<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">I had a thought a while back and the other day it refined itself in my brain enough to actually have some clue how I might execute it and I'm wondering to what extent it would be worth pursuing this further (I'll probably end up x-posting this to some guitar forums soon, as it's really got more to do with guitar pedals than synths I guess).<BR>
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Basically, take a standard opamp-and-two-diodes distortion circuit, build it using LED's, and then use the light from the LED's to control either the gain of the opamp or of a simple VCA (any clues which?) so that you can have distortion without losing the dynamics of the signal - play soft and it will be soft, the shape of the wave changed but not the volume.<BR>
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Make sense? Feasible?<BR>
-eric</FONT></HTML>