Looking for stutter effect like

[fenderguy79]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPTA27268U0

I've been asked to design a sample/stutter/filter effect like the one used in Get Outta The Way by Mother Mother.

I realize this was likely done in post production.
Do any of you know any current pedals out there that would cover this territory, or be a good place to start?

I found GGG filter/sample/hold, but I don't think that's what he's looking for.

Thanks!
Will

[knight_yyz]

Mad doctor stutter?  I think I saw that on youtube a few days ago...  something like that

[Synsound]

The best options I can think of would be:
1- a simple momentary kill switch
2- Earthquaker Devices , Hummingbird
3-any tremolo that has a squre wave option (tap tempo would be ideal)

[Synsound]

Just looked up that Mad Doctor. It sounds quite similar to the Hummingbird.  The ratio pot is a nice touch. For the demo song listed above I think getting a momentary into the mix would be great to avoid punching in and out.
Let us know what you come up with. Good luck

[Synsound]

BTW the Hummingbird can be found on the main site.

[fenderguy79]

Thanks guys!  Ya, I found the Mad Doctor before; it does sound great.
That's a good idea regarding the momentary switch.
Not sure if it's exactly what he wants, but I'll ask.

This was his idea:
a mini looper, that can deliver stutter-ish effects...something that would allow me to control all parameters - sample length, stutter speed, wet/dry, as well as a sweepable EQ/filter.

[tabbycat]

hey fender guy, this is something i've looked into before and am still playing with. an ongoing pet project getting complex.

what i know is that the the three things you are looking at are different things rather than variations of the same thing, and it all comes down to wave form.

here's some illustrations i've found that should illlustrate the point quickly.

vox reapeater (eq humming bird is a clone with mods) = hard-edged downward sawtooth wave repeater. it hits like a square wave tremolo but fades like a steep edged triangle saw tooth wave. so has that signature repeater magic flutter rather than the harder chop of the square wave.



top image is no effect, bottom image is the vox repeater wave. oscilloscope image by calambres. full explanation (in spanish, with lots of images) here: http://www.pisotones.com/VRP/VRP.htm

generic square wave tremolo = harder on-off-sounding wave that pops above and below mean volume (tremolo is just turning the volume up and down more or less quickly) so gives a hard on-off chop. any square wave trem will do the job. i've got the danelectro cool cat trem (basically the dano tuna melt trem in a metal case) which cost not much and sounds great. here's an ilustration of the wave form. from a random sound-on-sound article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb00/articles/synthsecrets.htm

finally the doctor stutter describes itself as not being a square wave, so i presume that means it will be shunting half the signal to ground via an ic lfo switch. don't know enough about this one to comment further but the result of that will be just be 'signal, no signal' alternating. will sound not vastly different to the square wave but will achieve that effect by using the lfo wave as an on-off switch rather than as a steep-edged undulating wave popping above and below a mean volume.

am still a newbie to this science but that is what i understand from what i have read around on this one researching ideas for my own variation on the effect. a wiser head may want to add, modify, clarify or correct something, but that is what i have so far.

hope that explains the principle in a way you can make sense and use of.

[Beaker]

This looks like an intersting project. I've just built a Madbean Sharkfin which is the fiter/sample/hold ( I've posted pictures in the "show your pedal guts" thread). This gives a similar effect - but different as it is randomised. Listen to Frank Zappa's "Black Napkins" between 2 and 3 minutes in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNkl1avYXRM

The other mode on the pedal is a autowah.

The opening guitar riff of the track you posted sounds more like an synth type slow sweep  filter, with a stutter trem on the last phrase.

The Vox Repeater / Hummingbird gives that signature Spacemen 3 helicopter/machine gun stutter (I have built these for ex Spacemen 3 / Spiritualized guitarists), so will certainly do the trick here.

So, in conclusion, yes a Vox Repeater or Hummingbird, and you just need to sort out a suitable filter sweep.

[tabbycat]

apart from the looper (bit which is probably way easier to build as a separate) as beaker says (going by the clip you've posted) you're looking at a choppy trem into a wah. this clip at 7m50s shows how to get that easily:



you might want to listen to the vox repeater (or humming bird) and any optical square wave trem side by side (clean and dirty) to decide which suits your needs best. two distinctive flavours of the same thing.

because of that idiosyncratic square attack and triangle decay the repeater has a lighter more fluttery and percussive feel.
whereas the square wave trem is (literally) more hard edged, brutal and industrial sounding.

only the repeater/humming bird can do fluttery, but square wave trems are pretty generic (optical sweeter to my ear). options for both are available as vero layouts here.

a matter for your ear and taste.

[Beaker]

I thought he was going to start playing Leave Them All Behind by Ride there - got me all excited!

