Atari Punk Console & Oscilloscope - Enlightenment by Waveforms

Ever wondered whats going on in an Atari Punk Console?

Yellow is the trigger on the first oscillator (pin 6 on a 556 chip), blue is the overall output going into the speaker. I would of liked to show the other oscillator too but I didn't have enough probe cables (and the scope has to go back to work tomorrow!).

Third knob and the floating wire is from the bent version on http://haha-fresh.blogspot.com/
I've added the button which puts a few dynamics on the square wave :-) I will put a full schematic on http://theadlab.blogspot.com/ soon(ish).

Hope you find this interesting. The case will be built in time.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Atari Punk Console
• Synth
• Square wave
• circuit bending
• oscilloscope
• glitch
• noise
• electronic music

[lolypopboy777]

How can i make a sine? :)

[TheAdLab]

@lolypopboy777 Hmm. You could create a filter from inductor and capacitor to smooth off the square edges. That would start to approximate a sine wave. I don't think you can do it easily with a 555 timer but I googled it and there are a few hacks out there.

[rofthorax]

Is there any reason to get a real oscilloscope, or is it better to use a software one.. BTW, I like the video, I'm always intrigued by electronics, took a digital electronics course, but lack the analog part. When you popped in that capacitor, I thought "wow I didn't know you could do stuff like that live"..

[TheAdLab]

I prefer hardware scopes as they tend to have higher resolution & less latency, plus you have a physical dials to twiddle, they can be pretty pricey - the 4 channel one in the video is about £800 (borrowed!) I haven't used a software scope in about 4 years though so maybe they've improved in that time?

With a simple circuit like this one it's very hard to break anything so swapping caps and other components over isn't a problem. Cheers for the synth tips though I've never used linux...

[Djmatrane]

pls scheme to pm ;)

[rofthorax]

I live in Los Alamos, which is where a national laboratory is, and from time to time I will see these old green oscilloscopes, I saw one at a thrift store, and vanished a week later.

Anyhow, as for linux, if you do decide to try Linux, get Ubuntu, it's what I use. I got Ubuntu Studio which is a version of Ubuntu that is being geared toward artists. It has a realtime kernel so you get practically zero latency on audio bound stuff. Plus tons of audio free apps with patch cord-like ability.

[rofthorax]

BTW, if you like linux.. Check out "Bristol" and "ZynAddSubFx". I got Jack running (check out my tutorials), you can connect up a midi synth and emulate a few old synths like Arps and Minimoogs.. There is even a SID emulation..

[peterdbennett]

NIce one Ad. Would like to see this played live - stick the whole thing through some delay and you'll be well away!