I'll know in a few hours, my wife got the package at lunch time today. Even better was both the Rogue One and the Animated arrived without any duties or taxes (and both were declared at full value).
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Someone cracked the Animato
- Thread starter father of fires
- Start date
I'll know in a few hours, my wife got the package at lunch time today. Even better was both the Rogue One and the Animated arrived without any duties or taxes (and both were declared at full value).
Is anyone here in contact with Adam (Crowella)? Received an Animated about a month or so ago, and it was defective. I emailed him and he responded immediately (like an hour later) that he'd send a replacement. Since then I've emailed him twice regarding shipping information and haven't gotten a response. This post isn't meant to trash him or his pedals, I'm mostly wondering if he's ok...anybody know???
I know from dealing with him before that sometimes his job really takes him over. He seems to have these runs of silence on social media and email but always comes back strong.
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
about a month ago I Sent an email and a FB message looking for information on how to order an Animated. I haven't heard back on either. Should I just keep at him? I don't want to be a pest, I just want to give him my money for a cool pedal 
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
Keep trying. Me and @Crazy Otto have been trying to get in contact with him for different reasons. I had already ordered but heard nothing back.about a month ago I Sent an email and a FB message looking for information on how to order an Animated. I haven't heard back on either. Should I just keep at him? I don't want to be a pest, I just want to give him my money for a cool pedal
I finally got a response, it appears he wasn't getting his email notifications and FB as well. He did post to FB just today, and I got my pedal over the weekend. So he's there, just keep at it.
Crowella
Commercial User
I'll be digging into making some more in the middle of next week. Got a huge influx of emails. Hopefully if all goes well, I should have more time (shop close to being sold, whew)
Also... got a copy of the pedal that Chris Wolstenholme uses in the live version of Defector, should have some guts for that too for the world to see.
Also... got a copy of the pedal that Chris Wolstenholme uses in the live version of Defector, should have some guts for that too for the world to see.
Crowella
Commercial User
Just an update since it's been a while. I've run out of a few parts to make more so I've got a few more parts on the way (moving hasn't helped). It seems in the past week or two that I've been getting *a lot* of people asking. I just simply haven't got much time at the moment to do much more. Working two jobs while I'm *still* trying to sell this damn shop. I'll be putting them up on general sale once a small batch is done so those that emailed me will get the first notification but then its everyone for themselves.
On the up side, the Mt'lab FAT Humster is almost reverse engineered too. I've had to acquire some component testers because some of the parts are scraped clean of labels and ID's, making this harder than the animato to reverse
Also working with smaller SMD components now to try knock the price down a bit and the board sizes, looking to get a fair bit assembled overseas so I can free up some time.
On the up side, the Mt'lab FAT Humster is almost reverse engineered too. I've had to acquire some component testers because some of the parts are scraped clean of labels and ID's, making this harder than the animato to reverse
Also working with smaller SMD components now to try knock the price down a bit and the board sizes, looking to get a fair bit assembled overseas so I can free up some time.
Crowella
Commercial User
Bump, I feel kind of unsure where to put it but I don't think it's worth a new thread but a few people were curious so I reverse engineered the mt'Lab FAT Humster. I don't really know much more about it other than it got some brief use by Chris Wolstenholme/Muse during the song Defector on the Drones tour. A very brief clip of the pedal was demoed on an Instagram post
Haven't verified the schematic yet but breadboarding the majority of it yielded positive results. There are unknown components such as the IC and Transistor due to it being scratched off, so I have made some general estimation of what it could be.
I documented it all here just in case I made some errors.
I won't lie, I'm not a huge fan of the sound of this. One thing I noticed is some of the effect leaks through when bypassed and it sounds pretty dreadful with higher gain guitars/basses. I don't think I'll be doing any clones but I do hope to make at least one to confirm it all.
Haven't verified the schematic yet but breadboarding the majority of it yielded positive results. There are unknown components such as the IC and Transistor due to it being scratched off, so I have made some general estimation of what it could be.
I documented it all here just in case I made some errors.
I won't lie, I'm not a huge fan of the sound of this. One thing I noticed is some of the effect leaks through when bypassed and it sounds pretty dreadful with higher gain guitars/basses. I don't think I'll be doing any clones but I do hope to make at least one to confirm it all.
