Curds and whey distortion added to a better overdrive?

Here is a video of my semi successful attempt.

I managed to get it going by breaking the connection between the gain knob and c13 and adding a mosfet boost here.

I think for next time I will make the following changes:
  • Use the spare op amp for extra gain stage between gain and c13
  • Use a 1m gain pot (only had a 500k)
  • Use a better mix pot as the Timmy is way quieter than the prunes
  • Remove or use a better tone pot as it only sounds good with full treble

 
Last edited:
I played around with the wave folder section in LTSpice tonight. Instead of working with different gain stages I just varied the amplitude of the sine wave I was sending through the folder. Some random notes, using the pedalpcb curds and whey refdes, take everything with a grain of salt:
  • Using lower Vf diodes reduces the amount of amplification needed to get successive folds but with more amplification into those same lower Vf diodes, the harmonic content of the output is reduced. This makes me curious about what using a compressor before it would sound like.
  • Even harmonics can be exaggerated by mismatching D1 and D5. These wavefolders are more or less frequency triplers and don't generate a lot of even harmonics. Mismatching lower section diodes has less impact.
  • Increasing the unclipped summing resistor R9 reduces the effect of the wavefolder and emphasizes the fundamental. Not much wiggle room here though, compared to stock 56K, 65K-80K basically nulls out the effect.
  • Mismatching R14 and R15 has a similar effect
  • (I believe both of the two above impact the gain of the summing and difference amplifier?)
  • Adding low pass filters in the folding stages leads to some REALLY interesting phase shift and cancellation. They also stop it from generating odd harmonics into oblivion and I imagine would temper some metallic clang. Without these in some configurations the first few odd harmonics can be louder than the fundamental and the amount of additional audible odd harmonics is practically too many to count -- just a couple of caps to ground basically limit this to just the first 3-4 harmonics
 
Last edited:
If it hasn’t been brought up in this thread, it’s worth mentioning that the Escobedo Tripple Fuzz is based on another synth wavefolder and frequency tripler design by Lockhart. The ZVex Machine is basically two stages of SHOs into tripplers. https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Gadget.pdf



IMG_6877.gif

There’s some cool analysis showing how similar the Lockhart tripler is to the Serge based one that appears in the curds and whey: https://acris.aalto.fi/ws/portalfiles/portal/16820117/esqueda_et_al_applsci_07_01328_v2_1.pdf
 
Hello again everyone. I have had a breakthrough with this project.

As you can see from above the Timmy into wavefolder wasn't the best idea but not entirely wasted. I dedided to create a PCB that I can add onto existing pedals to give the option of a wavefolder. I haven't made the PCB yet but breadboarded an idea and it works!

This is essentially an MXR Micro Amp into the wavefolder from the Curds and Whey. I needed something that was loud to engage the wavefolder and the the Micro Amp is pretty loud!

Here is a video with a Bassballs clone going into the wavefolder.

I'm going to get a PCB made and add this to everything now!
 
I’ve been thinking about this again lately. My ultimate goal is a replacement for mode 8/9 on the boss syb-3. It’s essentially a wavefolder with a resonant filter. It was cool to see the bassballs video- that thought had crossed my mind too, I picked up a PCB for it on the last sale.

My current breadboard is a micro one- basically just good enough to learn or make a circuit block. I have larger breadboards on the way so I can experiment with the wavefolders posted in this thread.

I even started looking into a FV-1 version and tried some spincad experiments. Nothing share-worthy yet. If that doesn’t pan out, an option within the range of my ability is to use PureData to create a patch I can compile to a daisy seed project. I’d like to try go analog first though before I go down a rabbithole of DSP.

When you get to it, I would love to get a copy of the assets you use to get that modular board printed to experiment with.
 
Back
Top