Received October 5, 2014, accepted November 13, 2013, date of publication November 24, 2014, date of current version

December 9,
2014.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2014.2374195

Design and Construction of Arduino-Hacked

Variable Gating Distortion Pedal
ANARGHYA ANANDA MURTHY1 , NITISH RAO2 , YATHEESHA RANGANAHALLI BEEMAIAH3 ,
SUSHANTH D. SHANDILYA4 , AND RANJITH BADARMANAHALLI SIDDEGOWDA5
1 Department of Mechatronics, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal 576104, India
2 Automotive Technology, Technical University Eindhoven, Eindhoven 5612 AZ, The Netherlands
3 Department of Mechanical, Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Bangalore 560059, India
4 Department of Mechanical, JSS Academy of Technical Education, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Bangalore 560059, India
5 Department of Mechatronics, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Bangalore 134113, India

Corresponding author: A. A. Murthy ([Link]@[Link])

ABSTRACT This paper describes the distortion effects often used in an electric guitar. Distortion is an
added effect in an electric guitar, which compresses the peaks of the sound waves produced by the musical
instrument, to produce a large number of added overtones, which here is done by rigging up a circuit in
collaboration with the Arduino UNO circuit board. The digital potentiometer controlled by the Arduino
(microcontroller) was an improvement and was able to produce satisfactory results, as compared with the
analog potentiometer without the Arduino control. The complex circuitry of a three-stage distortion circuit
with the analog potentiometer was replaced by a digital potentiometer controlled by a microcontroller, with
better results. This variable-gating distortion pedal has an added advantage of being compact, light, and
inexpensive.

INDEX TERMS Amplifier, Arduino, digital potentiometer, distortion, microcontroller.

I. INTRODUCTION harsh sounding at higher amplitudes, while the soft clippings

Distortion effects in an electric guitar is an additional sound are used to flatten the peaks gradually taking care of not
effect, wherein the sound waves of the instruments are altered including the harshness in sound and hence the name [1].
accordingly. The peaks of the sound waves are compressed The stereo speakers are technically designed differently
during distortion effect, which results in adding more over- due to their mode of application as compared to the guitar
tones to the system. Over-driving of the tube amplifiers result speakers. The stereo speaker, including the public address
in the producing of the distorted guitar sounds, and hence the speaker systems are required to produce the sound as clearly
name gain is also given to the distortion effects. as possible, or in other words, with as little distortion as
Distortion effects are most commonly produced by effects possible. On the other hand, the guitar speakers would want
pedal, also known as the distortion pedal which usually uses to only highlight some of the frequencies to bring in the
an analog circuitry to modify the electric guitar signals such effects and the tone of the distortion of the electric guitar,
as clipping and harmonic multiplication to result in a wide by enhancing those frequencies while the other unwanted
range of sounds. Modifying of the waveforms are generally frequencies are attenuated. As the power delivered to the
termed as distortion, which is usually associated with having a guitar speaker system tends towards the maximum rated
negative consequence. But, in the context of music, distortion power of the system, interference of noise signals and fading
would refer to addition of newer frequencies by clipping of of the tones are observed. A distortion pedal circumvents
the amplifier circuits. these problems by modifying the signal before it reaches the
Clipping is a non-linear process such that the sound waves amplifier as the distortion circuit is placed before the main
which are clipped would have varied values of amplitude amplifier, hence fulfilling the job of a pre-amp. Overdrive
and hence the newer frequencies are added to the system circuits are also used to obtain the distortion effects in an
which were not present originally. There are two ways to electric guitar. The overdrive circuits amplifies the signals to
achieve the clipping in an audio signal. Hard clipping and soft such a high level that they exceed the ordinary input signal
clipping. Hard clippings are used to clip the peak values of the amplitude. Overdriving of the amplifier, results in clipping
amplitude, to abruptly flatten out the waveform resulting in of the waveforms at the peak values and thus flattening them.

