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If you were to do a light-sensitive switch, you would probably want a photodiode instead of a solar cell. You would need a sensitivity pot to adjust for shit like stage lights as Big John suggested.

megathor wrote:If you were to do a light-sensitive switch, you would probably want a photodiode instead of a solar cell. You would need a sensitivity pot to adjust for shit like stage lights as Big John suggested.

Actually you would need a photoresistor to do it simply and passively. The only problem is you wouldn't get 100% swing from loud to soft. Maybe only 40 db or so. This might not be bad.

You would need some form of VCA and active electronics to use a solar cell (photovoltaic) or photo diode but you could get a full 70 or 80 dB of attenuation.

I always though a rubber bulb you could squeeze with the pinky of your right hand would be good for controlling effects. It could be loose or built into the end of a whammy bar. I haven't patented this yet but I did make all the proper notations for various versions of this about 20 years ago.

Maybe this would be fun

Solar dimming control

http://www.oldtemecula.com/theremin/opticalvolume.htm

Send the music over a cheap lazer pointer to solar cell. The music is traveling through the modulated lazer light.


http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/light.html

you could build a copy of a super hard on with a CdS cell and a low power biasing LED pointed at it. When you disrupt the light the resistance goes high and the mosfet transistor stops conducting. Constant bias volume level could be adjustable with a potentiometer in series with the CdS cell.

An enclosure that would be ideal will have the CdS cell slightly recessed. The LED will be fairly bright. You could just add a bracket to a normal hammond pedal, and you step inbetween the bracket and pedal to turn it up and down. A bright dispersive LED would be best, as it wouldn't be all or nothing.
Something like this should work:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... V-P8101-ND


Step in there
...V

|>_____|=|

^LED..^Pedal and CdS Cell. Cell and LED face each other.

You could shine something brighter than the LED at it for increased volume too.

You guys are starting to drift into the territory where "buy a volume pedal" accomplishes just about the same thing but much more easily.

true. I always wanted to try one of these:

Since this thread is mostly coming up with lots of ways to do the same thing, here's another one- get a volume pedal and put a comparator on the end.

Jonny Greenwood uses a switch like this in Paranoid Android. It's mounted to his guitar, but he hits it like
baa- ba ba ba - ba ba ba ba ba -ba - baaaa
While bending a note up at the same times, and it just kills me it's so cool.

I do it with two pick up guitars sometimes. Use the toggle switch for what the guitar player in that band Y&T used to call the "machine gun trick."
BTW, that's not a plug. If you don't know Y&T, you don't need to seek out their stuff. It's pretty horrible.

-A

i have kill switches in almost all my guitars. My favourite one is where i used an arcade button as the switch. it's really cool and very responsive. like playing musical asteroids

Benny wrote:It's simple:
- just a small pedal with only a footswitch
- you hold the switch on and it kills / mutes the signal
- stop holding it and the signal returns.

the idea is to use it as a fast foot-controlled tremolo of sorts. i think it could be interesting for rythmic effects.
is this feasible? bonus points if it can be done while being passive.

I do this with my tuner.