The stutter edit is a musical production technique, most often known for its use in electronic music, 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.[1] Above a certain point, these repetitions transition from rhythmic to tonal frequencies, making musical notes out of the repeated audio.[2] 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.
Electronic musician Brian Transeau[3] has patented a live-performance audio plugin in which samples are reorganized, broken down, and spliced together, then given a rhythm and time signature.[4] The audio plugin is named "Stutter Edit" and was co-released by iZotope and Sonik Architects.
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Due to the extremely rapid rhythmic bursts, after a certain rhythmic point—i.e. the 128th note—some stutters begin to sound like a tone rather than a short percussive beat. Traditional stutter edits splice percussive vocals or drum loops because they begin as rhythmic rather than constant tones. These percussive, on-the-beat areas are known as attack transients, and are usually no longer than an eighth note. The splicing of percussive samples results in a more attention-getting sound than it would with a single sustained pitch.[5] Stutters also often reduce notes within bars, beginning with 32nd notes, then reducing to 64th and 128th or something similar.
Stutter edits involve such minute numbers that they cannot be created within one program. Often, separate plugins are necessary to tweak the edit to the desired level, and then import it back into the primary program, known as the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). It is in part due to this that the stutter edit is such a time-consuming process. Along with splicing and cutting the individual sample, the sample is often taken out of the DAW, sometimes to a differently formatted program or plugin. This means that upon importing the edit back into the DAW, further editing is required to achieve the desired effect.[5]
As a relatively new technique, for most, the stutter edit is a trial-and-error process. However, there are new programs and plugins emerging to make creation faster and simpler:
The glitch edit is less about rhythmic synchronicity and intended more to jar and “wake up” the listener. Glitches also use sustained harmonic samples, as opposed to the percussive samples used in stutter edits. Usually in short bursts of sound; the glitch is almost always syncopated, placed on weaker beats to grab attention.[5]