I'm looking to build a term, nothing too fancy, i.e lots of knobs and switches, just something basic that gets good vintage/warm tones.
Your thoughts/suggestions?
I have built two tremolos.
Madbeans Double Flush is great.
But first choice: Midwayfair / 1776 effects Cardinal Tremolo. The thing is absolutely fantastic. The harmonic thing makes it SO musical.
Both are about the same when it comes to fanciness/switches, bling & BOM.
Cheers
Quote from: Beedoola on September 20, 2013, 06:14:09 AM
nothing too fancy, , just something basic that gets good vintage/warm tones.
EA trem? I think JMK does one
I love the EA tremolo too. My favourite tremolo of all I've tried.
GGG (General Guitar Gadgets) do a PCB and also a kit, I think JMK PCB's may also too.
I love using the EA Trem as a boost too; the preamp has a really nice, warm, sound to it.
Quote from: raulduke on September 20, 2013, 08:36:19 AM
I love the EA tremolo too. My favourite tremolo of all I've tried.
GGG (General Guitar Gadgets) do a PCB and also a kit, I think JMK PCB's may also too.
I love using the EA Trem as a boost too; the preamp has a really nice, warm, sound to it.
It is a nice preamp. I have one on the back end of my board at home. I made the trem defeatable so that I can leave the preamp on if I want.
As far as favorite DIY trems, along with the EA I am quite fond of the CJ's Shoot the Moon circuit, which is choppier than the EA. I'm also looking forward to building the Cardinal one of these days.
Me, I love the modified EA Trem.
You can get it through my website at jmkpcbs.com
Also, I liked the Tap Tempo Trem that is (was?) available from Taylor at Musicpcb.com
Jacob
any demos of the 1776 Cardinal?
Quote from: Beedoola on September 20, 2013, 06:36:03 PM
any demos of the 1776 Cardinal?
Right here:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=8730.0 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=8730.0)
Cheers!
So, how does the Tremulus Lune fit in here?
The Lune is pretty comlicated in terms of controls. It's a good sounding trem, but I like the EA from what I've built, and the Cardinal seems great from the demos. The Double Flush was pretty great as well.
Jacob
Quote from: kothoma on September 20, 2013, 08:24:38 PM
So, how does the Tremulus Lune fit in here?
The Shoot The Moon was derived from the Lune, so that would likely be the closest fit of the ones mentioned.
I built a Lune. I do like the way it sounds. But, I agree about the controls. I don't think it's just the number of controls either. It's the way they interact.
It's not DIY, but I've got a Cool Cat Trem and I really like the way it sounds. Because of some other pedals that they are *known* for, I assume that this was "derived" from something else. Anyone know where from?
Another vote for the cardinal. Just recently built one and even after the honeymoon I'm still in love. It's just so nice full and round. It really does sound like an amp trem.
I recently built a swamp thang/ tremodillo sounds nice and cheap to build just some 2n3904s
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/01/monster-effects-swamp-thang.html (http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/01/monster-effects-swamp-thang.html)
Quote from: pickdropper on September 20, 2013, 08:51:51 PM
Quote from: kothoma on September 20, 2013, 08:24:38 PM
So, how does the Tremulus Lune fit in here?
The Shoot The Moon was derived from the Lune, so that would likely be the closest fit of the ones mentioned.
Yeah right, it escaped my attention you already mentioned it. Sorry for that.
Quote from: pickdropper on September 20, 2013, 01:07:47 PM
I am quite fond of the CJ's Shoot the Moon circuit, which is choppier than the EA.
Quote from: jkokura on September 20, 2013, 08:45:02 PM
The Lune is pretty comlicated in terms of controls. It's a good sounding trem, but I like the EA [...]
Quote from: RobA on September 20, 2013, 09:08:38 PM
I built a Lune. I do like the way it sounds. But, I agree about the controls. I don't think it's just the number of controls either. It's the way they interact.
So you both think it's not worth having all these controls? Isn't the shape of the lfo the main factor in a tremolo? Or is there more to it?
General question: what lfo shapes do all these tremolos use? Any having a clipped triangle?
Quote from: kothoma on September 21, 2013, 05:12:30 AM
[...]
So you both think it's not worth having all these controls? Isn't the shape of the lfo the main factor in a tremolo? Or is there more to it?
