1

Alen Sebastian, Felix Jose.

Electronics and Communication Engineering, VIT University, Vellore
 Low cost Distortion Pedal Circuit for music
industry applications.

Abstract: Here we try to design and implement a low budget distortion pedal circuit which I very useful in the music
industry especially for electric guitars. The distortion pedal circuits are often made with tubes. The ultimate distortions
can only be produces using tubes. But, this is often very expensive. So, we have tried to overcome this challenge and
made a budget distortion pedal with affordable electronic components. We have used the clipping and clamping circuit
for the signal alteration and producing the output that we need. A distorted output is obtained for a given audio input.
We got an output through the simple electronic circuit we designed. It was found out that up to an extent, the tube
distortion circuit could be replaced by our budget distortion circuit.

Index Terms—Distortion, Pedal Circuit, Guitar Overdrive, Clipping, Amplifier, Audio Buffer, TRS Connector

I. INTRODUCTION1
Distortion and overdrive
can be termed as forms
of audio signal
processing to change the
sound that is produced
by musical instruments,
and this is usually done
by increasing the gain,
producing a fuzzy tone.
The overdrive is done by
increasing the gains at
specific outputs.
Overdrive offers softer
clippings.
Warmer overtones are
mostly lost here and
significant amounts of
original timbre is lost.
So what we actually plan
to do is to input a buffer
and an amplifier along
with the basic distortion
pedal circuit. This
additional setup is not
too costly and is very
helpful in terms to give a
good grasp of the sound
of the guitar.
Our main analysis
involves the uses of
Operational amplifiers to
be used as a buffer and
an amplifier. Various
stages are involved in
the making of basic
circuit. It involves an
input amplifier, the
transistor booster stage,
the op amp gain stage,
the power supply, the
tone circuit and an
output buffer are the
main sections in the
circuit.
A distortion pedal circuit
is a simple gadget used
in the music industry
especially for the electric
guitars for producing a
distorted audio signal
often heard as a metal
sound in the guitars.
Distortion as a definition
is the alteration of the
original shape of
something.
1 without a distortion is
In communications and e
lectronics it means the
alteration of
the waveform of an
information-bearing sign
al, such as an audio
signal representing
sound. Overdrive is a
smooth
Natural sound, while
distortion is rough
sound. Fuzz is a very
hard, metallic sound
while crunch is mild
distortion.
II.BLOCK DIAGRAM
Figure 1: Block
Diagram showing
different stages in a
pedal circuit
A distortion pedal
circuit consists of
different stages .They
can divided into 8
blocks.
A. Audio Input
The audio input stage is
the primary part of the
circuit. It takes the audio
signal directly from a
music instrument like an
electric guitar for
instance. The audio from
a normal electric guitar
often plain sound but,
when applied distortion
a metal sound output is
achieved. The audio
signal can be obtained
through an aux cable
with usually given using
a TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve)
connector from the
guitar to the pedal
circuit.
B. Audio Amplifier
This is the second stage
of the circuit. It is a
simple audio amplifier
using an IC 741.This
amplifier is required as a
stage because the input
signal often has low
amplitude. This happens
due to different factors
including the losses due
to the connectors. This
stage provides a proper
audio signal which is
ready to be distorted.
C.Transistor Booster
Transistor booster
provides a constant boost
in the power of the audio
signal. It also works as a
power amplifier for the
audio signal. With a low
power audio signal, the
distortion won’t be
properly produced and
the audio won’t be as
effective as the audio
with more power output.
The filter couples the
transistor gain stage.
D.Op–Amp Gain Stage
Op Amp TDA 2030 is
used as a non-inverting
amplifier in the
following circuit, and its
can also be referred to as
the heart of the circuit.
In the beginning of the
circuit we have an RC
network which acts as a
high pass filter. It is used
to bias the + pin of the
op amp at 4.5 V. This
part of the circuit
provides the distortion of
the input that is
required. The distortion
is achieved using a
clipping circuit. The
clipping of the high
amplitude peaks is what
given the metal sound
output in the circuit.
This part also consists of
a variable potentiometer,
adjusting which gives
the extent to which it has
to be distorted. This
often provides different
tones with high and low
distortion differences.
The op amp provides the
main nonlinearity of the
Distortion effect. To first
order, the op amp hard
clips the signal at Vdd/2.
In reality the op amp
response is much slower
because it is open loop
and needs to recover
