fmr audio a.r.c. price : $299.00

although named for its ability to enhance the sound of many different instruments - it improves your instrument's articulation, resonance and clarity (a.r.c.) - the fmr audio a.r.c. has a unique combination of features that you will find equally useful in the studio or on the stage. specifically, the fmr audio a.r.c. provides:

1. a boost function that buffers and amplifies instrument signals to a higher level.
2. a compressor that enhances your instrument's tone and dynamics.
3. a direct box to interface your instrument to live or recording studio equipment.
4. a studio effect that may be used to process audio tracks from your favorite daw or recorder.

it does all this with a minimum set of controls and a look that entices you to plug it in and turn the knobs!

features:
what's cool about the a.r.c.?
not to "toot" our own horn, but this product has some nice features that we think you'll find are fun and useful:

4-in-1 useful effects: the a.r.c. provides a really nice sounding, high impedance (1mohm...to avoid tone suckage) boost pedal followed by a special, tone-extracting and tone-enhancing compressor. pro-level power permits both the a.r.c.'s usage as a direct box for impedance-matching and driving lines to recording/live mixing boards. the pro-level power also allows the pedal to be used as wide dynamic range studio effect.

subtle & sweet compression: for many players, pedal-based compressors are too over-the-top because they exhibit a suck-and-swell type compression. this works well for some special effects, but discourages one of the major uses of compressors/dynamic processors: to help balance the tone, presence and performance of an instrument particularly when it must compete or blend with other sounds. the a.r.c. works well with electrified acoustic instruments in a live setting - where the subtleties of the instruments tend to get lost - by allowing the player to electronically balance articulation, resonance and clarity of the instrument. if you love the sound of your instrument in an intimate, solo setting then you'll appreciate how the a.r.c. helps you achieve that experience in live and studio performance settings!

fidelity: although the a.r.c. is an effect, the audio electronics are designed so that the output signal, statically measured, very closely resembles the input signal—paraphrased definition of fidelity. each a.r.c. is hand-trimmed for minimum distortion, typically to less than 0.005% total harmonic distortion plus noise (thd+n).

dynamic range: the a.r.c. 114db dynamic range exceeds the dynamic range of many recording studio devices, let alone the smaller dynamic ranges of the myriad stompbox effects. the additional dynamic range of the a.r.c. means more of your instrument can be heard with less noise and clipping.

studio effect power: many guitar effects operate with a limited dynamic range determined by the use of a plain 9v power supply. such a low voltage limits the technological choices for the analog electronics, forcing reliance on noisy and distorted out-of-date devices. the a.r.c. uses the incoming 9v to create a 30v internal supply! this permits the use of state-of-theart devices to achieve low-noise, wide dynamic range performance.

many power supply choices: we specify the a.r.c. to work with the industry-standard boss ps-120 type power supply. this center-negative, 2.1mm barrel connector, dc power supply is used by many effect pedals and is quite easily found on-line or in local guitar shops. the a.r.c., however, goes one better: the a.r.c. will run from voltages ranging from 9 to 12v, either ac or dc and from any polarity!

all analog signal path: from the input to output connectors, your instrument's sound is not converted to digital and back to analog. it comes into the a.r.c. as analog and stays analog all the way to its output jack! the result is a richer, higher-fidelity effect. the a.r.c.'s main signal path is all analog and is only assisted by digital/software processes in the power supply and sidechain circuits.

hard-wired bypass with a twist: many effects pedal users insist that their pedals have a hard-wired bypass (i.e., "true bypass"). the a.r.c. provides this as well, with a twist: in the rare case of a pedal or power supply malfunction, the a.r.c. will default to a bypass condition no matter what the position of the bypass switch! the idea is to keep things rockin' - even under the rare case of a failure.

daisy-chained power jacks: to help keep things neat, there are two power jacks on the a.r.c. that allow power fed into the a.r.c. and then out of the a.r.c. into another effect.

minimum controls, maximum effect: there are only three controls on the a.r.c.: preamp gain (gain), amplifier output level (amp) and the drive control (drive). yet, by using combinations of the gain and the drive controls, you can achieve many unique tones. the amp control, a output attenuator, is intended to help reduce the differences in the processed levels and the unprocessed levels.

