Grand Laff & one small Q

[warioblast]

Hi,
I have a Grand Laff on my breadboard and I have a little question for you guys. Is this normal to have a volume drop when I switch to clipping diodes ? Diode lift & leds sound even.
Cheers,
Fabrice

[markm]

Yes.
It is very common to lose some output when clipping diodes are added to a circuit.

[warioblast]

thx for the quick reply. 
It's my first project with opamp & clipping diodes. I'm entering a new vast domain. 

[Peter Snowberg]

Clipping diodes will have two behaviors depending on the circuit they're used in. With a shunt clipper (diodes from signal to ground), the volume will be limited by the forward voltage of the diode and the signal will never get louder than the forward voltage. In a feedback clipper (diodes in the feedback loop of an opamp), the diodes switch the gain from a larger number down to one when the forward voltage is reached.

If you have multiple diode types and you want to evaluate them for differences based on the type of diode, you can measure the forward voltage of each diode used and try to match them by using more than one diode in series in one pair. Example: random LED on one side (~1.8V) and three 1N4001s in series on the other (~0.6V each)