Rockman X100 or Sustainor Circuit…

Caldo71

Caldo71

Active member
Reposting from the older, now-archived wishlist…

Rockman X100 in pedal format?

Would be an interesting project. Originals are getting pretty expensive.
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com
Where it seemed for a while there was some forward movement (a “Goat” was purchased) and then things seemed to sadly fizzle.

Also really want to re-iterate that although there is always constant hype around that hilariously cheezy trademark Rockman distortion sound, it’s the “CLEAN 1” tone that truly shines and remains über useable to this day. Would be a shame to leave that part of the circuit forgotten.
 
Upvote 5
give it time, the goat is marked as in-progress. guy's got a lot of product already to offer and requests keep coming in for more every day.
 
thesmokingman said:
give it time, the goat is marked as in-progress. guy's got a lot of product already to offer and requests keep coming in for more every day.
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Not really seeing the "in progress" flag on the archived thread for this project? Maybe I'm missing something there.

I wasn't unduly pushing @PedalPCB at all...just following his own request that we re-post wishlist items from the archived thread that had not been tackled yet!
 
This isn't forgotten, it's just taken the back seat to a few other projects.

That looks cool, no I haven't seen that one before. I'll have to check it out.
 
jeffwhitfield said:
Based on what I’ve read about this one it’s just…ok. Has the sound for the most part, but it’s not clear if it’s really a good interpretation of the sand circuit.
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You guys are so coy can you please clue me in to where/what this project is?
 
Caldo71 said:
Oh, do not tease…this looks phenominal. Where is this pic from…?…
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I, along with two others in different parts of the world (Josh and Vivek), worked out all the particulars and built six prototypes using original Rockman X100 PCBs. We redesigned the switching to allow for sequentially cycling thru the the MODES and FX. It IS a genuine X100 circuit with the MN3011 and the two MN3007 BBD chips with a genuine 2N4339 JFET.

X100_Wired_01.jpg

We also improved the power supply, provided some control over the amount of compression, addressed the over-powering headphones output, balanced the MODE level differences, increased the inout trimmer to 100K allowing for a bit more volume and "tone" control, added a stereo output circuit to overcome the less than unity-gain output and got it all into a custom 8.3" x 5.5" custom enclosure. Now the MODE and FX switching can be address with stompswitches instead of reaching over to a slide switch as on the original. Over 400 individual bits, and 126 wires have to be hand-placed and soldered. It takes about 100 hours to fully assemble, tweak and set up one of these units.

Josh is working up a new PCB with SMD components for a "V2" version, using the same MN3011 & two MN3007 BBDs and the 2N4339 JFET. And due to the expense of the MN3011 BBD chips, V3 will be the same fundamental X100 circuit - but will use one or two FV-1 DSP chips to provide the FX. Hopefully, we can get V3 own to a 1590DD sized enclosure.

A butt-load of man hours has gone into the analysis and development of this project. Josh is the lead on this project. I provided the digital sequential switching, power supply and Low Level Stereo Output circuit And Vivek does all the math and circuit analysis wizardry. Josh and I do the actual building and hardware testing. Josh and I will also be involved in development of the FV-1 FX patches creation. Also need to mention two other valuable contributors who are no longer active in the project: Mike Donzelli and Pedro Yi.
 
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Cybercow said:
I, along with two others in different parts of the world (Josh and Vivek), worked out all the particulars and built six prototypes using original Rockman X100 PCBs. We redesigned the switching to allow for sequentially cycling thru the the MODES and FX. It IS a genuine X100 circuit with the MN3011 and the two MN3007 BBD chips with a genuine 2N4339 JFET.

View attachment 27177

We also improved the power supply, provided some control over the amount of compression, addressed the over-powering headphones output, balanced the MODE level differences, increased the inout trimmer to 100K allowing for a bit more volume and "tone" control, added a stereo output circuit to overcome the less than unity-gain output and got it all into a custom 8.3" x 5.5" custom enclosure. Now the MODE and FX switching can be address with stompswitches instead of reaching over to a slide switch as on the original. Over 400 individual bits, and 126 wires have to be hand-placed and soldered. It takes about 100 hours to fully assemble, tweak and set up one of these units.

