Pedal Drop #18 for Drunk Beaver is the fairly unique 6-way LDR + LED Chernivtsi Trembita Optical Tremolo

I’m delighted that following my recent monthly pedal-chain update - saying that I could do with more Tremolos in my reference collection - we now have the first Drunk Beaver Tremolo as its 18th Pedal Drop!

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As Vitalii notes - this is an LDR + LED Optical style Tremolo with Digital controls and 6 different wave-shapes onboard - Triangle, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Square, Sine, and Square Pattern [1-1-0-0-1-0-1-0].

Controls - Output, Intensity (Depth), Rate, Wave Shape : 1-6.

The digital control elements consist of LFO Rate, Intensity (Depth), and Wave Shape. At the heart of that is an AtTiny85 MCU (MicroController Unit). Where the Rate range is a massively expansive 0.5Hz to 20Hz (30 BPM to 1,200 BPM).

The analog path of the Chernivtsi Trembita is pretty straightforward : a BJT input buffer to align the signal with the next stage input impedance, inverting buffer and inverting output stage (at the end in and out are in-phase). 

There’s an output gain control to adjust levels to taste - as tremolo actually makes the average signal level lower (quieter) so you can easily compensate it or even boost a bit. I’ve personally found that Level controls are essential for most types of Modulation pedal - there are for instance myriad of volume mods available for the Boss TR-2 Tremolo - which is a great sounding tremolo, but just too low level by default and with no default way to ameliorate that with out a 4th Volume Knob Mod!

Finally, there is an LFO indicator LED on the front facia of the Chernivtsi Trembita (between Intensity and Wave knobs) that reflects the actual current LFO state (Depth, Speed, Shape) by the speed an intensity of its blinking. 

The Chernivtsi Trembita is available right now on the Drunk Beaver Webstore, with 15 units going up for sale at $150 each plus shipping - as soon as you see this article!