Circuits To Audio Software?

Hi there,

I just found this site today, i work with audio a lot and i am interested in re-creating some real guitar pedals to audio effects/programs with online schematics. Is there any good places i could go to find out information on how to re-create electronic elements in a schematic using basic maths building blocks and comparison logics etc so i could make a guitar distortion etc in a audio building program like NI reaktor? Reaktor has various maths functions like log, abs etc so im guessing should be able to work ok with the right input and setup.

So for a fixed value Resistor etc would i be right in thinking thats limiting/restricting values? i could do that with a min/max module, and one labeled with something like R1 would be a user input value from a slider/control etc? so im looking for this type of informations which will help be able to develop a rough copy of things so they would sound similar to the real thing. Thanks for your help

Neon,

Some friends from school last semester did a multi-effect guitar pedal as their final project. They used a DSPic with an A/D, D/A, and some extra RAM to hold the samples.

They were able to accomplish simples things like delay, echo, tone adjustments, etc. I don't know their source, but from what I remember, they just did some playing around with the samples. Like, basic FIR structures, recombining old samples, etc.

Steve

Thanks for the reply,

Well what i want is to make it all on the computer rather than making a multi effect hardware pedal, with Reaktor the program uses a modular system and you wire modules together -

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=reaktor5&L=1

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=reaktor5designer&L=1

They do have a lot of things covered already however in the user library they don't really have many things re-creating electronic components but as they have a decent set of building blocks and maths available im sure that getting a decent re-creation is quite possible, i mainly want to do this for learning and doing it directly in a audio environment should allow me to fully test the sound and stages to check if i have things correct.

The 'electronic components' are tied together to approximate an effect, typically based on math functions or sample operations. The software is doing this for you directly, there is no need to go backwards. It would be very strange for them to try to do some sort of SPICE-based emulation.

You need to figure out the math behind the effects pedals, then use them directly within the software.

Steve

scubasteve_911 said:

You need to figure out the math behind the effects pedals, then use them directly within the software.

Click to expand...

Absolutely, you need to understand what each of the effects is doing structurally to the original audio sample. From there you can delve into the DSP aspects of conditioning/filtering/etc the original sample using appropriate software algorithms.

Steve Smith's DSP book might be a good starting point if you don't know how to approach this.

Dave

The 'electronic components' are tied together to approximate an effect, typically based on math functions or sample operations. The software is doing this for you directly, there is no need to go backwards. It would be very strange for them to try to do some sort of SPICE-based emulation.

You need to figure out the math behind the effects pedals, then use them directly within the software.

Click to expand...

Well im interested in the low level aspect of it so basically when i get an understanding of tubes and valves design my own things/models. Thats the thing im interested in really in building from the ground up with maths and logic.

In terms of effects understanding, i know how they sound and are built up on the block diagram level well like a chorus for example -

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Articles/Chorus/

However if i just use basic modules for the whole thing it's basically all digital and i want to try and emulate the analog way of doing thing which seems to do things differently and also creates a different sound. In audio/music a lot of people still choose analog over digital due to the warmth and non perfect output it makes and i want to try and learn how to re-create this well. If not a complete re-construction i at least want to add some analog type stages to the process with tubes etc which changes the sound etc.

If reaktor is not a good way to learn/build the low level stages of things can you recomend any SPICE/similar aplications that explain the forumulas for the electronic elements (tubes etc) and allow you input a sound and hear the output for testing?

You need to figure out the math behind the effects pedals, then use them directly within the software.

Click to expand...

Thats basically what i need really to re-create things using maths and logic building blocks, do you know any links that could help me with taking elements and converting them to this? I will have a look for Steve Smith's DSP book

Thanks everyone

Neon said:

Thats basically what i need really to re-create things using maths and logic building blocks, do you know any links that could help me with taking elements and converting them to this? I will have a look for Steve Smith's DSP book

Thanks everyone

Click to expand...

Steve Smith provides his book for free download: http://www.dspguide.com/

Patrick Gaydecki wrote a good book on DSP detailing the various DSP algorithmic techniques. He specialises in audio DSP and recreated the sound of a Stradivarius violin from audio pick-up on a basic violin: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/apr/26/musicnews.uknews

This is fundamentally what you are trying to achieve just different instruments and effects.

Dave