from overdrive. It is also
typically asymmetrical in
behavior, leading to
significant even-order
harmonics where
otherwise only odd-order
harmonics are expected.
E. Power Supply
It is a simple resistor
divider circuit that
provides a power of (+9
V) and bias voltage (+
4.5V) to the pedal. The
resistors provide (+4.5
V) to be used as a virtual
ground. The capacitors
stabilize the power
supply lines
F. Tone level
In the tone level circuit it
consists of a low pass
filter of ( -6 Db) and a
high pass filter of
(+6Db) using the
potentiometer . The cut
off points set the tone in
such a way that it stays
in the middle position.
G.Output buffer
The main task of the
output buffer is to keep a
low input
Impedance so as to
maintain a better
integrity. It is added with
a plain emitter follower.
The capacitor is used so
that DC level of
transistor is biased. The
buffer is to produce a
steady value so as to
produce a distorted
output.
H.Audio output
The output obtained
from the audio input
which is taken from the
guitar is a distorted one,
which clips at a certain
amplitude. The distorted
output is obtained and
the output is shown in
the oscilloscope.
III. RESULTS
The circuit was tested
with given different
types of input and hence
the output was observed
and recorded separately
for all the types of input
given. The two different
inputs given were:
A. Sine wave input B. Audio input from
an Electric Guitar
Figure 2: The distorted
output obtained with a Figure 3: The distorted
sine input output obtained with an
audio input from an
When a sine wave input Electric Guitar.
was given, the distortion
can be clearly seen in the The distortion pedal
output oscilloscope circuit works with an
graph. The input sine audio input. The audio
wave is clipped in input should be an
different parts of the output of an electric
output wave and the
guitar without any
remaining part follow a modification i.e. a clear
similar to sine wave
acoustic voice. The input
figure in the output. This
audio wave is also
input was given to
plotted in the above
analyze the circuit made [1]
and to study the pattern oscilloscope graph. We
can clearly see the
for distortion.
distortion of the input
audio wave and clipping
of the high amplitude
peaks of the input wave
and the clipped part is
present in the output
wave. The circuit was
run in Multisim and the
audio input was recorded [2]
through a microphone.
The audio input was a
plain acoustic guitar
tone. After the
simulation, a metal like
guitar tone was heard
from the speaker and
could clearly hear the
distortion occurred to the
input audio signal. The
recorded audio and the
distorted output audio
were both plotted in the
oscilloscope graph.
IV. CONCLUSION
The designed distortion
pedal circuit was very
effective in producing
the desired output. The
circuit was very cost
effective and was
designed using basic
electronic components. It
was seen that a fully
electronic distortion
pedal could replace the
tube distortion pedals for
the music industry
applications. This circuit
can provide an extra
edge which the guitarists
need. Also, the circuit
could be remade by any
individual without any
prior knowledge of
electronics and is a
simple ‘Do it yourself’
(DIY) circuit.
V.REFERENCES
David T. Yeh,
Jonathan S. Abel and
Julius O. Smith,
“Simplified, Physically
–Informed Models of
Distortion and
Overdrive Guitar
effects Pedals” Int.
Conference on Digital
Audio Effects (DAFx-
07), Sept 2007.
A.A.Murthy, Nitish
Rao” Design and
Construction of
Arduino hacked
variable gating
distortion pedal”
Bangalore, 2014
[3] Adam Johan Apr 2018, Lyon,
Bergren,Lucas France.
Zeer-“Musical [10] Ciro Scotto “The
molecules: the structural Role of
molecular junction as distortion in Hard rock
an active component in and Heavy metal”,
audio distortion Music Theory
circuits”. Vol 28, 2016. Spectrum, Volume 38,
[4] Kurt James Werner, Issue 2, 1 February
“Modeling, circuits 2017, Pages 178–199.
with operational trans
conductance amplifies
using wave digital
filters.” 20th
International
Conference on Digital
Audio Effects (DAFx-
17), Edinburgh, UK,
September 5–9, 2017. VI. AUTHORS
[5] Alex Wilson,
“Perceptuallymotivated
generation of
electric guitar timbres
using an interactive
genetic algorithm,”
IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propagat., Workshop
on Intelligent Music
Production, Salford,
UK, 15 September
2017.
[6] Felix Eichas, “Black
box Modeling of
distortion circuits with
block oriented models,” Alen Sebastian Felix Jose
International 3rd year, Electronics and 3rd year, Electronics and
Conference on Digital Communication Communication
Audio Effects (DAFx- Engineering, VIT Engineering, VIT
16), Brno, Czech University, Vellore. University, Vellore.
Republic, September 5– Member of IEEE Member of IEEE
9, 2016 Communication Society. Communication Society.
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of valve guitar
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