Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | Adaptive Response Digital Guitar Pedal |
Arya Nagabhyru Jack Vulich Will Coombs |
Jialiang Zhang | design_document1.pdf final_paper1.pdf proposal1.pdf |
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| # **Adaptive response digital guitar pedal** Team members: - jvulich2 - aryacn2 - wcoombs2 # Problem The original method of guitar amplification used vacuum tubes. While tube amplifiers sound great and are very responsive to the dynamics of the guitar signal (i.e. a quiet note has very little distortion and a loud one is quite distorted), they are heavy and expensive. Modern day solid state amplifiers are not very responsive to the dynamics of the signal, giving the player less flexibility when playing. # Solution We propose an adaptive response digital guitar pedal. This pedal would respond to the volume of the note played, and adjust the amount of effect accordingly. This would be a cheap, effective way to give the guitar player the responsiveness of a tube amplifier, without the cost of it. This same principle would be applied to other effects as well, allowing the player to adjust the amount of reverb, chorus, delay, or fuzz just by how lightly they pluck a string. This opens up a world of possibilities for the player, allowing them to adjust their sound on the fly. This effects pedal is mainly for the use of the player, to allow them to change their sound without making any adjustments to their amplifier or effects board. It is not something for the listener to notice. There will also be a compression switch, allowing the user to adjust effect amount by playing a note at a different volume, but keeping the output volume at the same level. # Solution Components ## Analog Subsytem The input guitar signal will need to adjusted to the proper voltage level before going into the ADC. It will also need to be amplified after the DAC and before it is sent out of the pedal. This will be done via analog amplification circuits. ## Microcontroller Subsystem The microcontroller is what will perform the filtering and processing of the guitar signal. It will also manage the I/O of the pedal, including the LCD display, rotary encoder, and compression switch. The microcontroller being used is the ESP32-S3. ## Power Subsystem The power of this board will come from a 9V wall outlet. We will have a regulator regulate the voltage down to 3.3V for the microcontroller, DAC, and ADC, and likely use the 9V for the digital subsystem. ## ADC/DAC Subsystem The analog signal coming in must be converted to digital so that the microcontroller can process it. It also must be converted back to analog after the processing is done. We plan to use 32 bit hardware controlled ADC/DAC to remove some strain from the microcontroller. ## I/O Subsystem We will have various components to make up the input and output for the user. We will have an on/off switch , turning the effect on or off. We will have a rotary encoder to select the effect being used. An LCD will display the current effect. A compression switch will give the user the option to have the output compressed to the same level. We will use bluetooth to control different parameters from a phone. Parameters include volume control and responsiveness. # Criterion for Success Responsive: our unit will need to respond to the volume of the incoming signal to adjust the amount of effect being used Bluetooth: We want to keep the I/O of the physical pedal as simple as possible, so bluetooth must be used to adjust the different parameters, including the amount of responsiveness Easy to use: our I/O interface must be easy to use so that the player can spend more time playing and not waste time playing around with the pedal settings.  |
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