Vibrato

[polifemo]

Are there any vibrato kits available apart from the BYOC VB2 clone?

[jonathan perez]

univibe does a good vibrato...

as do SOME chorus pedals...

as do SOME phaser pedals...

[Seljer]

you can easily mod most choruses into a vibrato just be disconnecting the dry signal from the final mixing stage

same thing applies to chorus pedals (like the Univibes but you can do it to others as well)

[shadowmaster]

Build the Bad Stone project at http://topopiccione.atspace.com/PJ05EHBadStone.html.

You can get some phasing... (Of course it's supposed to be a phaser.)
You can get some flanger like effects...
You can get some chorus like effects...
You can get some envelope-filter like effects...
You can get some vibrato...
You can get some ring-modulator like effects...

[oldrocker]

Build the John Hollis Ultra Flanger.  You can get most of those effects including vibrato.  IMHO it's a great all around pedal.

[jonathan perez]

but i think the question remains...is there a decent stand-alone vibrato pedal?

[R.G.]

but i think the question remains...is there a decent stand-alone vibrato pedal?

I believe that the VB2 is the only pedal specifically intended to be vibrato.

However, the design of a pure-vibrato pedal is exactly equal to the design of a phaser, chorus, or flanger without the addition of the dry signal, as was mentioned. Phasers are the worst of them, but do produce a usable vibrato. The Univibe's phase caps are staggered to produce a better vibrato sound.

So for your question - is there a decent stand alone vibrato pedal?
(1) yes, the VB2 commercially
(2) DIY, no, not as such
(3) however, there are many DIY pedals that can be made into a decent vibrato pedal by the deletion of as little as one resistor.

Did that settle the question?

[Processaurus]

Its not a kit, but theres a digital IC you can get that does vibrato:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=44152.msg320833#msg320833

[polifemo]

So I´ve got a cheap Behringer Chorus that I dont mind messin´with.
So what´ll I do  (By the way, something in this chorus distorts when hit hart... Any cure for that?)

[MartyMart]

So I´ve got a cheap Behringer Chorus that I dont mind messin´with.
So what´ll I do  (By the way, something in this chorus distorts when hit hart... Any cure for that?)

You could buy the cheap Chicken Salad vibrato, rather than hacking that one up !
It sounds quite decent, and could easily be put in a metal enclosure with new jacks.
There's acouple of mods around for it too, to improve the vib a bit and take the "lump"
out of the sound.
MM.

[gez]

So I´ve got a cheap Behringer Chorus that I dont mind messin´with.
So what´ll I do  (By the way, something in this chorus distorts when hit hart... Any cure for that?)

Trace things to where the wet/dry mixing is done and stick in a little switch to disconnect the dry signal.  You might find the depth needs subduing.

Distortion probably due to low headroom of the BBD used (I'm assuming it isn't digital).  Might be improved by tweaking the bias trimpot(s), otherwise I solve this problem (when modding) by dividing down the input and boosting the signal in the final wet/dry mixer (can only do this if the mixer is active or if you're prepared to add an active mixer).

[Mark Hammer]

ANY phaser, chorus, or flanger can be teased into providing vibrato, simply by lifting the dry signal from the mixing stage.  Unfortunately, for the vast majority of commercial pedals, the way that electronic switching is accomplished the "effect mode" consists of turning a single FET on to connect the wet signal to the mixing stage, and "bypass" simply turns that same FET off so you are only left with dry signal.  In such circumstances, installing a "dry-lift" switch results in no signal whatsoever when you go from effect to bypass, using the stock system.  Of course, if you build your own pedal and use a mechanical (rather than FET) switch, you can still use a dry-lift to achieve vibrato since the DPDT or 3PDT will sidestep the entire circuit.

RG is correct in noting that the VB-2 is likely the only commercial pedal (at least widely distributed one....there are ALWAYS regional or small-production manufacturers that 95% of us here have never heard of because of limited product distribution) targetting vibrato alone.  What makes it a targetted product, rather than merely a chorus with a dry lift is 2 central features: a) bypass circuitry tailored to retaining only wet signal when in effect mode and subbing dry signal when in bypass, and b) incorporating a ramp-up feature that increases vibrato intensity over time to simulate the way musicians produce both finger vibrato or vocal vibrato as the note is held.  I personally do not know of any other pedal that has this, and it is one of the strongest reasons to build the BYOC VB-2.

Just as an aside, we have never, to the best of my knowledge, discussed adapting the VB-2 ramp-up feature within the context of a flanger or chorus here.  That could be either by a) adapting the stock VB-2 to be able to achieve ramped-up chorus effects by mixing some dry signal in effect mode (as noted, normally this is absent), or b) adding the ramp-up feature to another circuit.

One of the more interesting vibrato effects out there is produced by means of using ONLY the wet signal from a phase-filter adapted 4-stage phaser circuit using OTAs.  This could be either a Small Stone or "black" Ross Phaser or a clone of either.  The DOD FX20 also has potential in this regard.

