New "Tornado" sound sample ....

[MartyMart]

..... following on from the recent "High Gain" thread, here's a first sample
of my "Tornado" a medium to high gain distortion circuit :

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/albums/Martys-layouts-and-photos/Tornado_demo.mp3

First section is gain at 1/2 way on pedal, HB back pup and shows finger/pick dynamics, NO volume or gain increased here.
Next comes some rhythm work at full gain, again trying to show dynamics, rather than how many notes I can play ( or NOT play ! )
Switches between front and back pup - HUGE tonal change here
Ends showing some palm mute stuff.

I hope that it demonstrates the "amp" type response that I was after, there's some "spank" to the sound
a good rich tone ( tone pot included ) and sounds from almost clean through to quite heavy !

Many many thanks to John ( Basicaudio ) for his help with this, sorting out my gain setup.
Its not based on any "real" amp just a LARGE one from my imagination !
Tone pot section is a slightly modified BSIAB TC not miles from a BMP stack.

If there's enough interest in this, then I'll finish it and draw up a schem and layout, WARNING !!

IT'S NOT A SMALL PROJECT  -  4 x Fet stages and a Muamp stage too, 19 caps ,21 resistors, three pots
and 4 trimpots   

Enjoy, I hope as much as I'm enjoying it  !!

MM.

[Marcos - Munky]

If there's enough interest in this, then I'll finish it and draw up a schem and layout, WARNING !!

How can you say that!!!!!!!! Man, it's a killing sound amp-like distortion. I really liked it and want to build one. Please post the schematic, layout, photo of the unit, everything, or I will kill you .

[MartyMart]

Don't kill me  !!!!!!!!!

Forgot to say ... recorded through Behringer Di/cab sim of a 4X12 cab
This introduces some "noise" which is NOT present on my valve amp !!
So , there may well be a "touch" of hiss but nothing to worry about for such
a high gain circuit

MM

[JimRayden]

Love the clip. Ampy.

Now, I want that schemo on my desk first thing tomorrow morning!

---------
Jimbo

[John Lyons]

Holy crap!
Very nice sounds there. 
Clear and articulate.
Love it!
Lotsa reverb but it does sound nice.

The gain isn't really that high it seems. Well...not modern high gain standards... It surely gets a good amount though. I wonder if you can add a pot or two (dual gang maybe) in there and dial up or down the gain a bit? A couple places where there are dividers could become pots. Maybe not needed but it would help you get min gain and max gain out of the circuit. The possibly a treble bypass cap or two to keep the high end there. Not sure if that would be an issue here...

Of course you owe at least me a schematic for helping!
Seriously though, Just kidding.

John

[MartyMart]

John, I had a 470pf cap on the gain pot but when lowered it just got TOO bright !
Theres a couple of others paralleled across resistors.
I could go back a step and have more gain, or write up a mod or two to increase
the gain.
Having taken it back some, I REALLY like the tone and the fact that it gets quite clean
at the lowest gain pot setting.
I'm very happy with the pot "range" from 0 to 3/4 is great, above 3/4 there's only
a slight increase, but it's one of the better "gain range" things that I've done.
Much more gain and the pot is all but useless ,,,, just FULL ON !!

MM.

[Doug_H]

I like the part at the beginning where the notes stop clipping as they decay. Sounds real good. Are you running it at a higher voltage?

Is the cab sim part of a v-amp by chance? I've been thinking of picking up a v-amp for some stuff I'm doing.

Doug

[MartyMart]

I like the part at the beginning where the notes stop clipping as they decay. Sounds real good. Are you running it at a higher voltage?

Is the cab sim part of a v-amp by chance? I've been thinking of picking up a v-amp for some stuff I'm doing.

Doug

No, it's at 9v and fets biased at around 4.5v to 5v , glad that you're liking it
The front is played quite softly, mostly with my thumb, then I "dig in" a little.
The DI  is the GI-100 Ultra-G with Jason Raths cab sim option, introduces a little "hiss" though !!
It could be the same as the v-amp sim ... not sure .

MM.

[Eirik]

Wow!  Schemo! Now!

[John Lyons]

Marty
I'd try something like 100pf to 300pf for the treble bypass just off the top of my head.
But if it sounds fine without it then cool!
The Paralleled caps are treble peaking but those are fixed of course.
I played the clip several times and it does sound nice and natural. No fizzies etc.

John

[mydementia]

I thought I was getting close to the end of my distortion list!!!
Awesome sound clip Marty - I'm looking forward to making a layout and building one of these beasties too!
Mike

[MartyMart]

Here's a quick draw version :
http://aronnelson.com/gallery/Martys-layouts-and-photos/Tornado?full=1
Click on it to make it a bit smaller, best to download it.

It's busy but very clear, follow left to right and down the page.
Connect A to A    B to B   C to C   and  D to D for correct "FLOW"

Jfets are :
Q1 MPF102
Q2 2N5457
Q3/Q4 MU and Q5/Q6 J201 .... I'll edit the schem to show this !

Should make perfect sense but if someone wants to redraw with a computer ...... go on then 

MM

[John Lyons]

Woohoo! That is a busy one.
What is the effect of disconnecting the 6n8/3m3? I know you said it added a good "spank" to the tone. J
ust curious what is sounds like out of the circuit.
John

[RaceDriver205]

Sounds nice! Do you think though, that it needs more 'chug' when your chugging? I don't know how this is done though.

[John Lyons]

Have you seen this marty? http://www.aikenamps.com/    >Tech Info > Advanced > What is miller capacitance
Explains the effect of high value series resistors on Tube and FET inputs in conjunction with the pf cap (with FETs)

Good stuff there and on the other pages. Makes my brain hurt!

John

[Cliff Schecht]

I could draw up a schematic and make a PCB using Altium ( ), but I've been so busy with school that I haven't had enough time to play with anything myself. They aren't joking around with my differential equations and linear system design classes, I get at least 12-15 hours of homework a week from these classes...

[gaussmarkov]

here ya go:



an image twice the size is here.

it's 12:18 am here and i am up letting my head clear after a few beers.  so this was the perfect project. 
this schem is in eagle.  once i have it right, i will post the eagle file on gaussmarkov.net.  anyone who wants to lay
this monster out in eagle will be welcome to the file. 

Marty, i put J201s in the mu-amp.  is this what you want?  and TRIM4 needs a value.

cheers, gm

[Jaicen_solo]

Sound clip sounds great, real brown sound to my ears.
Just a quick question on the eagle schem, shouldn't a few of those grounds be going to Vbias?? For example, R3??

[alfafalfa]

Marty ,

I like the sound enormously , by the way how does it sound whenyou play "Telstar" on it  ?
Indeed very brown sound.
Are you making a pcb for it or a vero ?
I would( will) certainly build it
A great job ..


Alf

[MartyMart]

WOW thanks guy's comments and the Draw up MUCH apprecited   :

John :
The feedback path can be left out or switched I guess, it feeds back some clean signal to
the last stage and has a cool effect, "speaker spank" is the best description and I found that
when I added this, the sound became more "amp like" in response .... suck it 'n see  !!

I've seen the Miller stuff .... hurts me too, pf to ground and pf from source to gate seem to have
slightly different effects, as it is , it kept too much "super high" freq from getting boosted up and
breaking up.

Gauss :
Great, thanks for the schem and the 4th trimpot is again a 50k   

Jaicen :
There's no Vbias, all those points are ground, R3 helps to bias Q1 by connecting to ground at the gate.

alfafalfa : I'll try a vero layout on monday, but someone will probably beat me too it !

MM.