the great filter

This is a V3 improved version of the original lovetone meatball autofilter pedal.

When I first built meatballs based on schematics from credible sources, it did not quite seem to work to its full potential, and I felt was dynamically lacking a bit, and could be more versatile.

So this circuit has gotten the twilight mojo treatment- I sat on this design for 5 months making sure it was perfect before releasing it. These circuits are extremely finnicky and hard to get right!

This pedal is very similar to the jerrytron (mutron style autofilter) I offer, but varies in a few ways.

Let me explain all the controls.

Sensitive- this controls how sensitive the envelope is to your guitars signal, I normally keep it maxed out clockwise for more dynamic playing, and you can set it back a bit if you only want it to activate when strumming harder.

Attack- this works hand in hand with the sensitive control, it controls the activation of the envelope but works slightly different in that it seems to extend the frequency sweep range at the same time. Counter clockwise has more filter attack, clockwise is less attack for a smaller filter sweep.

Decay- this controls how long the filter is held once it is activated. Dial it back for more a poppy and quickly resetting autofilter, and dial it forward to hold the filter sweep for longer, and have a slower reset.

Intensity- this control seems to set the frequency points of the filter, and goes hand in hand with the range control. It appeared that clockwise had the filter sit in the high end, and counter clockwise the frequency sat in the lower frequencies.

Blend- this controls the clean to wet signal ratio

Color- I can not quite seem to figure out what this does. It appears to set the wetness of the filter, but it is best sat around max, dialing it back a smidge appears to reduce the resonance of the filter and gives it a compression like effect, but once its in the middle it seems to kill the autofilter. It seems like this knob is a strange blend for the autofilter portion of the circuit.

pre boost- part of my improvement to the circuit was adding a boost to the input to help very low output guitars activate the filter better. This also resulted in a pretty big volume boost, to keep it unity dial back all the way.

The Toggle Switches

Filter- up creates a smoother, more subtle filter, down adds more resonance and adds that deep wah like sweep.

Mode- when the effect is engaged, the wet signal is actually split into two- one portion is clean signal that is sent into a fixed filter, and one part into the autofilter.

This toggle affects the fixed filter, down is low pass, middle is high pass, up is band pass. 

Band- this toggle affects what frequencies activate the autofilter sweep. Down allows less low end to sweep, allows all frequencies to sweep.

The Rotary Switches

Range- This rotary switch has 4 positions, counter clockwise is the highest frequency sweep, and as you set the switch clockwise, it steps down lower and lower.

Sweep- This is the coolest feature. There are two modes, this sets the filter sweeping from low to high, to high to low. 

This pedal may seem complicated at first, and there is a slight learning curve and you will have to dial it in to your guitar and setup, but once you figure it out, it is magic.

There are a bunch of hidden sounds and features that I have discovered over time, this box will provide endless amounts of sounds for you to stumble upon.

This pedal should be towards the very start of your signal chain.

Adding dirt after this pedal adds a whole new world of sounds.