Normally, cancelling the dry signal in any 4-stage phaser, regardless of how the phase shift is produced (whether OTA-based, FET-based, CMOS-switched, or LDR-based) produces pitch warble or vibrato.  Generally speaking, the more stages of phase shift, the wider the warble, so a 4-stager will produce more robust vibrato, the same way it will produce more intense phaser effects.  In the phasefilter modded version, 2 of the phase-shift stages are converted to lowpass filter, while two remain in phaseshift/allpass mode.  This is VERY easily done with OTA based phasers, since it simply involves redirecting one end of a cap in each stage from the input to ground.  A single DPDT toggle and you're in business.

When the two stages are switched from phaser/allpass mode to lowpass, and the dry signal is lifted, you get a cyclical swept treble cut, along with a cyclical pitch warble.  Although the pair of lowpass stages do not specifically cut the volume, because there is this swept treble cut, the guitar signal appears to lose and gain volume as a psychoacoustic effect of the change.  The resulting sound is this deliciously swampy mélange of vibrato, tremolo, and autowah that can sound ridiculously sexy at certain speeds.

Given that, my own recommendation for vibrato is to build or mod a 4-stage phaser into a souped-up modulation machine that can do phasing, 4-stage vibrato, or phasefilter (w/ and w/out dry signal mixed in).  Charlie Barth has his "Frankenstone" pedal to illustrate over at the Moosapotamus site, although I don't think the phasefilter samples do justice to that particular effect.

All of that being said, the VB-2 clone has much to commend it also.

[gez]

ANY phaser, chorus, or flanger can be teased into providing vibrato, simply by lifting the dry signal from the mixing stage.  Unfortunately, for the vast majority of commercial pedals, the way that electronic switching is accomplished the "effect mode" consists of turning a single FET on to connect the wet signal to the mixing stage, and "bypass" simply turns that same FET off so you are only left with dry signal.  In such circumstances, installing a "dry-lift" switch results in no signal whatsoever when you go from effect to bypass, using the stock system.  Of course, if you build your own pedal and use a mechanical (rather than FET) switch, you can still use a dry-lift to achieve vibrato since the DPDT or 3PDT will sidestep the entire circuit.

Whoops, good point Mark! 

[Mark Hammer]

I've mentioned this before, though perhaps more off-line than in threads.  The normal FET-based switching in commercial phasers, choruses and flangers uses only one FET and the "flip" half of a flip-flop.  The "flop" half goes unused.  There is no reason whatsoever that a person could not use the other half of the flip-flop to turn a 2nd FET on and off.

If the 2nd FET is placed between the mixing resistor of the dry path and the mixing stage, and connected to the other side of the flip-flop, then  the pedal switches between all dry (flip high, flop low) and all wet (flip low, flop high).  If a humble SPST toggle is placed in parallel with the drain-source path of the added FET, then the state of the added FET can be made moot/redundant with that switch closed, and you get dry signal reaching the mixing stage whether you are in effect mode or bypass.  Leave the switch open and you get wet only in effect mode, and dry only in bypass (due to the 2nd FET)

Voila!  Vibrato mod with FET switching intact.

[hairyandy]

SIB makes a vibrato pedal called the Mr. Vibromatic.  I own one and it's not all that great, certainly nowhere near as cool as a VB2.  I've never looked inside it to see what it's like so I don't know how "clonable" it is.  I did run across this just now when I did an Ebay search on it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SIB-VibroMatic-Case-Only-VIBRATO-VIBE_W0QQitemZ290071264321QQihZ019QQcategoryZ101973QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290071264321

Kinda weird that someone took out the guts and is selling just the case...

Andy

[Mark Hammer]

Kinda weird that someone took out the guts and is selling just the case...

Not weird that they relocated the guts, if it was placed into some more integrated multi-FX floor unit.  Kinda weird that they'd expect someone to pay $30 + shipping for a 1590BB with a couple of holes in it and misleading legending..

[hairyandy]

Kinda weird that they'd expect someone to pay $30 + shipping for a 1590BB with a couple of holes in it and misleading legending..

That's really what I meant, I just didn't say it very well.    Thanks Mark...

Andy

[Khas Evets]

One thing often overlooked in vibrato discussions is the wave shape of the modulator. The most common wave used in the pedals mentioned above is a triangle wave, and it will produce an alternating note slightly sharp and then flat. The VB-2 uses a sine wave and produces a very nice warble. To my ears, this is very important. I've tried the wet only signal of the Boss CE-5, and I wasn't satisfied with it.

Some digital devices allow you to choose the wave shape of the modulation. I've experimented with my Digitech GSP 2101.

[Processaurus]

I have a couple Exar 2206 function generator chips kicking around, they'd be a great choice for easily generating a vibrato's sine wave lfo, because you'd have voltage controlled depth and rate.  One could even do an auto-ramp, where the vibrato fades in after the note starts to decay, if you had a half decent note detecting trigger to start the ramp envelope.  I'd think these would be a great choice for univibe/ leslie type effects, for the sine lfo without weird dual pots or limited speed range.  Might be cool for chorus too, i'm thinking hook up the depth to the notes envelope so its only chorused when a note is above a certain loudness, or vice versa.

[dxm1]

Are there any vibrato kits available apart from the BYOC VB2 clone?

You may want to look at this:

http://members.shaw.ca/roma/vibrato.html

I remember breadboarding it once, but can't recall how it sounded...