[sdiy] VC distortion?

[Rykhaard D.A.M.I.A.N.]

On 11/29/06, John Mahoney <jmahoney at gate.net> wrote:
> At 12:20 AM 11/29/2006, gerald stevens wrote:
> >Hello,
> >
> >I have been thinking about using vactrols to add voltage control to a
> >distortion pedal.  Looks like my grunge pedal requires pots and not
> >variable resistors.  I imagine you could build a voltage controlled pot
> >using two vactrols, one with an inverted level sent to an LED - has anyone
> >done this?  I have also seen tech notes on using digital pots in pairs to
> >create voltage controlled pots, but most digital pots are surface mount
> >these days, and too much caffeine precludes the use of such tiny components.
>
> Why not use a VCA in front of the distortion unit?

This idea just popped into my head:

- Take your signal.  Lets call it 5 VAC
- Skim off a proper voltage height portion of it, that a classic
transistor based distortion circuit for a guitar would expect ..... 1
VAC?
- Put the distortion portion through it's own VCA
- Bring the distortion portion back up to 5VAC
- Crossfade the 2 together, so that the louder that the distortion
portion gets, the quieter that the original gets.
- The output of the unit is still, your 5 VAC signal.

??

-- 
Take care,
Warmth and Peace,
Ryk

http://www.sdiy.org/damian/index.html - my modular synth's homepage :)