I’ll start planning tomorrow. I have some ideas brewing. I’m guessing they are, but just to double check— Are pedal-specific digital parts (Tap/StompLFO; fv-1; pt2399; belton brick) allowed, or is that frowned upon? I particularly have some interesting ideas with the 2399 and TapLFO chip (the tap-LFO just serving to reduce parts count vs a discrete analog LFO) to do something that ironically isn’t really modulation pedal or a delay pedal
I know dual pots are okayed as 1 part.
How about dual concentric pots?
I see them adding no extra functionality beyond parts count for added costs...
But they're 1 part.
(In reality, they're awesome and I wish they were used more. Especially for eq like in consoles)
So to answer your question. The rules are no more than three knobs not pots. You would need 2 knobs for a dual concentric pot so you wouldn’t be gaining anything in using them…
It's not that I'm looking for loop-holes per se, it's just that I've got a specific idea in mind but it's just a wee bit over the limit and I need to get the parts count down.
I've looked at matched transistor-pairs in a can such as the AS394CH or AS194H, and because I need some oomph to make the
octave
happen, I also needed something like a Sziklai or Darlington.
I've also come across another older contest project I abandoned that might be suitable for this one, too. I was never in the running for the other contest, but wanted to use the deadline to kick my butt into gear. It did, and then the deadline passed after which it didn't — messy, that thing called "life"... always getting in the way of what I really want to do.
After abandoning my fancier tone stack and some other silly ideas, here's the basic skeleton of that older contest-project that might be reborn for this contest:
The original ROG WHISKER BISCUIT was a BAZZFUSS replacing the clipping sections of a MUFF making it a 3-transistor circuit;
and the BUZZBOX is a dual BAZZFUSS, so I couldn't fathom why I hadn't seen anybody make the logical leap to bring the idea back up to a proper Muff-sized 4 transistors.
I breadboarded it with all 2µ2 couplers, and it was good, but when I put the BUZZBOX's 10µ caps back in this thing really lit up! Still might play around with it and make it all 10µ, as it's intended for bass.
I had a transformer in there, a fancy-schmantzee tone-stack and few other interesting twists, but that was all way above this contest's 30-parts limit — So here it is, pared down to its most basic form...
It's not that I'm looking for loop-holes per se, it's just that I've got a specific idea in mind but it's just a wee bit over the limit and I need to get the parts count down. View attachment 64937
Looking at your design, I see one place where you could cut down the parts count a bit. R6, R9, R10, and R16 are all 10k and all tied to the same net at one end. How about using a resisrtor array in its place? Here's one from digikey, but the other sources should all have them too. Just leave the final resistor floating, I guess. Not a huge parts reduction, but it does turn 4 parts into 1.
OK, I think. Got rid of "DIP" and renamed D8... Any more typos?
Still gotta monkey with caps on the breadboard, and maybe the tone-stack, too.
Of course, you can plug in whatever values your ear likes. The stack as depicted gives the craziest midrage [sic] hump. Maybe swap C6 & C7's around and make the 33n a 10n for a more trad Muff mid-scoop. I played around with flattening the scoop and like 6n8 and 4n7 — just a wee scoop, or 5n6 or 8n2 ... whatever.
I was thinking of resistor arrays; they had plenty of them at the shop in HK I frequented, but I never had any builds that required them (ie other people's circuits/layouts/boards).
I don't know the first thing about how resistor arrays work.
1. A bunch of resistors in a DIP, SIP or SMD package with one end of each resistor all connected to a common pin. A 14-pin DIP could contain up to 13 resistors. All of the resistors are the same value.
2. A bunch of resistors in a DIP, SIP or SMD package with no connections between them. A 14-pin DIP could contain up to 7 resistors. All of the resistors are the same value.
3. A bunch of resistors in a DIP, SIP or SMD package with your choice of values and connections. These are all special order and are very expensive. I used this type in some satellite electronics where we needed extreme precision.
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