Thank you! This is a video I've thought about and hoped to find from a creator for about a year. I knew when I found your channel you would cover this eventually.
Odd and even harmonics being portioned properly is a huge texture win. Odd gives bite and attack, and even gives warmth. Super important to know what type of clipping does what eh!
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes, the 10 diode clipping sounds much cleaner than the 2 diodes! With that many diodes, it starts to get pretty close to when we had no diodes and just the op amp. (If you compare 14:50 to 17:07 they are really close) Which is probably why we rarely see overdrive pedals with more than 4 diodes. (I think the Xotic RC Booster might have 6)
Thanks Pete! It was definitely a fun experiment, although not the easiest video to make and edit...😂 YES! No pressure, but I'm waiting for your fist video!
Very detailed video, probably took you a lot of time to make it. I liked the asymmetrical configurations for chords, even the extreme ones. There is a nice musical clarity to asymmetrical clipping. Symmetrical has more compression and is probably better suited for single notes. I think tube screamers sound best when minimum gain is used.
Thanks so much! Yes, this was one of those videos that was nice in concept, but not in execution...😂 I agree, there was something nice about the asymmetrical clipping, maybe because you get that "illusion" of having a clean tone blended with a drive tone? In any case, I liked it quite a bit. I too never have the gain on my Tube Screamer past 10 o'clock.
What I'm hearing is that the amount of diodes impacts the amount of clipping and the overtones generated. The symmetric clipping has only odd-order harmonics while the asymmetric clipping has both even and odd and sounds more aggressive, complex, and harsh to me, probably because there are just more harmonics generated.
To your knowledge, is anyone making an overdrive or boost voiced asymmetrically like you have around the 9min mark? I’m looking for something clangy like this and I’ve found the germ warefare and eae boost/halberd are similar but I’m trying to stay away from distortion and instead looking for a clean clang.
Thanks for watching! That sound at 9mins is just the op amp breaking up without any clipping diodes. I don't know of any specific pedals that have a circuit like this, the MXR Micro Amp is a single op amp boost, but it's lacking a tone knob and an output level. I'm not familiar with all the pedals out there, but the Way Huge Angry Troll and the Way Huge Red Llama come to mind for maybe something that sounds like this, although they both lack a tone knob. Alternatively, you can buy a something like a Boss SD-1 and clip off the diodes, which would make it pretty close to this circuit. Hope this helps!
New to this channel! Man such a great experiment and Im super thankful you put time into this! Im curious, I did hear key differences between no diode vs. diodes and some difference between symmetrical/asymmetrical, so since there is minimal audible difference in some of the diode arrangements on our end of the UA-cam I’m wondering if the stacked diodes give it a different feel rather than an audible difference? Did you notice anything about how it felt to play when you didn’t have much audible difference? Like more/less dynamic range/“headroom” or more/less sustain, etc?
Hi, thanks for watching! Great to hear you enjoyed the video! There isn't much difference in the feel, beyond what is audible in the video, like the change in compression and the transients. And as you mention, once you get past 3 diodes in series, the difference say for example between "3 x 3" diodes and "3 x 5" diodes is very small, in the audio and the feel. I think the fun stuff is when you have something like a "1 x 4" diode setup where it almost sounds like you have a clean signal blended in because half of the waveform is clipped heavily while the other half remains relatively clean. But again, this audible in the sound clips and not really a feel thing.
Hello, what is the other electrolytic capacitor for? Thank you very much with all my heart for your videos, and thank you very much for answering. your videos are worth pure gold! Greetings from Peru
Thanks for watching! I'm guessing you're referring to the 47uF capacitors? They are both there to filter any ripple/noise in the power supply, and also act as sort of a reservoir to stabilize the power supply. Hope this helps!
@@trafalgarsquare9019 You're welcome! Noise is a very difficult one, there are so many possible causes for noise in pedals, it's really a case by case situation.
Thanks for watching! Great observation! Although it may seem counterintuitive, having more diodes actually reduces the clipping. Confusing, I know... But it has to do with a property called forward voltage, which is why LEDs will clip differently than regular silicon diodes. So the more diodes, the less you clip the signal, which gives you less overdrive/compression and more note definition.
This video and your other one on hard clippers are super fun! I’ve breadboarded a Crowther Hotcake yesterday (which has no clipping diodes) all the distortion comes from the OP amp (LM741) It definitely sounds different, but I like it :-) Do you have any experience with that circuit (or similar ones?) Do OP amps clip asymmetrically like tubes and transistors?
