Bug Zapper

How it's made

Source

an insect bridges a charged mesh. A pinned spark recipe supplies the first gap breakdown; a separate 120 Hz pulsed noise/current layer models continued conduction through the contact.

Body

weak mesh modes at 920, 2370 and 4180 Hz decay in 35-85 ms, excited by a 2 ms noise kick. The body stays below the electrical crack; no room response or exaggerated bass is added.

Events

10-30 irregular 1-5 ms micro-arcs become weaker and sparser over a 0.27-0.66 s cooling tail. Fine high-passed impulses and filtered noise fill the gaps without an unbroken pure hiss.

Spectrum

the initial crack is broad; the sizzle cutoff falls from 6-10 kHz to 2.3 kHz as it dies. A restrained 120 Hz harmonic buzz lasts 0.08-0.35 s, with seeded frequency and amplitude flutter.

Envelope

breakdown at time zero, current rises in 1 ms, then collapses; residue peaks at 18 ms and fades by 0.4-0.8 s. Every layer has a tapered ending and the complete output is DC-blocked.

Variation

seeded micro-arc timing, strength and bandwidth; contact controls buzz duration, cooling controls residue length, brightness sets bandwidth, current sets buzz, mesh sets body. Presets cover a small mesh tick, a standard grid strike, a sustained contact and dry residue.

The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.