Cheapest Guitar Reverb? $2.33 AliExpress Reverb/Echo/Delay circuit board!
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
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In this Action-Packed video, I wire up, demo and review what may very well be; The World's Cheapest Reverb Unit!
It's actually even cheaper than mentioned in the video. So, you too can add this modern manufacturing marvel to your collection of "Grade A" gear, by clicking here: www.aliexpress...
All kidding aside, this was a fun project, and if you're a musician on the cheap, like me, there is no shame in buying what you can, until you can buy something better! This is also a great project if you're interested in learning about electronics and want to try your hand at soldering.
The PT2399 IC can be purchased for even cheaper, and there are schematics/diagrams available online (via a quick google) if you're interested in wiring up a PCB or breadboard from scratch.
Thanks for watching. :)
Price is now 2.56. That's an outrageous bait and switch.
Just kidding of course, this looks perfect for some mini diy synth projects, breadboard experiments, etc. Thanks
A hint to all the users below. This device has a low impedance input. So when you go with your guitar in this device the signal of the guitar will be smaller and less high freq. It is nessecary to make a JFet input buffer at the input. Then it works very good.
you could use a buffered pedal in bypass mode - in a pinch .
If my guitar output already is low impedance (due to an on-board distortion preamp) would it be unnecessary to add the Jfet?
I bought that board a few years back, but didn’t know about that mod to adjust the delay signal. Thanks for sharing!
Just got a second reverb board, will try to connect parallel. I also try with reverb and tremolo parallel, works very well and gives a wide range of nice effects. Tremolo I designed by myself and works great without ticking noise, I will make this design later available on UA-cam with schematics and pcb layout for toner transfer.
You don't seem to have done it by now tho?
I think that hiss is caused by trying to push a pt2399 into the 600ms range, Might be remedied with a specific type of POT. Might be some other stuff going as well but Im pretty sure thats one reason.
So at this point I bought a bunch of these, and made one with just it's original pot, and no buffer, and then I have a couple like you did with a buffer (and these people are right it helps, also pedalpcb has a really cheap non powered fet buffer pcb that's super easy to build). There is a few modifications you can do and some channel called robs mods also covered this. The idea was neat and lead me down a path of repurposing stuff for pedals. I'm making 3 or 4 different fuzzes based around a lm 386 chips you can buy on a pre-assembled board just like this but it's even cheaper than these karaoke echos. I also made a pedal out of an artec 5 distortion knob meant to be installed in guitars, a voice changer diy kit, and I made a lofi looper sampler. I also took a diy Haynes synth and added stuff around it and started making video mixers, and other weird things because one day I came across 3 videos and one of them is this one. I keep coming back hoping there is an update or something new to learn, and I can't blame you for having a life and not going back to this, but man I hope you do. I have 2 dsp effects things I bought off of ali I hoping someone makes a pedal out of and I can see that and make it work.
You made a very informative video,and it was unintentionally inspiring for me, and you seem like a chill man, who makes quality content. The quality of the video as far as picture quality and aesthetics are nice as well.
Madz, thank you for the compliment - What you are building sounds amazing! I'm looking forward to checking out your videos. I was hoping to do a simple synth build, but just don't have the time. And I still want to build a basic reverb tank. The DIY video mixer would be an amazing project as well... there's so much fun just waiting to be explored with electronics!
I wouldn't be so quick to judge this board as sounding because it is cheap, you'd be surprised how many pedals the PT2399 shows up in.
I have made guitar pedals but after discovering Ali Express I find it cheaper to just buy the pedals. Often they are modified clones of famous circuits and are better than the original. I am building a Boost distortion fuzz at the moment from Ali Express parts. Lm386 chip for 50c is impressive. Thank for the video I may build your pedal ❤
I received my board yesterday and build today in a metal case, it works great. Now I will solve the problem of popping sound, will let it know after succeeded.
Excellent!
Uuh I really liked your video, I could listen to you all day. You are explaining everything so calm and methodologically, this is how youtube videos should be and it is a welcomed contrast to other youtubers. It is really nice that you are showing variations of the different parameters and the quality of the recording is so good that we can hear it too. I also thought … huh someone likes to show us they can play guitar ;P
There are many guitar pedals based on the PT2399 … so it would be interesting if there are other boards which are not for karaoke that would make decent pedals. A buffered pedal would probably increase sound quality.
Thank you! One of the challenges of being a musician in a world of underpaid musicians is using every opportunity to show that I play! :) I found a bunch of effects pcb boards online a while back, that I need to find again. One had 100 or so different effects on it that would be amazing to demo - just to see if they could sound good! I also purchased about 20 individual pt2399 ICs, that I had hoped to use on my own board - honestly there is so much fun to be had with electronics - just so little time. There are specs all over the internet - if your interested: you can even by prototyping pcb boards (green or blue with solderable holes in them), electronics courses at a local college might be calling our names! Learning about resistors, diodes, transistors and OP AMPS! Like I said in the video, this was powered by the adapter from an old phone. Thank you for reminding me about these interests, and thank you for watching!
Excellent, I order by aliexpress the same board a few weeks ago. Still waiting to receive, but as soon as I get it, I will try it out. By the way because the circuit is not shielded in a metal box you will always get some fuzz. Thanks very much for sharing.
The 'fuzz' is the degradation of the signal and is part of the chipset's stock behavior (or you've got grounding / shielding needs - and we can see you've no shielding).
This is a "digital" chipset, but it's really more a hybrid, as the digital part is ONLY used to create the delay. It just stores sound for a while, then sends it back into the signal path. The rest of the chipset is analog op-amps, mostly used for buffering, splitting, filtering, de-aliasing, and combining the signals, just like in a classic BBD delay.
