So, my friend (guitarist) had purchased a nice distortion pedal for his rig. Sounds great. I suggested trying it out on my Korg and I LOVED the sound we were getting out of it, with the exception of hum/buzz we were getting. Understandable, seeing as how the distortion is amping up line noise from the synth (or so I think?).

1. I've not seen any real distortion effects for use in a balanced studio environment.

2. There are schematics all over the interweb for distortion pedals and the like. I've toyed with building my own and modifying and such.

3. Most resources talk about using direct boxes and blah blah blah... but these are for people who don't want to open up their precious gear and modify.

Enter today: I want to build a distortion "pedal" (2 really, for stereo). Since I'd be starting from scratch (with schematics for common distortion pedals) I'm willing to do the necessary modifications.

I found this: http://www.jensen-transformers.com/an/an003.pdf

Make note of the first page, right column (Typical Balanced Input / Typical Balanced Output). Can I just throw these circuits onto a schematic for a pedal?

If so:
The use of the op-amps makes perfect sense to me... but I understand no more than that. Anyone wanna work through the details with me? I'm willing to carry this through to a DIY kit or something.