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New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:09 am
by laurie
I've been thinking a lot about overdrive lately. After building the new pedal boards (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10&start=210#p8903) I've had the ability to A/B many dirt pedals.

I've been tweaking my BSD and looking at the design of the 32_OD.

For me, there is an ultimate overdrive sound - typified by the 32_OD and the old BSD.

One of my new designs will be an updated overdrive that takes the best element of previous designs - an ultimate overdrive, for me at least.

The other pedal I'm thinking to design is a stereo phaser. I worked on pepe's phasers over Christmas and did a repair on a genuine vintage Mutron last year, plus I've never been truly happy with the old LGP design.

This new phaser will be a 6 stage precision matched device (like the old LGP), but will have much better LFO options and will be able to run in various configurations:
  • True stereo - A and B inputs to A and B outputs, where the LFO for B can be independent or coupled to the A LFO either in phase of out of phase.
  • Mono in to stereo out (same LFO options as above)
  • Stacked A->B - mono input to A, through Phaser A then into Phaser B, output from phaser B (same LFO options as above)
More info to come, but these will be two I'm going to start designing soon.

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2024 7:40 am
by The_Doc
These sound really interesting Laurie and I’m looking to coming along for the ride as you create them :)

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2024 12:12 pm
by laurie
This design allows for anything from 100% clean boost to 100% overdrive, with infinite blend possibility. Like a Klon, but you have control over the clean blend instead of it being "built in" (using a dual gang pot) in the Klon.
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Overdrive block diagram V2b.jpg
Overdrive block diagram V2b.jpg (64.76 KiB) Viewed 17944 times

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2024 12:15 pm
by laurie
Dual Phaser.jpg
Dual Phaser.jpg (101.22 KiB) Viewed 17950 times

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2024 12:42 pm
by Pepe
I like them both! 8-)

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:04 pm
by bigtone23
Very cool!
I had a Mutron Bi-Phase for a short time 30 years ago. The parallel and series phasing options were really cool for getting some wild sounds.

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:13 pm
by BearBoy
Are you still working on these designs, Laurie?

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:19 pm
by laurie
BearBoy wrote:
Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:13 pm
Are you still working on these designs, Laurie?
Very slowly :)

Many things in life have overtaken my time, but I should have more time in 2025.

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:43 pm
by Pepe
laurie wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2024 12:12 pm
This design allows for anything from 100% clean boost to 100% overdrive, with infinite blend possibility. Like a Klon, but you have control over the clean blend instead of it being "built in" (using a dual gang pot) in the Klon.

Image
Seeing this now reminds me that the BOSS ODB-3 works similarly. In that case I really disliked that the clean signal got affected by the 2-way EQ as well. The ODB-3's overdrive sounds so harsh if you don't tame the highs a lot. This always resulted in a completely muffled sounding clean signal. I had rather liked it with a clean blend that doesn't affect the tone of the original signal.

Maybe you want to try out if your overdrive concept sounds better with the EQ option for the clean sound or if it is better with the Mixer after the EQ that only shapes the effect sound.

Re: New pedals in the design phase

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 4:18 pm
by laurie
Pepe wrote:
Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:43 pm
laurie wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2024 12:12 pm
This design allows for anything from 100% clean boost to 100% overdrive, with infinite blend possibility. Like a Klon, but you have control over the clean blend instead of it being "built in" (using a dual gang pot) in the Klon.

Image
Seeing this now reminds me that the BOSS ODB-3 works similarly. In that case I really disliked that the clean signal got affected by the 2-way EQ as well. The ODB-3's overdrive sounds so harsh if you don't tame the highs a lot. This always resulted in a completely muffled sounding clean signal. I had rather liked it with a clean blend that doesn't affect the tone of the original signal.

Maybe you want to try out if your overdrive concept sounds better with the EQ option for the clean sound or if it is better with the Mixer after the EQ that only shapes the effect sound.
Good thoughts. Thanks!