Cataclysm Delay

[Dirty_Boogie]

Posted last night, but I think my post died with the old forum. Build turned out great - worked perfectly (after I realized I forgot to pop the 78L05 in its socket!) Fit nicely in a 1590B box, with side jacks. Didn't have 1/8W resistors, but no problem using 1/4W resistors. Sounds fantastic - will build another as a gift for a friend. Highly recommend this delay!

 

[caspercody]

I built one, too. But my build has a lot of noise to it, does yours?

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

I built one, too. But my build has a lot of noise to it, does yours?

No, it's quiet. Some very low background noise if I'm using a lot of gain. The repeats are clean but "organic" sounding (i.e., not pristine like with a digital delay) with some degradation after multiple repeats - just as it should!

Is your noise there all the time, or just noisy repeats? If you socketed the PT2399 chip, can you swap it for another to test?

Also, did you use many ceramic capacitors, or film caps for everything under 1uF? Lots of ceramics could add some noise.

 

[caspercody]

I will try a different PT2399. Only ceramics used are for Pico farads.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

I will try a different PT2399. Only ceramics used are for Pico farads.

I just completed a second build, and it also works great. So, it's likely you have a bad/incorrect part(s) or a bad solder joint somewhere. Troubleshooting these things can drive you nuts - good luck!

 

[caspercody]

I tried it again today, and it worked as it should. Not sure why it had noise before.

 

[phi1]

Could one of you guys check something for me, I've been thinking about doing another delay and am curious how this one sounds.

With the Tone knob all the way cw, is the bass cut out of the delays, or is it full frequency? On the schematic it looks like a big muff style tone control, panning between a low pass and high pass filter. The things is, the high pass filter passes everything above 32Hz..., if my math is right. So really it'd be panning between a low pass and an all pass. If this is the case, I'm wondering why they would they go to the trouble of setting it up this way instead of a normal adjustable low pass filter (with fewer parts)? Or maybe I'm missing something.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Could one of you guys check something for me, I've been thinking about doing another delay and am curious how this one sounds.

With the Tone knob all the way cw, is the bass cut out of the delays, or is it full frequency? On the schematic it looks like a big muff style tone control, panning between a low pass and high pass filter. The things is, the high pass filter passes everything above 32Hz..., if my math is right. So really it'd be panning between a low pass and an all pass. If this is the case, I'm wondering why they would they go to the trouble of setting it up this way instead of a normal adjustable low pass filter (with fewer parts)? Or maybe I'm missing something.

The tone control is subtle (unlike on a fuzz or distortion pedal), but noticeable. At full CW, it's still pretty close to full frequency, with just a small amount of bass cut. I have another pedal that simulates a tape echo, where the repeats progressively lose more bass - this is not the case here. I find that at the mid position, it's best, but honestly, once you're playing, you're really not hearing the level of brightness in the delay - as I mentioned earlier, it's a pretty "organic" sounding delay, quite reminiscent of my (original) Boss DM-2 analog delay. Quick recording on my phone - hopefully still catches enough of a frequency range:

Click for sound samples on SoundCloud:

00:00 - 00:19 - full CCW
00:20 - 00:51- full CW
00:52 - 01:04 - full CCW
01:05 - 01:16 - full CW

As the build notes describe, using the tone knob (i.e., turning it down) attenuates some of the noise you get when using longer delay times.

Hope this helps.

 

[phi1]

Nice, thanks for the clips. You're right, it sounds pretty subtle, but I can hear it.