CMOS chips??

[Joe Hart]

I know about the 4049 chip, but are there any others that are good for distortion? Preferably one that will fit where a 4558 was? Thanks.
-Joe Hart

[smoguzbenjamin]

LM386's make good distortion, but I don't think it'll fit instead of a 4558...

[gez]

As far as I know there aren't ANY 8 pin DIL CMOS inverter chips.  

Others chips that you 'could' use are the 4009UB and 4069UB.  You can also tie the inputs together of each device in a 4001UB or 4011UB which converts them into inverters (this also gives you some asymmetry).

I say 'could' as unbuffered versions of these chips (with the exception of the 4069) are hard to come by!

You can also use a 4007 wired as inverters.  These have more of a Marshall vibe to my ears  - more crunch with this chip - but the intermodulation distortion is worse than the 4049.  It doesn't like being run at high gain in my experience (can sound really harsh).

There are other inverter chips outside of the 4000 series, Tim Escobedo has an example over at his site.

[Ansil]

LM386's make good distortion, but I don't think it'll fit instead of a 4558...

true but there is a smaller version of the lm386 available.  and you could wire up two of them on a perf to plug into where a 4558 would fit.

[gez]

What does the LM386 have to do with CMOS?  As far as I'm aware they're bipolar.

[rocket]

The only cmos chips you can directly substitute for a 4558 are cmos dual opamps like the tlc272 or the ca3240/60  , another tlc2??? was discussed here a few days ago.

[WGTP]

I was reading some old stuff about CMOS chips and it mentioned the CA3260 dual op-amp that has MOSFET input and CMOS output.  It should plug into the same spot as the 4558.  I have been told they sound dark (ALF H.) but haven't tried one yet.  Probably others like that around.

Check out the 4558 post below.

[RDV]

I know about the 4049 chip, but are there any others that are good for distortion? Preferably one that will fit where a 4558 was? Thanks.
-Joe Hart

http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc2262.pdf

Try this

RDV

[gez]

Joe, when you say you want a CMOS chip for distortion, is it for a tube type fuzz circuit using inverters or do you just want a CMOS op-amp to use in a conventional diode clipping circuit/something else?  This thread (and myself) seems a little confused!  

[Joe Hart]

Both. I wanted to try it in a diode clipper, and as a whole seperate circuit. Just curious about the whole CMOS thing. Thanks.
-Joe Hart

[gez]

I like CMOS opamps in any circuit (audio that is).  Nice and quiet and you can get away with quite high input impedances.  Many have low slew rates but often that doesn't make much difference in the average stompbox.

CA3130 is a favourite of mine, though it's only a single.

[Tim Escobedo]

There are CMOS op amps out there that'll fit in a 4558 socket. I've tried a few, But I've never thought they sounded like CMOS inverters in linear mode at all. Which makes some sense, since if CMOS op amps were as low gain and  non linear as a CMOS inverter, they'd be considered pretty crappy op amps by just about any measure.

[gez]

I've never thought they sounded like CMOS inverters in linear mode at all. Which makes some sense, since if CMOS op amps were as low gain and non linear as a CMOS inverter, they'd be considered pretty crappy op amps by just about any measure.

Well said!  The other thing to bear in mind is that often the rest of the amp’s circuit isn’t CMOS (though it might be all MOSFET) and so doesn’t mean that distortion will sound as smooth as a unbuffered inverter.

My own experience of driving CMOS opamps to the point of clipping is that they sound pretty harsh.  If you use them as the amp in a diode clipping circuit they sound fine, but probably not enough to justify the additional expense as they don’t contribute THAT much towards the tone of the circuit, after all it’s the diodes that are doing the clipping.

[Ansil]

My own experience of driving CMOS opamps to the point of clipping is that they sound pretty harsh. If you use them as the amp in a diode clipping circuit they sound fine, but probably not enough to justify the additional expense as they don’t contribute THAT much towards the tone of the circuit, after all it’s the diodes that are doing the clipping.

>>>>> what expense  theyre free if you take the time to fill out the paperwork for samples.