Anyone got a schematic for a ring modulator that DIVIDES?

[Test Electrix]

I want to make a ring mod that divides by the carrier signal to get low harmonics as opposed to high. I was gonna incorporate it in to an enclosure with a multiplying one so I can switch between. Cheers for any help on this

 

[Bitrex]

The simplest way to get an octave division effect is to first square up the incoming signal using schmitt trigger circuit, and then use a flip flop circuit to divide down down the signal. Then you could feed the output to a ring modulator - you could even put a simple PWM circuit before the ring modulator to control the pulse width of the signal going in. Instead of using one of those diode-transformer ring modulator circuits a simpler way might be to use an IC called a doubly-balanced modulator - they were originally designed to be used in radio circuits but if you feed your audio signal into one input and an oscillator signal into the other you get a great ring modulator sound. The MC1496 or LM596 are examples of this IC. I think DOD made an effects pedal called the "Gonkulator" that used a similar technique.

I'm not sure how "musical" such an effect would sound, but if you're after analog weirdness it's certainly an idea worth trying. 😀 Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.play-hookey.com/digital/frequency_dividers.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmitt_trigger

http://www.flashwebhost.com/tcvr/mc1496_dbm.php

 

[Test Electrix]

Woah cheers I'll get on getting my head round that I was thinking there was just some way of doing it analog and inverting the carrier signal before being put through a ring mod to make it go down cheers though

 

[unclejed613]

if you had a way of getting some 3rd harmonic, then locking a pll running at 1/2 that giving you a VCO running 1.5 times the input frequency, then put that into the ring mod, you'd get 1/2 your input frequency out (the difference frequencies between F and 1.5F would be 0.5F and 2F) and it would probably sound a bit weird, especially if the response time of the VCO is a bit slow.