MAKE Weekend Projects – Optical Tremolo Box

Mark Frauenfelder 6:16 pm Thu Aug 23, 2012

[Video Link] Check out Charles Platt's cool Weekend Project for MAKE: an optical tremolo box. Built by MAKE's tech editor, Sean Michael Ragan.

Inspired by Charles Platt's "Stomp Box Basics" article (MAKE Volume 15, page 82), follow along as we build this Optical Tremolo Box, which reads a patterned disk with a light sensor to create a warbling audio effect (tremolo).

For this project, MAKE Technical Editor Sean Ragan used a cadmium sulfide photoresistor to provide us with our light sensor – a component we have used in previous Weekend Projects. Not only does it look cool and sound great, but once you've made the project, you can customize it by making your own effects disks!

Complete instructions for this episode of Weekend Projects

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