dual band splitter

[JohnRoberts]

The bottom line for efx is how does it sound. After a vigorous debate I still don't expect that behringer to be transient perfect.

That may or may not matter for your intended application including where the bandpasses are split. If enough of the transient energy is up in the HP output the sum behavior in the crossover region doesn't much matter.

I would suggest using the adjustable crossover to determine frequencies or perhaps range of frequencies that work well for your desired effect. Then perhaps make something like that one pole derived topology I mentioned earlier in this thread.

If you don't hear a difference with real music, just do whatever is easiest. If you do hear a difference use what sounds best. There is no right or wrong for efx.

  JR

 

[erikb1971]

another day of testing today and Iam a little hmmm... confused. Unfortunately I haven't been able to record some samples yet, but that should be doable tomorrow.

Some findings:
First of all, After a long while I noticed that my beloved Austin Gold takes away a bit of the sub low frequencies, even on neutral. The frequency it boosts is a bit higher (150+hz) I borrowed a RAT distortion pedal, and that one leaves in the sub low and that feels a lot better. The Rat's distortion is a lot heavier though, and is only usable for the lowest 10%. The variable crossover between low and mid is always between 150hz-350hz. Most of the times on 200Hz.  In that area it gives a nice little egde around the low freq. Nice. I like it. I have to see how I can get the sub low back on my austin gold, or clone and adjust the rat's distortion so I can dial in a little more subtlety in the distortion.

Second, I notice that when I turn the x-over frequency higher than 250hz, a little bit of flanging seems to be added to the sound. It sounds a bit like a phase problem or some other frequency cancelling / boosting.

Third. The high frequencies. I found myself liking the sound from the high frequency best with my pedals on bypass. It almost seems as if the guitarpedals are not really capable of producing nice high frequencies, which might make sense since the guitar amps and speakers they are not designed for are not specifically meant for higher frequencies in the first place.

While writing this down, something dawns on me. There is just seems to be too much going on in the area 300hz-4000hz. Oh well.. I don't know. First things first, Iam going to try to fix the low and low mid frequencies and take it from there.

Cheers

Erik

 

[erikb1971]

Hi All

It has been a while since I last wrote on this subject. I have been quite busy with it though.
I have been doing a lot of research in my distortion units. I have ordered boards for two RAT distortion units, and for two Tube Screamers. For both I found a lot of modification options for nice subtle colouring choices. Still working on the seemingly cut of higher frequencies of the stomp boxes.
I did manage to fix the loss of low freq in the Austin Gold Overdrive.

Most of the work however has been about listening to and experimenting with the x-over and the distortion units with a variety of music sources. After the initial enthusiasm, I started to have second thoughts on the crossover idea:
1. The influence of the crossover point on two bands is great for instant cool effects, but a pain in the ass for more precise colouring. 
2. With the crossover, you are always applying distortion to the complete band. A lot of times I was in need of applying distortion to a smaller portion of the sound spectrum than was possible.
3. having a dedicated distortion on one band was sort of limiting. sometimes I felt the need to switch distortions for two bands, and that was quite some trouble.

To overcome those limitations, I thought up the attached schedule. The clean signal is basically split in 4 full bands. One is left intact. The other three get a steep high pass and low pass before the distortion unit.  That way, any ban can be low, mid of high freq and the bands can be made smaller without enlarging neighbouring ones. That way you could add distortion to three very narrow bands and ad it to the clean signal.

Does that make sense or am I missing out on something here? 
 
 

 

[Balijon]

Hi Erik,

I would suggest to take the clean source from the bands coming out of the crossover and mix/blend between the distorted and clean signal per band.
Mixing the input clean signal from the crossover with the outputs again, will cause considerable phase shift effects (which can be an effect at itself...).
The summed outputs from the crossover will not be in phase with the input of the crossover.

grT

 

[erikb1971]

Would that also be the case with the high pass lowpass version in my previous post?

 

[Tim Ragnur]

This makes total sense to me. Your new findings are very close to my own - as mentioned earlier in this thread
I'm curious to hear what kind of filters you have in mind.

Maybe it coulld be cool
-to be able to have hp and lp on the clean track as well.
-to use a dirty synthesizer-type of hp/lp filter for some spots. You know, the type that will respond to beeing driven hard and all that.

 

[erikb1971]

I have hade hp & lp in my latest concept.

And I am looking into the filters, but there is already so much to be done... maybe I save them for MKII