Chimp's PowerConvertor+

What is it?

This buzz effect is a gain / wraparound-distortion machine WITH INERTIA, featuring:

+- 24 dB of gain
Parameterised distortion allowing wraparound effects that change a sound's tonal qualities
Can be subtle or ... unh ... less subtle
I N E R T I A !

Revision History

This is version 1.0 of Chimp's PowerConvertor. Please tell me if you think you've found a bug or if you think this effect doesn't do quite what you expected.

Usage - Parameters

Gain	From -24 db (0x00) to just under +24 db (0xfe) with no gain at 0x80. Straightforward multiplicative gain control.
Front	The output amplitude when the input amplitude is zero. Most of the time, you'll want Front to equal zero too. But sometimes you want heavy clipping and squarewave distortion, and the best way to do this is set Front nonzero.
Center	The output amplitude when the input amplitude = the amplitude set by Centerpoint (see below)
Back	The output amplitude when the input amplitude = 32767
Centerpoint	This is how you set the centerpoint amplitude. Set between 0% ('front') and 100% ('back') to get a three-point distortion curve, or set to 'front' or 'back' to get a two-point distortion curve (see diagrams)
Inertia	The time (IN TICKS) it takes for the output to change fully when a parameter is changed. In the case of the distortion controls, linear interpolation is employed, to effect a smooth glide between the old parameter value and the new one. In the case of the gain control, logarithmic interpolation is employed, since this produces the most pleasing smooth volume changes.

Diagram

Usage - notes

This version seems to use quite a lot of CPU (on my low-spec PC anyway :) There is a possibility I might release a later version that allows you to choose between logarithmic gain controls (+- dB) or linear gain (-100% to +800% gain). Linear gain will use less CPU but has different results. So I've set aside an attribute to choose between Log or Lin gain controls; currently, it does nothing.
As another way to reduce CPU load, I was considering specifying inertia 'resolution'. Currently, the parameter interpolation occurs for every sample, which, in the case of logarithmic gain, is what's causing the high CPU load. Instead, if you wish to only calculate interpolated parameters every two or four samples, the CPU load will decrease correspondingly. So I've set aside another attribute to specify the resolution. Again, currently this attribute doesn't do anything. This is only version 1.0 after all!
In case you're wondering, the original PowerConvertor was not released publicly (only a small release mid 1998) and didn't incorporate Gain or Inertia. So now you know.

Contact the Author

dave hooper - paranoia consultant with spc
2a corringway fleet
hants gu13 0an
UK

Email
no-brain@mindless.com

Next best thing to a current website: an old one
http://yi.com/home/HooperDave/

About Donationware

All Chimp's plugins are Donationware. If you like and use Chimp's plugins, you can register them by sending me ANYTHING WHATEVER (letter, currency, postcard, cd, ...) to the above address