Emulating the Klon, uhh ... Soul Food

It's amazing how gaga people go over $5 worth of components.

And if time is money, and my soldering skills would require probably 50+ hours for me to complete putting those $5 of parts together, the price for the finished pedal seems like a bargain.

Stupid and unoriginal comment though that could be made (and surely has) about any guitar pedal.

Ignore list for you my friend
 
And if time is money, and my soldering skills would require probably 50+ hours for me to complete putting those $5 of parts together, the price for the finished pedal seems like a bargain.

Stupid and unoriginal comment though that could be made (and surely has) about any guitar pedal.

Ignore list for you my friend

I'm not sure that's fair. The Klon stands by itself as an example of over-the-top mania that drove the prices of used units to silly heights. I think maybe the early TS9 had some of the same appeal, and perhaps some of the early Fuzz Face's, UniVibes and the "Ram's Head" Big Muffs have it too. But all of those were large scale production pedals that many of us owned or heard on records over and over again, and they have a familiar sound that you might want to reproduce.

But the Klon Centaur? How many people have actually heard one in real life? They're selling for $2K+ now. I don't see how the price for that is going be considered a bargain no matter how many hours it would take for you to solder it together.

For what it's worth, I've built pedals myself and I have an appreciation for not only the effort that goes into assembling them, but also for the creativity and ingenuity in their designs. I think it's awesome that boutique builders can come up with creative designs and turn a few dollars worth of components into great tone, and I think it's even more awesome when they can sell those pedals for few hundred of dollars and make a living off of them...as Bill Finnegan did with the Klon Centaur.

What I was commenting on was the frenzy that has people paying thousands of dollars for a pedal they've probably never heard before. That's all.
 
This is a great point. Even though when you a/b a real pedal and an emulation they will sound slightly different, there is no rule saying one might not actually prefer “b”, with it being the drive model. Yes you can tell it apart from “a” but I’m sure some will pick “b” every time as the subjectivity “better” tone
yes, this has actually become a one-stop drive solution for me in just about all my presets to my satisfaction. Seems to boost everything just the right amount without coloring or over-distorting the fundamental preset.
 
The Tumnus sounds a bit different than my Klon clones. It would be cool if someone with the Tumnus could dial in some Axe settings to replicate the sound. I don’t have a Soul Food as I had the Clones first. I think That Pedal Show guys did a comparison of Klon like pedals and they were different enough that you’d probably like one better than the others.
 
Use a parametric EQ block pre or post and you can essentially pick exactly how much certain frequencies are boosted, how wide that range is, and by how much, with control over the neighboring frequencies.

This is what the popular StoneDeaf PDF pedal allows btw

All the different pedals just have slightly different components so they have a bit of a different EQ voicing, but the Axe has plenty of tools to achieve the same thing.

Key is the blend of clean boost, EQ shape, and then some OD to taste.

Probably could run a sine wave through a spectrum anaylzer with the pedal and see the range of the mid bump and then dial in the PEQ to match if you’d really wanted to to nail the frequency response.

Bit of bother though to get it exact when for most just a setting that sounds “good”, exact or not, does the trick
 
I know we have had some “bad actors” in the past on this topic but would love, LOVE to have a real emulated Klon in the box. I would go so far as to say it would push me over the edge to purchase a IIII if added. All of the settings suggested here seem to nail the frequency boost of the real pedal but not the feel. (I use the Klon KTR in real life) The real pedal has some sag and blossom that the suggested settings cannot ape.
 
I know we have had some “bad actors” in the past on this topic but would love, LOVE to have a real emulated Klon in the box. I would go so far as to say it would push me over the edge to purchase a IIII if added. All of the settings suggested here seem to nail the frequency boost of the real pedal but not the feel. (I use the Klon KTR in real life) The real pedal has some sag and blossom that the suggested settings cannot ape.

Can we get a Tumnus model? I'm not overly thrilled with the "work around." And I agree about the 'bad actors', at least one guy who made a YouTube video ridiculous and disrespectful. I don't want to be that guy, just making a request.
 
Thanks for sharing your settings @yek
to me this is the most accurate representation of the “real” pedal so far.
Your settings are very musical and I’ve had fun playing them
 
  • Like
Reactions: yek
this is literally the subject that will never die, lol. That being said, I have used some of the posted settings as my first stage drive for a while and have really enjoyed it. THAT being said, I'd always love to see @FractalAudio do his magic with the real thing.
 
Laid my hands on a Soul Food pedal by EHX. This pedal is said to be remarkably similar to an original Klon Centaur.

I spent some time recreating some of the Soul Food's tones in the Drive block. I got pretty close, close enough for me, for now. Purists absolutely will want to finetune these.