Thank you! Great to hear you enjoyed the videos! I don't have any experience with the Hotcake, although I've heard many people say it's a great pedal. I checked out the schematic and it looks interesting! My understanding is that (in theory)transistors/op amps do not clip asymmetrically unless you intentionally tweak the bias/Vref to make it "behave" asymmetrical. The Hotcake seems to be doing this by using a 100k/120k pair to make Vref. (I also saw schematics with 82k/100k)
you oughta invest in an oscilloscope and use it to show the audience visually how the sound is changing when you modulate it. there aren't enough videos demonstrating the differences in the way different gain stages affect the way the waveform looks
Diodes are a lot of fun, but at the same time, symmetrical clipping, asymmetrical clipping, 2 diodes, 10 diodes, there isn’t that much overall difference
![Are Elusive Magic Diodes REAL? Germanium Diode Overdrive Tone With 9 Vintage Japanese Diodes [1N34]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1g7MEUePGBw/mqdefault.jpg)
More Shootout Videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLuGyFi1zEmqbyeXcyZgBuAb3NBJP4mzTH.html
This is the info I needed. Love the channel
Thanks for watching! And thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate it! Great to hear the video was of some help!
Thank you! This is a video I've thought about and hoped to find from a creator for about a year. I knew when I found your channel you would cover this eventually.
Thanks so much! Your kind words are really encouraging. I hope you enjoyed the video, and found it useful/interesting in any way.
Exactly the video I was hoping to find. Great format thank you!
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the kind words. Thanks for watching, and great to hear that you enjoyed the video!
Odd and even harmonics being portioned properly is a huge texture win. Odd gives bite and attack, and even gives warmth. Super important to know what type of clipping does what eh!
Symmetrical clipping is rounder and softer.
Thanks for watching! The different clipping topologies definitely have their tone/character!
Very nice! I can definitely tell how smooth the assymetrical diodes make the tone
Thanks for watching! Yes, there were some really nice tones with the asymmetrical clipping.
I was just amazed by how much smoother the 10 diode symmetrical clipping sounded than the 2 diode!
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes, the 10 diode clipping sounds much cleaner than the 2 diodes! With that many diodes, it starts to get pretty close to when we had no diodes and just the op amp. (If you compare 14:50 to 17:07 they are really close) Which is probably why we rarely see overdrive pedals with more than 4 diodes. (I think the Xotic RC Booster might have 6)
Very informative thank you for covering this so well and making it easy to understand!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the comment, and I hope you found the video interesting!
Great video, thank you!
Thanks for watching! And thank you for the kind words, great to hear you enjoyed the video!
Thanks for making this. Super helpful.
Thanks for watching! Thank you for the kind words, great to hear you enjoyed the video!
Like the video. I'd like to see the wave forms on a O-scope or P-Spice if possible.
Thanks for watching! Great to hear you liked the video! Hopefully, one of these days I'll get around to setting up a scope...
This is great! Thank you sir.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support! Hope you enjoyed the video.
Very cool video. Keep them coming 👍
Thanks for watching! Great to hear you enjoyed the video! I have a bunch of other tone comparison videos, so check them out if you're interested.😃
Ohh Hi Arito- THIS one looks like fun - I've been scribbling a lot of schem's but no vids yet - THIS might get me to do some :)
Thanks Pete! It was definitely a fun experiment, although not the easiest video to make and edit...😂 YES! No pressure, but I'm waiting for your fist video!
Very detailed video, probably took you a lot of time to make it. I liked the asymmetrical configurations for chords, even the extreme ones. There is a nice musical clarity to asymmetrical clipping. Symmetrical has more compression and is probably better suited for single notes. I think tube screamers sound best when minimum gain is used.
Thanks so much! Yes, this was one of those videos that was nice in concept, but not in execution...😂 I agree, there was something nice about the asymmetrical clipping, maybe because you get that "illusion" of having a clean tone blended with a drive tone? In any case, I liked it quite a bit. I too never have the gain on my Tube Screamer past 10 o'clock.
So the asymmetrical clipping makes thecsound cleaner (makes sense, since one side is getting clipped softer).
Thanks for watching! Yes, exactly! Half of the signal is clipping less so the overall tone gets a little cleaner.
@@arito Yeah, it sounds almost like a "wet/dry" mix between an overdriven and clean signal. Pretty neat!
@@ericv7720 Definitely! Like one of those pedals that has the clean blend knob!
Try zener diodes, inductors in saturation, varistors (MOV,s).
Thanks for watching!
Have you ever experimented with chorus or other modulation type pedals? Just curious 👍
Thanks for watching! Yeah, I've played around with modulation pedals, more tremolo than chorus/vibrato, they're a lot of fun!
What a great effort... Love it!! but for me 2 diodes are best.. nice video 👍👍
Thank you so much! Great to hear you enjoyed the video! Yes, I agree, the golden standard 2 diode clipping always sounds great!
