Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Discuss mods, hacks, tweaks, etc.

Moderators: altitude, adafruit_support_bill, adafruit, phono, hamburgers

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
bcbox
 
Posts: 587
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 1:30 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by bcbox »

the idea was to still have the audio in available for my drummachine and the distorsion in the headphone too.
"Clever idea, isn't ?" would say the mighty wizard
depends on how you look at it. I placed it after the mixer stage so you could have a distorted output and a clean output (headphone) simlultaneously,
and so that you could use it as a distortion effect on the mix in :wink:

julienvoirin
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:39 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by julienvoirin »

you could use it as a distortion effect on the mix in
great idea 8)
did you try the feedback in : connecting the headphone out to the filter input ? 36dB with delay filter and endless signal, it's funny too. and when the cut off is at max, it's the gated signal that create "hiss" (reso at max)

bcbox
 
Posts: 587
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 1:30 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by bcbox »

did you try the feedback in
yes I did, kind of like feeding the second output to the filter on a Moog
Actually I came very close to making the distortion patchable, so that it could be insterted inserted anywhere in the chain. In the end the resuts weren't worth the complexity.
Truth be told I put the circuit at the main output of the box also because the output of the overdrive part of the circuit would clip the x0xb0x mixer stage. It's primitive made up of a couple transistors and it clips assymetrically. I didn't like how it sounded.

rarara
 
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:47 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by rarara »

julienvoirin wrote:
would this work if the bcbox i/o mod has already been installed,
of course, the circuit has to be inserted at the place of condensator C38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tRR30bQ ... annel_page
in that case its something i'd like to do

octelcogopod
 
Posts: 192
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:14 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by octelcogopod »

I will make an attempt to build this clever little distortion mod! I really like the sound

ozx0xb0xer
 
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:55 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by ozx0xb0xer »

Great circuit julienvoirin, thanks for sharing. Brilliant.

I cooked up a strip board version and found a couple of things...

imho it sounded slightly more pronounced using a jumper instead of LED 3.
Also, I found I needed to bypass R6 1k in order to get the full on overdrive. (any problems with that?)
I only had a 5k pot lying round. What size do you suggest?

julienvoirin
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:39 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by julienvoirin »

R6 is added to get a log effect on the pot of 10k which was linear while the development. it is better to remove R6 and get a log 10k pot. you can also test the anti log config

LED3 is a wire in my circuits ... as noticed on the schematic ! You choose what you prefer, it is always easier to solder 2 adjacent pins than adding a LED, isn't it ?

ozx0xb0xer
 
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:55 am

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by ozx0xb0xer »

ahh julienvoirin, ok. Yep, it was following your diagram that I tried shorting LED3.

Once again, cheers, great circuit.

User avatar
xray303
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:48 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by xray303 »

Hi,

I'm looking for a simple but good sounding overdrive for my x0x.
Maybe i'm dumb but didn't see any schematic here ? only a Pcb, but i wanted to do this with veroboard..
Can someone send me the schematics.. ?
And thanks to Julien for sharing to the community

Luap
 
Posts: 363
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:10 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by Luap »

xray303 wrote:Hi,

I'm looking for a simple but good sounding overdrive for my x0x.
Maybe i'm dumb but didn't see any schematic here ? only a Pcb, but i wanted to do this with veroboard..
Can someone send me the schematics.. ?
And thanks to Julien for sharing to the community
I think he decided he didn't want to share it so openly. But when I contacted him some time ago, he was happy to send me a copy of the schematics by email.
I did build it (on stripboard, shh!) but it gave me some noise problems that I was not able to fix. Plus the distortion didn't sound as good as Julien's own examples, so unfortunately I had to remove it.
No idea what the problem was, but I had bothered him with enough questions already, and I didn't wish to pester him more, so..

julienvoirin
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:39 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by julienvoirin »

schematic is back !
it is a real bypass (double switch) now as previous design caused a small distortion while in clean mode
(for a true real bypass, you should use relay or transistor but it complicates the circuit a lot)

if i well remember the 330ohm resistor is a very critical component ... maybe try different values (333, 331, 335, etc)

Luap
 
Posts: 363
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:10 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by Luap »

julienvoirin wrote:previous design caused a small distortion while in clean mode
Yes! That is exactly what I experienced.. I thought I had done something wrong and spent quite some time going over everything and checking it. I did consider some kind of bypass, but I never got around to trying it. So thanks for the update :D I still have the board I built, so I will try it again sometime.

User avatar
paradigm x
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:49 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by paradigm x »

Cool

Been playing with a few guitar type distortion pedals recently but none have sounded great so far, will give this one a try.

Theres another thread around here somewhere, search for electra.

User avatar
xray303
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:48 pm

Re: Overdrive Distorsion : simple circuit

Post by xray303 »

Many thanks Julien, will try that when i get the components.

Regards,

Nico

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “x0xm0dz”