When we released the Halcyon Green Overdrive in July 2022, we also debuted our Adaptive Circuitry. This proprietary technology allows the all-analogue pedal to adjust its voicing in response to volume knob changes and playing dynamics, offering a never-before-seen “cleaning up from the volume knob” experience.
We know this is a bit of a pedal community cliché, but “cleaning up from the volume knob” is a really cool and involving way to play – and a real challenge when it comes to dialling in tones and stacking pedals. Naturally, we took this challenge seriously and are pleased to hear from players who are enjoying the benefits, finding new sounds and even slimming down their pedal collection as a result!
Since releasing the Halcyon Green Overdrive, we have been looking for new places to employ our Adaptive Circuitry and, so far, we have launched another two pedals that use it. This article takes another look at how this circuitry works and how we have adapted it to improve the playing experience of three very different pedals.
Halcyon Green Overdrive:
Halcyon Green Overdrive: Adaptive Circuitry Interaction
The Halcyon Green Overdrive is inspired by probably the most famous, most copied, most loved and most hated pedal in existence – the Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer. We happen to think it’s a great pedal, thoroughly deserving of its classic status. The most defining feature of its well-known tone is its signature “mid hump”. The TS808 creates this mid hump by removing bass, removing treble and amplifying the remaining midrange (as well as soft-clipping the signal with a pair of diodes). This results in a prominent, overdriven midrange tone without excessive lows or highs.
This is very handy thing to have in an overdrive pedal. Typically, a good clean or nearly-clean tone from a guitar amp will have a good amount of low end and some sparkly treble. Think of a great ‘60s Fender amp sound – warm lows, slightly scooped in the mids, with a bright top-end. However, if we add overdrive to this sound without any tone-shaping, the good qualities of this clean sound quickly become undesirable. Too much low end will result in an unstable drive tone, causing it to “flub out”. Too much treble will accentuate the fizzy parts of an overdriven waveform, giving a harshness to the sound rather than the warmth we want from a driven tone. The TS808’s mid-hump means there is no risk of flubby lows or fizzy highs, just a thick midrange overdrive tone that we can toggle on and off from the footswitch – pretty revolutionary back in the ‘70s!
Where this becomes a problem is when you like to use the guitar volume knob or picking dynamics to move between clean and overdriven tones. With the mid-forward TS808 turned on, cleaning up from the volume knob doesn’t get you back to the clean sound of your amp – it gets you to a thin clean tone with no bass or treble, because the tone is still being shaped by the TS808.
The difference that the Adaptive Circuitry makes on the Halcyon Green is that, as you roll back the volume knob or pick softly, the prominence of that signature mid-hump is also reduced. Once the pedal gets completely clean, all your bass and treble have been restored and your clean tone is more or less the same as your clean tone with the Halcyon Green bypassed.
You might even argue that this is better than the purist approach of just cranking the amp up and riding the volume control, as the Halcyon’s Adaptive Circuitry changes its voicing from one suited to a driven sound to something that works better for clean. Even the loveliest vintage amp can’t do that.
In this clip, you are hearing:
- Pedal bypassed, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, ADAPT O, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, ADAPT O, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, ADAPT II, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, ADAPT II, guitar volume at maximum
Note: Before you ask, this isn’t the same thing as a treble bleed. The Adaptive Circuitry works in response to input signal level and affects both the bass and treble parts of the frequency range. A treble bleed works based on the position of the volume pot – it won’t change in response to picking dynamics – and only affects the high end.
Halcyon Gold Overdrive:
Halcyon Gold Adaptive Circuitry Implementation
The Adaptive Circuitry in the Halcyon Gold works in the same way as the Halcyon Green. The Halcyon Gold overdrive is inspired by the Klon Centaur which, like the TS808, has a “mid hump” that is essential to its signature sound. Again, the Adaptive Circuitry allows the mid hump to fade away as the pedal cleans up, with the bass and treble frequencies being restored gradually as the amount of overdrive is reduced.
In the Halcyon Gold, there is an additional benefit to the Adaptive Circuitry because of the way the Klon’s mid hump changes with gain. The Klon Centaur’s mid hump is more pronounced the higher you set the gain control, ranging from a very flat, “transparent” tone at lower gain settings to a very mid-forward overdrive tone with high gain. Because of this interaction, the Klon has become famous for its abilities as both a transparent boost and as a mid-forward overdrive, though its controls need to be set differently to achieve each tone.
Because the Halcyon Gold’s Adaptive Circuitry allows the mid hump to fade away as it cleans up, it means players can enjoy both these desirable Klon tones without adjusting the pedal’s controls. The Halcyon Gold’s DRIVE control can be set high for a prominent mid hump and a good amount of overdrive – cleaning up from the guitar volume will not only result in a cleaner tone but will also restore the flat, “transparent” frequency response associated with lower-gain Klon tones.
