Arcadiator

Rullywow Arcadiator. The Arcadiator is categorized by its creator as an "Octave Fuzz", but might best be described as a pedal that has a penchant for converting your instrument signal into the 8-bit video games sounds from the "Golden Age of Video Games". It was actually invented by Fredrik Lyxzen of Parasit Studio, but the PCB, when we got it, was offered by Rullywow. Rullywow's offering was made available by a friendly agreement between Ben at Rullywow and Fredrik until such time as Fredrik at Parasit Studio began fabricating and selling the PCBs himself.

As you can probably imagine, Rullywow no longer makes the PCB for the Arcadiator.

Thermionic Studios has one(1) original Arcadiator by Rullywow. When we finish assembling it, it will be available for rental.

Controls

Image from Chuck Pedals

• Switch 1 - "Mode": This switch toggles the pedal between, up (which defaults to the "Octave" you've set on the Octave switch), and down, ("On": an alternating ping-pong between note fundamental and octave)
• Knob 1 - "Level": Adjusts the output volume with fully clockwise being maximum
• Switch 2 - "LFO": This switch sets the low-frequency oscillator to ping-pong between the fundamental note/s your instrument is creating and whatever octave selection has been made with the switch: up ("Alt"), middle ("Off"), and down ("Chop")
• Knob 2 - "Rate": Adjusts the speed or rate of the ping-pong from the LFO switch fully clockwise being fastest
• Switch 3 - "PWM / Oct Up": This switch controls between: up ("Pulse Width Modulation") and down ("Octave Up")
• Knob 3 - "Width": Adjusts the width of the Pulse Width Modulation. Turn clockwise to increase.
• Switch 4 - "Octave": This switch toggles the Octave feature between up (one octave down), middle (both octaves), or down (two octaves down)
• Knob 4 - "Blend": The knob fully counter-clockwise is pure fuzz, turning up Blend adds in Octave.
• Footswitch 1 - "On/Off": This footswitch toggles the pedal between engaged/active ("On"), and bypassed ("Off")

Pulse Width Modulation

"Pulse Width Modulation" isn't a very well-defined term with respect to this pedal. If one reads the term by itself, the implication is that there is some sort of modulation going on with this pedal; and that's not accurate. When we actually hear Pulse Width Modulation ("PWM"), it doesn't sound like any kind of modulation effect. A Youtube video of someone who purchased the fully-built pedal (linked below), from Parasit Studio states that the when the PWM width control is increased, doing so increases the width of the square wave. This doesn't make any sense. If the width of the square wave is getting increased, the pitch of the note being played would go down. From what we're hearing, that's not what's happening.

When we hear the PWM width being increased, it's almost as if the "resonance" or the pitch of the higher-order harmonics associated with the note are getting increased.

We're not at all convinced that this is what is actually happening to the sound wave, but given what we're hearing, it's our best description.

PWM / OctUp

Not that we're tremendously well-versed in friendly user interfaces, but we don't think it makes a lot of sense for the "Oct Up" control to be "down" on the control switch.

Bypass: True

The Rullywow Arcadiator is true bypass.

General Information

This pedal is not unlike most other analog pitch-shifting pedals, and while chords can be played, your best results are likely going to come from playing one note at a time. That said, there are instances when chords are played that can sound pretty good.

This is not a "pretty sounding" pedal, but it is very distinctive. This circuit also has the potential to make a lot of overly-gated sounds. This is part of the design. The pedal is not broken. It's very easy to make the same kind of "farting" sounds on this pedal that you'll find available in other very heavily gated fuzz pedals. It's not a "bad" thing or a "good" thing: more of an "is" thing, presuming this is the kind of sound you're looking for.

Controls Guidance

Here is some guidance on how to start using this pedal that was provided on one of the DIYStompboxes forums:

1. General: Volume around 12:00 is usually close to unity. Depending on the blend setting, there may be slight dips or boost to the overall loudness of the sound. Use Volume to compensate. Suggested initial toggle settings: Mode down (octave off), LFO down (off), and Octave down (1 oct down)
2. Fuzz: Turn blend fully counter-clockwise, 100% Fuzz. Octave is off so you can’t hear that anyways. Set this way the Arcadiator is a bit crushy fuzz. Play around with the Width knob and the PWM/Octup toggle to hear the range of Fuzz tones. The fuzz will work with chords and needs no special playing technique.
3. Octave: Toggle Mode up (octave on) to activate the octave. Leave the Octave toggle down (1oct down) for now. Turn the blend clockwise, you’ll hear the octave introduced to the sound.
   • Analog octavers require playing in a certain manner in order to track well. The circuit needs to hear the fundamental tone of the note you are playing. Tips: use neck pickup, play nearer the neck than the bridge, palm mute a little bit to make precise notes and kill higher harmonics. Toggle Octave up (2 oct down). Now you’ve got 2 octaves down. If you’re using bass, this is way lower than is useful, but sounds great on guitar or high up on bass. Play around blending some fuzz with 1 or 2 octaves down. Try blending octave up fuzz with 2 octaves down, or wide PWM fuzz with one octave down. Lots of different sounds.
4. LFO: LFO activates secondary octave and cycles between primary and secondary octaves with adjustable rate. If mode is off, only secondary octave is heard. Toggle LFO up to activate. LFO is only active when triggered by signal from instrument.
   • With a low Rate, LFO can produce rhythmic arpeggio-like basslines. With a high rate, a warbly video game sound can be produced. The LFO functions best with the Octave toggle down. Toggling Octave up makes the lower octave (2 down) primary and the higher octave (1 down) secondary. Tracking is sometimes more difficult this way; try turning the Width knob clockwise as this seems to help. Depending on the frequency resolution of your instrument, sometimes using Octup fuzz with LFO makes the lowest note a fifth lower instead of a full octave lower.

Pedal Manual

There is no other pedal manual that we've been able to find.

Artists

We are currently unaware of any artists actively using the pedal now, or who have in the past.

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Additional Sources

• https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=111873.0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO4P9N8FcHU