Frak overdrive (stereo and mono) — a crackly, dynamic overdrive

In my recent explorations of diffuser distortion (see “Grime space”), I realized that the distortion produced was maybe just a little reminiscent of a well-regarded overdrive’s “crackle.”

This is not a clone of that overdrive. That overdrive is intense and complex and I don’t full understand how it works. But it is… from the same neighborhood, maybe? If nothing else, it’s a fun, nice overdrive that sounds different from some other overdrives.

Like that overdrive, it is very dependent on dynamics, and like that overdrive it has a threshold-adjustable crackle control. That’s probably about where the similarities end. But I think it’s a cool drive, nonetheless.

The signal path of the stereo version is stereo throughout; dynamic control is derived from the left input. The mono version (maked with an M) is mono throughout, and uses the left channel of ZOIA.

A special thanks to my patrons on Patreon for their support: Rob Flax, Stepan Grammatik, brockstar, Mats Unnerholm, D Sing, Will Scott, drew batchelor, Miguel, Steve Bragg, Joab Eastley, Tomi Kokki, Mitch Lantz, Ben Norland, Daniel Morris, Roman Jakobej, Mark Crosbie, and Steve Codling!

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Controls:

Stompswitches:

Left stompswitch, latching — turns the crackle on and off; along with introducing the “crackle” element, this has some effect on the compressor settings, making the compressor more intense

Middle, latching — boost; the diffusers love gain, so I added a boost stage before the overdrive, with up to 12dB of gain; it also acts as a gain stage for the overdrive, pushing it into more distortion

Right, momentary — momentarily maxes the crackle channel, regardless of other controls

Front page:

Most of the controls are familiar, so I’ll be brief:

Gain — controls the gain of the overdrive

Tone — a high-cut tone control; higher values allow more treble to pass

Volume — volume, derived from the gain control of the output, can cut or boost volume up to 20dB (very loud); it can be useful as a make-up gain stage after the compressor

Compressor threshold — adjusts the compressor threshold; different instruments will affect the compressor differently, depending on their output. Dial it in until it sounds good (which in this case, is a bit flattened)

Boost volume — sets the volume of the boost, from 0dB to 12dB (middle stompswitch)

Crackle quality — this is a lot like the “Grime Content” control on the Grime Space patch, although it’s scaled a little differently; basically it controls the sample width and modulation rate of the diffuser; it’s subtle, but different settings can produce different sounds. The most intense settings are toward 0, with less intense settings toward 1.

Threshold — sets the threshold for the crackle, when it is active (left stompswitch); go much above .5, and you probably won’t get any output

Sound clip:

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