Tonefiend Forum

I have this filter plugin for SONAR that gives you two or three filters, which can be 2, 4, or 6-pole low pass, notch, band pass, or high pass. You can arrange them in parallel or series, as well as apply LFO or envelope (+/-) to frequency and Q. Now if you put all that into a pedal, it would have dozens of pots and switches and it would be unusable.

I'm going to guess you might have some digital filter plugins available. So, get your fuzz/distortion going separately, then patch that into your DAW through the filter plug-in. Diddle around with settings and find a maximum of 4 which are "bitchen". Then see what it takes to translate that into a useful/usable pedal, if possible.

I personally like subtle envelope following on just about any modulation effect, and I actually think envelope (follower or ADSR) high pass filters can have a pretty cool sound, though not by themselves because you lose all the low end.

I'd love to see a pedal that was a combination of a powerful, versatile distortion/fuzz unit and a synthesizer-derived filter circuit. A bandpass filter would probably be most useful, with adjustable resonance, band width, and expression/envelope/LFO control over the cutoff frequency. A dry/wet blend for the filter might be nice as well, so you could adjust how subtle or pronounced the filter's effect is.

You know what? Let's just skip to the inevitable conclusion and run our guitars through modular synthesizers. 😉

Well yeah, that is the ultimate extension of the idea. I guess I'm looking for a way to get 98% of the fun with 2% of the knobs. 😉

Maybe I should break down and build a plain old envelope filter since it is one of the few pedals i don't have ?

Yeah wish I had an old Mutron III or the first one I ever saw made by MXR in the mid 70s. Gonna probly look for schematics of an Emma Discumbobulator since that is the best sounding newer model I have seen. Oh yeah first i have have to go do the basics and learn how to make pedals. Great info here on the site Joe thanks again! Sorry to be so off topic der?

Quote from inductor on December 30, 2012, 12:07

Quote from Digital Larry on December 28, 2012, 11:40
To keep lows in the signal it will be necessary to split the signal into two parallel paths. A resonant LPF or BPF is going to sacrifice lows by comparison to the resonant frequency.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't understand how a parametric eq is going to cut the low end. The Systech is a (fixed boost) parametric eq with an OD attached at the end.

The circuit doesn't "cut" the low end, but if it boosts 1 kHz by 30 dB, what are you going to hear?

Here's the source of the schematic I looked at:

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/KarateShop/docs/KarateShop.pdf

Now, please take my drivel with a grain or three of salt - I don't own one of these nor have I built a clone. As usual I am pontificating in a theoretical fashion reflecting on Joe's comments regarding lack of low end. I welcome any clarifications or corrections.

As far as where the distortion comes from, I'd really need to put a scope on various points of the circuit to be sure, but I think if you make the Q high enough, the op-amps within the filter part of the circuit will start clipping.