Tap intesity

[icecycle66]

Okay, you smart guy types, get on this.

I want a "tap intensity" control.  Let's us distortion as an example.

I tap the intensity control a few times very spaced out, I get just a little bit of overdrive.
I tap it really fast, I get max distortion.

This could be accomplished with a wah/volume type mix control, but those shells are expensive and a pain to deal with.
Can anybody figure out a "Tap Intensity" TM, (c), PP, (R) for me?

[jkokura]

Hmm... I know this might not be what you want to hear, but if you think about the expense of something like that...

Consider that the Taptation is $20, plus then you've got an extra PCB, and shipping to deal with. Let's say that adds a conservative $30 to the cost...

How much more expensive is a way shell over a 1590BB enclosure? Maybe $35-40? So in the end, you're not really saving much money, and the circuit is way more complicated.

I'm just playing devils advocate here, cause I actually really like your idea. I just think you need to be aware that you probably won't be saving much money here, and there will be pain to deal with.

Jacob

[icecycle66]

Okay, good point.

But it would be a cool circuit.

[jkokura]

But it would be a cool circuit.

True Story.

I think that's the sort of thing you could learn to do though. Essentially, it's not much different than the Taptation. What you need to do is take an input Tap and change the value of a digital pot to control gain rather than delay. Start learning to program I say.

Jacob

[icecycle66]

Very well.

[electrosonic]

It doesn't have to be expensive if you can program a micro controller. An Attiny85 is about a dollar. Couple that with a vactrol and you could easily create any sort of tap tempo control you want.

Andrew.

[rullywowr]

This is interesting.  Yes, the ATtiny85 is certainly a good candidate for this along with a digital pot chip (MCP41xx).  The uC communicates to the digital pot over the SPI buss.  Total cost for these components is south of $4USD.  I may take a crack at it for a very basic circuit like the bosstone fuzz or similar...and integrate everything on the same PCB. 

[midwayfair]

Pre-programmed tap pulse converter:
http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=795

This controls a digital pot, which is another couple bucks.

Total is about $8.

Use the digital pot as a gain control. You need a design that can use a 100K potentiometer as its gain control.

The real question is ... is tapping in a new gain setting reliable, better, more practical than, or even cooler than than simply a second "channel" that just changes the gain, or (as Jacob suggested) a wah shell?