Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Ultimate TremPan

27/11/2020

I never lost faith in the potential of tremolo, even after those opto-based amplitude processors in guitar amps had become quaint. X-Trem rewarded my faith-and it's about time tremolo joined the 21st century, given that we're a fifth of the way through it already.

This FX Chain does dual-band standard tremolo, harmonic tremolo, and panning-and because it's dual-band, the high and low frequencies are processed independently. You can download the Ultimate TremPan FX Chain if you can't wait, but because of the flexibility, let's go through the control panel before covering how it works.

Download the Ultimate TremPan FX Chain! The control panel (Fig. 1) gives multiple ways to configure the effect. The low- and high-frequency bands have identical switches.

Figure 1: The TremPan control panel.

Trem/Pan - chooses tremolo or panning mode

Sync - Syncs to tempo

Flip - Reverses the LFO phase, e.g., from positive-going to negative-going sawtooth

Bypass - Bypasses a band, so you hear the effect on only the non-bypassed band

Let's look at the controls. The low- and high-frequency bands have three controls in common.

Speed - The sync switch determines whether the LFO speed syncs to tempo or runs free. When running free, the Speed control calibration still shows rhythmic values, but it's actually continuously variable.

Depth - Controls how much the tremolo or panning affects the signal.

Shape - Available LFO waveforms are Triangle, Sine, Sawtooth, or Square.

The Hi/Lo Mix control determines the balance of the low- and high-frequency bands. Imaging spreads the low and high bands; when centered, the low and high bands are centered too, and if a band is in panning mode, it pans the full stereo field. Turning this control counter-clockwise moves the low band toward the left and the high band toward the right, while de-emphasizing panning so that when fully counter-clockwise, both bands are acting as tremolos in their respective channels. Turning this control clockwise reverse the action, i.e., when fully clockwise, the high band sounds like a tremolo in the left channel, while the low band sounds like a tremolo in the right channel.

How It Works Figure 2 shows the block diagram.

Figure 2: The processors inside the Ultimate TremPan FX Chain.

The Splitter does two splits based on frequency, with a split around 800 Hz. This seems to work well for guitar, but feel free to play around with it (I hope that in some future update, Splitter parameters will be assignable to control panel Macro knobs).

The Mixtools have their gains varied oppositely by the Lo/Hi Mix control to set the proportions of the high and low bands. The Dual pans in the Splits have their Input Balance controlled oppositely by the Imaging knob.

Applications You have a lot of options, but here are some of my favorites.

Different tremolo speeds and waveforms avoid the stereotyped tremolo sound.

For EDM tremolo, try two negative-going sawtooths (i.e., don't enable Flip) with the low band set to 1/8th notes and the high band set to 16th This gives a cool percussive effect.

You can do the harmonic tremolo effect, as found in some old Fender amps, by setting both modes to tremolo and the same speed, but choosing Flip for one of the bands.

Panning the low band back and forth slowly while setting a fairly fast tremolo for the high band gives a wide, interesting imaging effect.

The rhythmically synched effects can make one instrument almost sound like two instruments, working together as a team. This FX Chain can also animate hand percussion tracks by varying where the percussion happens in the stereo field. Have fun with this sucker-it's time to re-discover amplitude modulation.
LINK: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2020/11/25/the-ultimate-trempan/...
See more stories from presonus

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

13/03/2026

GFiber and Stonepeak's Astound Broadband to Merge

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/03/2026

Harmonic Redefines the Economics of Video Playout with Ne...

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced Spectrum X Plus, the newest generation of its Spectrum X media server, offering double the channel density of previous ...

13/03/2026

Historic Ewing Covenant Church Revitalizes Worship Experi...

When Ewing Covenant Church made the decision to return to its original, historic building, affectionately called 1867 Sanctuary for weekly worship, the congre...

13/03/2026

Marshall Electronics Launches CV574 WP its First 4K All I...

Marshall Electronics introduces its first all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). The CV574-WP supports NDI |HX, providing ultra-efficien...

13/03/2026

Net Insight launches Nimbra 520 - Predictable Live Media...

At NAB Show 2026, Net Insight introduces Nimbra 520, a high-density media processing node designed to simplify live contribution and distribution across both ma...

13/03/2026

Abandon Editorial Signs With Michal Dimitri for West Coast Representation

Abandon Editorial Signs With Micha l Dimitri for West Coast Representation Brie Clayton March 12, 2026 0 Comments Abandon Editorial is excited to part...

13/03/2026

Documentary The Bulldogs Shot and Edited with Blackmagic Design

Documentary The Bulldogs Shot and Edited with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton March 12, 2026 0 Comments Editorial tools helped shape film in real time,...

13/03/2026

AE Captions as Fast as CapCut - No Plugins

AE Captions as Fast as CapCut - No Plugins Graham Quince March 12, 2026 0 Comments Stop wasting hours clicking through nested compositions and manuall...

