envelope controlled distortion?

[fatfoohy]

A couple weeks ago i realized a big push on envelope controlled distortions, and now that i want one, i cant find any of the links. maybe i have the terminology wrong, but i want something that well give me a distortion at the start of the note, that will fade away quickly and leave me with a mostly clean note.  Is an envelope controlled distortion what i need, or is that something different. Any links or designs would be of  great thanks.
Fatfoohy

[Mark Hammer]

Actually, ALL distortions do that, since the start of the note is always much closer to the clipping threshold than what comes after it.  The question is whether the transition from clipping to clean happens in the time frame you want, and to the degree you want.

There are several pedals that employ a combination of distorted and clean sound.  The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive has two channels - clean and dirty - and allows you to combine them.  The Gretsch Controfuzz does too, except that it is engineered to do the opposite of what you want; it starts out clean and ends up dirty.

The transition is the hardest aspect to master.  Although, as noted above, the signal starts to move away from the clipping threshold after initial attack, that transition is peppered with little spikes that make the transition "sputtery".  I am sensing that what you want is the functional equivalent of a Fripp-like sustained fuzz that will morph into clean, without any sputtering or transition in the quality of the distorted tone, merely a "handover" from dirty to clean.  Am I correct?

[fatfoohy]

thank you, yes that is exactly what I'm looking for, just something that could make that transition, any ideas on a good circuit? I'd like to maybe be able to control how long it take to make that transition too

[sean k]

What springs to mind is dividing your signal between the distortion you like, followed by a limiter set with a fast decay, and a slowgear followed by a compressor. Then combining those signals.

I don't know though if limiters come with a low input turnon threshold combined with a fast decay turnoff.

[WangoFett]

How about feeding the input through some anti-parallel diodes that feed into a super high gain and nasty clipping stage, then mix that with the dry signal?
Any signal that is loud enough to pass through the diodes gets crunched to hell, but will also fade away quickly with note decay.  It's kinda envelope controlled.
With some tweaking it may produce what you are after.

Actually any extremely gated fuzz (e.g. some fuzz face based effects) blended with a clean signal may do what you want with enough tweaking.

[fatfoohy]

WangoFett
I love the sound of your idea, that sounds exactly like what i am looking for.  could you post a schematic for the diodes for the input? I also like the idea of a compressor, that might be a fun aspect to play with to get everything more even.  Any ideas on a good circuit for the distortion, i'd like something that could make a bass really growl. Thanks!

[WangoFett]

Sorry am in a graphically challenged environment, will splash up something when I can.

[fatfoohy]

i think i know what you mean, after an input buffer, split the signal, and then take one of the signals, and run it through a pair of parallel diodes, each facing opposite ways, and then into a high gain distortion(maybe a bosstone?) and then mix that with the dry, am I correct?

[WangoFett]

Pretty much.
I'd put a gain stage in instead of the input buffer so that you can beef up quiet signals enough to push through the diodes, a dist+ or rat style stage after maybe.
Have a play with it.  You may find that you hate the sound of the cross-over distortion created by the diodes and want to go a different route.

If you invert the wet side before mixing it with the dry you can get some fun stuff happening like wave inversion, nullification or wave tip folding, depending on the various gain and blend settings.

[fatfoohy]

alright, thanks for all of your help, i'll have to try this sometime when i get the money for parts, haha it's rough being a hobbyist in high school, I'll get as soon as i figure out how this all works out for me

[DDD]

The Bronx Cheer by Tim Escobedo does the work well. Very impressive voltage controlled distortion stage.