grokostimpy wrote:Hi all, I'm reviving this thread for a quick question:
I have a Pocket Arcade, and I'm curious how the Upper compares to the Octave-up function of the PA.
Has anyone played both? If so, which do you prefer?
The Upper is the same ringer circuit used in the Arcade's mode one.
(The Upper has an extra control in the Bias knob. Also, in the past, I've matched the diodes only in the Upper, which dials in the perfectness of the octave--well, as perfect as this thing can do--but now I match in both. Regardless, it's a pretty negligible difference.The Bias knob is the Upper's most dramatic control, letting you adjust the texture, weirdness, and ring-modiness of the octave (which is the product of frequency doubling)...blend out the effect, bring in a bit more warmth, increase the gain, or make it even nastier. It's a gem when stacked.
(More info on the Upper that's in the Phantom Arcade:)
The Phantom Arcade has the Upper with High and Sustain controls, the Pocket Arcade
(mini Phantom Arcade)has it with just the High knob.
(The Sustain knob adds a nice bonus to get pop-in tones, but it's a total must, so it's not in the Pocket Arcade.)The Upper's High knob is on both Phantoms, cause it's most useful, letting you 1) take the edge off in Oct Up mode
and Oct-Up-Fuzz mode and 2) get dramatic sweep of filtered oscillation in Turbo mode.
Hopefully, I've been clear enough in the past about the Upper being in the Phantom Arcade. The Phantom Arcade combines several circuits that play really well together, as well as some mode switching sneakiness, so it's like four different pedals. 1) ringer/octave up, 2) glitchy octave down fuzz, 3) octave up fuzz, 4) oscillating glitch fuzz. Any of those could be a $150+ pedal if split off, so it's a big deal.