Josh is working up a new PCB with SMD components for a "V2" version, using the same MN3011 & two MN3007 BBDs and the 2N4339 JFET. And due to the expense of the MN3011 BBD chips, V3 will be the same fundamental X100 circuit - but will use one or two FV-1 DSP chips to provide the FX. Hopefully, we can get V3 own to a 1590DD sized enclosure.

A butt-load of man hours has gone into the analysis and development of this project. Josh is the lead on this project. I provided the digital sequential switching, power supply and Low Level Stereo Output circuit And Vivek does all the math and circuit analysis wizardry. Josh and I do the actual building and hardware testing. All three of us are involved in the development of the FV-1 FX patches creation.
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I salute the three of you, deeply. This is amazing. I absolutely can't wait for this to become a reality.

So is the end-game purely to create a pre-built, "off-the-shelf" commercial product that people can buy? Or is the goal to create a kit for the DIY community? Or a little of both...?...
 
Caldo71 said:
I salute the three of you, deeply. This is amazing. I absolutely can't wait for this to become a reality.

So is the end-game purely to create a pre-built, "off-the-shelf" commercial product that people can buy? Or is the goal to create a kit for the DIY community? Or a little of both...?...
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The six prototypes, like shown in photos above, are already in the wild. V2 is in the final throws of testing and the first V2 build gets tested tonight. It (V2) will be a limited run of about 36 for those who pony up for them. V2 still has about 100 wiring points and several bits of user hardware to assemble. Josh has all the particulars on what may or may not be available for V2 acquisition. The goals for V3 are in the throes of final development and whether or not it will be made available as a set of pre-populated PCBs (the 2N4339 JFET and FV-1s not withstanding) is yet to be determined. Ideally, we'd make some for existing clients, and for those who insist on torturing themselves with a ~50+ page build document to assemble their own from the PCBs would be able procure PCBs and be on their own for all the supporting bits. But all this is just my take on it as an inside developer, builder & tester. I am not the project lead. So what I've said so far may or may not come pass with regard to V3.
 
One of the folks in a Rockman related Facebook group mentioned something about creating a pedal that had just the distortion and output amp part of the X100. Without the delay and chorus, this makes for a way simpler circuit. The thinking is that if you have the basic clean and distortion parts then the rest can more or less be emulated using stand-along chorus and delay pedals. Looking at the schematic, I can definitely see how that would be possible. Components needed for it don't look to be anything that isn't still available (TL072, 1N914, LM386). Hell, could possibly do away with the power amp part as well and still end up with a really solid distortion pedal that matches the X100.

To that end, I'm thinking about creating a circuit diagram based on the attached schematic that only includes the distortion and EQ sections while still retaining a switch to go from Dist, Edge, Clean 1, and Clean 2. From there, we can all breadboard this sucker and go from there. Might be a super cool PedalPCB original. :D

www.dropbox.com

rockman-x100-and-soloist-schems.pdf

Shared with Dropbox
www.dropbox.com www.dropbox.com
 
I have a PCB in my stash that is the distortion + EQ circuit.

Doesn't do any of the clean tones though.

My biggest issue is that a lot of the Rockman character is lost in mono, it sounds flat out terrible into the front of an amp.
(This includes my X100, and I love my X100)
 
the echo is actually deceptively evil .... it's closer to reverb into barely slapback which is a tough setting to hit with most delay pedals
 
Robert said:
I have a PCB in my stash that is the distortion + EQ circuit.

Doesn't do any of the clean tones though.

My biggest issue is that a lot of the Rockman character is lost in mono, it sounds flat out terrible into the front of an amp.
(This includes my X100, and I love my X100)
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Indeed, indeed. But I think you can get that quality back by doing what you mentioned: splitting off into stereo with a bit of delay on one side. I also use a Dimension D chorus effect as well which works quite well. Regardless, I think having the basic Rockman sound (including cleans) is a start. Can always go from there and enhance it. :D
 
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