Implemented A Klon-type Drive block

I built the Aion Klon kit to use as a nearly-always-on effect in my analog rig. The only mod I felt necessary was to increase the low end a tiny bit in the clean bass feed forward path (changed 15K resistor to 3.3K).
 
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I loved my Klon but I also loved the 2k that I got for it. The KTR is just as good to me except it doesn't make dudes drop their tighty whities when they see it on a board. I actually preferred it over the KoT for clean-ish boosts. Terrible drive when it's cranked all the way.
 
A while since I played around with the Klon circuit, but I built a few different versions, and have compared one with both an early silver, and gold horsey. To be fair I think my clone sounded as close to either as they did to one another, and they weren't that different. Anyone that offered the "mix control" in the Drive block being essentially the same thing as the gain control in the Klon Centaur is right on the money. All the way to the left is a clean boost (really nice, warm, beautifully buffered clean boost), all the way to the right is a fixed gain TS style overdrive. If I had to pick a flavour from memory, I'd say Fulltone OCD drive with gain set pretty low. The "gain" control just sets the mix between these two. The thing I have seen no-one mention in the thread is the headroom, especially of the clean boost, in the Klon circuit. It uses a voltage doubler to run the positive and negative supplies at +/- 9V rather than the +/-4.5V more normally used in TS style drives. I always thought it shouldn't matter, but it really seems to. The clean boost is really clean and dynamic for transients, and has an "instant" feel you don't get from many other pedals. It also means that those dynamics really come through when you have the thing set into "reasonable" levels of dirt, especially with a lot of volume boost. It also means if you are battery powered you get the most bizarre weird sounds if the battery goes flat, and the DC-DC converter starts introducing background noise. They go through batteries pretty fast.

So, no, don't believe the hype by any means, but also don't get fooled into thinking Bill Finnegan didn't invent a truly remarkable and versatile pedal. Until people started making substitutes, there really was no substitute for high quality, low gain. They are also remarkable for driving other dirt pedals. I would love to see one in the Axe FX, but I bet you could get most of the way there with a FET Boost driving an OCD or similar block, and using the mix control of the OCD to behave like "gain", and the volume and tone controls on the OCD as with the Klon.

Liam
 
so years ago M@ suggested using the fet boost, with the clip type set to silicon, the high cut at around 6.5khz and mid eq set to +1. with drive at 6 and level at 7, it makes for a very nice boost. you can use the low cut to tidy up the bottom end as well.
i'd be interested to see the tone match eq curve for the centura

Thanks Simeon! I just tried those settings but lowered the drive to 4 because the drive seems way hotter than it was years ago. I also set the mix to 50% and it sounds pretty good. I never tried a Klon so I don't know if it sounds like one or not, but it sounds good.
 
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I really hope @FractalAudio adds a Klon type. It is great to hear that Cliff is looking at a KTR. I really feel like this is an omission in the drives given how influential this ckt has been. Other unit do have a few solid emulations so it would be completely awesom to get Fractal's take on it.

I do have a Klon clone pedal or two I can use but I really prefer to have everything in the box with the Axe. It is such a powerful and amazing unit that I want everything in my signal chain to be a block in the Axe so I can move it and control it.

Virtual gear > Real gear in that sense.
 
I've had both the original Klon and the KTR, and really enjoyed them both. Without wasting anyone's time with "my take on the Klon", I'd love to have one in the AF3.
 
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