cool blue effect led: this blindingly-blue light, displays the amount of processing being done to the audio. the brighter the glow, the more processing. but, does it really matter? it just looks sooooo cool...

perdy knobs: we designed the knobs to be locally built here in central texas. they're custom-designed. they're custom-built. they're solid anodized aluminum and will last a couple of lifetimes.

that2181 vcas: these are the same vcas used in scores of professional audio compressors, gates and other dynamic processors. we can use these without compromise, in part, because of the higher-than-normal power supply rails.

steel cabinet: there's a lot of really good effects pedals out there that are housed in the "standard" hammond manufacturing cast aluminum enclosure (hammondmfg.com). we considered that type of cabinet as well, but decided that the a.r.c. was a little too different to package it the same ol' way. instead, we designed a custom, two-piece cold-rolled-steel enclosure with a sloping front and room for the instrumentalist with prehensile feet. it's electroplated and covered in a hard polyurethane-based paint to last a good long time.

made in austin, texas u.s.a.: we want you to know that we do our own manufacturing here in beautiful austin, texas 'cause: (a) we live here. we're control freaks. we need things done to standards that are very specific and loftier than most. manufacturing products here helps us to control important costs and reduce waste. all this helps ensure that your a.r.c. will retain its value and continue working for many years to come, (b) austin's resources and culture - from a very lively music scene to lots of high-tech companies/products - help inspire and maintain our commitment to music and technology, and, (c) in order to help others, here and abroad, we believe we've got to be vital and capable ourselves. our first choice is to employ as many u.s.-based resources as possible in the design, manufacture and distribution of our products.



what sucks about the a.r.c.?
no product is perfect. despite this, we love the a.r.c. and believe you will too:

few panel controls: many recording studio signal processors have lots of panel controls to afford maximum flexibility to the recording engineer. it's almost a requirement for the studio environment. for an effects pedal, lots of controls could be an unnecessary complication for many musicians. we tried to balance complexity of controls and ease-of-use and gave the a.r.c. three rotary controls and a bypass switch. some will find this complement of controls to be too few, while others may find it still too complicated.

large & heavy enclosure: as previously mentioned, we decided to use a non-standard cabinet for the a.r.c. this will be a problem for some musicians since it'll be more difficult to make room on a crowded pedal board for a larger-than-normal enclosure and, for even smaller set-ups, the larger enclosure will add more weight than most. despite these concerns we chose this path for a couple of reasons: (1) there's more electronics in the a.r.c. than normal that, without resorting to more esoteric/expensive electronic assembly techniques, require more spatial volume, (2) we wanted enough panel space to permit control adjustments with your prehensile feet, and, (3) we wanted a slanted top to make reading and adjusting the controls a tad easier.

confusing bypass indicator: this one will trip up some of you: when the a.r.c. is engaged, the green light is lit and when the a.r.c. is bypassed, the red light is lit. technically, with this kind of presentation, the control should be labeled system status with green indicating engaged and red indicating bypassed. since system status sounds really pompous and nerdy, i opted to just label it bypass. why the two leds? primarily to combine the engaged/bypassed indication with an ad hoc power indicator. besides, watching the leds go off and on in response to the footswitch is cool.

arc specifications
connectors	power: 2 x 2.1mm coax jack audio: 2 x 1/4” (1 input, 1 output) jack, 1 xlrm, balanced/differential
controls	rotary: drive, input & amp levels switches: bypass, chassis mounted meter: blue led showing process amount
input/output z	input: 1m ohm output: 1/4” 50 ohm, xlr 100 ohm
clip point	+20dbu, 1khz, 3%thd (0db input gain, 0db on amp control, referred to input)
noise	better than -90dbu
frequency response	20-20khz, ±1db without compression
output trim range	0 to -25db
power requirements	9 to 12 v, ac or dc, @200ma
dimensions	top panel: 6.2” l x 5” w side profile: 1.6” front, 2.5” rear (ref: bottom of feet) max height: 2.9”
weight	0.9 lbs.

click here for the users' manual.