[Beaker]

Fenderguy, if you decide to build a Vox or Hummingbird you will need a 2N2646. Don't just buy one, as they are notoriously finiky, and make not work properly - I would buy at least three.

I've just had a quick look on ebay, and there are a couple of sellers in the US will loads of them at the moment. However you could look in a few weeks time and struggle to find any - they are one of those components that sell out really quickly.

If you are struggling to find any, I've got some.

[Freppo]

I recommend the Electric Druid Tap Tempo Tremolo.
With the square waveshape you get really choppy sounds.
It was used here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sqx7jGPyTY
At about 1:30

I never got my Hummingbird working.. Always a loud ticking. :/

[Beaker]

Fredrik here are three tips for the Vox Repeat Percussion or Hummingbird:

#1. Shielded wire for input and output.

#2. Replace the UJT - some tick louder than others.

#3. Make sure the UJT has some fresh air around it - they are highly microphonic, and if the casing of the UJT touches an adjacent component , or the base plate of the pedal, it will tick much louder.

Some ticking is inevitable though, it's just the nature of the beast.

Edited 'cos I'm stupid.

[Travis]

By BJT are you referring to the 2N2646 or one of the other transistors? The 2N2646 is a UJT

[heuermh]

Beaker wrote

The Vox Repeater / Hummingbird gives that signature Spacemen 3 helicopter/machine gun stutter (I have built these for ex Spacemen 3 / Spiritualized guitarists), so will certainly do the trick here.

Really? Very cool.

I consider myself a future Spacemen 3 / Spiritualized guitarist, just haven't gotten the call yet.  :)

[Beaker]

Oh I am dufus, I meant  UJT - I'll edit it to avoid confusing anyone further.

Ihanks Travis!

[Beaker]

Yes, I'm good friends with some of those guys.

[tabbycat]

@beaker

haha, beaker don't you know that ride is a four letter word? the other one being blur. though you are entitled to your vices.

i always think of those two particularly as being the key bands that killed off shoegaze, though it's a personal and partial memory thing.

as i remember it (being at art college at the time) before those two bands turned up the so-called 'scene that celebrates itself' (that later came to be known as early shoegaze, even spacemen 3 fitted in there) was just a barely and badly co-ordinated rabble of scuzzy art students playing white noise thunder to other scuzzy art students in underlit half-empty mid-week student union bars. by and large reacting against all those twee sarah and postcard c86 bands (with their cardigans and thumbsucking) and looking to the mary chain and sonic youth for something with a little bit of contrasting energy and attitude.
then ride and blur turned up, added beatles melodies and pudding bowl haircuts to the mix, and suddenly smash hits were interested and schoolgirls started turning up at gigs with their mums.
obviously once a demographic with disposable income started to take an interest the sell-your-soul huge advance cheques began to be waved around and in no time at all the whole scene degenerated into the smash hits teen-scene that inevitably became the clusterfuck that was britpop.

but it was as if the market demographic for what had previously been though of as indie (mail order and cartel stuff, under the counter in brown paper bags, under the genteel stewardship of john peel) suddenly changed overnight to smash hits covers and top ten singles in woolworths.

obviously there were a few other factors involved (our friends from the north) and the brit music papers turning into tabloids, but that's sort of how i remember it, though the feedback, strobes and smoke machines.

so even though i have just checked and found 'like a daydream' and 'taste' on my mp3 player, i still totally blame ride and blur for the beginning of the end of the great days of indie. no quarter!

yes i am a snob. no i don't care.

@freppo

hey freppo, did you build the layout here or another one? i know there is an issue with the grounding that effected other layouts that mark seemed to resolve in his layout here. i think earlier layouts suggested you keep the 2n2646 ground and the final gain stage transitor ground separate. or something like that. but i have built two of marks layout here and both worked, and you are light years ahead of me in stompbox skills, so no excuses.
as beaker said it could also be a crap 2n2646. they are supposed to be notoriously temperamental. but really worth persevering with. the repeaters are pretty special trems that sound like nothing else because of that idiosyncratic wave form.

[Freppo]

@Beaker
Thanks. It was a long time ago that I built it. If I would build it again today I would definitly try with shielded input/ouput wires. Sometimes extra DC filtering is helpful aswell. A 100nF between +9V and ground can work miracles. :)

@tabbycat
I used the layout here, but I abandoned it just after a short while when I couldn't get rid of the ticking. I'm too impatient sometimes lol. Maybe I had junk 2N2646. For now, my own Green Currant tremolo fills my need for a choppy/percussive tremolo and it's dead quiet, even on vero. :)

[Beaker]

Your Green Currant is still on my "to do" list Fredrik - you can never have too many tremolo pedals!