Clean Boost with a bit of hair:
  • Soul Food: Volume 12, Treble 12, Drive 9
  • Drive block: FET Boost, Drive 7.50, Op-amp, LoCut 130, HiCut 5119, Mid 1.00 at 1373
Mild overdrive:
  • Soul Food: Volume 12, Treble 2, Drive 2
  • Drive block: FET Preamp, Drive 6.75, Op-amp, LoCut 476, HiCut 1056, Mid 1.00 at 1373
Yes, that's right, different Drive models.

I tried these settings a for both pedals and they both sound great Yek! However I was confused about one of your settings: Volume 12. Which setting/value does this represent? Thanks!
 
I tried these settings a for both pedals and they both sound great Yek! However I was confused about one of your settings: Volume 12. Which setting/value does this represent? Thanks!
Gonna guess by "12" he means, "to match setting 'Volume' on the original pedal at '12 o'clock'" (i.e. "in the middle", "straight up", "at 5", or however you prefer to refer to that position of a knob)...

The way I read that is...

If you have a Soul Food (envision starting with all knobs "in the middle") and adjust the knobs:

Volume Knob: stays in the middle (often referred to as "12 o'clock", or "noon")
Treble Knob: stays in the middle
Drive Knob: a quarter of the way to the left (aka "9 o'clock")​

And then add a Drive block and set the knobs as follows:

Type: FET Boost
Drive: 7.5
LoCut: 130 Hz
HiCut: 5119 Hz
Mid Freq: 1373 Hz,
Mid: 1.0 dB
ClipType: Op-Amp
(and leave all other Drive block knobs at their default settings)​

Then the pedal and the Drive block will sound reasonably close to one another.


Similarly, If you have a Soul Food (again envision starting with all knobs "in the middle") and adjust the knobs:

Volume: in the middle
Treble: turned not quite a quarter of the way to the right (i.e. "2 o'clock"
Drive: turned to the same position as the Treble knob​

And then add a Drive block (or change channels) and set the knobs as follows:

Type: FET Preamp
Drive: 6.75
LoCut: 476 Hz
HiCut: 1056 Hz
Mid Freq: 1373 Hz,
Mid: 1.0 dB
ClipType: Op-Amp
(and leave all other Drive block knobs at their default settings)​

Then the pedal and the Drive block will sound reasonably close to one another.

I would imagine if you like to turn your Soul Food's Volume up higher or down lower, then experiment with adjusting the Level knob on the Drive block to something other than 5

And I completely agree, those drive block settings do sound great together. Quality A/B (or X/Y) channel material here...
 
Last edited:
Gonna guess by "12" he means, "to match setting 'Volume' on the original pedal at '12 o'clock'" (i.e. "in the middle", "straight up", "at 5", or however you prefer to refer to that position of a knob)...

The way I read that is...

If you have a Soul Food (envision starting with all knobs "in the middle") and adjust the knobs:

Volume Knob: stays in the middle (often referred to as "12 o'clock", or "noon")
Treble Knob: stays in the middle
Drive Knob: a quarter of the way to the left (aka "9 o'clock")

And then add a Drive block and set the knobs as follows:

Type: FET Boost
Drive: 7.5
LoCut: 130 Hz
HiCut: 5119 Hz
Mid Freq: 1373 Hz,
Mid: 1.0 dB
ClipType: Op-Amp

(and leave all other Drive block knobs at their default settings)

Then the pedal and the Drive block will sound reasonably close to one another.

Similarly, If you have a Soul Food (again envision starting with all knobs "in the middle") and adjust the knobs:

Volume: in the middle
Treble: turned not quite a quarter of the way to the right (i.e. "2 o'clock"
Drive: turned to the same position as the Treble knob

And then add a Drive block (or change channels) and set the knobs as follows:

Type: FET Preamp
Drive: 6.75
LoCut: 476 Hz
HiCut: 1056 Hz
Mid Freq: 1373 Hz,
Mid: 1.0 dB
ClipType: Op-Amp

(and leave all other Drive block knobs at their default settings)

Then the pedal and the Drive block will sound reasonably close to one another.


I would imagine if you like to turn your Soul Food's Volume up higher or down lower, then experiment with adjusting the Level knob on the Drive block to something other than 5

And I completely agree, those drive block settings do sound great together. Quality A/B (or X/Y) channel material here...

That make perfect sense. Im not sure why I thought he literally meant "12" since 10 is the max value for the Volume level. Thats for clarifying!
 
For me the key thing is to take the above settings and then as Leon said, play with the mix control - running the mix as low as 55-60% makes a lot more 'real'
 
Back
Top Bottom