THAT Corp Pedal Page

[ElectricDruid]

THAT corporation have launched a new "pedal page" with stomp box designs featuring their chips.

It's heavy on compressors as you might imagine from their product line, but nonetheless interesting:

http://www.thatcorp.com/pedals/index.html

Thought a few of you might like to have a look, anyway.

Tom

[EBK]

Thanks, Tom!

I've built Pedal Design 5, by the way (actually, I've built Revision E -- I'll have to compare to Revision F...).

[Ice-9]

Cheers,
I'm looking at compressors at the moment and have been wanting to look at the THATS IC's this is a nice find.

[EBK]

They're promising to eventually add other stuff beyond compressors/limiters.

They have a design note on a VCA-controlled state variable filter that  could become something interesting, perhaps.  http://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/dn130.pdf

[StephenGiles]

Thank you, very interesting

[robthequiet]

Cool chips, but available as surface-mount. So if you want to do through-hole, they offer adapter boards. Of course, buying the board and the chip means you still have to deal with surface mount, so if you're doing a one-off on proto-board it makes sense, sort of.

[EBK]

Cool chips, but available as surface-mount. So if you want to do through-hole, they offer adapter boards. Of course, buying the board and the chip means you still have to deal with surface mount, so if you're doing a one-off on proto-board it makes sense, sort of.

They won't actually sell you the adapter boards, unless you are a "qualified applicant."

Still, there are plenty of adapter boards out there (I used one from Schmartboard, but I'd use something cheaper if I choose to build another), and drag soldering these things is a cinch.

[Kipper4]

All very intresting thanks guys.
Just out of intrest are all those chips already on the market? Anybody used them?
I spy an SVF.

[EBK]

I bought mine (THAT4316) from Mouser.

[Kipper4]

Oh wow. What is a "qualified applicant" and what does it take to be one?

[robthequiet]

I think they want to sell beaucoup chips so probably bigger than diy shops, but then I haven't asked them meself...

I've been looking at 2180s to make a noise gate/compressor for a while. The SVF makes me think of a multi-band compressor, though.

[EBK]

Slightly OT:
I have to imagine these guys get into a Who's on First problem with a name like that, er... That.

Reminds me of a friend of mine who lives on a street called "The Circle".  Ordering delivery is difficult for him.  Luckily, he can resort to telling them to punch it into their GPS, which seems to work out.

[Mark Hammer]

I'm as much of a sucker for a nice simple problem-free compressor as anyone here, but you'd think there might be at least ONE gate or even ducker in that collection?

[EBK]

I'm as much of a sucker for a nice simple problem-free compressor as anyone here, but you'd think there might be at least ONE gate or even ducker in that collection?

Here you go!

Gate:
http://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/dn100.pdf

Ducker:
http://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/dn102.pdf

More generally, look here: http://www.thatcorp.com/Design_Notes.shtml

[Mark Hammer]

I was aware of those.  I was hoping the 9V collection would be a little bit more eclectic, given what theiur chips are capable of.

[EBK]

I was just about to write that a ducker doesn't seem useful as a pedal, but then I remembered that my band has a guitar player who has a tendency to get annoyingly louder after we've finished carefully setting levels at sound check. Hmm.... 

[StephenGiles]

I was just about to write that a ducker doesn't seem useful as a pedal, but then I remembered that my band has a guitar player who has a tendency to get annoyingly louder after we've finished carefully setting levels at sound check. Hmm.... 

Ah but if he has a "proper" bass tone it shouldn't be too much of a problem, it's when the bass player tries to play lead guitar................

[bool]

It's heavy on compressors as you might imagine ...

I guess I'd imagine something like THAT indeed ....

[ElectricDruid]

All very intresting thanks guys.
Just out of intrest are all those chips already on the market? Anybody used them?
I spy an SVF.

I've used the 2162 dual VCA chip, just for  few tests. Simple to use, aside from being tiny. It's basically half of a 2164, hence the name. They even had a application note for replacing the SSM2164 with their chip when AD EOL'd it, but then CoolAudio stepped in and now everyone has loads of V2164s.

I've build a SVF with the 2164, so doing it with the THAT VCAs should be basically the same. The only problem I had was that the integrator op-amps cause a small phase shift which affects the resonance feedback at higher frequencies particularly. The result is that it's much easier to get resonance at high frequencies than low ones. Reading around it, I found out this is common enough problem with SVFs. Still, it sounded great nonetheless - put it down to "character". Uneven resonance response never hurt the Minimoog after all.

Tom

[Mark Hammer]

I was just about to write that a ducker doesn't seem useful as a pedal, but then I remembered that my band has a guitar player who has a tendency to get annoyingly louder after we've finished carefully setting levels at sound check. Hmm.... 

Our community had to wait some 25-30 years, if not more, until we got ducking delay that would only introduce repeats when one stopped playing.  Prior to that, you had to put up with repeats cluttering up the audio landscape.

Do not underestimate the value of ducking as a tool for the individual musician.  It's not all about two different signal sources competing.