2169-3536
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VOLUME 2, 2014 Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. 1409
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 A. A. Murthy et al.: Design and Construction of Arduino-Hacked Variable Gating Distortion Pedal

The one main difference between the distortion circuit and the and equalization. Experimental result shows that the system
overdrive circuit is that, irrespective of the level of volume, can be used as a MIDI synthesizer as well as a traditional
the distortion circuit clips and distorts the signal, whereas, the guitar effector. While according to M Karjalainen [7] there
overdrive circuit gives clean sound for quieter volumes, and is a need of a virtual analog modelling for the simulation
more harsh and distorted sound for higher volumes. Fig. 1, of classic analog circuitry by DSP. He showed the use of
shows the classic distortion pedal, with the capabilities of wave digital filters in real-time simulation of vacuum-tube
reproducing dynamics of playing, from soft to hard distor- amplifier stages. D.J. Gillespie [8] introduced a novel method
tions, and level and tone control to tailor the overall sound as for the solution of guitar distortion circuits based on the use
desired. of kernels. The algorithm he proposed uses a kernel regres-
sion framework to linearize the inherent nonlinear dynami-
cal systems created by such circuits and proposes data and
kernel selection algorithms well suited to learn the required
regression parameters. Examples are presented using the One
Capacitor Diode Clipper and the Common-Cathode Tube
Amplifier.

A. AMPLIFIER MODELLING
The digital emulation of a physical amplifier is referred to
as amplifier modelling. An amplifier is often used to recreate
the sound of a specific model of vacuum tube amplifiers. This
process of recreation of sound can add the effect of distortion
to the recording in the otherwise undistorted recording. The
FIGURE 1. BOSS Distortion DS – 1 distortion pedal (Photo dynamic behaviour of the amplifier modelling, renders it use-
courtesy: Wikipedia).
ful, as the amplifier setting can be modified instantaneously
without undergoing the trouble of re-recording the audio.
An equalizer is used to adjust the frequency response in a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is generally used in the pro-
number of different frequency bands. To adjust the frequency cess of amplifier modelling to recreate the sound of plugging
response there are a few ways, such as the sliding control into analog pedals and overdriving the valve amplifiers [9].
and the rotary control. A graphic equalizer provides slider
controls for a number of frequency region. These bands of
frequency have a fixed width and a fixed center frequency,
but the slider will only be able to change the level of the
frequency band and no changes can be made on the width
and the center frequency. The tone controls on guitar uses
rotary control rather than sliding controls, to change the level
of frequency, while maintaining the fixed width and the center
frequency [2].
According to the previous works by R.C.D. Paiva [3] a
generic model was constructed to emulate distortion circuits
using operational amplifiers and diodes. This model consisted
of basic electronic analog components, resulting in a highly
FIGURE 2. Roland Micro Cube Amplifier (Photo courtesy: Wikipedia).
dense and complex structure of the circuit. On the other hand,
Alfred Hanssen [4] analyzed the amplification of sound of an Fig. 2 shows the classic solid state Roland Micro Cube
electric guitar by a high-quality all-tube amplifier which was Amplifier, having the capability to amplify the sound waves
emitted by means of a speaker cabinet. He used three different of the guitar to a desired level with an input power consump-
preamplifier gain settings: one clean, one half-distorted, and tion of 2W, and nominal input level being 10dBu.
one massively distorted to analyze the sound spectrum, and The extreme heavy overdriving of the amplifier tubes cre-
found that only the high frequency part of the spectrum was ates the sound effects with high gains essentially used in
boosted by an increase in the distortion levels. D.T. Yeh [5] Heavy metal concerts. The essential component of such a high
has presented a procedural approach to derive nonlinear filters gain is the loud, harmonically rich, and the sustaining quality
from schematics of audio circuits for the purpose of digi- of the tone. The distortion effects often produces sounds
tally emulating analog musical effects circuits in real time. which are not possible to be produced any other way.
Jiming Fan [6] proposes a solution to design a new type
of guitar effectors integrating a MIDI synthesizer function B. SOLID STATE DISTORTION
based on ADSP-BF533. He introduced the algorithm of Solid-state amplifiers incorporate transistors and opera-
the basic functions of guitar effectors such as distortion tional amplifiers (op-amps) to produce hard clipped and

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FIGURE 3. (a) The Solid state amplifier. (b) The output stage of the Solid State Amplifier.

