Pedal for breaking up your audio signal?

[carboncomp]

Is there a DIY project that anyone knows about for pedals that break up your signal like the Chaosound Anti-Effect Pedal or Crush Sound Farmer's Mill

https://youtu.be/w7SSg4ybOtY

https://youtu.be/jcv-em1kQx4

Looking for a way to achieve this without just making an MXR Power booster with a cold solder joint and shaking it.   

[EBK]

You could try something like my Creaky Floor:
https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=121805.msg1238133#msg1238133
It could be modified to take a LFO signal instead of using the force sensor if you prefer.

[ElectricDruid]

I also did some work towards something in a similar vein. I was more thinking of Buckethead's rhythmic stuttering rather than random, but that's up to you. You could combine something like this with one of my digital noise chips to get something that randomly chops up the signal.

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=118704

I might one day get enough time in the workshop to finish the Utter Stutter project, but at the moment I seem to be just too busy. Hey, it's only been five years. It'll get done soon - probably before 2030?!?

More generally, a search for "stutter pedal" on this site will probably pull up lots of stuff you could use.

[EBK]

Buckethead's stuttering sound is from an arcade button kill switch on his guitar.  That would be the simplest solution to achieving a breaking signal.

[Processaurus]

Kinda interesting sound. To me it sounds like random timing, but just two states, like off/on. A noise source, going in to a comparator will get a similar thing going on. You would lowpass filter  the noise before the comparator to limit the speed. Also high pass the noise, to keep it from getting stuck on, or off for too long. You could adjust the dc bias on the comparator to affect how much it's on vs off.

In modular synth land a similar effect can be had with a square wave LFO, if the speed can be modulated by a second, random LFO or sample and hold LFO.

RG had a pseudo random LFO with 4 square waves mixed together, that could maybe work for something like this, followed by a comparator. Nice thing is you could have trim pots for the speed of each and dial them in, rather than monkeying with analog filters.
The stutter pedal might be a good starting place for the audio section, one of the keys to a usable sound is the switching of the audio not happening so fast that it makes nasty pops in the audio, something that slows down the gain changes over a few milliseconds would be good. Something like the "click less" Boss bypass switching with the FETs could be a good starting place.

Edit: Electric Druid's audio circuit looks nice, and he's been through it trying different ones.

[marcelomd]

A random signal source into a mute switch does the trick.
Suggestions from the top of my head, for a random number generator:
- Geiger counter!
- A simple 8 pin microcontroller with a pseudo random generator;
- Shift register IC with some feedback taps. Use a switch, or antenna, to randomize the seed;
- Some antenna into a really high gain stage and a comparator;

A post I read a few years ago: https://makezine.com/projects/really-really-random-number-generator/

[digi2t]

Isn't this along the same lines as sample hold? Although I must admit that sample hold seems to work more as a random variable, rather than random on/off.

[ElectricDruid]

Isn't this along the same lines as sample hold? Although I must admit that sample hold seems to work more as a random variable, rather than random on/off.

Depends if you're using the sample+hold to sample the signal, or to control it.

Sample+Hold of the signal gives a more "bitcrushed" effect, because you're sampling the signal at a certain rate. As you lower the rate, you get significant steps in the signal (as you would with low resolution sampling, although in this case, the resolution is theoretically infinite) and you also get aliasing effects from the sample rate.

If you use a sample+hold LFO waveform (typically noise fed to a sample+hold, although that's no longer the only way to do it) to control the signal level by feeding it to a VCA then you'd get the "random variable" possibility you mention - a choppy "random tremolo" effect, with the level jumping abruptly up and down, but not only from "on" to "off".

The examples given by the OP are more of a "signal chopping" effect where it's rapidly and randomly switched in and out - as you said, "random on/off". But it's a question of degree, rather than a totally different effect.

[carboncomp]

Yes, I'm looking for more signal chop, but not full-on bucket head Buckethead or Tom Morello killswitch, going for more of old faulty equipment Vs poor recording vibe....so being able to mix in wet and dry so it's not a full-on killswitch.

[Processaurus]

Yes, I'm looking for more signal chop, but not full-on bucket head Buckethead or Tom Morello killswitch, going for more of old faulty equipment Vs poor recording vibe....so being able to mix in wet and dry so it's not a full-on killswitch.

Easily done once you have the LFO and the vca gain control element sorted out, it would be like the depth control on a tremolo, just attenuating the LFO control signal into the gain element. Or if the gain element is a switch, you could blend the dry in with one of the many blend circuits out there.