Ok, let´s discuss it here:Haha... Well long story short, I am trying to design an effect... I want to build a reverse noise gate... Basically if the volume gets above a certain level it will cut the signal out, until the level is reduced below the set threshold.
I want to build this to put it into a passive feedback loop with a delay pedal... I am thinking that this would allow me to let the delay rampage out of control but have it stay with in a reasonable volume. Plus It ought to give me some interesting stuttering sounds...
Since to the best of my knowledge no body has built the reverse noise gate, I've been looking into ways to do this myself. People have suggested looking into Envelope Followers, Digital Switches, and OTA's to accomplish my goal. So I've been reading up on those... I guess my first question would be where to go to read up on OTA's because they make the least sense to me at the moment. And I'm sure as I read I'll have about a hundred more questions.
I haven't said anything here since I didn't want to bog you guys down with any silly questions...
It doesn`t matter if you do it with OTA´s, (dbx)-VCA´s, FET´s or LDR-optocouplers. THe important thing is that you cannot use a normal compressor/limiter design. You must look for a "feedforward-compressor". A "normal" compressor takes the output signal and derives
a control voltage for the control element, so this is a closed loop. A "feedforward compressor" takes the input signal to derive the control voltage. Normally the control-voltage equals the higher input-voltage so there is a constant level at the output. Now if you give more gain to the control voltage the output voltage will decrease. If you take threshold circuit (diodes, comparator) this process will start obnly after a given level.
analogguru