OK guys,
I'm halfway through my suit build and I wanted to add a sound system. Not for music or general sounds, but for voice distortion.
What I wanted was a slightly metallic / robotic / radio voice. Something similar to a Star Wars Trooper helmet voice. Oh and being skint there was no way I was spending the $400 for the Darth Vader one! I also didn't want to pay for a kit. This thing has to be ultra cheap!
However, anyone who has seen my work will know that I don't want it to be crap either!
Seems that not many people on this site have tackled this in any great detail. So here are my thoughts, please feel free to jump in with yours too.
My thinking is to mount a car phone microphone in the front of the helm, speakers in the chest and bob's you aunties live in lover!
First thing then is to make a mic pre-amp, easy to find working circuits for this:
This circuit will work with both dynamic and electret microphones
The BC547 and the 2N3904 could be swapped for any amplifying / switching small signal NPN transistor. I have a bunch of 2N222A transistors so I'll try those.
Next we need a voice distortion circuit that actually works! - loads on the net that are crap, but this one is a little gem. I've seen it working and it's great. The voice is easily recognisable with words being clear whilst there is enough distortion to make a difference.
Then all we would need are an amp and speakers. This is causing me a few problems. When I saw the voice distorter working it was being run through amplified computer speakers. I think we need to be able to drive at least 4W into an 8ohm speaker to get decent volume, but all the amps I found (bar one) needed a 12 - 18V source to drive them.
I did find a 10W amp that runs off a 9V battery, but the circuit is very old (from a 1980's electronics mag) so I will need to redraw the schematic and see if all the components are still available and if alternates are available instead.
Once I've built the voice distorter I will post an update.
I'm halfway through my suit build and I wanted to add a sound system. Not for music or general sounds, but for voice distortion.
What I wanted was a slightly metallic / robotic / radio voice. Something similar to a Star Wars Trooper helmet voice. Oh and being skint there was no way I was spending the $400 for the Darth Vader one! I also didn't want to pay for a kit. This thing has to be ultra cheap!
However, anyone who has seen my work will know that I don't want it to be crap either!
Seems that not many people on this site have tackled this in any great detail. So here are my thoughts, please feel free to jump in with yours too.
My thinking is to mount a car phone microphone in the front of the helm, speakers in the chest and bob's you aunties live in lover!
First thing then is to make a mic pre-amp, easy to find working circuits for this:
This circuit will work with both dynamic and electret microphones
The BC547 and the 2N3904 could be swapped for any amplifying / switching small signal NPN transistor. I have a bunch of 2N222A transistors so I'll try those.
Next we need a voice distortion circuit that actually works! - loads on the net that are crap, but this one is a little gem. I've seen it working and it's great. The voice is easily recognisable with words being clear whilst there is enough distortion to make a difference.
Then all we would need are an amp and speakers. This is causing me a few problems. When I saw the voice distorter working it was being run through amplified computer speakers. I think we need to be able to drive at least 4W into an 8ohm speaker to get decent volume, but all the amps I found (bar one) needed a 12 - 18V source to drive them.
I did find a 10W amp that runs off a 9V battery, but the circuit is very old (from a 1980's electronics mag) so I will need to redraw the schematic and see if all the components are still available and if alternates are available instead.
Once I've built the voice distorter I will post an update.