What I'm hearing is that the amount of diodes impacts the amount of clipping and the overtones generated. The symmetric clipping has only odd-order harmonics while the asymmetric clipping has both even and odd and sounds more aggressive, complex, and harsh to me, probably because there are just more harmonics generated.
Thanks for watching! Thank you for sharing your detailed analysis & tone impressions, it's great to learn what everyone is hearing in these tones.
To your knowledge, is anyone making an overdrive or boost voiced asymmetrically like you have around the 9min mark? I’m looking for something clangy like this and I’ve found the germ warefare and eae boost/halberd are similar but I’m trying to stay away from distortion and instead looking for a clean clang.
Thanks for watching! That sound at 9mins is just the op amp breaking up without any clipping diodes. I don't know of any specific pedals that have a circuit like this, the MXR Micro Amp is a single op amp boost, but it's lacking a tone knob and an output level. I'm not familiar with all the pedals out there, but the Way Huge Angry Troll and the Way Huge Red Llama come to mind for maybe something that sounds like this, although they both lack a tone knob. Alternatively, you can buy a something like a Boss SD-1 and clip off the diodes, which would make it pretty close to this circuit. Hope this helps!
New to this channel! Man such a great experiment and Im super thankful you put time into this! Im curious, I did hear key differences between no diode vs. diodes and some difference between symmetrical/asymmetrical, so since there is minimal audible difference in some of the diode arrangements on our end of the UA-cam I’m wondering if the stacked diodes give it a different feel rather than an audible difference? Did you notice anything about how it felt to play when you didn’t have much audible difference? Like more/less dynamic range/“headroom” or more/less sustain, etc?
Hi, thanks for watching! Great to hear you enjoyed the video! There isn't much difference in the feel, beyond what is audible in the video, like the change in compression and the transients. And as you mention, once you get past 3 diodes in series, the difference say for example between "3 x 3" diodes and "3 x 5" diodes is very small, in the audio and the feel. I think the fun stuff is when you have something like a "1 x 4" diode setup where it almost sounds like you have a clean signal blended in because half of the waveform is clipped heavily while the other half remains relatively clean. But again, this audible in the sound clips and not really a feel thing.
Hello, what is the other electrolytic capacitor for?
Thank you very much with all my heart for your videos, and thank you very much for answering. your videos are worth pure gold! Greetings from Peru
Thanks for watching! I'm guessing you're referring to the 47uF capacitors? They are both there to filter any ripple/noise in the power supply, and also act as sort of a reservoir to stabilize the power supply. Hope this helps!
@@arito Thank you very much for answering friend. What could be done in the event that the pedal has noise and interference?
@@trafalgarsquare9019 You're welcome! Noise is a very difficult one, there are so many possible causes for noise in pedals, it's really a case by case situation.
why do you get more note definition with more diodes on the single line comparison? is it just because it is so quiet that the sustain is gone?
Thanks for watching! Great observation! Although it may seem counterintuitive, having more diodes actually reduces the clipping. Confusing, I know... But it has to do with a property called forward voltage, which is why LEDs will clip differently than regular silicon diodes. So the more diodes, the less you clip the signal, which gives you less overdrive/compression and more note definition.
This video and your other one on hard clippers are super fun!
I’ve breadboarded a Crowther Hotcake yesterday (which has no clipping diodes) all the distortion comes from the OP amp (LM741) It definitely sounds different, but I like it :-)
Do you have any experience with that circuit (or similar ones?)
Do OP amps clip asymmetrically like tubes and transistors?
Thank you! Great to hear you enjoyed the videos! I don't have any experience with the Hotcake, although I've heard many people say it's a great pedal. I checked out the schematic and it looks interesting!
My understanding is that (in theory)transistors/op amps do not clip asymmetrically unless you intentionally tweak the bias/Vref to make it "behave" asymmetrical. The Hotcake seems to be doing this by using a 100k/120k pair to make Vref. (I also saw schematics with 82k/100k)
@@arito Ahh ...
Thanks for the detailed answer! Seems like I have some experementing ahead of me :-)
@@luluhasfun1283 Good luck! Hope it works out and have fun experimenting!!
you oughta invest in an oscilloscope and use it to show the audience visually how the sound is changing when you modulate it. there aren't enough videos demonstrating the differences in the way different gain stages affect the way the waveform looks
Thanks for watching! I'll definitely look into setting up a scope!
Diodes are a lot of fun, but at the same time, symmetrical clipping, asymmetrical clipping, 2 diodes, 10 diodes, there isn’t that much overall difference
Thanks for watching! And thank you for sharing your impressions!