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. "In plain English, a stutter edit contains a single segment of audio repeated a number of times, giving a performance a decidedly digital flavor." 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. One example is in the second verse of "Drop It Like It's Hot", Snoop mentions a DJ followed by a stutter edit and turntable scratch in reply.

'Stutter' edits, which are commonly used in a variety of pop music, including dance music and hip-hop, slice and dice clips into pieces and then reassemble them in a different order.

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.

Due to the extremely rapid rhythmic bursts, after a certain rhythmic point—i.e. the 128th beat—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-grabbing sound than it would with a single sustained pitch. Stutters also often reduce notes within bars, beginning with 32nd notes, then reducing to 64th and 128th or something similar. There are instances of stutter edits that use logarithmic curves rather than relying on musically locked timings giving the impression of a "speed up" or "slow down".

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