distorted waves. There are two methods to achieve this values of these components. Therefore, there is a need for
distortion using hard clipping. One is by either amplify- a quick and convenient method of measuring the open loop
ing the signal to such an extent that the signals get flat- gain, so that the circuit is designed with expected output.
tened by clipping due to crossing the threshold value, or Manipulating of the closed loop gains and breaking of the
by clipping the signal across diodes, which is a simpler feedback loops within the circuit is the standard method
method. for obtaining the open loop gain of an op-amp circuit. This
A typical circuit of the solid state amplifier is as shown procedural method has a very low success rate with the
in the figure above. The circuit mainly consists of solid average power amplifier, and hence is not adopted due to the
state devices like transistors and op-amps. The open loop inconsistencies.
gain of the circuit is calculated based on the values of the For the amplifier shown in Fig 3, the open-loop gain is the
resistances and the capacitances, and the required gain at voltage at the output divided by the differential voltage at the
the output is obtained by designing the circuit with modified input.

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Resistors
1. 2.2k (3)
2. 51k (3)
3. 100k (3)
4. 1M
5. 50k trim potentiometers (3)
6. 100k potentiometer, audio taper.
7. 500k potentiometer, audio taper.
Capacitors
1. 200nF
2. 4.7uF (3)
3. 22uF (3)
4. 220uF
Semiconductors
1. J201JFETs (3)
FIGURE 4. Open Loop Gain – Frequency (Hz.) v/s Amplifier (dBr.). Miscellaneous
1. 9V battery
2. Clip for said battery
Fig 4 shows Open Loop gain of the amplifier shown 3. Breadboard/Strip board
in Fig. 3. 4. Jacks for input and output (2)

II. WORKING OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

During the early days when the Rock and Jazz music were at
their peak, distortion was introduced in the composition pri-
marily by overdriving the power valves. Most of the guitarists
who followed the early classic concerts used to appreciate
this type of distortion and this choice followed ever since.
As they have become so much accustomed to this sound, they
prefer to obtain this particular distortion sound by driving
the power section hard by setting the amplifiers at their peak
levels.
When the power valves are driven this hard, by setting
the amplifiers at their peak levels, consequently the inten-
sity of the volume rises considerably. This high intensity FIGURE 5. The basic stage of the distortion circuit (Photo courtesy:
volume was difficult to manage in the space of recording. Instructables, FET distortion pedal).
An alternative solution was required to lower the volume
without any changes on the distortion being produced. Some The left most part of the circuit shown Fig. 5, is the
solutions suggested the option of diverting of the power input stage, this is followed by a 100K resistor, called as
valve from the speaker in order to keep the volume within the input resistor which limits the forward gate current,
limits. Such diverting of the power valve from the speakers protecting the FET. Since, the FETs are voltage controlled
required the use of built-in or separate power attenuators devices, this has absolutely no impact on gain, like it would be
and power-supply-based power attenuation. These compo- in a BJT.
nents would help to subside the effect of volume com- The center part of the circuit is the FET (Field effective
ing out of the speakers. These components are used in transistor), on top of which is a 50K trim potentiometer which
a system called Voltage Variable Regulator (VVR), which acts as a drain resistor. It sets the bias and gain and therefore,
drops the voltage across the valve’s plates in order to the distortion characteristics. The analog potentiometer is a
reduce the volume while still maintaining the same level of three-terminal resistor with a sliding contact that forms an
distortion [10]. adjustable voltage divider.
Another alternative to reduce the volume was the modular Potentiometers is used for :
rack mount setup. The modular rack mount setup consists of 1) Volume controls on audio equipment.
a rack mount preamp, a rack mount valve power amplifier, 2) Control the amplifier Gain and offset .
and a rack mount dummy load which is used to attenuate the and many other applications.
output to desired volume levels. Below the FET is the 2.2K source resistor, it sets the gain
The distortion pedal for an electric guitar was based on the along with drain resistor. Followed by the FET at the center
following circuit diagram with the following components on of the circuit is a 4.7 µF coupling capacitor which is used to
the circuit board [11]: block the DC component of the FETs output, and below that

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FIGURE 6. The basic stage of the circuit is cascaded to form a 3 stage distortion circuit to obtain the required tone (Photo courtesy: Instructables, FET
distortion pedal).

