DOD - FX32 Meat Box  [schematic]

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Skarrgus
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Post by Skarrgus »

Meat Box Factory schem...
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Post by soulsonic »

Thanks again!
:hmmm: That looks like it might be an easy one for DIY if the chips can be found...
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran

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Post by Skarrgus »

You're right...
I tried looking up "bass emphasis ic" and all I get is the chip in the schem (M51134P).
I like on the Mitsubishi data sheet it's called a "Sub-Hormonizer"
http://tw.ic-on-line.cn/IOL/viewpdf/M51134P_198439.htm

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Post by soulsonic »

Okay, just found some of the chips.... gahhh, they're expensive! But not too expensive, so I ordered a couple.
In my free time I'll start working up a PCB design. :twisted:

Any DOD box that sells second-hand for $200+ is destined for cloning infamy. :lol:
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran

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Skarrgus
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Post by Skarrgus »

soulsonic wrote:Okay, just found some of the chips.... gahhh, they're expensive! But not too expensive, so I ordered a couple.
In my free time I'll start working up a PCB design. :twisted:

Any DOD box that sells second-hand for $200+ is destined for cloning infamy. :lol:
Bad ass. Where'd you find 'em? In all honesty, I did a pretty half-assed search- basically if it wasn't on the first page of a Google search, I said fuck it.

I'll be working on one, as well (along with the other two I posted).

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Post by soulsonic »

Evilbay... some place in Hong Kong has 'em. We'll see how many years it takes for them to show up.... :lol:
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Post by Skarrgus »

I think I'll try to find a piece of trashed hi-fi equipment first. :)
I hate having to resort to E-bay.

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Post by celadine »

Nice of them to make a little diagram of what the chip does. Reminds me of Anderton's Rocktave Divider, but all smushed into one chip.

http://hammer.ampage.org/files/rocktave.pdf

-edit-
I like on the Mitsubishi data sheet it's called a "Sub-Hormonizer"
There's a good name for the clone!

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Post by nooneknows »

aaaaargh!!! I had one not working for a lot, no one had the schematics and I wasn't able to understand what was the problem, then I finally trashed it, using the box for another thing. I still have the board:

https://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169 ... CN1897.jpg
https://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169 ... CN1898.jpg

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Post by Skarrgus »

Well, hopefully the schem helps you out. Get that fucker fixed and go destroy shit!

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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

Skarrgus,
Thanks! (for all the posted stuff!) Highly appreciated!
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

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Post by Skarrgus »

Not a problem at all. I've gotten all kind os stuff from this forum, and figured I should start giving back...


OT: Does anybody have any tips for taking pictures of an SMD circuit using a 2.1 megapixel camera phone? I've tried everything, and so far, it's either blurry or illegible. The circuit in question is a Danelectro LM-1 Liquid Metal.

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Post by moltenmetalburn »

So i was wondering what the meat box does and what it is for, after some searching it seems like no one can agree, lol!

It is a Sub-harmonic generator, period! The confusion comes from the fact that most of the used pedals have no manual included with them, and DOD's website does not have the manual. I have the manual, and it clearly states it is a Sub-harmonic effect made specially for Bass guitar.
The controls:
Meat = blend knob between dry signal and sub-harmonic. 12 oclock setting is 50/50 mix.
Rump = 30Hz boost. You can't really hear this, you really just feel it. Its what this pedal is all about, adding chest thumping meat to your tone.
Flank = 60Hz boost. Adds a bunch of bass to your tone, but use sparingly, it can muddy things up too much.
LBS = Volume
Myth 1: The Meat Box is a subharmonic synthesizer or octaver. Wrong. It doesn't generate subharmonics.

Myth 2: Meat is the mix of wet and dry signals. Wrong. Meat sets the level of the effected signal, but even when turned to 5 o'clock (which ironically removes the effected signal), a small part of the original signal can be added using the LBS knob. On the other hand, turning the LBS knob down (to 7 o'clock) removes all of the signal. Maybe LBS is the "real" output knob, who knows.

Myth 3: The Meat Box can only boost frequencies. Wrong. Both Rump and Flank are neutral when set to 12 o'clock. When turned to the left, lower parts of the signal are cut.

Myth 4: Rump is a 30 Hz EQ, Flank is a 60 Hz EQ. Wrong. Rump affects signals up to ~200 Hz, Flank affects signals up to 400-500 Hz.