General question: what lfo shapes do all these tremolos use? Any having a clipped triangle?
The number of controls on the Lune would be fine, great even, if they provided precise control over the LFO and the resulting trem response. But, they don't really. The controls interact too much -- moving a shape parameter speeds up or slows down the LFO for example. That combined with the Vactrol slowing down/filtering the response of the LFO makes the overall usefulness less than I want from that many controls.
I'd agree that the LFO shape is probably the biggest factor in these vactrol based, Anderton family trems, but the slowed response and the hysteresis in the LDR means the LFO waveform changes need to be pretty extreme and distinct to be effective. I mentioned the Cool Cat Trem and that I liked it. Well, I pulled it apart last night and traced the audio path. It's pretty much the same kind of trem as the Lune -- LDR based with inverting op-amp stage to do the gain control. The LFO has speed, depth, and hard/soft. That combination is much easier to use than the Lune and yields more distinct and useful settings.
I don't know of any that use clipped triangles. I've been (slowly) working on a dual trem that uses quadrature trapezoidal LFO's in one mode. I like the way they work.
Quote from: RobA on September 21, 2013, 11:59:25 AM
Quote from: kothoma on September 21, 2013, 05:12:30 AM
[...]
So you both think it's not worth having all these controls? Isn't the shape of the lfo the main factor in a tremolo? Or is there more to it?
General question: what lfo shapes do all these tremolos use? Any having a clipped triangle?
The number of controls on the Lune would be fine, great even, if they provided precise control over the LFO and the resulting trem response. But, they don't really. The controls interact too much -- moving a shape parameter speeds up or slows down the LFO for example. That combined with the Vactrol slowing down/filtering the response of the LFO makes the overall usefulness less than I want from that many controls.
I'd agree that the LFO shape is probably the biggest factor in these vactrol based, Anderton family trems, but the slowed response and the hysteresis in the LDR means the LFO waveform changes need to be pretty extreme and distinct to be effective. I mentioned the Cool Cat Trem and that I liked it. Well, I pulled it apart last night and traced the audio path. It's pretty much the same kind of trem as the Lune -- LDR based with inverting op-amp stage to do the gain control. The LFO has speed, depth, and hard/soft. That combination is much easier to use than the Lune and yields more distinct and useful settings.
I don't know of any that use clipped triangles. I've been (slowly) working on a dual trem that uses quadrature trapezoidal LFO's in one mode. I like the way they work.
I see. What does the hard/soft on the Cool Cat Tremolo do? It switches between sinus/triangle and rectangle wave?
The Fender Rhodes tremolo supposedly uses a clipped triangle wave shape.
That dual trem will be stereo, or are there other uses for quadrature oscillators?
Quote from: kothoma on September 21, 2013, 02:39:15 PM
I see. What does the hard/soft on the Cool Cat Tremolo do? It switches between sinus/triangle and rectangle wave?
I didn't trace the LFO section, but that is what it sounds like. The hard setting is very square wave sounding.
Quote
The Fender Rhodes tremolo supposedly uses a clipped triangle wave shape.
Interesting. I've got faint recalled sounds of the Rhodes modulation in my memory. I'll have to go youtube searching to refresh them.
Quote
That dual trem will be stereo, or are there other uses for quadrature oscillators?
Not stereo. I'm working to recreate parts of this AU http://www.musicunfolding.com/ditone.html (http://www.musicunfolding.com/ditone.html) I wrote in analog pedal form. But, I'm going to make the waveforms more programmable.
Quote from: RobA on September 21, 2013, 03:09:18 PM
Quote from: kothoma on September 21, 2013, 02:39:15 PM
That dual trem will be stereo, or are there other uses for quadrature oscillators?
Not stereo. I'm working to recreate parts of this AU http://www.musicunfolding.com/ditone.html (http://www.musicunfolding.com/ditone.html) I wrote in analog pedal form. But, I'm going to make the waveforms more programmable.
Yeah, that's quite interesting. Hope you make progress.
Hey all, as tremolo is only a special case of ringmodulation (low frequency carrier) maybe something like this could become your favorite DIY tremolo?
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=11555.0
I love the modified EA trem. I got a kit from GGG. Its an easy build, and it really sounds fantastic.
The Cardinal Trem is even better imho. It can do the sounds of a modified EA trem, but it the added harmonics and square wave settings, it does even more. Also a very simple build.