How to add dynamics to a circuit? Is it possible? Do I use magic dust?

[pinkjimiphoton]

I think it might have been Elvis Costello (maybe?) who said, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture".


~ Charlie

that was Laurie Anderson bro

[Digital Larry]

I think it might have been Elvis Costello (maybe?) who said, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture".
~ Charlie

that was Laurie Anderson bro

Not that there's anything wrong with dancing about architecture.  At least I hope not.  I'm kinda getting the itch here.

[Mark Hammer]

I think it might have been Elvis Costello (maybe?) who said, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture".
~ Charlie

that was Laurie Anderson bro

You should try entering the phrase into Google.  You might be every bit as surprised as I was about the rather large range of folks to whom the phrase has been attributed.  Unfortunately, many of the sites that mention it are blocked to me at work, so I only get to see what is seemingly the first 20 words or so of a debate.

[armdnrdy]

Based on current evidence it is believed that Martin Mull is the most likely originator of this expression.

Researchers have been attempting to trace this well-known saying for many years.

Let it be known that we have top men on it! "Which top men you ask?"

TOP MEN! 

[R.G.]

"Dynamics" is a huge ball of wax.
In the strictest sense of the word, I think "dynamics" simply refers to something's ability to move or change, to be variable as opposed to "static" or non-movable.
In music, any number of different things could be given more (or less) dynamics - volume, tone or filter frequency, pitch, timbre, attack/decay, position in the stereo field, etc... All of which can be manipulated by effects circuits.
What the circuit designer/builder chooses to make dynamic often defines the type of effect - tremolo, vibrato, compressor/expander, auto-wha, envelope filter, chorus/flanger, etc...

... and we have a winner!

Dynamic in most English usage is a near opposite of the movement sense of 'static', meaning moving or changing instead of staying still or not changing.

If you dig into circuits which are lauded as 'dynamic' you'll find something that changes the output sound in some way with changing inputs. Generally a slow output variation with changing inputs is perceived as more dynamic, as sudden variation - like running into opamp clipping - is not described as dynamic, as a gated sound is not.

Dynamic-sounding circuits have a variation of output harmonic structure, amplitude, treble content, phase, time delay, whatever, over a range of input signals. Historically, designers either grasped this implicitly and used the side effects of a circuit unconsciously to get more dynamics, or explicitly and applied for patents on their particular inspiration.

Want dynamics? Pick what input characteristic you want to use for a driver for the dynamics. Input amplitude is often a good starting place, as guitarists like to control dynamics with pick technique. Pick what output characteristic you want to vary with the input characteristic, be that distortion, treble, bass, phase, filter response, time delay, whatever. Construct the bridge, sensing the input you want as a control and make the modulator circuit that varies that in the output.

A good nominal model for a deliberately dynamic circuit is an auto-wah, perhaps like the Mutron. It senses the input signal amplitude, then adjusts a filter's characteristics in proportion. This is a blatent dynamic-ity, but it illustrates the concept. If you want other dynamic characteristics, go to it. One I swiped from Thomas Organ was the "Vibra-magic" trick - a tremolo that fades in from zero with the beginning of the note and swells up. Another is attack delay - suppressing the attack of a note, then swelling it up over the note's time on. Another I've seen is varying tremolo speed with note amplitude.

Again, these are fairly blatent examples. Generally "dynamic" is applied to more subtle examples, but this illustrates the point.

Want dynamic? Decide what and with which and to whom, as the limerick says.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey guys, i got an idea for dynamics with dirt pedals that use leds as clippers....

since the leds flash when ya juice your guitar into the circuit, couldn't we take a simple ldr and hook it up to the volume pot of the pedal or something so that when the light flashes
it makes the signal a little louder?

do i make any sense? has anyone tried something like this?

i'd imagine you could use it to trigger a filter sweep too, or start/stop some kind of modulation by playing dynamics, right?

[armdnrdy]

hey guys, i got an idea for dynamics with dirt pedals that use leds as clippers....

since the leds flash when ya juice your guitar into the circuit, couldn't we take a simple ldr and hook it up to the volume pot of the pedal or something so that when the light flashes
it makes the signal a little louder?

do i make any sense? has anyone tried something like this?

i'd imagine you could use it to trigger a filter sweep too, or start/stop some kind of modulation by playing dynamics, right?

Jimi......Congratulations!
You just invented Tremolo!

Seriously though, I've been watching this thread and I had a similar idea.
I think the LED/volume thing is like a reverse optical compressor. The volume cycles with each note played.

You can test how this would sound by blasting Smoke on the water on your stereo, man the volume knob, and turn the volume up at each note.

The test should prove one of two things......either that this is a cool idea.....or if your wife/girlfriend complains, your dog runs out of the house and your neighbor won't speak to you for a week....than it's a bad idea! 

