KVR Audio

Barbed Wire Kiss · Post by **Barbed Wire Kiss** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:58 am

Hi

Is there a vst plug that reproduces the sound of the Harmonic Percolator stomp box?

It's the favourite goto for Steve Albini, and according to Chuck Collins, who builds clone of the original Fairfax model, it:

used a silicon and a germanium transistor in a design that passes even order harmonics while suppressing odd order harmonics.

I've checked out a few vst distortion plugs, but emphasising odd harmonics seems to be more common.

Thanks
Garry.

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:14 pm

I'm not familiar with the original but every VST that says it does "tube saturation" emphasizes even harmonics. There are many and I don't feel like listing any at the moment but that should get the ball rolling for you.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:58 pm

DOD actually made an "Even Harmonic Distortion" pedal!

Barbed Wire Kiss · Post by **Barbed Wire Kiss** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:10 pm

It's true, tubes do produce even harmonics, but they also produce odd numbers, as they are asymmetical.

I've been googling this evening to find how it was done, the only things I've come up with is a circuit diagram of it by a Alfonso Hermida:

How accurate this is I don't know, as he's not the original maker.

dr. orange · Post by **dr. orange** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:35 pm

runagate wrote:I'm not familiar with the original but every VST that says it does "tube saturation" emphasizes even harmonics. There are many and I don't feel like listing any at the moment but that should get the ball rolling for you.

do you feel like it now? it would help I suppose

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:48 pm

Well, given that s/he is looking for solely even-harmonic excitation I'm going to have to take his/her word for it that what I'm refering to isn't sufficient.

But for you I'll list what I can think of offhand:

PSP Vintage Warmer or Saturator

Blue Tubes Analog Flux has something like that in their channel strip or maybe Tape Bus

iZotope Ozone has some sort of excitation in it, I imagine it simulates tubes but I'm not sure

Sonalkis is something people were talking about today that I've never tried

Stardust might

ThrillMe might

TRacks or WaveArts mastering stuff might

Voxengo's got an eq with analog excitation, I forget the name

THD

X-cita

+armonicos

Effervesence

X-Citer

All of which are probably in the database here if you do a search from the Site Search link on the left.

- runagate

Barbed Wire Kiss · Post by **Barbed Wire Kiss** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:56 am

Thanks for the list runagate. Although I am aware of plenty of tube plugs already. I was hoping for advise from someone who was aware of the stomp box, or could read the circuit diagram, or is knowledgeable of Albini's sound especially in Big Black.

Perhaps I wasn't explicit about my needs, but thanks anyway again for taking the time.

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:41 pm

I got a circuit-literate person I can ask in the next day or so. He'll probably try to make one once he sees this, come to think of it.

Barbed Wire Kiss · Post by **Barbed Wire Kiss** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:26 pm

runagate wrote:I got a circuit-literate person I can ask in the next day or so. He'll probably try to make one once he sees this, come to think of it.

That would be cool if he could decipher the diagram.

I been doing some more digging, reading the Trash recipe books (which is a great resource for anyone using distortion), and it appears that it has an even harmonic algorithm, so I'm gonna have a look at that tomorrow.

Harmonic Percolator?