Fast stutter mod for Ibanez DDL

[flo]

Modding the Ibanez DDL digital delay for a fast stutter effect (used for instance by Agata of Melt Banana).

When the Mode switch is in Hold mode, it always uses the Long delay time.
Instead I want the Short delay time to be used for fast stutter effects.

The delay modes in the DDL are:
- Short
- Long  
- Hold (while normally On)
- Hold (while normally off)

Opening up the DDL, there is one large main PCB holding most of the electronics and one small PCB for the knobs and some control logic.
There is a white/gray "ribbon"-connector of 4 wires connecting some pins of the Mode pot on the small PCB to the main PCB.

Ribbon connected to main PCB:


Ribbon connected to Mode pot pins on the small PCB:


I measured the resistances between the pins on the Mode pot were the "ribbon" is connected to in the modes Short and Long:

x = not connected, o = connected.

Short
    1   2   3   4
1   o   x   x   o
2   x   o   o   x
3   x   o   o   x
4   o   x   x   o

Long
    1   2   3   4
1   o   x   x   o
2   x   o   x   x
3   x   x   o   x
4   o   x   x   o

Conclusion:
Pins 2 and 3 are connected in Short mode but are not connected in Long mode.

So I soldered a wire to pin2 (yellow) and one to pin3 (brown) and connected them to a SPST switch.

New wires connected to pin 2 and 3 of Mode pot:


Switch with the two wires through battery compartment:


When the switch does not connect the pins, the DDL works as before.
When the switch connects the pins, the DDL works with the Short delay time in Hold mode!
Instant stutter heaven!

[flo]

Stutter Soundclip1
Stutter Soundclip2

The clicks is from the pedal enclosure itself which I turn on and off with my foot (not to subtle...) which is picked up by the mic hanging in front of the speaker.  

[Quackzed]

thats pretty cool, but its hard to hear exactly where the pedal is stuttering and where you are playing along in a stuttering fashion...
a clip where you just hit a chord ...then engage the pedal while letting it ring out.

[flo]

In the first soundclip:
I hit a chord once, engage the pedal and mute the strings immediately. The rest of that chord is the stuttering. Then I repeat that for a few chords.
On chord 2, I let the chord ring out somewhat longer after engaging the pedal and mute the strings after a second or 2.

[JKowalski]

Interesting

Sounds like my computer crashing 

[Quackzed]

ok, that makes sense to me, i was under the impression that the pedal was more like through/off/through/off... and if i understand you, it is more that when you engage the pedal it takes a small sample of your guitar signal and plays/off/plays again/off etc... in a stuttering fashion... yes? it sounds great, its got a nice sharp on off sound...i agree, like a computer crashing..
you should call it the crash pedal or the fatal exception .

[flo]

I also like its "digital hardware crashing" sound!  

... and if i understand you, it is more that when you engage the pedal it takes a small sample of your guitar signal and plays/off/plays again/off etc...

Well ... the delay pedal is constantly sampling the input signal and holds the part from "before" (= "now" minus lenght of the delay time) until "now" in its memory buffer.
When the Hold function is engaged, by depressing the footswitch, it stops sampling and starts playing that sampled part over and over again (looping) until the Hold is disengaged by releasing the footswitch. In between there is no "off" so it plays/plays again/plays again/etc.
The only thing I did was to be able to use really short sample lenght.

[Quackzed]

i get it not on/off/on/off but on/on/on etc..in a loop.
a super short sample and hold.
and it sounds like a computer crashing because it IS like a computer crashing
a computer playing its last sample over and over in a loop !
its brilliant. step on the hold function and crash the computer! it would make a great ending to a song about a computer who came to life

[JKowalski]

it would make a great ending to a song about a computer who came to life

That sounds like a fairly niched song concept