The circuit consists of several fairly standard JFET

common-source amplifier ‘‘stages’’ cascaded one after the
other. JFETs work in depletion mode, in a manner very similar
to vacuum tubes. Because of this, by carefully controlling
the gain of each stage, asymmetrical, soft clipping can be
achieved. Each stage inverts the signal it is fed, so if asym-
metrical clipping is required, then cascading of the alternate
high gain and low gain stages is required. The overall effect
depends on the number of stages used. One stage adds a
FIGURE 7. Circuit showing the connection to the stereo jack, (Photo
boost with a mild crunch when driven hard, two will give a
courtesy: Instructables, FET distortion pedal). bluesy overdrive. Making it to three stages, varying levels of
distortion is obtained, depending on the gain settings of the
individual stages. The input capacitor also plays a significant
role in the overall tone of the effect. Larger values mean more
bass, yielding a darker sound, while lower values will give a
brighter sound.

FIGURE 8. True Bypass switch, Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT), (Photo
courtesy: Instructables, FET distortion pedal).

is a 22 µF capacitor, which is used to boost the overall gain

of the stage.
This basic circuit is cascaded (input to output) in stages
three times to form a 3 stage distortion circuit as shown in the
Fig. 6.
The Fig. 7 shown above is the overall circuit with connec-
FIGURE 9. Circuit connected on the bread board, (Photo courtesy:
tion to the stereo jack. The battery shown is the 9V battery Instructables, FET distortion pedal).
and the 9V potential is maintained on the overall top side of
the circuit, whereas all the grounding of the circuit is shown
by the earthing (grounding) symbol. At the center of the The disadvantages of the circuit shown in Fig. 9 is as
circuit is the 220 µF capacitor connected to boost the overall follows:
gain. • JFETs are hopelessly inconsistent from one device
The above shown Fig. 8 depicts a bypass switch, the input to the next. This inconsistency is one of the
of the circuit is connected to the Circuit IN, and the output of reasons for the three trim potentiometers in the
the circuit is connected to the circuit OUT on this switch. circuit.

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• The analog potentiometer had issues while interfacing The board has to be cooled down. It is put on a plate with
with a microcontroller, and hence the circuit is not cold water and a little soap. After some time the paper can be
controlled by a microcontroller. removed by rubbing it. The toner should remain on the board.
• Also, variable gating was not possible with the simple If not, the toner can be removed using Acetone and the whole
analog potentiometers. process is repeated.
• Complex circuitry involving three stages, to obtain the • Etching
required distortion. 1) Designing the circuit, with digital potentiometer con-
trolled by Arduino UNO (Microcontroller).
III. OBJECTIVES
• The circuitry to be designed requires that input
• To assemble and construct a varying gate distortion pedal
waveforms be hard clipped, to achieve a distorted
for the electric guitar.
sound.
• To utilize a microcontroller to feed in a signal wave-
• The resulting circuit consists of a series of smaller
form to influence the output of the pedal, reducing the
circuits, such as a high pass filter, integrator, etc.
complex circuitry of 3 stage.
• Components required are:
• Mylar, ceramic and electrolytic capacitors (at least
12V, 0.1 uF)
• Transistors (2N5458)
• Diodes (1N914, 1N4002)
• 1% metal film resistors
• Input and output jacks
• LEDs and holders
• 9V power supply
• 22 gauge wire
• Power input connector
• 8 pin DIP IC socket for LM308 IC
• Blank copper clad circuit board
• 100 K-A potentiometers
• Metal casing
• MCP41100 IC.
FIGURE 10. Circuit design for PCB manufacturing.
In the circuit diagram shown in Fig. 11, a digital
potentiometer – MCP41100 IC along with Arduino cir-
cuit board has been used, to obtain the required tone
IV. METHODOLOGY as an output. It is easy and better to control the resis-
1) Constructing the PCB using toner transfer method. tance value by Microcontroller instead of using an ana-
Fig. 10 depicts the circuit design for the PCB manu- log one. Analog potentiometers have some problem with
facturing. Micro Controller Unit. Microcontroller doesn’t have an easy
way to interface with them. The Digital Potentiometer, gives
A. MAINTAINING THE INTEGRITY OF THE SPECIFICATIONS an ability to adjust the resistance, allowing to control a voltage
• Layout
splitter with digital signals, hence variation in the voltage is
obtained at a faster rate, producing the required distortion as
The Layout should be mirrored.
and when required. The Fig. 12 is a representation of the pin
• Crop and align configuration of the digital potentiometer – MCP41100.
The dust and fingerprints on the board are removed with From the above Fig. 13, it is clear that the wiper is moved
acetone. The layout is then cut and applied with the printed over the length of the wire to vary the resistance, and hence
side on the board. If necessary, the layout is fixed with Scotch the potential. The wiper movement is controlled by the digital
Tape. control of the Arduino UNO circuit board as shown in the
• Ironing Fig. 14. Hence, the effective variation of the potential in the
A linen cloth is put on the board. The layout on the board is digital potentiometer (MCP41100) is done by the microcon-
ironed with circling movements and light pressure. Thereby troller, Arduino UNO.
the correct temperature is important. If it is too high, the The Arduino UNO has the following specifications: -
toner becomes too liquid and the strip lines become blurred.  Processor: ATmega328 (8-bit CPU, 16MHz clock speed,
If it is too low, the toner does not retain on the copper. So, 2KB SRAM, 32KB flash storage)
maintaining of the correct temperature while ironing is of the  Features: 14 digital I/O pins, 6 analog input pins,
utmost importance. removable microcontroller
• Removing the paper  Form Factor: 2.7’’ x 2.1’’ rectangle [12].

