[sdiy] simple nasty clipping?

[Harry Bissell Jr]

The word NASTY leaps out in my mind... I find
most symmetrical clippers to be nice sounding.
The nastiest distortions involve asymmetrical
clipping.

I'd suggest using two diodes in series as a
'deadband' circuit and boost the gain going into
it. This will cut a level-independant hole in the
middle of the signal... like crossover distortion.

The nastiest circuit I ever built was an "Idea for
Design" (iirc) to generate an adjustable level of
"even harmonics".  It was a half-wave active rectifier
that let you blend in a percentage of the clipped
signal with the original (it is dynamic, it does not
compress the signal - in large amounts it sounds like
death itself)

H^) harry




--- Oren Leavitt <oleavitt at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> 
> A passive approach:
> Try Schottky diodes. They might give you a harder
> clip. The amplitude of the clipped signal will be
> small at less than 0.4V pp.
> 
> Active approaches: (will need to be powered by your
> device)
> Try a Schmitt trigger - It'll give you good hard
> square wave output.
> Give it just enough threshold so that the noise
> floor doesn't fire it.
> It can be constructed with a couple of transistors,
> or an IC, and a few external resistors.
> 
> Or an op-amp with the doides in the feedback loop
> will give the signal level a boost and clip it
> harder.
> 
> Take a look in the SynthDIY archives or check out
> some of the DIY guitar effects sites for more ideas.
> 
> My few bits,
> Oren
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gregory zifcak <zifcak at hotmail.com>
> Sent: Mar 5, 2004 12:00 PM
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: [sdiy] simple nasty clipping?
> 
> hi,
> 
> does anyone know of a really nasty really simple
> distortion circuit? i tried 
> the two diodes shunted to ground, and it was nice,
> but not tearing. do i 
> need to somehow boost the level first? i'm trying to
> build this into a 
> pre-existing device, so small and simple = better.
> thanks,
> greg
> 
>
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