MXR Double-Double Overdrive

colourofsound

Thoughts? Supposed an OCD and TS808 in one.



I've quite fancied an OCD for a while, and I could get this and kick my TS Mini off my board too. Will see if theres one locally to try...

bingefeller

Ahh I was wondering what the "modern American circuit" was.  I might check this out at some point.   

jpttaylor

Cool that they've managed to shoehorn two pedals into the same standard size enclosure. It's not one that particularly interests me but I'm sure there are people that have both a TS and OCD on their board that will need the reduced pedal board space.

On a wider note, MXR really seem to have upped their game recently (and since they recruited Jeorge Tripps). The Badass line of pedals all seem to be well reviewed, the new Variac fuzz looks intriguing and the Echoplex delay sounds amazing. Kudos to them.

Johnnyseven

Why are they playing the theme from Hollyoaks?

Winny_Pooh

The two circuits are not radically different FWIW

johnhe

Winny_Pooh said:

The two circuits are not radically different FWIW

The may not be much different in design, but the tubescreamer and OCD are total polar opposites in terms of sound. 

Winny_Pooh

@johnhe by polar opposite you mean more opposite than a Big Muff & A Klone? 

in my brief experience the OCD sounds like a modded TS with more low end and fizz on top. TS being smoother and more middly. My point was really that building the two sounds into on pedal would not take that much work compared to other circuits.

timmysoft

Winny_Pooh said:

@johnhe by polar opposite you mean more opposite than a Big Muff & A Klone? 

in my brief experience the OCD sounds like a modded TS with more low end and fizz on top. TS being smoother and more middly. My point was really that building the two sounds into on pedal would not take that much work compared to other circuits.

I'd say the OCD is smoother, flatter and with more gain available.

Magnetic_Effects

The TS and OCD are both diode clipping overdrives but they are not the same circuit.  

The TS uses Soft Clipping while the OCD uses Hard Clipping. Both diode clipping, but clipped in a different manner. 

Soft clipping is typical for TS style drives. Also, Zen Drive and Timmy, etc.

Hard Clipping is used in pedals such as the Rat, DOD250, Riot. 

bingefeller

I am definitely gonna get this pedal as the hard clipping is the kind that doesn't have the clean bleed problem.  Plus, it will be nice to have a TS that I can use to boost other pedals or amp.  Sounds like a very versatile pedal. 

johnhe

Winny_Pooh said:

@johnhe by polar opposite you mean more opposite than a Big Muff & A Klone? 

in my brief experience the OCD sounds like a modded TS with more low end and fizz on top. TS being smoother and more middly. My point was really that building the two sounds into on pedal would not take that much work compared to other circuits.

Good point about being simpler to put both into one circuit.

What I meant, purely from a sound point of view, is that the OCD is a much flatter eq - very similar to a MIAB. The Tubescreamer obviously cuts bass and pushes mids - neither of which the OCD does. 

I love both, and a tubescreamer stacked into an OCD for solos is one of music's finest pedal pairings IMO.

Dave_Mc

Magnetic_Effects said:

The TS and OCD are both diode clipping overdrives but they are not the same circuit.  

The TS uses Soft Clipping while the OCD uses Hard Clipping. Both diode clipping, but clipped in a different manner. 

Soft clipping is typical for TS style drives. Also, Zen Drive and Timmy, etc.

Hard Clipping is used in pedals such as the Rat, DOD250, Riot. 

Yeah. I was actually wondering, how likely is it that it actually does genuinely have both circuits in the one box? I know a lot of other companies claim a whole pile of guff (if I remember correctly, that JHS muff pedal which claimed to have all the different muff circuits in it) and then you find the switch is swapping out like one component.

EDIT: I know you know this, but just in case he doesn't- having the diodes to ground doesn't necessarily mean a high gain, hard-clipping distortion-style pedal. Depending on what's used as clippers, you can still get a fairly soft-sounding, more overdrive-style pedal from clippers to ground. E.g. Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD, MXR Distortion + etc.

Magnetic_Effects

Dave_Mc said:

Magnetic_Effects said:

The TS and OCD are both diode clipping overdrives but they are not the same circuit.  

The TS uses Soft Clipping while the OCD uses Hard Clipping. Both diode clipping, but clipped in a different manner. 

Soft clipping is typical for TS style drives. Also, Zen Drive and Timmy, etc.

Hard Clipping is used in pedals such as the Rat, DOD250, Riot. 

Yeah. I was actually wondering, how likely is it that it actually does genuinely have both circuits in the one box? I know a lot of other companies claim a whole pile of guff (if I remember correctly, that JHS muff pedal which claimed to have all the different muff circuits in it) and then you find the switch is swapping out like one component.

EDIT: I know you know this, but just in case he doesn't- having the diodes to ground doesn't necessarily mean a high gain, hard-clipping distortion-style pedal. Depending on what's used as clippers, you can still get a fairly soft-sounding, more overdrive-style pedal from clippers to ground. E.g. Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD, MXR Distortion + etc.

With the Double Double the circuits appear to be inspired by rather than straight clones so liberties will have been taken no doubt. The Double Double shares a common EQ circuit so it would be the just first half of each drive circuit that you switch between. Something like this maybe: Split the circuit at the input, run the two different clipping circuits in parallel and then into the shared EQ via a summing amp. There are few different ways to do it though. Could be as simple as switching diodes and an EQ cap or two simultaneously. 

Yes, good point in regards to the hard clipping not just being for full on distortion. 

Dave_Mc

^ Thanks. Yeah i was wondering- I mean, the boss OS2 sort of has two different circuits running in parallel (doesn't it?) and you can change how much of each you're getting with the colour knob, so maybe it is something like that, as you said. Like you, though, I'd very much suspect some liberties have been taken, as you said.

Magnetic_Effects

Yes, you are right about the OS-2. It has two different clipping circuits, soft and hard, in parallel. Mixed via the Colour control. I like the concept, I have a similar idea in my vault. Might be time to play around with it again.

Dave_Mc

Yeah. It's a good while since I've tried one- in fact I haven't tried it since I knew what the circuit was. Maybe I should try one again. I guess, though, it does kind of suffer from the same problem as this Double-Double pedal- it's great if you'd only use one at a time but if you like to stack them it's not going to work so well