Recommend an Octavia / Tone Machine clone?

[BoatRich]

It's simple but the problem is that there's several variants/options out there, and I'm not sure that there's an "accurate" one if such a thing exists.

The person who built a lot of them cursed the circuit like the day they were born, and like Devi at the time, wouldn't build another for pretty much any price.

It's simple as described but the consistency of stuff from that era was...not exactly there.

I went through two builders before finding one who could actually do one in any stretch of the way.

One thing on the DIY stuff relating to the TP: which version of the SM etc do you use (versus what's in it), do you include the chaos and noise switches not present in the real one , etc?

We went down a weird hybrid road plus the starve on my second - it doesn't make *any* sound on some settings, some knobs don't do squat in some settings, etc. We added things pretty much because we could. It's superior to the original TP by a long shot but loses the faux choppy trem weirdness clicking that the original has in the mods (but becomes far more of an oscillating synth/weird sputter pedal while simultaneously being able to do more standard fuzz stuff.

I've had the Test Pattern from Hell for 8-9 months now, and I'm still finding new stuff in it. It took me a good 2 years to get consistent with the original, and it still can pull something out that surprises me from time to time.

So if I'm reading this correctly, something like the noise floor might do something similar to the original TP or...?

[rfurtkamp]

Nope. Noise floor only begins to touch on it.

I have a good dozen of the Devi circuits (and several that become others with the flip of a switch or two).

There's nothing quite else like it - it's essentially a double pedal with one function that can feedback loop on itself is my understanding.

[rfurtkamp]

Relevant to your interests with the blessings of the guy who did it for me:



He says:

"To get 'closer' to the original test pattern version of crazy, putting the 'high gain' versions of the active components and also lowering the R1 value will put it back squarely in the original TP area." Or removing R1 completely if you want maximum insanity.

Go with higher-gain versions of things as well to get more silliness/uncontrollable stuff if you so desire as well.

Effectively, this version is a "more refined" and controllable (not saying much) Test Pattern with a hybrid of design choices from the various Devi circuits - if I recall, it's the originalish Soda Meiser versus the last (then) revised that's in the stock one, with noise and chaos switches plus the normal bypass half the circuit one, and add a starve.

Have a PDF of a brew your own PCB as well if anyone needs it.

[hbombgraphics]

a few days in with the vox fuzz trike and it is killing on the octave up settins,
maybe more octavia than tone machine
the octave down is good two
tons of splattery stuff from this thing

the case is ridiculously stupid
if you can ignore the aesthetics it is a beast

[BoatRich]

Relevant to your interests with the blessings of the guy who did it for me:



He says:

"To get 'closer' to the original test pattern version of crazy, putting the 'high gain' versions of the active components and also lowering the R1 value will put it back squarely in the original TP area." Or removing R1 completely if you want maximum insanity.

Go with higher-gain versions of things as well to get more silliness/uncontrollable stuff if you so desire as well.

Effectively, this version is a "more refined" and controllable (not saying much) Test Pattern with a hybrid of design choices from the various Devi circuits - if I recall, it's the originalish Soda Meiser versus the last (then) revised that's in the stock one, with noise and chaos switches plus the normal bypass half the circuit one, and add a starve.

Have a PDF of a brew your own PCB as well if anyone needs it.

Thanks a ton! I'm definitely going to either build one of these or have one built. It seems ridiculously useful for noise in a small package.

[mathias]

a few days in with the vox fuzz trike and it is killing on the octave up settins,
maybe more octavia than tone machine
the octave down is good two
tons of splattery stuff from this thing

the case is ridiculously stupid
if you can ignore the aesthetics it is a beast

Maybe send it off to Lao or jwar for a rehouse + etch if you're gonna keep it?

I guess I should've got one to try and potentially flip when they were on sale. Oh well -- I'll probably just build an Octavia on a breadboard and experiment with components.

[tabbycat]

Relevant to your interests with the blessings of the guy who did it for me:



He says:

"To get 'closer' to the original test pattern version of crazy, putting the 'high gain' versions of the active components and also lowering the R1 value will put it back squarely in the original TP area." Or removing R1 completely if you want maximum insanity.

Go with higher-gain versions of things as well to get more silliness/uncontrollable stuff if you so desire as well.

Effectively, this version is a "more refined" and controllable (not saying much) Test Pattern with a hybrid of design choices from the various Devi circuits - if I recall, it's the originalish Soda Meiser versus the last (then) revised that's in the stock one, with noise and chaos switches plus the normal bypass half the circuit one, and add a starve.

thanks indeed to you and your designer, rfurtkamp. it's very generous of both of you to share your collective efforts.

will draw this out onto a big piece of paper and try workout where and why this deviates from the original.
your explanation says the mods and additions are there more to increase control over the chaos rather than to increase the chaos itself. the switches seem to connect/disconnect the feedback loops. haven't thought about differences in component values yet. not even sure if i'm wise enough to know what they mean by sight, but trail and error will tell me what lack of theory can't predict.

this might be worth a separate thread in the diy pedals forum here. fifty shades of test pattern. bring your own perversions.
will see if i can come up with a useful addition of my own.

we can call it 'rfrankenfurtkamps monster'. or 'beast pattern'.

[rfurtkamp]

I just call it the Test Pattern from Hell, it fits.

[mathias]

Bringing this back around, after listening to a lot of demos, I decided I'd like to try out the Crystal Dagger at some point, so I'm gonna be keeping an eye out for one used in BST and Reverb..

[kbit]

This video impressed me. I wanna try one on baaaaaass.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1CZuYJh4s[/youtube]

[mathias]

Yeah I looked at that thing, too. Could squeeze one into just about any board! Tempting.

[Tristan]

I think it's based on the Green Ringer, which basically is more of a cleanish octave with not too much sustain on it's own.
That kind of broken up type sound is also pretty cool though, my favourite in that realm is the Copilot FX Caracol just because it has so many different broken up textures that it can almost sound like different instruments.
Other great ones in my book are the FuzzHugger Phantom Arcade / Pocket Arcade and the Catalinbread Octapussy.

[kbit]

Yeah thats what i thought. I had a green ringer once and it didn't sound as good as that one.

[aralim4311]

Toke Machine from Abominable Electronics.