Digitech Whammy schematic

[Rafa]

Hi
Maybe I didnt searched enough but I cant find the digitech whammy schematic (the red one that satriani uses)?
Has anybody built one?
Thanksss
Cheers
Rafa

[jonathan perez]

i dont think one exists?

its not exatly true analog...

are you good with DSP?

[Rafa]

No, I have never build a digital stompbox

[jonathan perez]

well, the whammy is digital, so i think it would be a big pain in the ass for you to get it up and running...

why not just buy one? they often go for like 140-170 on ebay...

unless you want an original (which most n00bs think is analog...its DIGITECH...), then youll have to fork out 500+...

[Rafa]

Thanks a lot Jonathan,
Rafa

[jonathan perez]

no problem!

[Marcos - Munky]

There's a Whammy schematic around (I have it on my PC), but it's a DSP effect and the code is not available. So this means no cloning, at least until the code be released.

[Mark Hammer]

The first whammy pedals were analog, and consisted of an Electro-Harmonix Hotfoot pedal with its flexible shaft attached to the delay-time pot of a Memory Man.  If you sample out at a different rate than you sampled in, you change the pitch.  This is, of course precisely what a chorus pedal does, and why the pitch seems to change.  It's also the very basis for "scratching" by DJs: playing a recorded sample back at a different speed/rate than recorded.  The major difference is that the shift in sample rates is far more pronounced on the Hotfoot/MM combination, and the sample-rate shifting is done on direct comand from the user, rather than under control of an LFO as in a chorus.

In principle, any delay-line, whether analog or digital, that can have its delay time changed in continuous fashion in real time under user control can do a "whammy" function.  The requirement is that the overall delay time or buffer space be sufficient to let the user record something and THEN alter the sample rate before the content has worked its way to the end of the delay buffer.  Given human  reaction time, and musical phrasing, I wouldn't wanna attempt it with anything less than maybe 200msec of delay.

Perhaps some of you folks who have built delay pedals using the PT2399 or other chips might want to comment on experiments in "whammying" your material.

[jonathan perez]

so noooooooooow it makes sense! mr. hammer, youre awesome!   

[Mark Hammer]

Yes, grasshopper, there IS order in the universe.

Well, until the proposal gets sent upstairs to senior management for their approval.  At that point, all bets are off.

[slacker]

Perhaps some of you folks who have built delay pedals using the PT2399 or other chips might want to comment on experiments in "whammying" your material.

Works nicely with my DD3 if you set it on the 800ms setting and set the delay pot somewhere in the middle to start with you can do nice subtle pitch bends kind of like a pedal steel or B bender eqipped guitar where you change the pitch of some of the notes. You can also do reasonable divebombs if you crank the feedback up. This is just by tweaking the knobs. Attaching a footpedal would be really interesting.

[doug deeper]

keep in mind this would cover the bends easily, but not the harmonys.

[vanessa]

Way cool as usual Mark!

[Jaicen_solo]

If you want harmonies, all you need to do is lift the connection between the guitar and the input of the delay line. Then you can happily solo away over the repeating delay pedal.

[Mark Hammer]

Yes, let me emphasize, that achieving what a Digitech Whammy can do is NOT as simple as merely wiggling the delay-time pot on any delay line.  That being said, several of the things that a whammy can do can be mimicked in this manner, and I have no doubts that what folks used to do with those Memory-Man/Hotfoot combinations was the eventual inspiration for the Whammy pedal.

Slacker's comments about the sort of delay range needed should be taken to heart.  Keep in mind that you'll need a couple of hundred milliseconds to insert note content and respond with your foot.  After that, you'd need to be able to at least halve or double the delay time to produce pitch bends/changes of an octave up or down.  So, having 800msec to tinker with, and setting the delay time to midpoint (400msec), gives you the requisite 200msec "starting time", and also lets you double (to 800msec) or halve (to 200msec) the sample-out rate to change pitch.

800msec is obviously more than what the earliest Memory Man units made available, so don't take 800msec as a hard and fast rule.  We *could* do some interesting bends with a mere 330msec of delay (or whatever an MN3005 permits), but more delay time affords more choices in what gets bent and how far.

[Jamforthelamb]

I modified a Danelectro Fab Echo with a light dependant resistor. This allows you to some of the delay based pitch bending discussed in this thread.

Small write up on it here:http://www.circuit-bent.net/effects.htm

Sound sample here:http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=264683&songID=4735815

God bless,
JFTL

[jrc4558]

There's a Whammy schematic around (I have it on my PC), but it's a DSP effect and the code is not available. So this means no cloning, at least until the code be released.

Hi Marcos! I am curios to see the schem. I was fixing one recently and had some fun with the sweep controller, which I didn't completely understand. Still unclear about the way it works I ask you. jrc4558ATgmailDOTcom