Dividing low and high signals into different drive circuits

[cnspedalbuilder]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone out there has tried out dividing an input signal to two different distortion circuits--say low-pass filtered to a big muff and high-pass filtered to a Rat or Tube Screamer. I know that the Anderton Quadrafuzz divides the signal, but I'm thinking of different using 2 different drive circuits that are well-suited for low and mid-to-high end signals respectively. Would be curious to hear sound clips if you've tried it.

[Mark Hammer]

Here's one. It works.  Doesn't always sound fabulous, but that may be because of the manner in which I arranged the gain.  The drive control is reciprocal.  That is more gain for the one = less gain for the other.  That isn't "best".  I was just aiming for the ost variatioon with the fewest controls.  Feel free to replace that 100k pot with a pair of 100k pots to adjust each channel individually.

[Kipper4]

Intresting circuit Mark.

[R.G.]

Just for completeness, see "Quadrafuzz", Anderton.

[Kipper4]

Here

http://www.paia.com/ProdArticles/quadrafz-design.htm

[Mark Hammer]

And here's a reduced version of the Quadrafuzz, for those who are content to have 3, rather than 4, channels, and no filtering.

[pinkjimiphoton]

the klon circuit as well divides it up by frequency and processes each differently

[KarenColumbo]

Ah! Distortion heaven! 

[cnspedalbuilder]

Thanks for all the responses. Mark, your flexidrive circuit looks cool. Do you have any sound samples?

I knew about the Quadrafuzz, but from what I understand, basically the same kind of circuit is used for distortion in each band. I was thinking more like having two different kinds of drive circuits, for example, a muff for the low-passed signal and a Rangemaster for the high-passed signal.

[bluebunny]

Check out Bengt's Blüe Monster too.

[Mark Hammer]

I seem to recall someone making productive use of a hex invertor (either 4049 or 4069) to do something like this as well.  Also, Yamaha produced two multi-band distortion pedals: the MBD-100 and the MBD-20M.

There are essentially 2 basic uses for a multi-band distortion.  One is to attempt to minimize intermodulation distortion by limiting the bandwidth of each clipping channel, prior to recombining.  The other is the be able to use the unit somewhat like a graphic EQ, but introduce different balances of frequency content.

[GabiDamse]

I was thinking about this yesterday and thought it might be a good idea, then I saw that it was already done

[Mark Hammer]

That something is already done does not mean it could not be done better, or in a more elegant or interesting way.  I mean, FUZZ has already "been done", but that doesn't stop any of us here. 

[idy]

See deafbutpicky's "Thrice" for 3 bands of cmos invertors. I added separate volume each band.

[GabiDamse]

I breadboarded two identical germanium one transistor fuzzes with gain control , one of them had a lowpass filter on the input and the other a high pass , kinda worked but it's very crude, also the transistors sound pretty different one has a warm distortion and the other is just kinda boosty. I have a lot of transistors as I keep taking apart old radios and stuff so I keep breadboarding random fuzzes