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FIGURE 11. Circuit diagram showing the layout of the various components.

controlled using the microcontroller - Arduino UNO.

A microcontroller, has the ability to adjust the resistance, to
control a voltage splitter with digital signals.
1) Making external connections with switches as shown in
the Fig. 16.
2) Using a microcontroller and digital potentiometer to
input new signal waveforms.
3) Testing with various waveforms.
FIGURE 12. The pin diagram of the digital potentiometer – MCP41100. 4) Making of preset outputs.

V. OBSERVATIONS:-
1. The setup is connected properly on the bread board,
with the specific components working in the similar
range of operating parameters, and the connection is
rigged to the input supply on one side, and a Cathode
Ray Oscilloscope (CRO) on the other side for obtaining
the output wave form.
2. The Arduino Microcontroller circuit board is used to
FIGURE 13. Digital Potentiometer. obtain the variation in the waveform of the distor-
tion produced, as seen in the output waveform of
the CRO.
3. The original input signal is a sinusoidal signal, varying
with respect to time, whose upper and lower limits are
set with the help of a potentiometer.
4. Fig. 17 shows the input sinusoidal waveform applied to
the circuit for which distortion has to be introduced by
hard clipping.
5. Fig. 18 shows the output waveform which is hard
clipped and the distortion which has been applied to it
is clearly visible.

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

FIGURE 14. Arduino UNO circuit board. 1. The use of digital potentiometer (MCP41100) con-
trolled by the Arduino UNO Microcontroller for
The connection of the Arduino UNO circuit board to the designing the variable gating distortion pedal, has
digital potentiometer is as shown in the Fig. 15. The varia- yielded satisfactory results, as seen from the output
tion in the potential of the digital potentiometer is smoothly waveform in the Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO).

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FIGURE 15. Connection of the Arduino to the Digital Potentiometer.

FIGURE 16. Circuit prototyping with breadboard. FIGURE 18. Output hard clipped waveform with distortion.

distortion of the waveforms were observed as compared

to the conventional distortion pedal.
3. Since, the digital potentiometer was controlled by the
microcontroller, hard clippings of the input sinusoidal
signal was obtained at a much faster rate, with high
gain. The signal is then distorted, at any time period t,
to provide the effect of the electric guitar, and to utilize
the full potential in terms of frequency and pitch of the
guitar.
4. The complex circuitry of 3 stage gain to obtain the
required tone of distortion from an analog potentiome-
ter was replaced with a circuit having a digital poten-
FIGURE 17. Input waveform using CRO.
tiometer controlled by a microcontroller.
5. The overdriving of the power valve to obtain the dis-
2. Controlling of the analog potentiometer by a microcon- tortion, had a consequence of higher volume problems,
troller had issues, in the interfacing stage. So a digital which is not in picture at all with this circuit controlled
potentiometer was used, and also better results in the by the microcontroller.

