Big Metal Judder Question?

[Aquietcabin1978]

What's happening yo,

So I snagged a Big Metal Judder in a trade. Due to adulting sucking up most of my time I haven't had a ton of time to futz with it. I finally had an hour or so to twidle some knobs last night. For all the Judder users out there, how does the mix control work in judder mode? Seems on the unit I have the mix control in judder mode only works when it is either full on wet or full on dry. Anything in between cuts the volume of both signals to almost nothing. Is this normal?

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, I searched and didn't find anything covering the mix control on the judder.

[UglyCasanova]

The mix knob is weird on mine as well. V1. Not sure if I mess with it in this video, but ....maybe? From 5:30ish

[Aquietcabin1978]

Not sure what version this box is, it is from 2015. Otherwise it is a sick pedal.

[UglyCasanova]

V2 has a hole in the bottom where you can tune the modulation. Don't know if he fixed the strange mix parameter while he was at it.

[Uncle Grandfather]

I get a great response across the whole range of the mix on both my wooden and big metal. I just recorded a clyp of my Big Metal Judder v1, toggles are set to Stutter, Static, Long, LFO, Auto 1. knobs are set to Hold 5, LPF 6, LFO/ENV 7. Clip starts with judder off, then turn judder on with mix at zero but you can hear the stutter along with the original signal. Then i slowly turn the mix in small increments, all the way up to 10 where its all judder signal. I leave it there for while then quickly turn it back down to zero and then off again. Hope that's helpful.

https://clyp.it/wqlanzzu

edit: reread OP and you said JUDDER mode, that clyp I was in STUTTER mode. Was just about to rerecord a clyp in JUDDER mode but its the exact same response from the MIX excepting for the judder/stutter response....i.e with mix at zero the effect/dry signal are equally loud and then there are varying degrees of blending the two signals until its 100% wet and its all Judder signal.

[pd~]

My BMJ didn't have the most useful sweep on the Mix knob. Didn't bother me much because I user it full wet all the time

[PlasticPeople]

My BMJ's mix knob is also a little fucky. There is a noticeable volume drop with the mix knob set anywhere around noon.

[Aquietcabin1978]

Cool, good to know. I can live with a few quirks. Fair trade off to have some judder in my life.

[Jwar]

I have another BMJ coming in. Flipped the first one too fast and didn't take the time to learn it. There are some very useful videos by the builder on the pedal on youtube. I'll like them if I can find them. He does awesome stuff. I kind of want a Glitch now. LOL and that trem OMG.

Anyway, it's a unique beast and definitely needs some time to figure out.

It would also be helpful if those that used them a lot posted pics of what their settings are. I love trying other folks pedal settings.

[PlasticPeople]

I'm amazed at how much depth is in this thing. Some demos do a pretty good job at illustrating it's instrumental properties.

The mix knob volume drop isn't a huge problem IMO. When using the Stutter and Judder modes on my BMJ, the mix tends to sound best at 100% wet, which is around unity gain.

The layer mode rewards less extreme mix knob settings though, so pairing it with some kind of volume boost works well.

Even though I'm controlling it with a S.A. Reflex exp pedal at the moment, I can really appreciate the way the sample rate control is emphasized. The chickenhead knob pretty easy to turn with your feet, and it's not far from the footswitches.

It's a ton of fun to latch onto a jittery sample and then slow it down/speed it up with your toes or expression pedal. With programmable expression controllers like the Reflex or 8-Step Program, the amount of possibilities are even greater For example, you can tailor the sweep to warp between 2 different "delay times" in the layer mode.

Manipulating the rate for longer samples is a lot like fiddling with the playback speed on an old, chirpy, bitcrushy looper. Programmable expression can let you dial in precise double/half-time rates. In a longer "looping" setting (starting very subtly left of 12:00) the chip inside is being pushed beyond it's limits and the sound gradually begins to become littered with chirps, crackles, and other (dare-I-say) lofi sounds. Further CCW, the chirps grow more obvious until they eventually drown out any semblance of your original sample as the rate approaches fully CCW (10s sample time).

What I like most about the Judder, though, is how well it plays with different kinds of audio sources. A sizable majority of the demos I've seen approach the Judder with a guitar, but I've killed loads of time sending mono drum loops and songs through the Judder from Ableton. With a little skilled tweaking of the sample rate and momentary control, you can create a synchronized, pleasant "skipping" that doesn't sound far from something that an aptly-timed pothole would induce on a well-worn CD.

I don't have anything written down for personal settings, which may be a testament to my familiarity with the pedal and/or complete laziness The previous owner of mine was kind enough to send a handwritten note with some drawings of his favorite settings. It really isn't too complicated though. When you think of it as 3 different types (modes) of effects, the hardest part is just becoming familiar with how different switch settings will alter the functions of certain knobs.

All praise aside, I'd like possible future versions to:

*Address the mix knob issues
*Allow deeper control of the modulation, which is currently limited to speeds between "jarring" and "smoother-but-hardly-tamable"
*Have access to longer, cleaner sampling, preferably at least 20s
*(A pipe dream, but) Allow expression control of parameters other than sample rate

The latter three would almost certainly raise the price, but I feel they would add to the functionality and versatility of the Judder without turning it into something it isn't.


TLDR; Judder is cool enough to make me blather about it to strangers on the internet

[UglyCasanova]

Cool post! You can forget about 20s sample time though, haha! The chip is already pushed so far.

[Inconuucl]

Cool post! You can forget about 20s sample time though, haha! The chip is already pushed so far.

The answer is two chip.

[UglyCasanova]

Twenty chips*

edit: no, you're right. 2 chips. Maths; not even once.

[lordgalvar]

Kallisti

[rembrandtvanrijn]

Which expression pedal are you lot using? Tried to use a Moog EP-3 today and also Boss FV-500 but not a lot of action going on compared to using the knob. Was really looking forward to using exp on this one