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Someone cracked the Animato
- Thread starter father of fires
- Start date
Adamixoye
A PT Pro is cool for worship, right?
- Apr 9, 2012
- 18,158
- 69,338
- Disclosures
- Occasional Beta Tester for Confusion Studios, Singular Sound, and Source Audio
By the way, @johnk_10, your choice of graphic for the Animato gets me every time. I recognize it and it's a wonderful nod to the pedal (everyone loves OoS but I think Absolution is basically as good), but it's also subtle and doubles as just a nice design.
Just read through the entire thread, I think I've covered as much as possible and John covers the tilt mod, if not I can always answer things as they come.
EDIT: A few photos from today
Inside build number three. It looks messier than it is, it's mainly the wires and the fact the board is reversed meaning they need to be longer.
Link Removed
And of course, the final product. Again. This and the next two are off to the United States. Then they're going all over Europe and one customer in Indonesia!
Also the test enclosure for the bitmap/reanimato/animatrix/antidisestablishmentarialato is painted up. Very yellow. The sides are white. That clear goes on very thick, very fast. The joys of painting in the only sunny break there was all week.
Crowella, you have some serious talent building pedals, excellent work.
I can't wait to see how the 'bitmap' turns out. I have an an animato on my board & its my favourite pedal, an improved version would be amazing.
Crowella
Commercial User
Thank you heaps. I am getting so much support, I feel inclined to do a lot more with this stuff. Really honoured by all of this. 
Funny how people that own an Animato claim it to be their favourite pedal. I immediately removed all my dirt pedals and use my prototype now, sometimes with the clean blend, sometimes without. Our guitarist loves the sound on bass but not so much on guitar. Funny that.
Funny how people that own an Animato claim it to be their favourite pedal. I immediately removed all my dirt pedals and use my prototype now, sometimes with the clean blend, sometimes without. Our guitarist loves the sound on bass but not so much on guitar. Funny that.
Crowella
Commercial User
Looks like I will have to work on that later tonight. Can try to whip up a PCB too if the printer plays nice.
First four have been sent. My comments on the builds so far is that each sound so slightly different to each other and it's that freaking trimpot that is doing my head in on every one of them. The owner of number 2 should know theirs took no time at all. #3 took a while. #4 took what felt like forever. It is a matter of moving the trimpot nanometres to focus that sound in. I've set them all to the original as much as possible and not to each other. Amazing how you try and control it as much as possible yet they all seem slightly different between each other. All my engineering side tells me those tolerances just work in strange ways.
Going to see how many boards I can do later this evening. The wiring seems to take longer than the boards which is another sign I should try and move to board mount pots.
First four have been sent. My comments on the builds so far is that each sound so slightly different to each other and it's that freaking trimpot that is doing my head in on every one of them. The owner of number 2 should know theirs took no time at all. #3 took a while. #4 took what felt like forever. It is a matter of moving the trimpot nanometres to focus that sound in. I've set them all to the original as much as possible and not to each other. Amazing how you try and control it as much as possible yet they all seem slightly different between each other. All my engineering side tells me those tolerances just work in strange ways.
Going to see how many boards I can do later this evening. The wiring seems to take longer than the boards which is another sign I should try and move to board mount pots.
Crowella
Commercial User
All the pre-order guys, your pedals are on the way (aside one who is also waiting on another different pedal for me to make). To the two others that have ordered since I put them for sale, expect them to be sent out Monday.
Found out I can't get the PCB's done at my relatives, their machine does not cut copper. Oh well, I'll look at other avenues. If I stick with this supplier, I can at least utilise two sided boards at a slight extra cost but might make some things a hell of a lot easier to build.
Found out I can't get the PCB's done at my relatives, their machine does not cut copper. Oh well, I'll look at other avenues. If I stick with this supplier, I can at least utilise two sided boards at a slight extra cost but might make some things a hell of a lot easier to build.
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
Hey all. Recieved my johnk silicon tilt Animato yesterday... kudos dude, this puppy is beeewtiful! Sounds freakin' awesome too... made myself late for work this morning because I couldn't stop playing it! One thing though... when the Tilt is turned to about 9 o'clock, the pedal 'pops' & locks into self-oscillation at around 375kHz. It stops oscillating when the tilt is turned back to around 3 o'clock. Any tips for stopping this from happening? A small ceramic cap to ground on the output perhaps? I'll do some fiddling & let you know how I go. Keep up the great work boys!
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
hmm. it definitely didn't do that when I tested it so there is no mod for that.
where do you have the gain set at?
where do you have the gain set at?
