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So good to hear from you, and congratulations! Thanks for participating in the contest. The Quaverato wants a 9V DC center negative supply with a capacity of at least 100 ma [milliamps). There is a little symbol on the label. Look at it closely. It represents “Negative voltage on the center pin, positive voltage on the outer sleeve.” Make sure your supply has a matching symbol. This is typical to any guitar pedal supply; they are largely interchangeable. If you plug in a center positive, such as you might find powering your clock radio or hair clippers, the Quaverato simply won’t turn on. We sell a power supply like this info our web store, in the Parts department.
There is a terrific, detailed owners manual available on the Quaverato product page, info the Documentation tab. Please check it out!
Pedal of the Day calls the Quaverato “absolutely one of the most resourceful and accomplished tremolo pedals we’ve had the pleasure to come across.” Read the complete review here.
Two things to check: Is the OCTAVE knob way down low, to the left? The speaker cannot reproduce sounds in the lowest register. You might feel it vibrate, but you won’t hear much. Next, is the CUTOFF all the way down (left)? If so, crank it around to the right. With the cutoff frequency set very low, the low pass filter cuts off most of the signal — hence quiet output!
Earl, write to me so I can get your fix underway. And one last question: what are you using for a power supply? A low 9V battery could produce the effect you see — no effect at all!
Got it! This sounds like shipping damage. I’ll send you a return postage label and we will repair or replace the unit and get it back to you. We’ll finish up outside the forum; if we discover anything of general interest, I’ll post it here as a follow-up. meantime, email me your shipping address at info”at”zeppelindesignlabs”dot”com.
So sorry for the disappointment. We’ll fix you up good.
–glen
OK, one more question, and then maybe another. Can you give me the last name of the gift-giver? Something to help me tie down the sale. (there’s a gap in my serial-number record-keeping.) I take it the gift was a complete Altura, not a kit, correct?
Sorry to hear this, Earl. Let’s get you up and waving. First, what’s the serial number on your unit? It’s on the circuit board, on a round sticker. Second, do I understand the display displays nothing? Nothing at all? Always dark, even when you gently press on it and rock it a little with your fingertip? Third, what do you have the Altura connected to? A synthesizer or a computer? With the synth or computer set to OMNI, meaning it is listening for MIDI data on all channels, do you see any signs of life? On the synth there is usually a LED that flickers as MIDI data passes through. On a computer, of course, you should be able to display the entire data stream, even if you don’t hear anything yet.
If the display is not working at all, it’s tricky to know what the Altura is up to, or how it is set. Make sure the OCTAVE NEAR and FAR knobs are both set to more or less the 12 o’clock position. This will cause the Altura to transmit notes over one octave, right in the middle of the piano. If the knobs are all far-left (as they sometimes leave the Lab), then the Altura will be set to Octave 1, which is mostly subsonic.
“I’m a sound designer and do a lot of sound fx recording with lots of different mics, including contact mics and hydrophones. I was on a video game shoot last week and one of the guys had one of your contact mics that he had built; of course mic junkie that I am, I had to have one but with no time before my next job decided to get the pre-built version. I’m also intrigued with the reference to hydrophones in the piezo explanation paragraph.”
— John F, Santa Monica, CA
I do electro-acoustic music, and I want to use it for a lot of different application.
My first test will be a test for a circus creation. I want to try to amplify a wood floor which will vibrate under Cyr wheel’s movement.
the second test will be the string of a funambulist.–Fabien, Montreuil France
Hey Grant! Glen here. Sorry your Percolator did not fire up on the first try. Brach the Percolator designer will chime in on Monday. Meanwhile you may want to take a look at this thread for an example of a troubleshoot in progress. Short answer: examine that solder very carefully! Look for bridges — globs of solder that connect things that should not be connected. Look for “cold joints” where the solder did not flow smoothly into the pad and may not be making a good connection where it should.
We’ll get you there.
And the response from Brach, designer of the Percolator:
“The Percolator isn’t voiced like anything that I know of. My goal in designing the Percolator was to have a good sounding solo guitar amp at a low wattage. I live in a inner-city single-room high-rise apartment, so my goal was to have an amp that would sound great by itself in my room without making much noise to bother the neighbors. Most amps are designed to sit sonically in a mix so they can be heard in an ensemble setting. They don’t have too much low bass response or high response…they are designed to reproduce audio in a relatively narrow mid-range band…that way they don’t interfere with other instruments that are playing along side it. This way, the guitars can cut through the mix and be heard. This concept of the narrow mid-range frequency band works well when amps are being used in an ensemble context, but it’s fairly limiting when the guitar is a solo instrument. I designed the Percolator to be a solo instrument amp (for playing alone in one’s bedroom) so I widened the bandwidth accordingly. Because of this, it has a much beefier low and low-mid range than most other amps. Conversely, if you try to use the Percolator in an ensemble setting, you’ll find it gets lost in the mix…but this can be rectified with a properly set eq pedal.”
UPDATE: We recently released Macchiato software Hotfix 3 that eliminates this behavior. The Macchiato now properly interprets both Note Off and Note On / Vel 0 messages to terminate notes. Download it from our Github page and flash it to your synth with a USB-Tiny programmer. If you are unfamiliar with this process, get an Arduino friend to help; they’ll do it blindfolded.
Craig, thanks for posting. We have not seen the review yet but look forward to it! Yes, it takes some practice to master the Altura, but yes, it’s easier than a theremin! We have some tutorial videos in the works to help with the learning curve.
Wow atwiniare, thanks for this thorough, thoughtful review. We really appreciate it. Readers can see the build in the gallery forum here.
