Analog Electronics lab report week 11

By Benna Su.

1) Research at least 3 different analog guitar pedal manufacturers. Here is a huge list if you need it. Try to look at big brands who manufacture a lot of pedals as well as boutique companies that have smaller lines.

1.Ana Sounds. This is 100% handmade pedal manufactured in France. They mainly focus on compression and bitoun fuzz effect.

2. Artec. This is a pedal which mainly focus on making distortion of guitar sound, and it is pretty classical and handful.

3.CARL MARTIN. This is the pedal which mainly focus on compression limiter. It is pretty cool pedal which can be used widely in recording session of bands and guitar solo.

1a) What do you like and dislike about them? What types of pedals do you find interesting, and that you wish you could learn more about? Try to pick out analog effects and not digital ones*.

*If a pedal’s description says “DSP” that means Digital Signal Processing. So that means its digital – it has a little computer inside processing the audio, rather than analog circuits.

1. For ana sound, I really like the fuzz effect, But I wish they could also add more distortion on it.
2. For ARTEC, I think only adding distortion is too simple and I wish they could add more effect such as compression, limiter, etc…
3. For,CARL MARTIN, it is pretty classical and should be wildly used, but I wish they could make it with more options such as adjusting the level, the ratio of compression.

1b) Can you describe any overall differences in approach that you see in what bigger companies (Boss, MXR, Ibanez, TC Electronics) are making, and what smaller “boutique” companies (for example – Death By Audio, ZVex, Fairfield Circuitry, Walrus Audio, T-Rex) are making?

The bigger company usually make pedals with more variety. They build pedal that can be used in different sound effection such as compression, delay, and distortion. But for those smaller company, they usually mainly focus on building pedal with one particular effect, it can be delay, it can be distortion, or etc…

1c) The possibilities for guitar pedals and analog effects are literally endless. See if you can find a pedal that has a sound, controls, or features that are undeniably different from anything else. Post a link, photo, or video demo of it and explain what’s unique about it.

This is a video that I found that describes special sounding guitar pedal. My favorate one is the Versatile Treble Booster with clipping and voicing options. It is special because it has 3 way clipping switch and also they make the switch with options with both momentary or latching.

2) Draw a diagram for a SP5T switch. What kind of switch is this?

And I think this is a toggle switch.

3) Explain the difference between a momentary button vs a latching button. What kind of application could you use each type for?

So a momentary button is the button which you press it down and hold it, then the circuit works, but for latching button, you press it and you let it go, you will hear the click, that means the circuit works. Usually, the momentary button can be used to build scale of an oscillator, the latching button can be used to be the button of the guitar pedal.