When you increase the delay time on the chipset, that means the digital memory has to store more info, and the quality degrades. Limited memory means if you store only 30ms of sound you can get pretty much full clarity, like a high-def picture, but when you stretch that out to the default max delay time, the quality of the sound is degraded in order for it to store that much data (sample rate drops).
A BB delay degrades due to the components, the PT2399 degrades due to the way the memory is stored. I believe, but am not sure, that it's controlled by the clock. I know longer delay times equate to lower sample rates and thus signal degradation, I'm just not sure if setting the clock time influences the sample rate directly. Regardless, the degradation of the signal with a PT2399 is far less noisy than with a BBD. Most 'noisy' delays using the PT2399 are due to grounding issues, not the chip, or things being done outside the chip (e.g. adding modulation to the delay).
In a true digital delay processor, the signal gets converted to digital, EVERYthing is processed by DSP in the digital realm (EQing, filtering, splitting, delaying, filtering, modulations, combining, etc), and then the signal's converted back to analog. In the PT2399, the A2D and D2A only surround the delay action, and all else is outside the A2D - D2A section.
So, these chips do really well at two things: Creating nice slap back, where delay time is short so you maintain clarity of the signal via high sample rate, or creating a cool lo-fi 'bitulated' delay at longer times via low sample rate.
The Wampler Doctor and Faux Tape Echo both make use of this chip, as do MANY others. The Doctor is wonderful due to the way Brian's worked with the chipset. The chipset has options for the designer to override various default values (like the resistance in op-amp feedback loops). In your low-end delays (like the Rogue/Belcat/Hofner/Modtone 'Analog Delay' pedals), the thing is used pretty much stock. I love my Rogue, btw - excellent for vintage sounding BBD delay emulation and slapback - partially because the min 30ms delay time is great value for slapback - I don't have to fiddle with the delay time knob, I can just turn it fully CCW.
BTW, regarding shielding the board, don't forget star-grounding is best - don't attach the negative from the input AND output jack both to the chassis, only attach one of them. Attaching them both to the enclosure creates one huge ground loop, which then catches 'EM noise' from the environment.
you are cool as hell man! thanks for the demo
Haha! I sometimes think I've spent most of my life in a fridge. that's just life in Canada ; ) You're very welcome!
Pity about the mindless background music. Good video on a great board. I built an FX box based on this board. Echo/reverb, tremolo and vibrato. Modulating the speed with a Digispark LFO sine wave gives true vibrato.
Similar with square wave for tremolo.
Mindless background music? LOL! Thank you for your worthless perspective. ;) let me guess: boomer stooge.
Don't worry though, I'll promote your wisdom worldwide. ;)
Are you a rainbow flag waver? Lol! Napoleon loves you....
Very nice
Very good idea Man
Reverb 8:31 - 8:47
Which part controls the repeats?; I will put a pot on that also.
High milliamps is clearer on this chip than a battery, but, I think the degradation sound warmer on a battery, on the 2399 type delays.
Also; I wanted to see how you removed that "surface mount"'resistor; because, it has no legs through the board:
Do I just heat the entire component?
Also I saw someone mentioning adding a resistor and cap to the leg of the chip, with a pot, or switch, to add a chorusing, or "modulation" to the repeat.
Thankyou for sharing!
This is some great information! I think heating the whole resistor is fine for these, assuming you won't want to use them again anyway. It's been a while since I put this together, so I don't remember the pot controls atm. I'm looking forward to playing around with some boards like this again sometime!
cool!
What you used as power supply for the kit? A battery or Linear Transformer based power supply. SMPS is maybe noisy.
I think it may have been an SMPS! I salvaged it from an old cordless phone base station, and it seems that quite a few of those are SMPS, rather than linear (I didn't even know there were different kinds!). I'm hoping to experiment with some DIY synth modules, and small effects circuits in the future so I will certainly keep this in mind when thinking about a power source. Thank you for the tip!
I have the same AE reverb and I must say I can not hear any fuzz in my signal. Why? Because I connected my guitar strait in the delay unit and after that to my amp. What you do is from your guitar into de American sound amp modeler, with the level almost on max, and after that into the delay unit. No wonder you get fuzz because the signal strength is much to high, so the delay unit clips. Just try it the other way.
Frans, it is so obvious to me now! It is far too easy to forget that the signal chain is different when plugging into an amp simulator before plugging into the computer. Thank you!
@@corytoddmusic I have about 5 of these installed in tube amps. These pcb boards need def. a buffer circuit on the input! The board is low impedance and do not match with a guitar pickup. Just a simple JFet buffer will do and give the device no signal loss at all. This is a great reverboard and very easy to mod. I mod them in the way that no electronics are in the signal chain, only a resistor of 22k, added a repeat and speed control. Great stuff and now for ca 0,8 dollar on Alie. Unbelievable.
Os not necessary an oamp IC?
Not sure if you mean Op Amp IC? or Guitar Amp? I'm just using the reverb IC board in my signal chain, without an OP Amp.
do u have schematic?
I believe the schematic for this was based on the princeton pt2399 IC suggestions, which can be found here (but I'm new to circuits so I'm not entirely sure): diyaudiocircuits.com/pt2399-digital-delay-analog-echo/
this is what i ordered to try to use on an electric guitar,
shopee.ph/product/135511180/2361185130?smtt=0.80193808-1626273424.9
wasn't so sure if it's gonna work fine. i will be adding this to my diy amp speakers so i can use a mic and electric guitar.
Stereo output as well! It looks like you may need to add the input jack yourself, unless you're routing the audio signal inside the amp. I think these are great little boards!