Greetings!
I recently came upon this 8-bit wavetable oscillator chip and it seems like it would be a lot easier to use than the CEM3340 for me (I don’t really understand negative voltages and the pins seem simpler.)
Here is the pinout of the chip:
I do, however, have a super noob questions.
A lot of the pins on the chip have quite similar names. In general, what is the difference between “Control” pins and “CV” pins? What about “Input” pins?
Finally, is this diagram all i need to make a circuit out of this chip? WIll the chip be as plug-and-play as it seems, or will i need to do some extra things besides hooking in pitch cv and main osc out and some controls for other CV pins?
I assume you didn’t look at the schematics in the datasheet? It’s three pages, with lots of components (including ten opamps and a negative supply rail). Some of it can be simplified, but you won’t get around the need for output filters and input level scaling since the oscillator is a 5 V chip with PWM outputs. Definitely doesn’t look like an easier build to me.
CTRL vs CV appears to be mostly if it’s intended to be used via a knob or an external CV input.
You still need the same +12/-12v’s (or something similar). Because it also needs -5v for almost all control voltages… So you need 2 voltage regulators 79l05 and 78l05. 5 standing for 5 v’s. 79 for negative. 78 for positive.
If easy is the way to go. Go with the 3340. (Also working from a known working stripboard layout, is less prone to mistakes than making one from schematics.)
Really the 3340 isn’t too difficult.
If you do want easier. You can always go with a 555 timer oscillator… Or something similar. (It won’t be 1v/octave though.)
It really isnt as bad as it looks, its paint by numbers for the most part. Of course always feel free to ask questions, and dont despair if it doesnt work. We will get you up n running.
definitely worth a mess around!!! got one on the breadboard atm! trying a few things. the freq control can be turned into an octave input really easily with 5 10k resistors as a ladder without any trimming which is good :D. was sort of hoping one of the unused digital outputs had a trigger output on every repeat of the oscillator for a tuner to listen to reliably but sadly not. However its extremely stable so not really needed. proper cool code! going to be using it as the basis for a simple modular polyphonic synth voice.
Would people be interested in an arduino nano similar to this?
I’m neck deep in an analog drum machine project at the moment, so I wont commit to anything. It would be based off the beep labs nebulophone source code.
