The cascaded-and-bypassed soft-clipping diode thing

[Steben]

Hi Mark,

I'm surprised about this thread (and especially not been able to read it  ).
What you address here is exactly the slope/gradient discussion of clipping as I tried to point at in recent posts. The architecture of the diode combinations can simulate any amp response.
Opamp clipping is mentioned here. I wonder how lower treshold devices such as schottky+silicon might reduced the effect of opamp clipping.
Another element is the dual loop set of the drive pot. With gain at low, the second loop (with the diodes) has a max gain of a small 5x. With high gain, this becomes more than 140x. The slope of the reduced gain at the LEDs gets higher as well though changing the character. The "drive" is thus not a mere pre volume yet sets the "type" of gain as well. Boosting the input with a low drive setting will sound different.
Still, there is no addition of the dynamic crossover distortion which I love so much in tube amps. These clippers are with their symmetry all in the push pull poweramp clipping league.

[Mark Hammer]

Thanks for resurrecting the thread.  I had forgotten about it.  There is a lot of very good information in it that I have to study more closely.

[Steben]

Thanks for resurrecting the thread.  I had forgotten about it.  There is a lot of very good information in it that I have to study more closely.

By the way: that exact clipping stage is found on most frontman series, G10, G15, G25R, ....

[amz-fx]

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(expired)

regards, Jack