In this clip, you are hearing:
- Pedal bypassed, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, ADAPT O, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, ADAPT O, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, ADAPT II, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, ADAPT II, guitar volume at maximum
M-EQ DRIVER:
M-EQ DRIVER: Adaptive Circuitry Interaction
The M-EQ DRIVER is a very different pedal to the Halcyon Green Overdrive. Instead of traditional diode clipping, it produces its overdrive in a push-pull output stage, using FETs in place of the valves found in the Pultec studio EQ that inspired it. As well as this fundamental difference in overdrive style, the midrange behaviour is also very different and a lot more tweakable.
Sure, the M-EQ DRIVER can be a mid-forward overdrive pedal, filling a similar role as the Halcyon Green. It can also be a much more subtle tone shaper, evening out the differences between guitars or pickups, or adding weight or presence to your tone. It can also be the total opposite – a super-resonant, in-your-face drive tone with a throatiness that resembles a cocked wah.
Either way, different pedals need different approaches. In the M-EQ DRIVER, the Adaptive Circuitry only applies to the CUT control. This knob removes high end, warming up the sound much like a typical Tone control on any overdrive pedal. By making this control adaptive, we have allowed you to dial in a warm overdrive tone, then bring back all the sparkly treble frequencies as you clean up from the guitar volume knob. However, because the MIDS knob is so useful for tweaking the overall tone of your guitar, we have kept that separate from the Adaptive Circuitry.
Think about it: you’ve used the MIDS knob to add a nice 800Hz boost to your weedy Strat pickups, fattening the tone up nicely. You’ve also dialled in some overdrive and rolled the CUT control off to give it some warmth. When you clean up from the guitar volume, you want to restore all the treble from those jangly single coils, but you’d still like to keep the extra body that you’ve added to the overall sound with that subtle boost in the mids.
This is what the M-EQ DRIVER’s Adaptive Circuitry lets you do – move between bright clean tones and warm overdrive, while keeping any tweaks you’ve made to your guitar’s midrange.
In this clip, you are hearing:
- Pedal bypassed, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, no CUT applied, ADAPT O, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, CUT applied, ADAPT O, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, CUT applied, ADAPT I, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, CUT applied, ADAPT I, guitar volume at maximum
DCX BOOST/DCX BASS:
DCX BOOST & DCX BASS: Adaptive Circuitry Interaction NOTE: Adaptive Circuitry is only active when EQ mode is selected.
Inspired by the Universal Audio 610 recording preamp, the DCX BOOST and DCX BASS pedals offer another flavour of all-analogue, studio-inspired tone-shaping and drive. Like the M-EQ DRIVER, the Adaptive Circuitry is applied only to treble frequencies, although it is engaged or disengaged automatically depending on whether you’re in EQ or OD mode.
In OD mode, the Adaptive Circuitry is disabled and the VOICE switch selects a static amount of high-end roll-off – either FLAT, MED or DRK. This roll-off does not change with signal level or dynamics. There’s enough overdrive available in this mode that taming the very high frequencies is always useful, irrespective of where your guitar volume is set or how hard you’re picking. This sweetening of the top end means that you can boost the H.F. control to add some presence, without having to worry about adding fizz at the same time.
In EQ mode, however, this high-end roll-off becomes adaptive. Because this mode is designed for subtle, edge-of-breakup overdrive tones, it lives right in the no-man’s-land between wanting to preserve sparkly treble and wanting to roll it off for warmer drive tones. So, by enabling the Adaptive Circuitry in EQ mode, the DCX can move seamlessly between a very flat and full-range clean tone to warm, sweetened drive tone as you dig in. You almost won’t notice it happening. You’ll just notice a tone that encourages you to play harder, a tone that seems simultaneously hi-fi and full of grungy analogue warmth.
In this clip, you are hearing:
- Pedal bypassed, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE FLAT, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE MED, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE DRK, guitar volume at maximum
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE FLAT, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE FLAT, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE MED, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE DRK, guitar volume rolled back
- Pedal on, EQ mode, VOICE DRK, guitar volume at maximum
As with all things gear-related, reading about it can only get you so far. For an extra dose of adaptivity, check out our Halcyon Green, M-EQ DRIVER and DCX videos over on the Origin YouTube, as well as a host of demos from a number of excellent YouTubers. But, really, the best thing you can do is toddle on down to your local Origin dealer and wheel out your best dynamic playing!
Product Links:
Halcyon Green Overdrive: https://origineffects.com/product/halcyon-green/
M-EQ DRIVER: https://origineffects.com/product/meqdriver/
DCX BOOST: https://origineffects.com/product/dcx-boost/
DCX BASS: https://origineffects.com/product/dcx-bass/