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[7] M. Karjalainen and J. Pakarinen, ‘‘Wave digital simulation of a vacuum-

tube amplifier,’’ in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoust., Speech Signal
Process. (ICASSP), May 2006, pp. 2–3.
[8] D. J. Gillespie and D. P. W. Ellis, ‘‘Modeling nonlinear circuits with lin-
earized dynamical models via kernel regression,’’ in Proc. IEEE Workshop
Appl. Signal Process. Audio Acoust. (WASPAA), Oct. 2013, pp. 1–4.
[9] Amplifier Modelling. [Online]. Available: [Link]
wiki/Amplifier_modeling, accessed Mar. 2011.
[10] D. M. Brewster, Introduction to Guitar Tone and Effects: A Manual for
Getting the Sounds from Electric Guitars, Amplifiers, Effects Pedals and
Processors. Miulwaukee, WI, USA: Hal Leonard, 2001.
[11] Instructables. FET Distortion Pedal. [Online]. Available: [Link]
[Link]/id/FET-Distortion-Pedal/Building-It/, accessed 2011.
[12] Tested. Know Your Arduino: A Practical Guide to the Most Common
Boards. [Online]. Available: [Link]
FIGURE 19. The output waveform hard clipped with the introduction of know-your-arduino-guide-most-common-boards, accessed Jun. 12, 2013.
distortion. (Photo courtesy: Wikipedia).
ANARGHYA ANANDA MURTHY received the
6. To minimize the noise level during distortion a certain bachelor’s degree in mechatronics engineer-
ing from the Manipal Institute of Technology,
threshold level is set as shown in the Fig. 19, and the Manipal, India. He is currently a Research Scholar
circuit on the bread board clips the original signal to with the Centre for Manufacturing Research and
obtain hard clipping within the threshold region. By Technological Utilization, Rashtreeya Vidyalaya
varying the potentiometer the threshold levels can be College of Engineering, Bangalore, India. His
current research works are focused on structural
varied. analysis of experimental validation of underwater
7. It is economically inexpensive as compared to a full pressure vehicles.
effects pedal board.
8. Maintenance, repair, and debugging of such a circuit is NITISH RAO received the bachelor’s degree in
mechatronics engineering from the Manipal Insti-
easy because the circuitry is simple, as compared to the tute of Technology, Manipal, India. He is currently
circuitry of a full effects pedal board. pursuing the [Link]. degree in automotive technol-
ogy with the Eindhoven University of Technology,
VII. CONCLUSIONS Eindhoven, The Netherlands. His current research
interests include automotive control systems and
In this paper, a distortion pedal with a variable gating effect
powertrain components.
has been described in detail. A variable gating distortion pedal
has the distinct advantage of being able to completely replace
a full effects pedal board with a compact device. A full effects YATHEESHA RANGANAHALLI BEEMAIAH is
pedal board is expensive and heavy, whereas a variable gating currently an Assistant Professor with the Don
Bosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India.
distortion pedal is compact and light, because of the use of
He received the [Link]. degree from the National
modern and better components like the digital potentiometer, Institute of Engineering, Mysore, India, and the
controlled by Arduino UNO (Microcontroller). bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from
the B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT India. His current research interests include poly-
The authors would like to thank the Manipal Institute of mer composites, thin-film sensors, and material
metal matrix.
Technology for conducting this research in the Integrated
Electronics Laboratory of Electronics Department (Manipal SUSHANTH D. SHANDILYA is currently a
Institute of Technology, Manipal) for sharing their expertise Research Scholar with the Centre for Manufac-
turing Research and Technological Utilization,
and equipment.
Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering,
Bangalore, India. He received the bachelor’s
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