CLOCK SHUFFLER: £55
The ability to add any kind of swing or shuffle to a drum machine or any kind of standalone sequencer seems to be a bizarrely overlooked feature on many modern machines, and on the majority of recreations/clones of ancient units. As a result you end up with kit like the Korg Volca range or any number of Behringer clones sounding tediously static and rigid, with no funk or groove to them. Even if you do get an option of swing or shuffle its often only available as a few preset amounts, which are never quite exactly what you want.
The circuitbenders.co.uk Clock Shuffler is designed to sit between any unit acting as a master clock generating a stream of straight 16th analogue clock pulses, and a drum machine, synth or sequencer that can be synced to advance one step per clock pulse with a total of 16 steps per 4 beat bar. This is known as 4ppqn sync (pulses per quarter note) as every beat is divided into 4 clock pulse steps. The Clock Shuffler applies a variable delay (0-120ms) to every other clock pulse it receives from the master clock source.
In most situations step 1 is the on beat, step 3 is the offbeat and the shuffle delay is usually applied to step 2 and step 4 of every beat. Delaying these two steps adds a grooving shuffle or swing to a pattern as shown below.
It doesn't necessarily have to be 16th clock pulses. You could use it to delay every other clock pulse on pretty much any stream of pulses for all kinds of odd effects...
The Clock Shuffler box has a delay time knob, a reset button, an external clock input, a buffered direct unaffected signal output acting as a clock thru, and three identical buffered and shuffled outputs.
When the small Reset button is pressed, the next clock pulse the unit receives after the button is released will always be classed as a step 1 pulse, so the delay will be applied to the next received pulse after that. This is useful for resyncing machines and getting the correct steps to swing.
You can download the manual HERE.
If you were planning on using this with a Korg Volca, then make sure you read the Volca notes at the end of the manual first.
Theres three demos of this box in action below. The first is the Clock Shuffler adding shuffle to a stream of 16th clock pulses from an Arturia Keystep, which are then driving a Behringer RD6 and a Korg Volca Beats.
Below you can see the Clock Shuffler adding shuffle to a series of clock pulses from a Doepfer MSY2 Midi to dinsync/clock converter, and driving a Behringer TD3 and RD6.
And finally we have a video of a prototype version of the Clock Shuffler driving a trigger input wired to the 'one key play' sequence recorder on a modified Casio SK1.
The unit runs on a standard 9v centre positive power supply which is not included, but you've probably already got a load of them randomly knocking around with no idea what they were for.
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