Stutter edit
The stutter edit is an audio software VST plugin, implementing forms of granular synthesis, sample retrigger and various effects to create a certain audible manipulation of the sound run through it, in which fragments of audio are repeated in rhythmic intervals. Stutter edits not only occur as the common 16th note repetition, but also as 64th notes and beyond. Stutter edits can go beyond 2,048th notes and can be measured in milliseconds. Above a certain point, these repetitions transition from rhythmic to tonal frequencies, making musical notes out of the repeated audio. These extremely short, fast groups of notes are often placed into the spacing of an eighth or sixteenth note in an otherwise “normal” bar, creating rhythmic accenting and patterns that call attention to a particular section. These patterns can be placed at the beginning of a bar, or towards the end for a more syncopated sound.
While electronic musician Brian Transeau developed the specific plugin, coined the phrase, and later released it as a standalone plug-in, various forms of this type of editing have been utilized by composers like Aphex Twin, Xanopticon and older modern classical composers for decades. The majority of stutter edits were created through deliberate manual editing techniques rather than automated processes (such as the eponymous plug-in). The audio plugin is named "Stutter Edit" and was co-released by iZotope and Sonik Architects.