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
Hey John. It happens regardless of any of the other pot. positions (even with them all at minimum!).
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
The soup thickens... it doesn't do it with the CRO probe clipped directly onto a blank plug on the o/p, but does it with a 2m guitar cable attached.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
Crowella
Commercial User
Really hope that can get resolved.
This is sounding like a ground loop but that's just a stab in the dark. If it's not doing it with the probe... when you have the 2m guitar cable attached, does it go away/increase with anything attached to it?
I can't really figure out what would cause it outside of that. I don't know how the tilt is wired but if there is a pop, that would indicate something mechanical perhaps in the potentiometer. I don't know if that potentiometer is wired to ground but if that's the case, it could be shorting out somehow. If you have the ability (guessing since you have an osc.), maybe replace that potentiometer and see how that goes. *shrugs*
Potentiometers are so freaking horrible quality wise. Then again, moving parts are destined to be awful.
This is sounding like a ground loop but that's just a stab in the dark. If it's not doing it with the probe... when you have the 2m guitar cable attached, does it go away/increase with anything attached to it?
I can't really figure out what would cause it outside of that. I don't know how the tilt is wired but if there is a pop, that would indicate something mechanical perhaps in the potentiometer. I don't know if that potentiometer is wired to ground but if that's the case, it could be shorting out somehow. If you have the ability (guessing since you have an osc.), maybe replace that potentiometer and see how that goes. *shrugs*
Potentiometers are so freaking horrible quality wise. Then again, moving parts are destined to be awful.
Mine with tilt certainly does not do that.
BTW, I have been playing with some pitchfactor algorithms on the H9 and the Animato sounds great with that. I have to blend it a bit with some clean to let it track a bit better (this is more of an issue with the H9 algorithms rather than with the Animato with Tilt).
But, wow, the distortion sounds amazing on the bass part and just as amazing on the higher pitched notes as well. I highly recommend trying it with the "Delayed 3rd" preset.
I hope people realize how good the JohnK and Crowella copies are and how great of a deal they are. These are great pedals with improvements over the originals (size, construction, features) at an actually reasonable price point.
BTW, I have been playing with some pitchfactor algorithms on the H9 and the Animato sounds great with that. I have to blend it a bit with some clean to let it track a bit better (this is more of an issue with the H9 algorithms rather than with the Animato with Tilt).
But, wow, the distortion sounds amazing on the bass part and just as amazing on the higher pitched notes as well. I highly recommend trying it with the "Delayed 3rd" preset.
I hope people realize how good the JohnK and Crowella copies are and how great of a deal they are. These are great pedals with improvements over the originals (size, construction, features) at an actually reasonable price point.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
the tilt circuit is wired to the output of the Animato circuit. i've never had one do what he's describing, but right now I don't think that it's a pot.
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
Hey chaps!
Yeah a quirky one for sure, but i'm sure we've experienced plenty of 'wow that didn't do what I intended it to do' electronics moments! My intention is certainly not to unjustly criticise but to contribute towards this awesome project in any way I can.
A ground loop... hmm wouldn't it occur regardless of output cabling? It only takes a 2m cable for it to happen... and it also happens at home into my practice amp (although I can only assume it's oscillating but I can hear the pop that, at work with the CRO attached, indicates the onset of oscillation). BTW, I swapped out the TL072 for another & the problem remained.
Yep could be a potentiometer, i'll try swapping that out tomorrow.
Dang it nshuman, now i've got GAS for a H9... don't worry, i'll receive notice of winning the gold-plated one any day now...
Yeah a quirky one for sure, but i'm sure we've experienced plenty of 'wow that didn't do what I intended it to do' electronics moments! My intention is certainly not to unjustly criticise but to contribute towards this awesome project in any way I can.
A ground loop... hmm wouldn't it occur regardless of output cabling? It only takes a 2m cable for it to happen... and it also happens at home into my practice amp (although I can only assume it's oscillating but I can hear the pop that, at work with the CRO attached, indicates the onset of oscillation). BTW, I swapped out the TL072 for another & the problem remained.
Yep could be a potentiometer, i'll try swapping that out tomorrow.
Dang it nshuman, now i've got GAS for a H9... don't worry, i'll receive notice of winning the gold-plated one any day now...
Amateur, the drawing is on January 5th. How do you expect to win it if you don't even know that
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
if the pedal has a problem, your best bet is to send it to me so I can diagnose and repair it. if I find that it does have an issue, i'll pay the shipping both ways.
