Posting another ISD1820 sampler here, as I managed to cram everything into a really tiny box (including a battery), by using pin strips and sandwiching boards.
What I learned:
Sandwiching boards was perfect as I could make all input / output / control connections and continuity check them separately, then leave them and work on different changes on the sampler board (normally cables tend to break when assembling / disassembling / debugging).
Sandwiching also meant I could place boards across the box and worry less about connecting cables getting in the way when closing it.
It runs on 9V battery/adapter in via a 3.3 stabilizer. As it runs on 3.3 V I also use a CD4069 CMOS hex inverter as a summing amplifier (as e.g. Lauri does).
• Another trick to a tight fit was using finer gauge wiring and mount everything a bit tidier than usual… (ribbon cable wiring from a junked harddrive worked fine).
• Small box (c.f. cat’s head)
• Sandwiching the sampler board:
… and the input/output/control-connections board:
Inspiration from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epjCe3o5BPA by Lauri, https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/looper-sampler-isd1820-lo-fi/868 by Dud (with loads of very good replies posting alternative versions, including discussion of the “clicking”*).
More build pics (including shorts of excellent drilling help by J. Lindengren)
The ISD1820 is SUPERB for EXTREME pitching, and a 100K pot will still give you very good tuning control.
Here, I pitched church bells down very very low and slowly brought them up (I’ve found no commercially available sampler/looper pedal with quite that range):
Flea Market Cathedral
((sample “Centre-Val de Loire » Bells cathedral”) courtesy of Arnaud Coutancier
- as for the clicking, I noticed you could somewhat lower the clicking noise by recording via line in at higher levels.
