LDR Sweller

[Kipper4]

New video link coming up



https://youtu.be/h-cPjevFb7I

[anotherjim]

I really like the slow attack effect.

I see you've found a simple way of giving the LED a little extra smoothing.

Note that putting an extra LED in for indication, if it's just simply in parallel with the Vactrol LED, will change things for the Vactrol performance. So that it doesn't affect the real circuit, I would give it a separate limit resistor - 4k7ish - and wire it between supply and the op-amp output. It won't exactly follow the Vactrol LED, but it would best be independent.

Try to lose R4 - it probably only needs a wire to Vb there.

[Kipper4]

Why thanks Jim

I've not tried it without the parallel led so that might change things. Or I might leave it in because at least it's behaving as I wanted it to.
Note that the vactrol led has its own Vbias now which is not in the Q and D schematic.
It is made up of
+9v-10k- two bias smoothing caps 100uf+4.7nf OUT- 22k - gnd
And the vactrol led anode has a 100R resistor from the 6v separate Vb.

I will remove R4 thanks for the tip.

I'll try the 4k7 on the parallel led too.
Im also adding a A100k output pot because even though I haven't A/B ed it to the bypassed signal I'm confident it is way louder.
I added a resistor before the 3k3 before the Rise pot.
And amended the charge pump caps to 2 x 1uf.
So all that's in the vid but not the Q and D schematic.

I'm amazed it performs as well as it does for so few componants.
Downside is of course that when your not playing it can be noisy because when the led is dark the gain is maxed.
There may still be room for improvement.
I'll be looking at the other ideas you both kindly presented before, when I'm on holiday next week.
Watch out Portugal. I'm gonna catch some waves and Ray's.
It's minus 3 here this week and I need a break.

[Kipper4]

Quick update
Thanks for the help Transmogrifox, cozy, Garcho and Jim
Special shout out to Groovenut and Sam Hay
No guitar knob trickery its all the circuit.

Heres a quick and dirty video coming soon

[armdnrdy]

Downside is of course that when your not playing it can be noisy because when the led is dark the gain is maxed.
There may still be room for improvement.

Maybe try incorporating a FET gate sidechain.

Look at the CE-1, ADA Flanger schematics.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=45141.msg329679#msg329679

[deadastronaut]

sweet..

[Kipper4]

Thats no longer an issue mate but thanks.
i looked at the ce 1 schematic and i guess that its q11, q13 forming the fet gate right ?
here
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=119

[Kipper4]

I respect your opinions guys.
High praise indeed coming from you Rob Thanks

[lars-musik]

Hey Rich,
sounds like you really made it! Great. Thanks. Again.

Now I need to wrap this into a 1590a because otherwise I won't have any peace of mind.

Is v10 THE schemo or did you update anything?

Did I say thanks for sharing?



Ah yes, already did. Nevermind.

[armdnrdy]

i looked at the ce 1 schematic and i guess that its q11, q13 forming the fet gate right ?
here
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=119

IC3, Q12, and associated components.

Basically, when the input signal is above a certain point, (adjustable by changing component values) the "wet" signal is let through. When the input signal drops below a certain point, the wet signal is shunted to ground making a transition to the "dry" signal at the output.

[Kipper4]

Thanks Larry.
I'll go back over it. Just downloaded the technology of fet switching pdf too.
Its something i wanted to use in the future for my reverb circuits anyway.
@Lars
Theres a couple of mistakes in the version 10 schematic in the thread I'll probably update it at a later stage.

[anotherjim]

It sounds great.
Don't hear the noise much in the demo, but yes, a noise gate like the CE1 should be fairly simple. But it uses a negative envelope to control the JFET Q12.

Best knob sweller I've seen was/is Jan Akkerman of Dutch prog band Focus. Check out the track Focus II. All done with the little finger.

[Kipper4]

It sounds great.
Don't hear the noise much in the demo, but yes, a noise gate like the CE1 should be fairly simple. But it uses a negative envelope to control the JFET Q12.

Best knob sweller I've seen was/is Jan Akkerman of Dutch prog band Focus. Check out the track Focus II. All done with the little finger.

Thanks Jim.
It's not a really good demo but when the strings are plucked a little harder than normal it swells like anything.
Best knob Sweller I've seen is Linda Lovelace. No pinky involved.
Don't even get me started on the knob gags.
I'll revisit the focus II.
I wish I'd made a better vid using the rise and depth controls but time is tight right now.
There's no noise issue now. Even with the tube amp up loud (house loud) it's fine.
I think I will make good future use of jfet switching in future projects though.
Lars I think it will probably work with an lm324 quad too.
Rich

[Kipper4]

Quick update vid

https://youtu.be/HyTaSAV2kSI

[blackieNYC]

Very cool! I think you may gotten a slightly longer attack than my Slow Gear, which I  love. 
Not familiar with the Gator. I look forward to the v.11 schem.