
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.
Most recent headlines
28/01/2021
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of innovative electrical power control solutions for professional audio, video, and lighting (AVL) systems, today announced the l...
28/01/2021
Adding to the success of its renowned CrewCom digital wireless intercom system, ...
28/01/2021
Vionlabs, the industry leading provider of AI-powered content analysis, announce...
28/01/2021
TVU Networks, the market and technology leader in cloud and IP-based live video ...
28/01/2021
SMPTE today announced that the Society has earned two 2020 Emmy Awards for Technology and Engineering recognizing excellence in engineering creativity. One aw...
28/01/2021
UAFX series comprises three DSP-based effects
Universal Audio have just unveiled a brand-new range of premium guitar pedals. Apparently many years in develo...
28/01/2021
Ardem Patapoutian receives 2021 Frontiers of Knowledge Award from BBVA Patapoutian is recognized for world-class research that provided the molecular basis for ...
28/01/2021
COV-AID: Live Events Rolling out COVID-19 Vaccines posted: 27/01/2021
The Live Events industry is thrilled to announce the launch of COV-AID, an effort to...
28/01/2021
David Workman Joins Embrionix as Global OEM Sales Manager posted: 27/01/2021
David Workman, Embrionix's New Global OEM Sales Manager
Embrionix, a sub...
28/01/2021
China Media Group Brings First Extended Reality New Year Gala to Life With Ross posted: 27/01/2021
While Chinese communities traditionally look forward to t...
28/01/2021
Tata Communications and Blackbird present: Enabling efficiencies in remote produ...
28/01/2021
CJP Broadcast Completes Studio System Relocation for Core London TV
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4-bpthumb...
28/01/2021
Newly launched Fujifilm GFX100S and Atomos Ninja V readily enabled for medium fo...
28/01/2021
ZOO Digital hires Andreas Kaj as Dubbing Territory Manager for Nordic Region
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf...
28/01/2021
Leader Launches LVB440 High Bit-Rate IP Packet Monitor
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4-bpthumb.jpg......
28/01/2021
Voiceover Actor Martin Yap Takes the Fast Track with Flock Audio's PATCH LT
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562...
28/01/2021
Matthew Mungle and Terry Baliel to Receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at 2021 M...
28/01/2021
New Video on the Making of Eddie Van Halen Mural at Guitar Center Hollywood
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4...
28/01/2021
Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Elects New Board
data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4-bpthumb.jpg data-srcse...
28/01/2021
we were confident in our plan and that the people in our community would help the cause, no matter how it looked on TV. Little did we know just how much they wo...
28/01/2021
Xilinx Reports Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2021 Results Jan 27, 2021
XILINX, INC.
SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION
(Unaudited)
(In thousands...
27/01/2021
TVU Networks Welcomes Allan Delaurier as Vice President of Sales for Canada, CIS...
27/01/2021
SCARBOROUGH, Ontario-Audio equipment manufacturer Ward-Beck Systems will cease manufacturing at the end of January, it announced on its Facebook page....
27/01/2021
DALLAS-HBO Max ended 2020 on a high note, as AT&T shares that the streaming service doubled its activations between the end of the third quarter and fourth quar...
27/01/2021
LONDON-The BBC's Winterwatch has has become the first outside broadcast to b...
27/01/2021
BALTIMORE & PROVIDENCE, R.I.-Sinclair Broadcast Group and Bally Sports have debuted the Bally Sports logo and regional monikers for Sinclair's owned and ope...
27/01/2021
MONTREAL-Embrionix, a subsidiary of Riedel Communications, appointed David M. H. Workman as global OEM sales manager. Reporting to Rik Hoer e, director Americas...
27/01/2021
OTTAWA-China Media Group selected the Ross Video Voyager platform to help with its production of Chineses broadcaster CCTV's New Year's Eve broadcast, w...
27/01/2021
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Adobe Premiere Pro was used by more filmmakers taking part in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival than any other video editing system, the company ...
27/01/2021
TYSONS, Va.-Tegna is purchasing the Locked On Podcast Network, which specializes in podcasts on local sports. With the acquisition, Tegna is growing its podcast...
27/01/2021
LOS ANGELES-Streaming subscriptions and digital transactions of content were the driving forces to a big 2020 for U.S. home entertainment spending, per a new re...
27/01/2021
WASHINGTON-The NAB praised the coverage by broadcasters during the Capitol riots...
27/01/2021
Global Production meets the Tour de Ski and Nordic Combined World Championship h...
27/01/2021
Vizrt Introduces Production Control, an End-to-End Production, Graphics, Control...
27/01/2021
Haivision Path Redundancy Brings Hitless Failover to Makito X4 Video Encoder, SR...
27/01/2021
On the Hardwood: Charlotte Hornets Redesign Mobile App To Bring Spectrum Center ...
27/01/2021
CBS Sports Adds Constant Scorebug to PGA TOUR Coverage as Sellers Shy Takes Over...
27/01/2021
Desde o lan amento da Pollen em 2018, as playlists sem g nero do Spotify decolaram em todo o mundo. Com a Pollen, surgiu a Oyster nos pa ses n rdicos, a Altar n...
27/01/2021
Since the launch of Pollen in 2018, Spotify's genreless playlists have taken...
27/01/2021
In April 2020, Cole Cuchna and Dr. Titi Shodiya (Dope Labs) came together to exa...
27/01/2021
Evolution of News Media Workflows
Michael Goldman
January 27, 2021...
27/01/2021
Sky today launches a collection of freebies to keep customers entertained, fit and to help with home-schooling during lockdown....
27/01/2021
RT AMONG TEN PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTERS JOIN EBU INITIATIVE TO GIVE AUDIENCES ...
27/01/2021
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Song of the Year 2020 Shortlist Announcement
#rtechoiceprize
The shortlist for this ye...
27/01/2021
When it comes to autonomous vehicle sensor innovation, it's best to keep an open mind - and an open development platform.
That's why NVIDIA DRIVE is th...
27/01/2021
Designers, engineers, researchers, creative professionals all need the flexibility to run complex workflows no matter where they're working from.
With th...
27/01/2021
Ooredoo Algeria deploys Nokia's cloud-native core software to prepare for th...
27/01/2021
Nokia and Elisa push network boundaries with world's first 1T deployment
Press Release
Nokia and Elisa push network boundaries with world's first ...
27/01/2021
Nokia comments on trading activity of its stock
Nokia Corporation
Stock Exchange Release
January 27, 2021 at 8.15 pm (CET +1)
Nokia comments on trading a...