Myth 5: The Meat Box is a distortion. Wrong. Only when you turn Rump and/or Flank past the 3 o'clock position, the unit will distort - depending on the signal levels. Flank distorts at lower levels than Rump.

So, after all, as it is only a highly interactive EQ,
Its just so weird. This thing is from another planet, it sounds like your equipment is broken in a very cool way. I'm not sure exactly what DOD was going for here, but this thing is definitely fun to play with. It may not be very practical, but who cares?
The sounds is pretty good, once you get what you want. I was a little confused when I bought it, because I didn't exactly know what it did, but it was cheap and I had the receipt in case I wanted to return it. It does really give a low end boost with a good amount of distortion, but I've never liked distortion on bass anyway. You can cut out the distortion, and just give your low frequencies a punch, which is pretty cool.
I havn't figured out why DOD marketed this pedal as a bass effect, I have tried it out on both guitar and bass and it sounds bad on bass. But if you put it in your guitar chain it sounds great.
The meat box is the closest thick bass sound I've found in about 2yrs. I find it most effective to slap the E string while the drummer is bangin' on the floor toms so your bass notes don't get drowned out. I highly recommend it for all bass players. So what are ya' waitin' for!!!

NOW I want to build one of these hehe. :popcorn:
"The Humans Will Never Destroy Us"

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Post by Skarrgus »

moltenmetalburn wrote:So i was wondering what the meat box does and what it is for, after some searching it seems like no one can agree, lol!
Here's the manual from DOD.
NOW I want to build one of these hehe. :popcorn:
I want to build in in place of the Grunge circuit in the Buzz Box... :D
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=459
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Post by soulsonic »

Okay, I got my M51134P chips today - directly from Hong Kong! Cool, they didn't rip me off, it took less than 2 weeks to get them, and the chips actually work! :lol: Sweet.

Alright... I built up a stripped version on breadboard - it works! Sounds like ass, but it works. I'm getting the feeling this is going to sound pretty ass no matter what... The best sound I was able to get on the breadboard was a bunch of background rumbling. With it panned all the way to the Sub channel, it's just this very muted extremely glitchy octave down; but if it's blended in with the straight signal, you get this effect of a crappy, slightly out-of-tune bassist playing along with you... ah, high school memories! :lol:
The stripped version I breadboarded didn't have the tone controls, so I think that accounts for why the sub was kinda too quiet - I had to pad down the straight signal and boost up the output stage gain to get the sub loud enough to hear it well. I think the tone controls can probably boost the lows enough to make the sub more apparent... or if they don't, at least I have a good idea what to do to make it heard better. The problem may also be that I was playing through a little practice amp with a small speaker... not really sure because I've never heard a real one.

At any rate, I have a layout drawn up for a board that's 2.25"x2.5", so it should fit comfortably in a 125 size enclosure. I'll try to find the time to build it up sometime soon-ish to verify. I found one mistake in the factory schematic: they have pin 4 of the M1134P labeled as going to "+V Bias" when it should instead be connected to pin 5 (the regulated 5v output). I'll draw up a schematic of my DIY version soon... it's fairly typical for a DIY clone - stripped out the electronic switching and a couple unnecessary buffers; but the input buffer is still there because that's needed for the blend control to work right. There are alot of standing resistors in the layout, so resistor snobs will be very put off by it. :lol:
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Post by Skarrgus »

Do what I did with mine and throw it in a feedback loop. BE prepared to buy a new speaker though... :D

But seriously I never got to try it on guitar, only in the loop for a noise project I was in, and it fucked up the speaker bad. It was some kind of Fender 1x12, and it ripped the outside of the cone almost completely off.

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Post by dcountry13 »

Was a layout ever posted or verified for this?

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Post by nomex »

So a friend borrowed my DOD FX 32 to use, he decided to open it up ( :evil: ) and returned it to me with the four thin wires that connect the main pcb to the switch(?) / input and output disconnected - I will try and take some pictures,

- I was wondering if DOD use the same colors for all there pedals and where they need to be wired to?

Any help would be great, many thanks in advance!

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Post by Retro »

Here's a thread with the schematic for the DOD FX32 Meatbox...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4099&p=46794

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Post by RnFR »

topics merged.

please use the search function.
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