Funny Cat - Mode C

[Mark Hammer]

Found my soldering iron, dumnped the box of half-finished projects on the counter and made plans to start finishing things one by one.

One of the thngs close enough to being box-ready was the Silly Feline, RG Keen's clone of the old Roland AG-5 Funny Cat envelope-controlled filter pedal.  It was easy to get up and working, though I found it needed a little more zip in the envelope follower section.  Happily, that was easily cured by sticking an overdrive in front of it.

The soft distortion is an interesting sound.  Basically an unclean compressor set to full tilt compression, it has an interesting sound on its own.  Modes A and B on it are fairly normal sounding swept bandpass filter settings.  One has a faster attack envelope than the other.  It is that third mode which did not sound quite right, and havng no example handy to compare it to, I was wondering what it was supposed to sound like.  On mine it is a very harsh splatty spitting sound, quite unlike the other two modes.  Is this normal?

[Zero the hero]

I've built it twice and I never had a chance to get it working right.
The output signal was waaaaaay to looooooud and the mode 3 distorced like a mad. Maybe the fet in the compression stage plays a central role in this design, but i use both BC264 and 2SK30 with similar results.

[RaceDriver205]

When I get round to modifying mine, which I got to work nicely in one mode (filter), I intend to have it make the "woah-woah" sound that moose managed to make it do. Sounds awesome!

[moosapotamus]

I kind of assume the funnycat clips at tonefrenzy are a good representation of what it "should" sound like. There's some splatty sounding stuff in there.

Make the feedback resistors on those opamps variable.

~ Charlie

[Gus]

I have been looking at that and started collecting parts for a build.  I am going to built it as the mondo page to start.

I believe I missed most of the web reversing posts in the past on this effect so what I post might have been postd in the past

mode a  (100/  47 + (47 in parallel with 22)) +1 gain part does not make sense  other side after detector filtered, attack R11 and R23 decay R24

mode b  (100 /47) +1 (Gain of about 3)  B  connected to C   other side after detector filtered, attack R11 and R23 decay R24

mode c  (100 /47) +1  B  connected to C (Gain of about 3)    no filter after detector so control signal to the base of Q2 is what comes after R11 so it will have ripple and be more harsh

Gain part does not make sense (not much gain change) to me B connected to C
mondo page sw not drawn the same as the other pages

EDITED

R23 might be fun to make a fixed and pot maybe  4.7k and a 10k pot to start

Now R18 might be fun to adjust

Maybe a more useful mode would be to use one resistor a 47K for R10,26,25 to ground no switch and a pot and fixed R(47K fixed and 100K and bigger) for Rfbb and for the other part of the mode a toggle spdt for filtered/ not filtered detector

R.G., Charlie and anyone else that helped thanks for all the work

Has anyone figured out the mode switch?

[RaceDriver205]

Oh dear me, tonefrenzy sound clips are the most unflattering examples of guitar effects ive ever heard. If they were the first guitar effect clips I ever heard, they'd also be my last. They make my ears want to vomit. Just my 2 cents.

[Mark Hammer]

The playing frequently makes me wince, but in their favour the source material is generally standardized and that's good for getting a sense of how the pedal in question responds.  Listen to enough different samples (and from your comments, I suspect you'd rather go for a root canal, right?  ) and you'll realize that they have probably fed a digital sample through the effects in question.  With the sample, I was able to confirm that my build was "in the ball park" and sounded the way it was supposed to, within component tolerance limits.

[Rob Strand]

Here's my last set of notes:

* 1) RG's "last schematic":  The Mode switch is incorrect but the PCB is correct.  There is a link across B&C switch contacts in the op-amp feedback path. There is a link between A&B on the DC control side.  Some of the "other" schematics in RG's set show the correct switch wiring.

* 2) 3-way Switch:

The three-way switch controls the gain and time-constant of the
of the rectifier circuit that controls the sweepable filter.

Mode   Gain   Time Constant   Comment
A   low   in      Subtle sweep
B   high   in      Exagerated sweep
C   high   out      Self modulated (under water sound)

* 3) Confirmations from Charlie (May '03):
- R10 is 15K ohm
- pots are linear not log.
- Confirmed Switching: There is a link across B&C switch contacts in the op-amp feedback path. There is a link between A&B on the DC control side.
- The volume for the three switch positions is about the same.

Appart from these touches I had a high level of confidence we got this one right.

You guys will have to bash is out from here.  I don't log in regulalry.

[Gus]

Rob

  Thanks R10 being 15K makes sense.

   Been thinking about Q1.   I would think the Rdson(IDSS spec might help here) would have an effect.


Gus

[Chawk]

* 1) RG's "last schematic":  The Mode switch is incorrect but the PCB is correct.  There is a link across B&C switch contacts in the op-amp feedback path. There is a link between A&B on the DC control side.  Some of the "other" schematics in RG's set show the correct switch wiring.

Hello there,

I recently built this pedal based on the GGG schematic and layout and your mod tips. However I'm not getting nearly the organic/gurgled sounds that Moosapatomus achieved. I followed the steps he took and the most updated version of the schem, the only real difference were the op amps. I used 4558s instead of TL072s. I've ordered some TL072s to see if that is what's causing the differences that I'm getting from your sound clips. But do you think that is the issue? I'll try to get some of my own sound clips posted to show you what I'm talking about.

Also, can you explain what you mean by "a link" do you mean an actual jumper going from lug 1 to 2 on the DC side and from 2 and 3 on the feedback side? Kind of a newbie still so I'm just trying to clarify.

Thanks!