[74hc595] just finished his entry in the 7400 logic contest. It’s a drum machine built entirely from 7400-series logic chips. He hasn’t quite reached full completion of the project yet. The hardware works just fine, and he’s built a foam core face plate with many more controls than you see here but much of the circuit is still on a breadboard at this point and only two of the channels have been complete thus far.
Jump to the video clip after the break to get the details of how the system works and to hear it in action. This demonstration is one of the best we’ve seen for a synthesizer project as he actually talks about what each control does, and how that is accomplished with the hardware. We’re not going to go into detail about the circuitry he’s designed. As we said before, it uses 7400 logic but also sources a 555 timer to keep the beat. The page linked above has a PDF of the schematic available and you could really lose a lot of time studying how he did this. We might even try to build it in a simulator to see what we can learn.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsSKh7Z2EVs&w=470]
Impressive already, and with 4 channels will sound so even more.
very impressive
i like the sound of it a lot
Love the sound it makes and the build.
Reminds me a lot of retro games
Very nice.
I’d like to see DIN sync (and maybe also MIDI sync) for this, so you can jam together with other machines :-)
Damn…
Roland called. They want to hire you.
cool
this creation will put me in a trance, i do not need a biofeedback machine.
SO intense.
I wonder if Digikey has a grab-bag of like 5 of every 7400 chip…
Very nice.
Is he selling these? He could EASILY kickstart this and make some money.
Especially if the system sold was modular – buy sound generators for each channel (and they don’t have to be “drum”; they could be “bass machine” type); the sequencer; etc.
What would be a good software package to simulate stuff like this in?
Awesome project :)
A gameboy emulator :P atleast for the sound part. It works about the same as a gameboy.
And then there is SFXR to simulate sounds generated like this: http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html
Or, if you want to simulate logic, there are quite a few options. From free to expensive.
Thanks guys! (I’m the creator)
Turning it into a kit would be a very cool idea–especially as a modular system–but I’d use an AVR for the sequencer. Some of the parts (esp. the 74C922 and 74LS189) are prohibitively expensive and not available in quantity. If I made a nice case with slots for plug-in modules it could be sweet.
I couldn’t find any simulation software up to the task, I just built it on the fly using datasheets and a logic analyzer. Logisim is promising, but doesn’t supoort the full line of 74xx chips, and seems buggy. I used Paul Falstad’s circuit applet to design and simulate the sound generator though, that worked pretty well.
Very inspiring work! Being an Arduino guy this boggles my mind, but i guess that’s why these competitions exist – to remind us what can be done with more basic IC’s?
Good work!
Hey, can you link to the Falstad circuit you used for the sound generation? I’m interested in waveform shaping and think it’d be pretty interesting.
Thanks!
very nice
Really nice project. This is what I thought of when I saw the contest. Basically a little Subtractor drum synth from Reason.
I like this the best of any I have seen so far simply because of the fact the end product is actually a nice useful piece of equipment.
Wow, can’t wait to see with in action with all four channels…
Man… this would make the most badass asteroid music
Love it man hope you win
omg, 3:15 seconds, those sound like some old firing noises when you play games like 1943 on nes or afterburner on sega :D
Add midi and you have a cult instrument :)
This IS the Winner !!! (nolo contendere)
Incredible! Consider adding a good resonant filter to make it complete :)
Awesome
thats the sort of drum machine i’ve been wanting for a while