Analog Lab Week 9

March 30, 2020

Diodes / Diode Clipping Distortion

1) For this circuit…

…if the sine wave you’re putting into the diode clipping circuit is loud enough to distort, which of these will the output signal look like? It will look like A

a)

b)

2) For this circuit…

…if the sine wave you’re putting into the diode clipping circuit is loud enough to distort, which of these will the output signal look like? It will look like B

a)

b)

3) Assume the speaker symbol is any pair of headphones or a small speaker, and you test both of these circuits with the same headphones or speaker. Is it safe to assume that the output of these two circuits will sound the same and be the same volume?

Yes because the op amp that is connected in the second circuit acts as a buffer so it has the same Vin and Vout causing there to be no audio/volume difference between circuit 1 and circuit 2.

Circuit #1:

Circuit #2:

4) Below is the schematic for the circuit I made in the video. I’d refer the potentiometer at the end, right before the output circuit, as  the “crossfader”.  With this circuit, if you turn the crossfader all the way to one side you’ll hear clean signal.  If you turn the crossfader all the way to the other side you’ll hear distorted signal.

5) If you turn the potentiometer to its halfway point, you’ll hear both clean and distorted as its morphing between the two (the exact average of the voltages of the clean and distorted).