs and start afresh... ennywheyyyyy


Never played "Pennsylvania 6-5000"; will suggest it to my band when we reconvene in the fall. The conductor likes to bring a bicycle-bell and ring it for the "Happy Cyclist", and other goofy gadgets for other tunes — so this one may be a good fit, bonus if I can bring a working telephone-ringer-contraption (we only ever play acoustically, never mic'd).

Suggestion for your Halo build, since you'll be using it for Bari-Sax/Bass and maybe even for guitar...

Keep the clipping caps (C6, C9 Halo Doc) small, Russian values of 47nF;​

Keep the feedback filter caps (C5, C8 Halo Doc) large, 560pF or even 620pF.​

That will help retain some low-end.

 

[hohumbucker]

I like those versions you posted better, especially the shout-out aspect.


I see you've already answered some of my questions prior to my asking them; If my posts seem convoluted at the moment... For some reason this thread was hiding most of the replies from me and I didn't see anything initially but the OP and 2-3 replies — twas different than the usual people posting stuff while I compose a missive. I don't think it's the website's problem, but my browser's — I think I need to empty my browser cache, close some windows/tabs and start afresh... ennywheyyyyy


Never played "Pennsylvania 6-5000"; will suggest it to my band when we reconvene in the fall. The conductor likes to bring a bicycle-bell and ring it for the "Happy Cyclist", and other goofy gadgets for other tunes — so this one may be a good fit, bonus if I can bring a working telephone-ringer-contraption (we only ever play acoustically, never mic'd).

Suggestion for your Halo build, since you'll be using it for Bari-Sax/Bass and maybe even for guitar...

Keep the clipping caps (C6, C9 Halo Doc) small, Russian values of 47nF;​

Keep the feedback filter caps (C5, C8 Halo Doc) large, 560pF or even 620pF.​

That will help retain some low-end.

Thanks for the feedback on the Halo. I was already looking at the Russian mod and having C6 and C8 at 47n. I did not look at C5 and C8, but I will see what other caps I have in my inventory and may simply put sockets in so that I can play with values there.

The Adafruit board need 3.5-5v. That is why I went with 3-AAs rather than 9V. The AAs take up a lot more space, and I would have preferred 9v. But I admit that I don't know how to easily go from 9v to 4.5v at this point in my tinkering. I think a bicycle bell is a step above the cymbal crown for sure. Not sure if I am smart enough to answer your other questions about parallel instrument paths. But here is a simple circuit diagram of what I built. Hope that helps answer your question.

BTW, we only have a PA system for our vocalists and for announcements. The band is entirely acoustic.