Claptrap

Authentic and repeatable ensemble hand claps, never sound the same twice

The first Claptrap was analog and it was a Musicaid device, built approximately 1979/80, likely assembled by Dave Simmons himself, followed by the analog Simmons Claptrap (technically the same as the Musicaid but with a humanizer function and a slightly different case) and completed in 1984 by the digital version: the Simmons Digital Claptrap, one of Simmons most important bread and butter products.

Wolfgang's blog - Simmonsmuseum

The Clap Trap has been designed to produce authentic and repeatable ensemble handclaps at your command - it can produce other sounds such as percussive crashes and bursts of noise to give a long decay to snare drums.

The instrument assembles its characteristic sound by controllably blending a digital recording of people clapping, stored in memory, with a general background crash of white noise. The recording is approximately 1.5 seconds long, however both the clap and noise components of the sound have individual controls governing pitch and decay time. A switchable "humanizer" allows a different part of the digital recording to be outputted each time the unit is triggered, giving a random, human feel.

Digital Clap Trap flyer 1984

Two Flavor

The digital part is played using the variable sample rate technology, a variable clock is actually used to change the pitch. This vintage technology produces additional harmonic content and contribute to the sound character we all love.

The analog part is a pitched noise, produced by filtering the noise source.

This is a one on one recreation of the mighty Simmons Digital ClapTrap from the 80s in plug-in form. Thanks to reverse engineering my hardware unit, the digital source is bit accurate, the random technique (HUMANIZER) is perfectly replicated and the virtual analog parts are modeled as closed as possible, in addition I did some modifications like true stereo capabilities, extended ranges, fine tuning and CV/MIDI response options.

True Stereo is done by internally running two ClapTrap units at the same time with offsets to EPROM Clocks and Filter CVs, the offset amount is controlled by the WIDTH knob.

For the first time available as a standalone plug-in this version 2.0 now also adds the full analog circuit version aka: when claps were generated by a crazy mixture of oscillator modulations, modulated comparators generated envelopes and other nasty things. The plug-in gives you full control over the clap generation circuit so you can tweak it to taste for a more or less "tonal" clap ensemble or change how the "human factor" is applied...
You can run both analog and digital circuits in many ways, here's the run down bellow for v 2.0:

• Introducing - Mac VST3 and Native Silicon (M1/M2), builds are "Universal 2" meaning VST3 and AU work on both Intel x86-64-and ARM64 Apple Silicon Mac natively.
• Introducing - Mac signed Installers.
• Introducing - Circuit MODE: Digital MK3 or the freshly emulated Analog MK1/2 model.
• Introducing - GUI Trigger button.
• Introducing - Improved GUI, new design, crisper look at different DPI (HD graphics, Vector knobs).
• Introducing - Multi Outputs routing capability.
• Introducing - Single or Dual operation.
• Added - Preset Browser page.
• Added - Settings page.
• Added - Improved Noise Filter topology.
• Added - Option to switch from original hardware noise SVF filter to a custom "fixed gain" peak filter.
• Added - Digital Clap Tone EPROM swapping.
• Added - Analog Clap Ensemble circuit bending: Pulses shape, Humanizer mod amount, reversed key-tracking...
• Added - Trigger "thump" and Filter noise bleed emulation.
• Added - Option to delay incoming trigger (max 100ms) on one unit.
• Added - True stereo capability on the analog ensemble pulses.
• Added - Option to enable global circuit saturation (also reduces dynamic range).
• Fix - Rare Mac OS graphic glitches.
• Fix - Improved CPU usage by "sleeping" analog emulated circuits when not in use.
• Fix - Most parameters should now respond to automation.
• Fix - Improved VST3 MIDI support. (for example it can: receive MIDI 2.0, Enable Ableton Live's "External Instrument rack" inputs detection etc.).