JH's wavefolder (link) variable distortion

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

IMHO, the biggest downside to a synth waveshaper, when used for guitar, is that they end up being very high parts-count fuzzboxes. Perhaps there's something about the inherent dynamic and harmonic complexity of a typical guitar signal that "evens out" after such extreme distortion, which is what waveshaping is.

This is true. To get the most from it, you would have to compress the input signal heavily, run the compressed signal thru the waveshaper, then reconstitute the original dynamics (using an envelope follower to extract the original envelope & then a VCA to impose ithe dynamics on the waveshaper output). In the case of the original synth application, the signal is usually of constant level.

I still think something could be done with not THAT high  parts count, using NE571 compressors for example.

[Processaurus]

This is true. To get the most from it, you would have to compress the input signal heavily, run the compressed signal thru the waveshaper, then reconstitute the original dynamics (using an envelope follower to extract the original envelope & then a VCA to impose ithe dynamics on the waveshaper output). In the case of the original synth application, the signal is usually of constant level.

I still think something could be done with not THAT high  parts count, using NE571 compressors for example.

Nice idea.  Maybe you could have a knob that would control the downward expansion, between none and something that had the dynamics of the original signal, to make sustain seperate from the amount of wavefolding going on.  One of my favorite things about the wavefolding, though, is how animated a note sounds as the wave unwraps itself, it needs something to modulate that, like an envelope, LFO, noise, expression pedal, etc. for optimal weirdness.

Those plots on J. Haible's wavefolder page look kind of like Zach's description of what the Machine does. Is that kind of the idea, or am I mixing apples and oranges?

~ Charlie

I've heard Zach refer to the Machine a "dual frequency tripler" which I imagined to be like Tim's Triple Fuzz, and Ken Stone's "Simple Wave Folder" (On his synth diy web page, http://www.cgs.synth.net/), except with two of the transistor tripling  stages in there somewhere.  The JH wavefolder I made sounded somewhat different than what I've heard of the machine and the triple fuzz (more trebly weirdness), even though they're both wave folding/ crossover distortion doohickeys that add high end artifacts that change depending on the dynamics of notes that come in.  Check out Ken's article on his page if you're interested.