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Those Pesky Demons ...

#61
MuthaFunk said:
If you got a drill, Dremel, and some tape you can cut a window and view the reflection off the bottom of the pedal. I used yellow tape so the blue lights appear greenish. Might change it to clear. It works perfectly and made the pedal much easier to dial in and learn what it’s doing.


I also wiped off the Deamon Logo as the window cut it off and looked bad.

View attachment 5242242

Seen below with two pairs of gain reduction lights. I think there’s up to 8 or 10 pairs to view at full gain reduction.

View attachment 5242243

The pedal sounds great!! I wouldn’t have taken the time to mod it if it didn’t. A fine pedal for the price and if your a set and forget kind of guy you could just set it up with the back cover off so you see the gain reduction lights.

I use different basses and different boards so I wanted to be able to use the lights they already had in there without opening it up.
Click to expand...
I was wondering about fibre optics - but that works well!
 
#62
Luke the Fluke said:
but didn’t think about being able to actually see the leds!
Click to expand...

MuthaFunk said:
I wanted to be able to use the lights they already had in there without opening it up.
Click to expand...

Luke the Fluke said:
I was wondering about fibre optics - but that works well!
Click to expand...

Interesting that the DemonFX has internal LEDs. This suggests that the FET side-chain of the original may have been replaced by an optical side-chain - why else install them inside the box? It will certainly enable cheaper production since FETs are notoriously variable leading to costly selection and calibration procedures, with a high proportion of devices being unsuitable. But here's the real rub:

IF the FET side-chain has been replaced with an optical link, remember that those LEDs are not gain-reduction indicators, they are actually driving the gain reduction. They will be coupled to Light-Dependent Resistors (LDR - I think I can see a couple of them next to the LED stack on @johnk_10 's gut shot but can't zoom in enough to be sure) which control the gain reduction side-chain. With those holes in the case there is no knowing how the pedal will react now that the LDRs are exposed to ambient light. Who knows what might happen under high-intensity stage lighting - it is possible that as the lights come up your bass drops out of the mix!! @MuthaFunk - have you tried shining a bright torch through your viewing window to see what happens?

BTW - more than happy to be proved wrong on this one ...
 
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#63
SteveCS said:
Interesting that the DemonFX has internal LEDs. This suggests that the FET side-chain of the original may have been replaced by an optical side-chain - why else install them inside the box? It will certainly enable cheaper production since FETs are notoriously variable leading to costly selection and calibration procedures, with a high proportion of devices being unsuitable. But here's the real rub:

IF the FET side-chain has been replaced with an optical link, remember that those LEDs are not gain-reduction indicators, they are actually driving the gain reduction. They will be coupled to Light-Dependent Resistors (LDR - I think I can see a couple of them next to the LED stack on @johnk_10 's gut shot but can't zoom in enough to be sure) which control the gain reduction side-chain. With those holes in the case there is no knowing how the pedal will react now that the LDRs are exposed to ambient light. Who knows what might happen under high-intensity stage lighting - it is possible that as the lights come up your bass drops out of the mix!! @MuthaFunk - have you tried shining a bright torch through your viewing window to see what happens?

BTW - more than happy to be proved wrong on this one ...
Click to expand...

on the photo I’ve seen they are a series of smd LEDs - not connected to LDR

I think Deamonfx would find copying a complex circuit easier than any kind of re-engineering!
 
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#64
Luke the Fluke said:
on the photo I’ve seen they are a series of smd LEDs - not connected to LDR

I think Deamonfx would find copying a complex circuit easier than any kind of re-engineering!
Click to expand...

They won't be connected as such - the 'conection' is optical: light reflects off the bottom of the inside of the case back onto an opto-device mounted on the board. On the picture above, these look like some type of photo-transistor:
upload_2023-11-6_12-25-12.png
 
#65
SteveCS said:
Interesting that the DemonFX has internal LEDs. This suggests that the FET side-chain of the original may have been replaced by an optical side-chain - why else install them inside the box? It will certainly enable cheaper production since FETs are notoriously variable leading to costly selection and calibration procedures, with a high proportion of devices being unsuitable. But here's the real rub:

IF the FET side-chain has been replaced with an optical link, remember that those LEDs are not gain-reduction indicators, they are actually driving the gain reduction. They will be coupled to Light-Dependent Resistors (LDR - I think I can see a couple of them next to the LED stack on @johnk_10 's gut shot but can't zoom in enough to be sure) which control the gain reduction side-chain. With those holes in the case there is no knowing how the pedal will react now that the LDRs are exposed to ambient light. Who knows what might happen under high-intensity stage lighting - it is possible that as the lights come up your bass drops out of the mix!! @MuthaFunk - have you tried shining a bright torch through your viewing window to see what happens?

BTW - more than happy to be proved wrong on this one ...
Click to expand...

I can tell you that I opened up the case and tested out the settings of the pedal while observing the lights. I didn't notice any difference in the pedals reaction to being wide open or closed. The lights appeared to respond as gain reduction lights and my ears agreed with what my eyes saw. That's when I had the idea to simply cut a hole in the chassis to view the reflection of them.

