Volume Swell & Reverse Delay

[Jaicen_solo]

Hi, does anybody know how I can reduce the attack time on an envelope detector to produce some sort of quick volume swell?? I've designed an envelope detector, but I can't make the attack slower, just the decay. Anybody have a link to a suitable schematic?? (could I use a CA3080, with a variable load resistor on the input for a volume swell??)
Also i'd like to know if it's possible to mod the DD-3 for reverse delay. I'm guessing it's not, but I don't know a whole lot about delay pedals.
Thanks,
*j

[Mark Hammer]

There is an old E&MM project posted at my site (http://hammer.ampage.org), called the "String Damper" which is intended to do this.

Note that simply slowing the attack, for a "bowed" effect is NOT the same thing as reverse, and will not sound the same.  When a note is truly reversed, the occurrence of harmonic content is reversed (brighter towards the end), there is a sharp decay when arrives at the "start" of the note, and any finger vibrato is shifted elsewhere in the note.  There may well be a way to mimic all of this by analog means, but the usual envelope detector and slowed attack is insufficient.

The PLUS side, however, is that it is a whole lot easier to work with a bowed attack pedal than reverse delay, at least in any live improvisational context.  I absolutely adore the sound of the tape-reverse I can get on my Echo Park pedal, but if you thought passive-aggressive girlfriends f**ked with your head, try planning out and executing the riff you want... in reverse...ON THE FLY.  *Much* easier, planning-wise to play the notes you want, in the order you want.  Just be prepared to sacrifice the tone.

[Jaicen_solo]

Yeah, I have the string damper article which I intend to build. I really just wanted to know how I can slow the attack/decay of my Envelope detector (LED type) so I can synch the swell with the LP filter. I'm not actually looking for a reverse playing sound, I have a Flextone II which imitates this quite well, I just thought reverse delay would be cool, rather than a swell-delay effect.