MI Effects CROSS OVER DRIVE User manual

MI AUDIO PTY. LTD. P.O. Box 6426, North Ryde, NSW 2113 A stralia http://www.mia dio.com
WELCOME
Hello there dudes and dudettes. Congratulations on
purchasing the MI Effects CROSS OVER DRIVE. The Cross
Over Drive is a new design, which bridges the gap between
boost, tone enhancer, touch-sensitive overdrive, to all out
fuzz depending on how is it set, and more importantly, how
it’s played. This is my most dynamic, touch-sensitive
overdrive design to date. The four stage, cascaded, pure
class-A JFET design has a remarkably valve-like feel, and a
harmonic complexity like nothing I’ve ever designed before.
This, coupled with the two tone controls provides excellent
control over your tone.
The Cross overdrive was intended as a limited edition pedal,
due mainly to the fact that the JFETs used in the pedal were
discontinued, and I only had a limited supply. Thankfully, I
have been able to source the same transistors in surface
mount packaging, so the tone and feel of V2 is identical to
V1.
The new V2 pushes things further by offering 3 distinct
modes: A low gain mode, standard, and a new tight mode.
INTRODUCTION
The genesis of the Cross Over Drive was not with other
pedal designs, but in fact with amp circuits. A few years ago,
I challenged myself to create a JFET implementation of a
valve amplifier. I thought it would be a good idea to start with
an amplifier I knew well,… one of my own! So I began to play
around with a JFET implementation of our award winning
high gain Megalith amplifier. After a year of tweaking, the
result was very impressive. This design crystallised into the
Megalith Delta high gain distortion pedal.
This success piqued my interest in JFET designs. I then set
about working on a valve-like smooth overdrive. The result
initially was pleasing. However, I had focused on a narrow
gain range. So I extended the gain range to see how it would
sound, and the Cross Over Drive was born. To my surprise,
taking the ‘smooth’ gain structure of the Cross Over Drive
and pushing the gain produced a huge, violin-like smooth
fuzz.
Another wonderful aspect of the design is just how well the
Cross Over Drive reacts to both pick attack and changed in
guitar volume. I know that this expression has become
somewhat of a throw-away tag applied to virtually every drive
pedal, but I feel that this genuinely applies in this case. Even
with the gain cranked all the way up, a slight reduction of the
guitar’s volume in combination with a lighter pick attack will
produced a wonderful clean tone. This really something quite
special, and will be particularly rewarding for expressive
guitarists who play with a wide dynamic range.
Below is a detailed description of the controls.
CONTROLS
GAIN
The gain control is used to control the amount of saturation,
as well as the tone and feel of the cross over drive. The
unique gain control adjusts the gain in two parts of the circuit,
which means that there is a wide range of lower gain sounds,
and then towards the end of the gain sweep, the saturation
really piles on. There are three distinct ranges:
1) 0% to 40% Boost/light breakup. In this range, you
can use the Cross Over Drive as a boost pedal (by cranking
the output volume), or for light breakup. The exact setting of
the drive control will depend on how hot your pickups are.
Low output single coil pickups will stay clean in this range,
whereas high output humbuckers will break-up almost
immediately when hit hard. By adjusting the Balance and
Detail controls, you’ll be able to use the Cross Over Drive as
a JFET based tonal enhancer.
2) 40% to 70% Smooth, touch-sensitive overdrive. In
this range, the Cross Over Drive will behave like a smooth
(dare I say ‘D-style’) amp-like overdrive. It will retain the tone
of each guitar, but will also respond very dynamically to pick
attack, producing anything from a delicate clean to a wild
roar, all by varying the pick attack.
3) 70% to 100% Smooth Fuzz. With the gain in this
range, the Cross Over Drive will take on an almost fuzz-like
persona, especially with the neck pickup. Once again, by
adjusting your pick attack and guitar volume, you can still go
from clean, to overdrive to fuzz.
BALANCE AND DETAIL
These two tone controls give you two different ways of
adjusting the character of the Cross Over Drive.
The Balance control is a shelving control, which adjusts the
high frequency band relative to the low frequencies. When
you turn this control down, it drops the signal above 1KHz.
The Detail control is a high frequency roll-off. All the way to
the right, all frequencies are passed through the output stage
of the pedal. As you turn this control down, it will limit the
bandwidth by shaving off more top end. As you turn this
control down, the ‘knee’ frequency at which the rolling off
happens will decrease.
These two controls, whilst both adjusting the top end of the
pedal, allow a great deal of control over the tone without
compromising the overall character of the pedal.
To set adjust these controls, I like to do the following:
Turn the gain and volume up to the desired levels, and turn
both balance and detail all the way up.
First reduce balance control until you reach the point where
you feel that the balance of low to high frequencies is right.
Next, adjust the detail control so that the high frequencies
extend as far as you like.
This will bring you fairly close to your desired tone. From
there, you can also try to turn the Balance and Detail in
opposite directions to hear different tones with roughly the
same frequency content.
VOLUME
Rather surprisingly, this control adjusts the output volume 

MI AUDIO PTY. LTD. P.O. Box 6426, North Ryde, NSW 2113 A stralia http://www.mia dio.com
MODE SWITCH
The mode switch is a new feature of the Cross Over Drive.
The middle position (STD) is identical to the original Cross
Over Drive.
The Low Gain mode has a similar tone to the standard
mode, but with perhaps a touch more low end early on in the
signal path. This is my favourite mode for on-the-verge-of-
breakup strat and tele tones.
The Tight mode has a similar amount of gain to the standard
mode. However, the frequency response is shifted more
towards the upper mids, with a tighter low end. This reduces
some of the fuzz of the standard mode, and creates a more
modern sounding pedal. It works especially well when you
need a bit of extra cut, or if you’re using very high output
humbuckers.
OTHER FEATURES
Tiny enclosure – I worked really hard to pack in a huge
amount of features into a tiny enclosure. Pedal-board real-
estate is very expensive these days! But don’t let size fool
you. This die-cast aluminium enclosure is very, very strong.
• The enclosure is professionally powder-coated and
silk-screened.
• The Cross Over Drive can be powered by an
internal 9V or an external 9V DC power supply. Please make
sure to use a well regulated negative centre pin supply. I also
recommend running the Cross Over Drive at 9V exclusively
for the best tone.
• Heavy duty 3PDT footswitch for true bypass and
absolutely no signal loss when bypassed.
REGISTRATION & WARRANTY
To register your pedal, you can email your name, contact
details, purchase date, and retailer details along with the
pedal serial number to: re[email protected]
Alternatively, you can send the above information to the
postal address on the front of this manual. PLEASE
REGISTER YOUR PEDAL. In the long run, it will be difficult
to have your pedal serviced if you need to if the pedal is not
registered.
This pedal carries a 5 year warranty that covers all repairs
due to manufacturer error. It does not cover any damage due
to user mishandling, shipping, acts of God, and abuse. The
owner should contact MI Audio directly for all repairs, and
any work done by anyone other than MI Audio voids the
warranty. All shipping costs are the responsibility of the
owner, and are to be paid in advance of any work performed
on the pedal. The owner may be asked to provide a copy of
the sales receipt for verification.
DISCLAIMER
The owner or user assumes responsibility for death, injury
and/or damages relating to the operation of this device. MI
Audio assumes no responsibility for death, injury or damages
relating from the operation of this device. I am always
thinking of ways to improve things, so all specifications are
subject to change without notice.