Beavis audio Stutter switch

[gnort_2]

I built this a ws my first pedal/project.



I reversed the input and output though, does it matter on this build if input is on left or the right?

It works seemilny fine both ways?

Help.

Thank all

[RandomGlitch]

It doesn't matter in this circuit.

That's a cool little build I think, might try that myself.

[gnort_2]

Well that's good news. Initially I had it wired up the right way, but in my head I thought pedals input from the left, so I switched it.  It was kind of a pain in the a$$.  Glad to know that it doesn't matter with this circuit.  (Learning, learning, learning)

[Mark Hammer]

About as simple a build as they get, eh? 

1) Note that "stuttering" assumes a repetitive action.  Although what you show does do that, or rather is capable of that, ultimately, it relies on two very critical factors: your ankle, and the mechanical lifespan of the switch.  There is no guarantee your ankle can respond fast enough for your tastes at any given moment (though it might), or consistently enough.  On the other hand, sometimes one wants the stutter to vary, and building a circuit that will allow you to vary the stutter rate in real time can get complicated; more complicated than simply tapping at the desired rate.  The switch, as you are no doubt aware at this point, may notdeliver the degree of responsiveness one wants for tapping.  Some momentaries are stiffer than others, or require jore travel to actuate.  In short, they are designed for someone to either press once, or press and hold, but not to press repetitively and facilitate ease in doing that.

All of which suggests that, while what you show is sweet as sugar for a novice builder AND does what it is intended to do, the more elegant solution is to have some sort of foot-controlled gating action that lets you: a) stutter at faster rates than your ankle could normally achieve, b) require only a single motion to actuate stuttering, raher than multiple motions, and c) vary the stutter rate (permitting decelleration, etc.) in real time with a foot treadle-controlled pot.

2) One of the things that some players like to do is deliberately "load" their signal down to strategically dull the signal a bit.  One of the key aspects to Jimi Hendrix' tone was his use of curly cords with his guitar, which have higher cable capacitance and tend to load down the signal.

I mention this because if one wanted to use your box, as shown, as a deliberate loading unit, all that would be needed is a SPST switch, whether toggle or stomp or slide, to connect the 500k pot to ground.  This would override the momentary switch, of course, but for the price of a toggle add a second function.

[gnort_2]

About as simple a build as they get, eh? 

1) Note that "stuttering" assumes a repetitive action.  Although what you show does do that, or rather is capable of that, ultimately, it relies on two very critical factors: your ankle, and the mechanical lifespan of the switch.  There is no guarantee your ankle can respond fast enough for your tastes at any given moment (though it might), or consistently enough.  On the other hand, sometimes one wants the stutter to vary, and building a circuit that will allow you to vary the stutter rate in real time can get complicated; more complicated than simply tapping at the desired rate.  The switch, as you are no doubt aware at this point, may notdeliver the degree of responsiveness one wants for tapping.  Some momentaries are stiffer than others, or require jore travel to actuate.  In short, they are designed for someone to either press once, or press and hold, but not to press repetitively and facilitate ease in doing that.

All of which suggests that, while what you show is sweet as sugar for a novice builder AND does what it is intended to do, the more elegant solution is to have some sort of foot-controlled gating action that lets you: a) stutter at faster rates than your ankle could normally achieve, b) require only a single motion to actuate stuttering, raher than multiple motions, and c) vary the stutter rate (permitting decelleration, etc.) in real time with a foot treadle-controlled pot.

2) One of the things that some players like to do is deliberately "load" their signal down to strategically dull the signal a bit.  One of the key aspects to Jimi Hendrix' tone was his use of curly cords with his guitar, which have higher cable capacitance and tend to load down the signal.

I mention this because if one wanted to use your box, as shown, as a deliberate loading unit, all that would be needed is a SPST switch, whether toggle or stomp or slide, to connect the 500k pot to ground.  This would override the momentary switch, of course, but for the price of a toggle add a second function.

Nice evaluation thanks.  That would be a good mod to it.  This really was my first rough attempt at a pedal and was almost more of an excercise in soldering than anything else.  But now im going to movbe onto the npn  boost and am thinking the green ringer after that.  Thanks for the advice/help.

[R.G.]

It occurred to me that one could use one of the three-oscillators pseudorandom generators feeding a semiconductor switch (and a P-FET would work fine there) to get a selectable random-ish stuttering.

One oscillator = regular stutter
Two oscillators = regularish, but with variation
Three oscillators = regular-kinda with variation and random-seeming oddities.

[gnort_2]

I used a log/audio pot on this project and it doesn't seem to adjusts the level or completeness of the signal silence until the last 1/8th of its turn.  In other words it seems to do nothing until the last little bit and then is super sensitive. 

Would a linear pot react the same way?

Could the addition of a resistor adjust its sensitivity?

Does my "ham and egg" explanation make any sense?

Thanks guys

(Btw the suggested mod sounds like it would be cool, I'm kinda chicken though.)

[RandomGlitch]

Maybe try moving the wire from lug 3 of the pot to 1 it will work the other way but maybe give a better sweep.

And/Or try adding a 300K to 500K resistor across the same 2 lugs you wired on the pot.  This will affect the range as well as the sweep.

Some of these things depend on the rest of your setup, guitar etc, so you have to experiment sometimes.