EE JULY/AUGUST 1967 45 by W Teder ‘The basic dynamic character- istic ofa chord can be analysed a5 2 fast rising, needle-shaped pulse with a virtually exponen- tial decay—see Fig.1. This typical amplitude characteristic can only be faithfully reproduc- ed by anampiifier itis is oper- atcd well Below its overload margin, and that, many guitar players know, generally results In too low an average sound level. Also, when itis desired to use a high volume setting, the distorion soon rises to an unac- ceprable level. Although the above difficulry is set compressor or limiter, the sound may then lack the required agressiveness. This circuit is expected to give bet- ter results than most other limiters, because it is only active in the upper range of the dynamic characteristic. ‘The gain of the preamplifier set up around ICs is asiustable with Pc The inverting input of the opamp is grounded via the drainsource junction of channel FET Ty which operates as 2 volage-controlled resist ance here, and is driven with a negative gate voltage derived irom the limiter’s output signal ‘The gain of the opamp is there- fore inversely proportional to the gate voliage of the FET, ‘whose crain-source resistance is reduced as the gate voltage becomes more negative Net ‘work ReC: effectively reduces the distortion incurred by the regulating action of the FET: I may be necessary to redimen- sion Rs and C: to compensate for Ue ‘olerance on the FET— use an oscilloscope and a func- tion generator to find the opti- mum values for these compo: nenis while the circuit is being amanged 1o operate at maxi- ‘mum compression ‘The limiter is fairly simple to ign. Apply a 1kHz, 150 nV input signal to the input, anc ‘monitor the output signal with ‘an oscilloscope. Adjust P: such at maximum amplification is obisined with virtually no dis tortion. Increase the input amplitude to 300 mV: this is 42 SUPPLEMENT LIMITER FOR GUITARS likely to make some distortion noticable. Carefully tum Ps ack until the distortion is reduced to an accepiable level. In some instances, when the distorion remains too high whatever the setting of Ps, it may be necessary to replace Tr, since the Type BF256C is ut manufactured with a relatively loose tolerance. ‘The proposed limiter leaves the lower dynamic range unaf- fected, while slightly compress- ing the peak amplitudes in the {input signal. Optimally aligned, it suifers none of the notorious side-effects such as “noise breathing” and clipping com- monly associated. with oth units, while it enables guitar amplifiers to be driven 348 herder without producing appreciable distortion. st D}