Wiring hassle before and after, using rather hi-tech building platform:
I have omitted some switches and plugs(right channel and effect loop), as they might not be necessary in testing phase. Lots of unshielded wires running around, so we'll see if the noise becomes a problem.
Currently I don't have enough shielded cable for all the wiring, so only audio plug wires are shielded.
Next I'm planning to draw and print some kind of gadget, that makes bending the IC legs hopefully easier. When the IC is new, the legs are usually spread out too much to be pressed to the socket.
Bending and aligning the legs one by one is just pain in the arse to do, especially, if there are more than one IC involved.
After that, I think it could be time press the IC's into the sockets. That is always preferably done only after all the soldering is done, but in this case, none of the IC's (4136 quad op-amps, 571 companders, and one single op-amp) are cmos-based, which could be very sensitive to static electricity.
As mentioned before, there is a mod, that clarifies the overall operation of this vocoder(buffering the input level pots). It adds even more wires, and althoug there are simple and clear instructions, first I have to get my head around, of how to connect it to the main circuitry.
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Warning: babbling ahead.
As usual, when building this kind of lengthy project, there are always times, when I think that "why bother, buy something commercial instead, that works right away".
One example of it is a stomp-box size Boss VO-1 Vocoder, under 200 euros, that seems to do all the tricks and even more(based on youtube videos about it).
I have a sneaky suspicion, that it(and also other ones in that price range) is based on dsp(digital signal processing) technology. So its behaviour is pre-programmed, and can hardly be altered.
What comes to commercial analog vocoders(stand-alone units, not the keyboard-embedded ones), they tend to be bloody expensive(if one can find/afford one these days). At least I would never dare to modify anything like that.
But again, this is about analog signal processing, as it has some... quite different aspects/dimensions in it.
Most lamest example, that I can think of, was back in the 90's, when I had a cheapo start-o-caster(my first guitar, now long gone), and Dunlop's Cry Baby wah pedal. Yes, expected sounds were there.
For some unknown reason, I decided to connect the cables in reverse/backwards to the wah pedal. Of course, there was no direct guitar output, but instead bird-like sounds, depending of the guitars volume/tone settings/wah pedal position.
That very same effect can be heard on one of the Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland track. I don't claim to have enough intelligence/creativity to find that effect; it was pure coincidence.