Ticking optical tremolo problem, sigh...

[ElectricDruid]

Alright, so I tried your suggestions and yes, I got full frequency response now but... mine is ticking now too!   In fact, the ticking has a lot of oomph as well.
Could be that the circuit is still on breadboard. I don't have the ticking issue with my first design, with the gain boost in the last stage.

Now from what I've seen from conventional tremelo designs is that the boost is most always done in the last stage. I wonder if boost in first stage has something to do with it?

I don't see why "boost first" would be worse. Logically, it should be *better* - boosting the signal on the way in gives a better S/N ratio.

More importantly, how are your ground paths set up? If it's still on the breadboard, you might have all sort of potential snarl-ups. Make sure that the ground from the StompLFO and the LEDs is separate from the audio side, and that they don't meet until they're right back where the power comes in.

I was figuring, the boost in front, especially with a tremelo with filtering like a harmonic trem, it would be better in terms of noise reduction, so that's why I was keen on trying out your design Tom.

Yeah, exactly! It should be better, right?!?

It's a bit weird for me because I didn't even consider this stuff with the FilterFX, and there's *no* problem with ticking in that circuit at all. I don't really understand why a one-vactrol-based tremolo should be so much worse than a two-vactrol-based filter, but that's how it's seems to be. I should check the board layout. Maybe I did it right by sheer dumb luck!