The Ugly Arcadian - Arcadiator + Machette (Dminner enclosure)

[lincolnic]

So Dan and I did a second collaborative build, and it's one of the craziest boxes I've ever put together. He talked me into putting an Arcadiator and Machette together into one box, and then proceeded to design the hell out of said box. To whit:



(It's worth noting that all the photos in this thread came from Dan, and he graciously allowed me their use.)



Luckily for me, Dan was agreeable and was willing to overlook his usual taste for off-board wiring. With nine pots and five toggles just on the circuits themselves, anything other than PCB-mounting would've been a real test. (It also would've been a gigantic box -- this is already a 1590XX!) The LEDs work like this: red is for the Machette, green is the Machette's LFO (which is toggled by the middle footswitch), and blue is the Arcadiator. We used an ultraviolet/purple LED for the Arcadiator's LFO indicator, board-mounted between the "level" and "rate" text.

This was my first time including an order switch in a build (having only done one two-in-one before), but other than that it was mostly straightforward. I had good intentions for the wiring, but as usual, they got slightly derailed: I started hooking up the Machette's footswitch in the usual way before remembering that it has a special wiring diagram to cut down on signal bleed. I had to desolder the half of the 3PDT I'd already done and start over. Luckily, the Alpha 3PDTs are robust, and I had no trouble there. When I went for the final post-box test, I noticed that the Arcadiator's LED wouldn't light. I reflowed, checked for cold joints (the CLR there used to have heat shrink on it, but I snipped it off to make sure the connection was good), reversed the lead, and still got nothing. The LED was just a dud. So that also helped un-neaten some of my previous work. Admittedly, I also got a little impatient with all the re-working I had to do and could've tried harder to keep it cleaner.



I used the last of my wire boxing this thing up, but I have some more arriving tomorrow or the next day, so I'll be able to finish my own sometime this week (I sent this off to Dan as soon as it was done). If I manage to improve on the guts in a meaningful way, I'll make another build report.

I just realized that I've written a lot and haven't said anything about how it sounds. The answer: completely insane. Each of these circuits can do so much on its own, and when you combine them (especially with both LFOs engaged) you can get some real throbby chaos going on. I'm actually surprised at how much I like the Machette on its own -- I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found myself dialing up some kooky early Brian Eno sounds that made me happy. I was also having fun with switching the Machette to be first in the chain, setting it up to generate signal, and feeding it into the Arcadiator.

Of all the pedals I've built to date, this one definitely has the highest learning curve, but the sheer variety of sounds it can make is worth the effort.

[cooder]

Super super wicked! We defo need a demo or two!

[wgc]

lordy  that's some stuff

great job guys!

[GrindCustoms]

Wow, wow, wow wow!

That is a killer combo, impressive!

Can't wait to have my Arcadiator ICs in for my build of it for doing exactly what you just described

[TGP39]

Insane, yet perfectly natural combination. Thank god you didn't have to off board wire this beast.  You did a great job with the wiring and Dan did a great job with the enclosure. When I first heard the arcadiator, I thought it wasn't really relevant to making music, but so many people have raved about this circuit that perhaps I should at least try it.  I am positive your wiring will be even better for the second box. Have fun.

Steve.

[Tremster]

Oh yes!

[brejna]

Congrats! Great build! 

[Cortexturizer]

insane combo that looks absolutely rad. one of the best looking pedals in a while. WOW!

[jprizz]

You guys obviously work well with each other. Those pedals look fantastic!

[bcalla]

That is so over the top!

[Luke51411]

Epic idea, epic graphics, epic build. You'll have the neighborhood dogs howling in no time

[G.G.]

Cigars, gents! That sounds like a totally insane combo. Well done, the enclosure looks fantastic!

[Bret608]

Those square fresnels...   Where? Did you get those...

This is one of the coolest builds I have seen!

[Luke51411]

Is it ironic that the Ugly Arcadian is one of the prettiest looking pedals ever created?

[rullywowr]

That is glorious. Great combo, and awesome enclosure too!