Members Coolie No.1 Posted January 28, 2007 Members Share Posted January 28, 2007 http://empresseffects.com/images/tremolo/guitar_one.jpg Does incorporating opto technology mean that the signal is now not pure analog? Even blackface fender amps use opto method to create the trem effect. What about Cusack tap-a-whirl, does it use opto mechanism too, hence being not pure analog? I know voodoo labs claim they have it in their trem.What about semaphore? I dont want to spend 200+ on an analog pedal only to find otherwise. I'd be interested to know how this mechanism works and why it has to be digital. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted January 28, 2007 Members Share Posted January 28, 2007 how is the optical trem of a Fender amp not analog? any trem with tap tempo will have digital components. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coolie No.1 Posted January 28, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 28, 2007 how is the optical trem of a Fender amp not analog? Thats what I want to know, unless there are two kinds of opto mechanism, analog and digital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elliott Damage Posted January 28, 2007 Members Share Posted January 28, 2007 Thats what I want to know, unless there are two kinds of opto mechanism, analog and digital. i edited my post. It's not the optical part of the trem that makes it digital. I don't know specifically about the empress or cusack being analog or digital but i can tell you that any trem or any pedal at all with tap temp has digital components. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members andreas Posted January 29, 2007 Members Share Posted January 29, 2007 There's nothing digital about optical tremolo - it uses a pulsating light in conjunction with a photoresistor to create the tremolo effect. It's as rudimentary/analog as circuits come, and the technology is stone age compared to what can be done with modern digital circuits. Are you sure you aren't thinking about optical cables used to transmit digital data - that's an entirely different thing, which has nothing at all to do with a tremolo. They both use light in some fashion, but that's as far as their relation goes. Like ED said, the best/easiest way to incorporate tap tempo into an LFO (low frequency oscillator) circuit would be to have the LFO be digitally controlled. The LFO then controls the strength of the light, which is picked up by the photoresistor and then used to control the amplitude of the signal. Aside from the digital part that tells the LFO how fast to go, it's the same thing as you'd find in a BF Fender amp. /Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tenine Posted January 29, 2007 Members Share Posted January 29, 2007 Tap-Tempo Trems will have digi components, but they won't be located in the audio signal path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cusackmusic Posted January 31, 2007 Members Share Posted January 31, 2007 To simplify the answer: The Tap-A-Whirl (and probably other Tap Tempo Tremolos), use an Opto between the Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO), and the Audio path. This is the same type opto that pure Analog Tremolos would use. The difference is that in the case of the Tap-A-Whirl, the LFO is replaced with a digital waveform generator. Without going into too much detail, the point is that the Audio path is no less analog than any of the Analog pedals out there. Hope this helps. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PeelingPaint98 Posted January 31, 2007 Members Share Posted January 31, 2007 Tap-A-Whirl = :love: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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