Big Dipper Distortion

[nexekho]

Had an idea and quickly threw it together in Falstad.

One dial.  When it's rolled all the way to the left, you get a nice smoothly rounded clipped signal.  Roll it to the right and it starts to dip the top until it cuts as far below the line as it sticks above.

Basically using diode clipping to gently scoop off the peaks and troughs of the waveform which is fed into a differential amplifier with the clean.  Not very well designed, quickly roughed out so it has volume drop issues and will probably need a buffer or something.

Code Select Expand

$ 1 5.0E-6 10.20027730826997 50 5.0 50
R 480 400 416 400 0 1 82.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.5
d 528 400 528 352 1 0.805904783
g 528 320 528 288 0
r 528 352 528 320 0 2000.0
a 624 384 752 384 0 5.3 -5.3 1000000.0
r 528 352 624 352 0 1000.0
w 624 352 624 368 0
w 624 352 624 320 0
r 624 320 752 320 0 1000.0
w 752 320 752 384 0
r 624 400 624 464 0 1000.0
g 624 464 624 496 0
d 480 352 480 400 1 0.805904783
w 480 400 528 400 0
w 528 352 480 352 0
c 752 384 816 384 0 1.0E-6 -0.003654584765707819
g 784 480 784 512 0
r 816 384 816 432 0 100.0
174 752 432 816 480 0 100000.0 0.0050 Low Pass
174 528 400 576 464 0 4700.0 0.41090000000000004 Rebound
w 576 432 576 400 0
r 576 400 624 400 0 1000.0
O 816 384 928 384 0
o 22 16 0 34 1.1692013098647223 9.765625E-55 0 -1

Would this produce an octave effect?  Is there existing distortion like it?

(Falstad import sheet also includes a simple low pass, quite optional)

[Earthscum]

I've played around with this type of idea on the breadboard. I wasn't overly impressed with it... sounded more like something was broken. When you do get to where you're getting octave effect, the signal is REALLY low, fly in a mason jar... for a reference, lol.

BUT, give it a shot... I think you will need a booster in front, though. If you use a dual op amp, use one as an input booster, say 1k/100k(pot) would give you a nice range to play with (up to 100x gain, lol). You may find that squaring up the input has a completely different effect, i.e. predistortion. You may also just try simming with different types and amplitudes of waves. Try a square, and a triangle.