Brian Kehew wrote on Sat, 15 April 2006 19:42 |
Think about it - ANY knob on a stompbox just raises and lowers a voltage, so shy don't they let you plug in and do it other ways? It's such a simple idea. No one (yet) makes a foot controllable distortion! (I keep asking Moog to do it).
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In the case of a (conventional, non-"modeling") distortion pedal, the knobs are changing resistances in a gain circuit, not fixed voltages. For a VC distortion, you would need a VCA in the gain circuit, with a DC control pot on the top of the pedal. This is unnecessarily complicated when a resistor and a pot will work in a conventional circuit instead.
Sure, you could do it, but it would be a pain in the ass, and only one in a thousand people would take advantage of it.
Much easier would be to use a separate VCA prior to a distortion pedal (any distortion pedal) that raises or lowers the level being fed to the distortion, which would effectively control the amount of distortion. It wouldn't affect a feedback circuit, if that's part of the pedal's charm, but it would allow you to CV-control the amount of distortion.