Tremulus Builders: Spacing and Smoothness knobs

[nirvanas silence]

I'm about to build one for the hell of it since everyone raves about it, and I'm curious if its actually worth adding the smoothness and spacing knobs on the casing.  What do they do to the sound?  THanks!

[DaveTV]

I'd say yes, build the tremulus with both knobs. The smoothness knob is pretty common to tremolo pedals and allows you to adjust the tremolo wave shape between smooth and square. This is pretty important if you're trying to capture a certain type of tremolo sound. The knob will essentially give the tremolo its character.

The spacing knob is probably not as essential, but it does allow you to further tailor the tremolo's sound. From what I can tell, it sounds like it shifts the entire tremolo wave shape up or down, which makes the tremolo's stutter sound uneven. That's the best I can describe it.

Were you thinking of leaving these controls off all together, or just making them trimpots on the circuit board? My recommendation is to keep them both mounted on the outside because a lot of this pedal's magic comes from its shaping controls. I also built mine with the rate doubling switch as well as the shark tooth wave switch. I planned everything out well ahead and was able to fit it all in a 1590-BB box.

[phillip]

I agree with Dave.  The smoothness and spacing knobs are both really nice.  If I build it again, I would leave off the "fine" knob since it's a VERY subtle effect on the speed.  I would just replace the "fine" knob with a fixed resistor or something.

I would definitely add the ramp up/ramp down switch...you just need a SPDT on/off/on toggle switch and a couple of diodes.  

Phillip

[mikeb]

The dual setup of the tremulus lune is nice, but it just colors the tone too much.

Mr 'Fx Doctor' aka 'nirvanas silence', if you have noticed this with your tremulus then you have made a wiring error or haven't built the circuit to a sufficient standard of quality. There is no tone shaping circuitry in the tremulus, and the audio part of the circuit consists entirely of a unity-gain buffer followed by a variable-gain stage. Please explain how this can 'color the tone'? None of the 20+ tremulus device's I've built have behaved in this manner. Perhaps you need some help debugging your build?

I would strongly suggest you avoid making statements in public forums that could possible a) dissuade people from making a tremulus and b) dissuade people from purchasing a tremulus, especially as you seem to be professing to be some sort of expert. Commonsound, and the associated three organisations (4ms pedals, troubled variance and prophecysouund) struggle continuously to make enough money to get by, and it annoys the hell out of me that such an obviously ignorant and incorrect statement can be made to the detriment of us all. It REALLY annoys me that this could stop people from building their own tremulus, the original trem design that has been offered to people free of charge for years now.

The nature of the questions that you as here tend to indicate you've only just begun to study for your 'medical degree' in FX (e.g. I'd expect someone of your 'qualifications' to be able to know what the smoothness and possibly spacing controls would with the tremulus LFO-it is a 'classic' and well-understood LFO design after all).

I'd suggest you make some correction to the accuracy of your statement on HC.

:evil:

/rant off

Mike

[nirvanas silence]

I PMed you so lets not fill up this forum with an argument.  And if I offer a free schematic of my "improved version" (or atleast improved to me), then why would I bother saying the tremulus lune affected my tone?  If I ever have a chance I should disconnect the LFO and toggle between it and bypass.

[mikeb]

I don't care much for private discussions when you wish to keep them private to avoid embarassment. When have you offered an 'improved' schematic? Yes, I would like to see it, and I'm still waiting for you to tell me how the simple, two-opamp stage of the tremulus can 'color tone too much'. This circuit is similar in the extreme to circuits people are using for buffers and boosters!

See, the problem is with *this* forum is that people can KNOW when statements are nothing more than grand-standing.

Ok, ok, post your schematic here and I'll reserve my judgement until then......

Mike

[southernoise]

Hi mikeb,

I've built the tremulus before and as stated in the FAQ/debugging sheet there was audible ticking of the LFO. So what i did was to pop in a cap (forgotten the value! could be a 0.001 uf) and the ticking went away together with some treble loss.

Nevertheless, its a very very nice and versatile tremolo. My non techie guitar playing friends calls it "warm" tremolo.  :wink:

Big up to the good people at 4ms and its affiliates!

[troubledtom]

i'd love to see the new schemo. bring it on and stop talking/typing. i hope you got it right because you'll be showing your greatness or lameness for all to see.
  i have not seen the the HC post so i'll shut up [ for now ]
                   - tom

[troubledtom]

well? :?

[troubledtom]

well? :?  still waiting.....................................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
      huh,
          tt

[mikeb]

Last bump to give a chance to regain some respectability......

Mike

[travissk]

I agree that there is no noticeable tone coloration. I don't think mine even ticks, and it's stock.

Love my tremulus.
Love my phaseur.