The Flint Tremolo Done Right

Just tried these settings and it sounds fantastic! Way better than default tremolo. I think this should be a type in tremolo block.
 
Thanks! For some reason the Tremolo block on my III is doing nothing. This is just what I was looking for.
 
From @Admin M@: https://www.strymon.net/amplifier-tremolo-technology-white-paper/[/QUOTE]

And for the lazy like me:

The Harmonic Trem is actually not a pure tremolo effect. It is really a dual-band filtering effect that alternately emphasizes low and high frequencies. The end-result is a soothing pulse that has shades of a mild phaser effect combined with tremolo due to the nature of the frequency bands that are alternated. This circuit required two tubes to create a two-phase differential LFO that controls the gain of the two frequency bands, and then another tube to sum the two bands together. This implementation had a rather short period of availability perhaps due to the somewhat ‘expensive’ implementation. The basic idea is shown below:

trem_fig2-1.png


One phase of the LFO signal is added directly with the low-band input signal, while the other phase gets added directly to the high-band signal. Essentially, the filtered signal ‘rides’ on top of the LFO signal on its way into the tube summing amplifier. This effectively changes the small-signal operating point of the filtered signal along the tube gain curve. When the LFO signal is at low voltages, the filtered signal will have more gain as the tube operates in its steepest gain region. Conversely, when the LFO is at higher voltages, the tube gain-curve flattens out, and the input signal experiences reduced gain. Since the two bands have opposite phase LFO signals, when one band is experiencing high gain, the other is experiencing low gain. When the two are combined, the opposite phase LFO signals cancel each other out, and the two alternating amplitude-modulated filtered signals comprise the output. This produces the tremolo effect of hearing a loud (bright) signal alternating with a soft (dark) signal.

Also, as a consequence of riding up and down the tube’s gain curve, the filtered signals experience slight changes in harmonic content due to the changing nonlinearities of the gain curve around the signal. This adds further complexity to the trem’s sound.

This seems relatively straight-forward to cop. Give me a minute...
 
There's some sauce missing but it's a reasonable facsimile and the approach described in that paper is definitely possible using blocks in the box that are already there. I lost an hour trying to decide what amp+cab pairing I wanted and then f'ing around with a Plex Delay. This box is just too much fun sometimes. Also, my fingers hurt like a SOB from this hiatus.

 
I've been messing around with this a bit lately and am wondering how/if any of you control the tempo of the tremolo setting it up this way. To me, it seems like with this setup you either get fast or slow trem depending on your LFO types

Edit: Figured it out..Ima dummy
 
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There's some sauce missing but it's a reasonable facsimile and the approach described in that paper is definitely possible using blocks in the box that are already there. I lost an hour trying to decide what amp+cab pairing I wanted and then f'ing around with a Plex Delay. This box is just too much fun sometimes. Also, my fingers hurt like a SOB from this hiatus.


Did the preset for this get posted anywhere? The one mentioned above that Matt posted appears to have disappeared when the prior thread disappeared.

Or, did the harmonic tremolo get added to the block as a solution?
 
Having had, and enjoyed the Flint pedal, I was interested in hearing this attempt at duplicating it.

I resurrected from FX2 to FX3, and tweaked the previously attached preset, slowing the rate to 3Hz to make it easier to listen critically, and added a third scene to compare to the built-in harmonic tremolo in the FX3. I had to reduce the level of the block in scene 3 by -9db to even out the volumes so that ol' Fletcher-Munson magic didn't put me under its spell.

I think the built-in harmonic tremolo in scene 3 sounds really good. It's not exactly like the sound in scene 2, but for my purposes, and in a band setting, I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference. And, though I don't have my Flint anymore, either method seems to be extremely close based on my memory of it. Because the FM3 doesn't have a Crossover block I think the Harmonic Tremolo is good enough for me and I'll stick with it.
 

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Interesting thread, and very nicely laid out by GM Arts.

At first I thought it wasn't too different from a regular tremolo.
So I used the Tremolo settings from the preset by Sheky, didn't use the Crossovers, increased Depth and decreased Duty for more throbbing and more distinct pulse.

But it isn't the same. The nice thing about the "Flint" settings is that while the throbbing is more apparent, it doesn't affect the higher strings. You can play chords and the throbbing doesn't get in the way at all.

Good job!

Now if this thing could be part of a Trem block as a "type" ...

I've posted a wishlist request:
http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/provide-flint-tremolo-settings-as-a-tremolo-block-type.109164/
This is a non-intuitive use of the crossover; It'd be nice to have a link to this thread in the Crossover block guide in the Wiki, perhaps in the tricks section at the bottom of the page.
 
Did the preset for this get posted anywhere? The one mentioned above that Matt posted appears to have disappeared when the prior thread disappeared.
I don't think I ever did post a preset.

Or, did the harmonic tremolo get added to the block as a solution?
A harmonic mode was added to the tremolo block making it mostly moot, I suppose. It's very phaser-y. I like it.
 
A harmonic mode was added to the tremolo block making it mostly moot, I suppose. It's very phaser-y. I like it.
Looking at the blurb in the Tremolo/Panner block in the Wiki, it sounds like it's been implemented basically the same way, using crossovers. I agree it's "phaser-y"; I added it to my Tremolo block in my library and have been adding that to my Fender-ish presets and whatever uses tremolo so I can use either bias or harmonic, with bias and harmonic working in their default or with the phase 180º out for stereo.
 

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