13/03/2026

New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Announce 2026 Next Jazz Legacy Cohort

New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Announce 2026 Nex...

12/03/2026

Milano Cortina 2026: Yospace helps ad-funded rights-holders claim advertising gold

Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...

12/03/2026

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audina...

12/03/2026

Techex Hires Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas

Techex, a global expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, announces the appointment of Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas, further strength...

12/03/2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America Welcomes Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manager, Northeast

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manag...

12/03/2026

Interra Systems Focuses on Streaming-First QC, Monitoring, and Responsible AI Workflows at 2026 NAB Show

At the 2026 NAB Show, Interra Systems will showcase its latest advancements in a...

12/03/2026

15th National Games of China Features Expansive Unified Broadcast Network

The 15th National Games of China concluded after a two-week celebration of athletic excellence and regional collaboration. Held from Nov. 9-21 across Guangdong,...

12/03/2026

SVG in Indy: Butler University Students Get Live-Sports Experience via On-Campus Studio, Production Truck

Live-production academic program Butler Sports Live produced a total of 40 fall-...

12/03/2026

Lawo Delivers Fully IPBased Video Infrastructure for University of Nebraska's HuskerVision

The University of Nebraska's HuskerVision has completed the second phase of ...

12/03/2026

University of Illinois Upgrades Game-Day Production with New Hybrid IP Control Room

Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a...

12/03/2026

CBS Sports Turns to University of Cincinnati's Control Room and Staff for Two Big 12 Men's Basketball Broadcasts

The broadcaster expands its campus-production model as the university handles tw...

12/03/2026

Disney+ to Stream Men's and Women's NCAA March Madness Across Europe, South Africa

Disney has announced the addition of March Madness - the NCAA Division I Men...

12/03/2026

Apple TV Further Integrating iPhones into Friday Night Baseball' Camera Lineup This Season

Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball MLB doubleheader series returns for its f...

12/03/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Jack Rinaldi, University of Notre Dame

The senior from New Jersey is making his mark in South Bend, both on the mic and behind it...

12/03/2026

Ross Video's Kevin Dresser on Powering Graphics for Major Sporting Events Throughout a Busy February

After a relatively quiet January, the month of February was jammed packed with l...

12/03/2026

X Games Launches New Era With First League Draft at Cosm L.A.

Long-time production partner Echo Entertainment is producing the broadcast, while Cosm played a vital role in the collaboration...

12/03/2026

Film Festival Watch: 24 Sundance Institute-Supported Films to Catch at the SXSW Film Festival

By Jessica Herndon We love kicking off each year by introducing the world to po...

12/03/2026

Didn't Die Brings Improv to the Zombie Apocalypse

Samrat Chakrabarti, George Basil, Kiran Deol, Katie McCuen and Vishal Vijayakumar attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Didn't Die at the Lib...

12/03/2026

Mon Laferte Leads All-Women Spotify Session as EQUAL Celebrations Kick Off in Latin America

In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...

12/03/2026

Mon Laferte lidera la edicin EQUAL de Spotify Sessions, mientras comienzan las celebraciones de EQUAL en Latinoamrica

En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....

12/03/2026

As Spotify Turns 20, the Most Global and Diverse Music Industry in History Has Taken Shape

Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...

12/03/2026

Bad Bunny Brings the Sounds of Puerto Rico to Tokyo for Spotify's Billions Club Live

Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...

12/03/2026

At the London Book Fair, Spotify Shares Our Vision for the Future of Reading

Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....

12/03/2026

Ohlhorst Digital & Tokyo Dawn Labs launch Ancora

Mastering tool improves mono compatibility Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...

12/03/2026

Lewitt partner with Elgato

Wave FX processor integrated into four products Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...

12/03/2026

Mix Notes iOS App by David Thomas

Free tool for annotating audio files Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...

12/03/2026

Duck 2 from Devious Machines

Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...

12/03/2026

MPG Awards 2026: Shortlist announced

Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026 The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...

12/03/2026

Overloud introduce Gem Comp160

Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...

12/03/2026

Grainferno from Baby Audio

New granular soft synth announced Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...

12/03/2026

Bitwig Studio 6 launches

Latest version now live! Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download! The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...

12/03/2026

Stereo Miking: The Sound On Sound Guide

Latest free eBook now available! Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...

12/03/2026

AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle'

AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle&...

12/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more bandwidth, higher port density, future-proof architecture

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...

12/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026

Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...

12/03/2026

19TH ANNUAL SOUTH AFRICAN FILM AND TELEVISION AWARDS (SAFTAs19) ANNOUNCES THE HOSTS FOR CRAFT AND MAIN SHOW

Johannesburg, 11 March 2026 - The 19th Annual South African Film and Television ...

12/03/2026

L3Harris and Shield AI Achieve Breakthrough in Autonomous Electronic Warfare

MELBOURNE, Fla., March 11, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Shield AI have successfully demonstrated a first-of-its-kind integration combining L3Har...