Boss DS-1 Distortion

[saemskin]

I just built this tonepad project.  Besides the led not working, which I'm certain I can troubleshoot, I think the tone control sounds like, um  bad.   Can we curse here?

The tone gets way too high for what I plan on using this for.  Is there a way to alter the frequency response of the tone control so it does either:

-cuts off at a lower range, giving more of a spread though this smaller window of frequency response.  Meaning, if it now goes from 60 Hz to 16k Hz I would rather have it cutoff at around 5k Hz or 8k Hz and a finer control in between.

OR

-just shift the response lower altogether.  I wouldnt mind the lower values being too low to hear.  Even though you cant hear 10-35 Hz, it does have its uses.

Any ideas?

[Yun]

I just built this tonepad project.  Besides the led not working, which I'm certain I can troubleshoot, I think the tone control sounds like, um  bad.   Can we curse here?

The tone gets way too high for what I plan on using this for.  Is there a way to alter the frequency response of the tone control so it does either:

-cuts off at a lower range, giving more of a spread though this smaller window of frequency response.  Meaning, if it now goes from 60 Hz to 16k Hz I would rather have it cutoff at around 5k Hz or 8k Hz and a finer control in between.

OR

-just shift the response lower altogether.  I wouldnt mind the lower values being too low to hear.  Even though you cant hear 10-35 Hz, it does have its uses.

Any ideas?

There's a simple, but yet oh so effective mod on this site under the "simple mods and tips" section of this site.  Here's the mod:  Put a "smallish capacitor" from lug 1 and connect the other lead to lug 3.  i've used .001uf and it works pretty well, man.  What it does is it "smooths" out your tone control and wipes away all the blood from your ears haha. 

Other than that:

-Try doubleing the diodes in the diode clipping circuits.  that is to put 2 (silicon) diodes in series on each side.  This gives you WAY more volume and beefy grit.  In other words:  it will make your ds-1 more "bassey". 

[ubersam]

I am sure that someone will correct me if I am mistaken, anyway.. the DS-1 tone control looks like the BMP tone control. The range is already not that big, 150hz to 3300Hz, or there abouts. But, if I understand correctly how the BMP style control functions, it turns down one end as it raises the other, that is: as you turn up the control--the bass is turned down as the treble is raised. You could to change that to a low-pass type tone control (as in the 'Simple Mods' section of the wiki). Other than that, you could change the .01uf cap (in parallel with the clipping diodes) to a bigger cap. Maybe a .022, .033 or a .047.

[MartyMart]

I built a DS-1 some months ago from Phillips schem, minus all the switching.
It was on stripboard and is a little large, but fits a 1590BB.
The result was great, however it sounds nothing like a "stock" DS-1 ! ( thankfully )
The tone control does have some similarities to  BMP TC, not quite the same thing though ..
Amongst several changes, one was to reduce C12 ( 100nf off TC lug 1 ) to 68n and both
C11/C10 as 22n.
Seems to have a better range, and not as much "ice pick" top end past 12 o'clock
If I remember correctly, everything else was either stock, or as close as I could get
without using multiple caps/resistors, so perhaps some 2k2's were 1k8's etc.
Q1/Q2/Q3 were all 2N5088's and my output pot was connected differently, more like
a standard "final" pot, feeding Q3 from lug 2 with lug 1 grounded and ignoring R18/19.
Lug 2 went to +4.5v and C13 before Q3.

MM.

[saemskin]

more questions from me.
My test input/output consists of any synth in my studio and an old pair of Koss headphones that are broken in half.  True mono operation.  When I checked the DS-1 it worked fine, but tonight I connected it to my DAW and holy smokes the noise floor is at nearly -30 dbfs!  And the Green Ringer I completed and built a nifty little encolusre for out of uhmw sides and lexan top/bottom has a -22 dbfs noise floor.

This renders these things completely unusable.  Is there anything I can do to fix this poroblem?  The BYOC delay I built has a noise floor at around -58 dbfs which is just fine.

[ubersam]

more questions from me.
My test input/output consists of any synth in my studio and an old pair of Koss headphones that are broken in half.  True mono operation.  When I checked the DS-1 it worked fine, but tonight I connected it to my DAW and holy smokes the noise floor is at nearly -30 dbfs!  And the Green Ringer I completed and built a nifty little encolusre for out of uhmw sides and lexan top/bottom has a -22 dbfs noise floor.

This renders these things completely unusable.  Is there anything I can do to fix this poroblem?  The BYOC delay I built has a noise floor at around -58 dbfs which is just fine.

Not sure about the Green Ringer, but the DS-1 is a gain device. I would imagine that any noise at the input would be raised along with the signal being fed into the device. You could try a noise gate at the input and see if that helps the noise floor.