Guitar Effect For Control Systems Class

[scanlory]

For my control systems class, we have to come up with a project involving closed loop transfer functions and similar concepts.  Does anyone have any ideas for a guitar effect that I could design that would involve some control systems material?

[Cliff Schecht]

So you need some sort of system that uses a signal from the output to control an input signal. Let's see.. You can do an envelope filter that uses the filtered signal to feedback (through a rectifier of some sort) into the input, this might give an interesting sounding filter (I don't that anybody has tried this, usually it's a feedforward system). Or, you could do some sort of compressor, that's probably about as simple as you are going to get. Another option would be a PLL type device that looks at your incoming signal and locks onto that frequency (for guitar synth type stuff). The PLL option would be pretty limited, so I say go for the compressor!

[scanlory]

I was also thinking a simple compressor, so I'm kinda leaning towards that idea.  I'll have to start researching some simple designs, any ideas on where to start?