New project : "3 channel" amp simulator

[ricothetroll]

Hi,

I need a light and compact setup for one of my bands, so I decided to start this project. Nothing revolutionary here, I just want to have the possibility to switch between clean/crunch/distortion presets, with a reverb and a cabinet simulator, all in the same box. I chose the FV1 as a reverb, because it's not too expensive, small and that I have one piece in stock, and I chose Daniel Schwartz's Multicab Sim as a cabinet simulator, simply because it's the best I heards until now.

For the switching I chose to use RG's CD4053 circuit, because it's quite cheap and has the ability to switch quietly. I implemented a CD4043 SR flip flop to be able to toggle between the 3 effects with momentary switches. Relays could be easily added instead for genuine true bypass, but as there's only few components in the chain I found it unnecessary. I added the CD4010 buffers to prevent interaction between the 3 footswitches. The RC filter 1k/2u2 has been added to slow down the switching to 10ms, I might not use it when building the circuit if the switching turns out to be quiet enough.

I didn't implement the actual effects on the board, in order to be able to replace them easily, as a semi modular system. I intend to use ROG's Fetzer for clean, ROG's Azabache for crunch and a Big Muff for distortion/fuzz, but that's my personal taste, just use your own favorite effet instead.

Here are the infos about the components I borrowed :
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=70445.0 (Multicab Sim)
http://www.spinsemi.com/Products/datasheets/spn1001/FV-1.pdf (FV-1 datasheet)
http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/cd4053/cd4053.htm (RG's CD4053 bypass)
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4044b.pdf (CD4043 datasheet)
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4010b.pdf (CD4010 datasheet)

Here is my schematic :
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28610725/Amp_Sim_Schem1.png

Multicab isn't represented here because I'll paste an already made layout. It's implemented right after the "out" pin. That's the reason I didn't put any coupling capacitor here, the Multicab already has one at its input. I'll also put an XLR balanced output (electronic or transformer, I haven't decided yet), and a jack output with a switch before/after multicab, in case an amp would be available on stage.

Before starting the routing process I'd like to have your opinion on what could be improved, or what you would prefer instead of what I've done, or the mistakes I would have made. Any remark is welcome !

A PCB is coming soon !

Best regards.

Eric