It seems to work and the pedal sounds great.

I suspected the LED's were set to go off at different voltages and the original circuit would have a variable color LED that had all the same connections. As the higher voltages are put out the light would change color. I think it's green, yellow, red. That specialized LED might not be available at a price point, so they just went SMD to get the circuit to work.
 
Last edited:
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#66
SteveCS said:
They won't be connected as such - the 'conection' is optical: light reflects off the bottom of the inside of the case back onto an opto-device mounted on the board. On the picture above, these look like some type of photo-transistor:
View attachment 5242373
Click to expand...
I have one of these and can confirm when I get home but , I don’t think what you are seeing are LDRs. If memory serves me correctly, I believe they are trim pots. I will take a look this evening.
Matt
 
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#67
Wood and Wire said:
Origin Effects Cali76

Which itself, is a ripoff of :

UREI / Universal Audio 1176
Click to expand...
Rip offs seem to be okay here if they're sold for a high price. It only becomes a problem when they become affordable lol. No one cries about keisel ripping off Dingwall, but if a Chinese company did and sold it for 400$, this forum would be throwing blood on fur coats over it
 
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#68
Seth DuSith said:
Rip offs seem to be okay here if they're sold for a high price. It only becomes a problem when they become affordable lol. No one cries about keisel ripping off Dingwall, but if a Chinese company did and sold it for 400$, this forum would be throwing blood on fur coats over it
Click to expand...
Kiesel didn't rip off Dingwall. Nothing they build looks like a Dingwall. Show me a bass from Kiesel that anyone with working eye sight would confuse for an exact model from Dingwall. To simplify, a ripoff is a copy of a Nike shoe with the swoosh turned upside down, but all other design elements the same.

A ripoff suggests something looks a whole hell of a lot like something else, like this compressor that looks practically identical to the legit Cali76.

I also wouldn't call fitting a circuit that sounds like, but is not built exactly the same, as a studio rackmount compressor that costs thosands of dollars, into a small pedal format is a ripoff. The DemonFX is definitely a ripoff of the Cali76, but the Cali76 is not a ripoff of the UA1176.
 
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#71
About to do this mod myself. What did you use for solvent on the logo?
MuthaFunk said:
If you got a drill, Dremel, and some tape you can cut a window and view the reflection off the bottom of the pedal. I used yellow tape so the blue lights appear greenish. Might change it to clear. It works perfectly and made the pedal much easier to dial in and learn what it's doing.


I also wiped off the Deamon Logo as the window cut it off and looked bad.

View attachment 5242242

Seen below with two pairs of gain reduction lights. I think there's up to 8 or 10 pairs to view at full gain reduction.

View attachment 5242243

The pedal sounds great!! I wouldn't have taken the time to mod it if it didn't. A fine pedal for the price and if your a set and forget kind of guy you could just set it up with the back cover off so you see the gain reduction lights.

I use different basses and different boards so I wanted to be able to use the lights they already had in there without opening it up.
Click to expand...
 
#73
MuthaFunk said:
I can't remember. Isopropyl alcohol should do it. If that doesn't work acetone always does.
Click to expand...
Good to know. I wiped the whole thing down with 90% isopropyl after cutting it earlier just to take the shavings off before putting the board back in and it didn't seem to move the paint. I also didn't rub so it probably wouldn't have. My wife probably has some nail polish remover around the house to save me a trip to the hardware store.
 
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#74
So, the Call76 is more of a test to see if I like this compressor. So many say it compares very well to the real thing. If I like this enough, I'll likely get the real thing.

However, I've run into one thing that I can't seem to find in any demo of any pedal. If I push the input but dial the compression way back, I get a nice overdrive. Not sure if the real thing does this, if it's a result of not getting the clone quite right or if mine is just pleasantly broken. When I increase the ratio, speed up the attack and dial down the hpf, I do get compression and the overdrive fades away. It's almost like I'm driving the output stage of the pedal.

So, which one is it? Does the real thing do this?
 
#75
BassmanNate said:
So, the Call76 is more of a test to see if I like this compressor. So many say it compares very well to the real thing. If I like this enough, I'll likely get the real thing.

However, I've run into one thing that I can't seem to find in any demo of any pedal. If I push the input but dial the compression way back, I get a nice overdrive. Not sure if the real thing does this, if it's a result of not getting the clone quite right or if mine is just pleasantly broken. When I increase the ratio, speed up the attack and dial down the hpf, I do get compression and the overdrive fades away. It's almost like I'm driving the output stage of the pedal.

So, which one is it? Does the real thing do this?
Click to expand...
What do you have in the signal chain after the compressor? It is very possible with what you described that what you are hearing is something later in the chain being overdriven because you are boosting the signal.
 
#76
Teryup said:
What do you have in the signal chain after the compressor? It is very possible with what you described that what you are hearing is something later in the chain being overdriven because you are boosting the signal.
Click to expand...
I had a para driver. It had less overdrive when that's bypassed but it was still there. I'm sure it pushes the preamp into overdrive but it's definitely contributing a bit on it's own.
 

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