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Your schematic has a SPDT switch but the pedal has a DPDT switch.
The schematic is drawn with the LED always lit... no switch.
If you use a 3PDT switch and use the "on" position on that new switch segment to short across R9 1M feedback resistor, you will kill the bleed thru in bypass. Shorting R9 will drop that opamp into unity gain for no clipping distortion.
-Frank
Crowella
Commercial User
Fantastic spot. I can't believe I had omitted that. I'll have to update the schem ASAP.
EDIT: Fixed.
EDIT: Fixed.
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If you don't have any genuine LM308's and don't want to risk the fakes on ebay, then a TI OP-07 is a good substitute. OP-07 $0.88ea @mouser
-Frank
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
Never heard of that pedal before, but now I feel like I must have one.
Also, it's fun pretending I can understand what you guys are talking about.
Also, it's fun pretending I can understand what you guys are talking about.
Crowella
Commercial User
Great points boomertech, might go searching for some and try test this out. If it were a LM308, wouldn't the slew rate be an indicator? Also I have a feeling after talking with someone else it could be a PNP transistor. Needs a breadboard.
Anyway, should just start claiming it's all mojo, that way we can all pretend too.
I won't lie though, this isn't a good sounding pedal. It *could* be alright with some tweaking but I'll summarise:
- Has a slight bleed when bypassed, as well as some tone sucking (given it's not true bypass)
- Very muddy and over distorted when hot signal being pushed through. I had to turn down the bass knob on my Pedulla to make it remotely more usable
- Really only sounds decent on lower drive settings. It sounds like it's broken. That's not just my opinion, but one of Muse's sound engineers plus the previous owner of this pedal
- Would have been easier to reverse engineer but parts were scraped of their ID so it's some guesswork for the final 1%.
Anyway, should just start claiming it's all mojo, that way we can all pretend too.
I won't lie though, this isn't a good sounding pedal. It *could* be alright with some tweaking but I'll summarise:
- Has a slight bleed when bypassed, as well as some tone sucking (given it's not true bypass)
- Very muddy and over distorted when hot signal being pushed through. I had to turn down the bass knob on my Pedulla to make it remotely more usable
- Really only sounds decent on lower drive settings. It sounds like it's broken. That's not just my opinion, but one of Muse's sound engineers plus the previous owner of this pedal
- Would have been easier to reverse engineer but parts were scraped of their ID so it's some guesswork for the final 1%.
I listened to that clip of Chris playing it and I agree. But that "broken" vibe does work for certain things they do. Still, it's no Animato.
LM308's have a slow slew rate, but that is part of the mojo people with RAT's are looking for. At high gain the opamp naturally rolls of those irritating high frequencies. The OP-07 opamp also has a slow slew rate, which along with its BJT architecture made it a great substitute for the LM308.
FET opamps like the TL07x, TL06x, TL08x... etc. sometimes have issues when they clip to the rail where there is a brief phase flip or HF oscillation at the output while clipped. It's a very nasty sounding distortion. The 308 or OP-07 will not have these issues, they will clip to the rail without phase flipping or oscillations.
The transistor is setup as a unity gain buffer because it is used in bypass mode. Your schematic is probably correct with an NPN, but you could also have a JFET there. The buffer is a simple plain vanilla type and shouldn't have any impact on the sound.
Easy fix with a 3PDT stomp switch. Either short across R9 to eliminate bleed thru while in bypass OR convert to true bypass with the 3PDT.
Easy fix with changing POT1 from C100K to a C1M. The 1meg pot will allow the drive gain to go down to approx X2 instead of its approx X11. Very useful for hot basses.
The fix with the 1meg pot will allow for a lower gain.
Other little mods that can make this a much more useful pedal:
Add a toggle switch and anti-parallel diodes across R9. Adding the diodes + switch will put the circuit into a Tube Screamer config. If you were to add a series resistor (about 1K) to the right side of C5 with a switch to put anti-parallel diodes to ground, then you would have a RAT config. With both switches on it would be a TS/RAT hybrid.
-Frank
