Tremolol in 2020

[mathias]

I’m kind of out of the loop. I always wanted something like the old big Goatkeepers or the Sonic Crayon tremolo.

Now for tremolo there’s the Chase Bliss Gravitas and the Malekko redesign of the Goatkeeper, and others I’m sure I don’t even know about these days.

So what should I look at? I don’t need MIDI, but I’m not going to avoid a pedal with it. Would like to be able to mess with the tremolo shape beyond just few waveforms on a switch. Expression input would be nice. Ideally it would be quiet (I’ve had tremolos that add their own noise and clock to the signal.) Lastly and least importantly, even with lots of knobs/settings, it shouldn’t be too hard to dial in good sounds. What should I look at?

[shikawkee]

The Source Audio Vertigo can be programmed to your hearts delight with the app. Cheap too.

[mathias]

Looks like I need a special extra footswitch to get tap tempo on that. (Cable is not trs like other tap/favorite/Exp inputs?) also, no exp pedal from what I can tell.

Maybe the Strymon Flint? I want to look at reverb pedals too, but I’ve got spring reverb covered so I looking for modulated/ambient multimode reverb pedals. (edit: watched some videos;m, the Flint may be too “traditional” unless I missed ability to dial in more kinds of tremolo and reverb than just what the toggles control.)

[Dowi]

If you need tap tempo, lots of waveforms, and the ability to shape the balance between the on and off part of the tremolo you can look to the Drolo Twin Peaks - does harmonic tremolo too - or to the Sentimental Bob tacana Tap Tremolo - has CV in but no EXP (shameless self promotion: i got one for sale right now).

There have been a couple of recent threads dedicated to tremolos:

viewtopic.php?f=149&t=63077

and

viewtopic.php?f=149&t=63292

[shikawkee]

If you need tap tempo, lots of waveforms, and the ability to shape the balance between the on and off part of the tremolo you can look to the Drolo Twin Peaks - does harmonic tremolo too - or to the Sentimental Bob tacana Tap Tremolo - has CV in but no EXP (shameless self promotion: i got one for sale right now).

There have been a couple of recent threads dedicated to tremolos:

viewtopic.php?f=149&t=63077

and

viewtopic.php?f=149&t=63292

Oh man, the Drolo Twin Peaks is FNTASTIC!! Should have thought of that first.

[mathias]

Those are up in the ubobtanium price category still due to small batch sizes. I’m a huge fan of Drolo. Have had a saved search on Reverb for his stuff for like 5 years now.

[mathias]

I should note I’ve got an old tap tempo tremolo from Dirge. I want a little bit more in terms of features and a little bit less noise (flaw of the design leaking the clock/etc into the signal, not a flaw in Dirge’s work — the overall pedal is excellent.)

The Bob Tacana looks like the same tap tempo tremolo that people were DIYing and building back in the day that led to my Dirge pedal.

I’ve also gone the minimalist route for tremolo and had a Omicron tremolo mini pedal. Not bad but I often want more when it is on my board.

[shikawkee]

This pedal is so good I don't think this is an unfair (though bloated) price: https://reverb.com/item/33580333-drolo-twin-peaks-v5

[shikawkee]

PS-He may have some Twin Peaks up soon so keep an eye out and jump on it!!!

[mathias]

Debating saving up for an Empress ZOIA and then I can program in a tremolo however I want, plus do a million other things?

[01010111]

I think it’s possible in the Zoia, but I don’t know if it’d be easy to use. It’s an amazing pedal, but it’s super goddamned complicated. I keep it because I can do any weird thing I want for any weird one-off ideas I have. If there’s something I want to do on a regular basis, I’d try to find a separate thing that did what I want.

I treat it like duct tape. It can do most things, and most things can’t do what it does. If I need a permanent solution, though, I’m probably not going to use duct tape.

[mathias]

That makes sense. Probably overcomplicated for what I want. I am leaning towards a modulation multi Effect that I can dial in some traditional and some weird/wild sounds on, though. I don’t have a ton of spots on my board and don’t want to keep switching out things for the one time I want, say, a chorus for a layer of a loop.

[shikawkee]

I had the Zoia and dug it for a while but eventually it was just a PITA frankly. I couldn't fight it anymore and sold it. Cool device though but not a permanent one for me.

[01010111]

That makes sense. Probably overcomplicated for what I want. I am leaning towards a modulation multi Effect that I can dial in some traditional and some weird/wild sounds on, though. I don’t have a ton of spots on my board and don’t want to keep switching out things for the one time I want, say, a chorus for a layer of a loop.

If you need something to add a random effect, it could be exactly what you need. I essentially bought it because I needed something to cover all those random times I need a chorus/flange/looper/trem/whatever and I don’t want to have all that stuff around. It also lets you set up weird things that don’t really exist outside of modular-land. If I needed to create a specific waveform for a tremelo that I’d use every now and again I could do it. If I needed to create lots of random tremelo shape sounds I might try to track down something else.

It’s just not something you should expect to be able to tweak on the fly without significant setup beforehand.

[shikawkee]

That makes sense. Probably overcomplicated for what I want. I am leaning towards a modulation multi Effect that I can dial in some traditional and some weird/wild sounds on, though. I don’t have a ton of spots on my board and don’t want to keep switching out things for the one time I want, say, a chorus for a layer of a loop.

If you need something to add a random effect, it could be exactly what you need. I essentially bought it because I needed something to cover all those random times I need a chorus/flange/looper/trem/whatever and I don’t want to have all that stuff around. It also lets you set up weird things that don’t really exist outside of modular-land. If I needed to create a specific waveform for a tremelo that I’d use every now and again I could do it. If I needed to create lots of random tremelo shape sounds I might try to track down something else.

It’s just not something you should expect to be able to tweak on the fly without significant setup beforehand.

SIGNIFICANT set up. Don't get me wrong, I love tweaking. I think everyone knows that but it just got too frustrating. It's great though, no doubt about it.