All this flanger talk (AionFx Xenotron)

[Diynot]

Yup. All this talk about flangers gave me the push to finish this behemoth. I have built a few of the larger AionFx projects, but I have to say this was the most intensive one yet. 16 jumpers between the footswitch and main boards alone. The build docs weren’t lying with their warnings. At least the calibration wasn’t too bad. A beast of a project like this deserves something special to nestle in so I put out a feeler to @steviejr92 and man did he deliver (again). So, tones? The bit that I have played with it so far are quite delightful. A little more towards a bf-2 clang than an EM fullness. As @Feral Feline mentioned ab flangers in general in the flanger chat, this can cover a lot of ground from flange to chorus even up into ring mod(ish) territory. The added tremolo is a cool addition. I sort of wish there was a separate rate pot for the trem effect so that you could offset one or the other for more varied textures. Odd to wish for something more on a pedal like this but thems my feels. Anyways, pics:

I need ab 2 weeks of play time with this thing to explore all it has to offer. As to those who have this in their queue….Godspeed.

 

[Synchrony Pedalworks]

Great pedal! The enclosure is also fantastic. I would agree with you about the wish for a separate pot for the tremolo. I felt the same way when playing my beast.

 

[steviejr92]

Such a monster build!

 

[rwl]

Ordered one of these during the Black Friday sale at Aion. Now I'm getting nervous...

 

[Diynot]

Ordered one of these during the Black Friday sale at Aion. Now I'm getting nervous...

It’s got a lot going on for sure, but if you make use of the interactive BOM, it’s a huge help.

 

[fontoponto]

It looks great! The enclosure is fantastic.
Does your pedal have the same amount of modulation on Space and Time Out?

 

[JamieJ]

This looks great @Diynot
Great work!

 

[Diynot]

It looks great! The enclosure is fantastic.
Does your pedal have the same amount of modulation on Space and Time Out?

I haven’t tried in stereo yet, but in mono as stated in the build docs, the trem is always at 100% depth, but I can change the amount of flange with the depth pot

 

[fmcc]

This is a sweet build! I really like the enclosure - is it a hammond sloped enclosure you've painted? I need to have another look and try to debug my xenotron build, IIRC I really wasn't getting as much effect as I expected and thought there may be an issue with the BBD chip.

 

[Diynot]

This is a sweet build! I really like the enclosure - is it a hammond sloped enclosure you've painted? I need to have another look and try to debug my xenotron build, IIRC I really wasn't getting as much effect as I expected and thought there may be an issue with the BBD chip.

The flange on mine isn’t super heavy either, may just need a little more tweaking with the BBD bias trim. That and some settings, especially with the action knob position, are more subtle. according to the build docs, 12 on the action knob basically removes the flanging. The enclosure was a special order from fellow forumite @steviejr92.

 

[eh là bas ma]

This is a sweet build! I really like the enclosure - is it a hammond sloped enclosure you've painted? I need to have another look and try to debug my xenotron build, IIRC I really wasn't getting as much effect as I expected and thought there may be an issue with the BBD chip.

i had a weak modulation too at first, a distinguished fellow member, fontoponto, told me to try to put a folded piece of paper between the led and the photo-resistor on the BBD board. It made the modulation more noticeable. My led was too bright so the effect couldn't work correctly. It was a musikding kit, so i told Klaus and he sent me the right BBD led later.

 

[Diynot]

i had a weak modulation too at first, a distinguished fellow member, fontoponto, told me to try to put a folded piece of paper between the led and the photo-resistor on the BBD board. It made the modulation more noticeable. My led was too bright so the effect couldn't work correctly. It was a musikding kit, so i told Klaus and he sent me the right BBD led later.

I am actually using the king brite diffused as called for in the BOM, but might give the paper trick a try just to see what happens

 

[fontoponto]

@eh là bas ma thank you for your explanation. I ordered an led according to the specs from the bom (couldn’t get the original) and it’s much better. But this R26 issue still bothers me.

 

[Diynot]

@eh là bas ma thank you for your explanation. I ordered a led according to the specs from the bom (couldn’t get the original) and it’s much better. But this R26 issue still bothers me.

The paper trick didn’t really change anything on mine, but I had the correct part so meh? Listening to demos, mine sounds like those so again, meh.

 

[fontoponto]

For my unit the manual range was bad so the paper did it for me in the beginning, then I changed the led and it was fine without the led.

 

[fmcc]

i had a weak modulation too at first, a distinguished fellow member, fontoponto, told me to try to put a folded piece of paper between the led and the photo-resistor on the BBD board. It made the modulation more noticeable. My led was too bright so the effect couldn't work correctly. It was a musikding kit, so i told Klaus and he sent me the right BBD led later.

Thanks so much for this! I tried this out (and read the thread you're referencing) and this is exactly the issue I was having. Mine was a musikding kit as well, and adding some folded paper (office paper, till there were 4 layers) fixed it. I need to properly re-calibrate it, but it's sounding great after a little bit of tweaking of the BBD bias and I've just been enjoying trying it out.

The other issue I think I'm having is that the "Space out/mono" output doesn't act as a mono out as I'd understood it. As far as I can tell from mine, and looking over the schematics in the build guide, you won't ever get the "Time out" signal through the "Space out" output? Does that seem correct?

 

[eh là bas ma]

The other issue I think I'm having is that the "Space out/mono" output doesn't act as a mono out as I'd understood it. As far as I can tell from mine, and looking over the schematics in the build guide, you won't ever get the "Time out" signal through the "Space out" output? Does that seem correct?

On my build, when the effect is off there is some clean signal coming from TIME OUT, but quieter than at SPACE OUT.

Connected to TIME OUT : When the effect is engaged, both flanger and tremolo activated, there is only the flanging signal coming from this output. The modulation is stronger than at the SPACE output. If i set the MIX control at noon, there is a significant volume drop, i can still hear a flanged signal but barely audible.
I guess it means that when the effect is activated, we have a wet-only flanging signal from TIME OUT. It's not a vibrato effect, it's flanging so i guess there is still some clean signal in the mix ? Something like 80% wet maybe. The Mix control becomes a volume control, i can't notice any obvious change on the clean/wet ratio.
With MANUAL fully CW, if i set the RING toggle downward, there is some kind of high-cut on the modulated signal. If Ring is set upward, i can hear the same effect with more highs and some white noise appears in the background.

At SPACE OUT : i can hear the tremolo and the flanger together. The flanger is a bit more subtle than at the TIME output.
With MIX fully CW or CCW i guess it's 60% wet, although Feedback and Manual controls can help to achieve a much stronger modulation.
If i set RING upward, it cuts the flanger and i can only hear the tremolo on it's own.
The Mix control affects only the flanger, i can't control the tremolo's wet/clean ratio. If RING is set upward, Manual, Depth, and Mix control have no impact on the sound. The only controls working with the tremolo are the Space toggle, RATE and Input Volume.

It looks allright if i read the instructions correctly, but I'm not 100% sure my build behaves as it should... Maybe @fontoponto and @Diynot can confirm ?