More testing new drives..

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Well besides working on my normal stuff with soldering our various products, I always takes a few moments almost everyday to develope or try different options, I belive in trying out stuff bigtime, putting together normal stuff in various setups for a different view on it, sometimes it sucks majorly, other times I get pleasently surprised, this one was alittle tricky as it did not show me from the first moment where it could go, so I dug around in filterings and different diodes or stuff that I can use in same manner as a diode, all the sudden this thing came out of it, I played alittle and realised that I had a very American sounding drive here, hehe so I did a few more tweaks, and stuck to low/middle gain territory, I'll try a more highgain setup next week.
HW-1 strat, and this time it is not dry
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/song...songID=3889827

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Very nice. Sounds like it cleans up really nice rolling the guitar volume back.
What kind of power supply? The usual 18v?

Some days I wish you were local where we could sit and fiddle with circuits a few times a week. I could learn a lot from you.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

Thanks, it is our usual +-12v, good swing with about 25v.
Gives that 3d sound I like in amps
Yeah it would be fun
Then we should dig up Thomas our production chief, he has all kinds of good fun ideas.
He is good at giving input and using different stuff for normal stuff, thus turning it into something new.

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

It just floors me sometimes and how big and thick some of the stuff sounds. I know the added headroom with the increased voltage has something to do with it. I might try that with a couple of my circuits. Just need to find a good regulated 12-18v supply. The Radio Shack stuff sucks.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

Yeah it helps, but I like the +- circuits the best, loads of room to deal with, and that absense of "it feels like a pedal".
Some do not like it as it is not as compressed and murky as normal pedals can be, some do get it and that is nice, but it is ok we are a niche operation

[Kommerzbassist]

Re: More testing new drives..

Sounds nice... it dig how you can still hear the single strings through it in that first part.

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Yeah it helps, but I like the +- circuits the best, loads of room to deal with, and that absense of "it feels like a pedal".
Some do not like it as it is not as compressed and murky as normal pedals can be, some do get it and that is nice, but it is ok we are a niche operation

Forgive my beginner knowledge but I haven't done any +/- circuits, just normal +9v, 0v ground.......so you have +/-12 swing like with opamps that use the +/- to work correctly? Do many of your circuits utilize opamps?

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

Allmost all our stuff uses OP-amps, I am actually fooling around with a discret transistor drive, I like to know more about those, they seem to be very tempramental in nature
Most of our stuff can easily take 25 volts, and those parts that cannot, gets secured at 12-15 volts.

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Allmost all our stuff uses OP-amps, I am actually fooling around with a discret transistor drive, I like to know more about those, they seem to be very tempramental in nature
Most of our stuff can easily take 25 volts, and those parts that cannot, gets secured at 12-15 volts.

Gotcha, then what I was thinking was right on target.
Transistors are a PITA!!!, especially Ge transistors. Those things can be so finicky, worse than a cat...lol.
I've got a NPN Rangemaster I built using an OC140 Ge transistor. Each one from the same bag sounds different due to the varying Hfe values and leakage. I still don't know what each one measures in those categories, but the circuit works and sounds good. I want to do another Ge transistor based OD circuit.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

Yeah I am starting to solder in alot of trimmers
Damn they squeal like pigs...hehe
But it is a fun sound, but OP-amps on the other hand can be just as tricky in some setups, we are also fooling around with a CMOS drive, and we are not using the normal 4049 or what ever it is called
That one is a strange one to tame!
The OP-amps are essential due to our buffered signal, we use quad OP-amps, they are used for the cleanbooster in most of our drives and the in and output, plus the drive.
That is all 4 used up.

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Yeah I am starting to solder in alot of trimmers
Damn they squeal like pigs...hehe
But it is a fun sound, but OP-amps on the other hand can be just as tricky in some setups, we are also fooling around with a CMOS drive, and we are not using the normal 4049 or what ever it is called
That one is a strange one to tame!
The OP-amps are essential due to our buffered signal, we use quad OP-amps, they are used for the cleanbooster in most of our drives and the in and output, plus the drive.
That is all 4 used up.

The trimmers can be your friend there. Finding that sweet spot is so much easier.
I've only done stuff with single and dual opamps. Using a quad for the in/out buffers and drive is a smart idea since an opamp is chip-based transistors so to speak. It probably eliminates some parts that other circuits might have otherwise using a dual.

You know I always say I don't like Tube Screamers but one of the last things I came up with used a dual opamp and looks very similar to a TS circuit on the schematic. But it sounds better to me.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

The ts circuit is a fairly standart overdrive circuit, most drives uses it, feedback loop with some diodes, some OP-amp, and a tonestack of sorts, most of those old Ibbies and Boss uses discrete transistors for buffers, and if the transistor is any good it works just nicely.
I am still amazed by the sheer number of functioning Ibanez and Boss pedals out there, I got myself an ancient Yamaha flanger the other day, it is over 20 years old and works like a charm, no loss of sound and a very very good flanger.

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Here's my TS type circuit. I'd like to know what you think.

http://www.erikhansen.net/diy/slapshot.htm

I know the Boss SD-1 shares a lot of the same circuitry principles so I didn't feel so bad doing it. There's no in/out buffer on it though but that can be changed easy enough.

I've got an old Boss Digital Delay, DD-2, that works great still. And a old Bass Flanger, BF-2b (brown series). Works great too.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: More testing new drives..

Ah hehe looks very familiar, using the 22p to smooth out the diodes, looks simple and efficient, I like pure stuff, hehe one knob like a COT 50

[ErikH]

Re: More testing new drives..

Told ya it was very TS-like. I need to put it back on the breadboard again and play with it through my Lead 12. I bet it would sound great there. Maybe even another diode in the feedback loop.