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey guys, i got an idea for dynamics with dirt pedals that use leds as clippers....

since the leds flash when ya juice your guitar into the circuit, couldn't we take a simple ldr and hook it up to the volume pot of the pedal or something so that when the light flashes
it makes the signal a little louder?

do i make any sense? has anyone tried something like this?

i'd imagine you could use it to trigger a filter sweep too, or start/stop some kind of modulation by playing dynamics, right?

Jimi......Congratulations!
You just invented Tremolo!

Seriously though, I've been watching this thread and I had a similar idea.
I think the LED/volume thing is like a reverse optical compressor. The volume cycles with each note played.

You can test how this would sound by blasting Smoke on the water on your stereo, man the volume knob, and turn the volume up at each note.

The test should prove one of two things......either that this is a cool idea.....or if your wife/girlfriend complains, your dog runs out of the house and your neighbor won't speak to you for a week....than it's a bad idea! 

my girlfriend would probably stab me in my sleep. my dog would run and ninja me. man. the neighbors already hate me. there's a blues song in there waiting to happen.

what i was thinking was either using it to lower the gain somewhere or have the ldr act as a "gate" to maybe sweep a filter or something... maybe a distortion that when ya hit it hard triggers an envelope follower so it goes "slurrrrrp"...

but man... i like the smoke on the water thing. is that the same as my old rhythm guitar player? the guy that always had to use his volume pedal to "articulate" each note?

cuz i remember playing smoke on the water with him one time, and i think i heard that effect. was kinda cool... not in that particular application, but...i mean, if ya knew what you were doing and wanted that kinda sound (this guy i don't think even knew he was doing it..)   

[duck_arse]

why not try putting the ldr in series with a clipping diode, or even a feedback diode? if you had a led in parallel w/ a Si and ldr, for example, what would the envelope do to the clipping? OR, the ldr across the resistor in the clipping diode at the end of a percolator .......

[midwayfair]

hey guys, i got an idea for dynamics with dirt pedals that use leds as clippers....

since the leds flash when ya juice your guitar into the circuit, couldn't we take a simple ldr and hook it up to the volume pot of the pedal or something so that when the light flashes
it makes the signal a little louder?

do i make any sense? has anyone tried something like this?

i'd imagine you could use it to trigger a filter sweep too, or start/stop some kind of modulation by playing dynamics, right?

This would work. Might make an interesting slow gear variant. I'd put the LDR in series with the volume pot so that the effect isn't so extreme. Or stick the LDR across a gain resistor ... then when it shrinks you get more gain. You could even bias a transistor with the LED side of the vactrol, and use the bias to trigger the LDR side to boost up the transistor that preceeds it. That would be kinda hilarious, actually.

[teemuk]

hey guys, i got an idea for dynamics with dirt pedals that use leds as clippers....

since the leds flash when ya juice your guitar into the circuit, couldn't we take a simple ldr and hook it up to the volume pot of the pedal or something so that when the light flashes
it makes the signal a little louder?

do i make any sense? has anyone tried something like this?

http://music-electronics-forum.com/attachments/4454d1234452179-fender-studio-85.jpg

[GGBB]

This would work. Might make an interesting slow gear variant. I'd put the LDR in series with the volume pot so that the effect isn't so extreme. Or stick the LDR across a gain resistor ... then when it shrinks you get more gain. You could even bias a transistor with the LED side of the vactrol, and use the bias to trigger the LDR side to boost up the transistor that preceeds it. That would be kinda hilarious, actually.

Along those lines - couldn't you do something so that the envelope detector signal in an orange squeezer e.g. works backwards so that the voltage controlled FET resistor increases the volume instead of decreasing it?

[midwayfair]

This would work. Might make an interesting slow gear variant. I'd put the LDR in series with the volume pot so that the effect isn't so extreme. Or stick the LDR across a gain resistor ... then when it shrinks you get more gain. You could even bias a transistor with the LED side of the vactrol, and use the bias to trigger the LDR side to boost up the transistor that preceeds it. That would be kinda hilarious, actually.

Along those lines - couldn't you do something so that the envelope detector signal in an orange squeezer e.g. works backwards so that the voltage controlled FET resistor increases the volume instead of decreasing it?

Kinda. You'd want no decay, though, just instantaneous.

[Paul Marossy]

If you dig into circuits which are lauded as 'dynamic' you'll find something that changes the output sound in some way with changing inputs. Generally a slow output variation with changing inputs is perceived as more dynamic, as sudden variation - like running into opamp clipping - is not described as dynamic, as a gated sound is not.

Dynamic-sounding circuits have a variation of output harmonic structure, amplitude, treble content, phase, time delay, whatever, over a range of input signals. Historically, designers either grasped this implicitly and used the side effects of a circuit unconsciously to get more dynamics, or explicitly and applied for patents on their particular inspiration.

A more in depth way of saying what I said - like plugging straight into an amp and having it be soft or overdriven simply by changing how hard you slam the strings. That's what I call "dynamic". Of course there are many other definitions also.