Chop it. Stutter it. Smear it. The glitch box for beats.
Buy Gremlin · $15
v3.2.1 · VST3 + AU effect · macOS + Windows
In the studio · Gremlin (Chop)
▶ WITH SOUND
Grey is before. Color is CHOP. Real session, real audio.
In the studio · Gremlin (Chop + Smear)
▶ WITH SOUND
Grey is before. Color is CHOP + SMEAR. Real session, real audio.
In the studio · Gremlin (Stutter)
▶ WITH SOUND
Grey is before. Color is STUTTER. Real session, real audio.
What Gremlin does
$15 buys you the mangler box. Gremlin takes a boring loop and breaks it on purpose: tempo-synced gate chops, buffer stutters that pitch every repeat, and a granular smear that melts your beat into a plate reverb. It is an effect, not an instrument. Put it on drums, chords, vocals, the whole bus, and turn a straight loop into a moment.
Three sections, one box
CHOP. A tempo-synced gate and slicer. Pick a rate from 1/4 down to 1/32, set the GATE length, choose a pattern or roll a new one with the seed. Instant trance gates, triplet holes and rhythmic silence that always lands on the grid.
STUTTER. Buffer repeats on demand. RATE sets the slice, REPEATS how many times it fires, REVERSE flips them backwards, PITCH is true pitch from -12 to +12 semitones, and DECLICK smooths the clicks a chopped loop leaves at the start of each repeat without softening the hit. Every repeat in a burst shares one interval, so stutters stay musical instead of turning to mush. Noon is 0 st, plain repeats.
SMEAR. Grain blur into a Dattorro plate reverb. WASH sets how much of the signal melts, DECAY runs from 0.6 s to 14 s, DEPTH pushes the verb further back in the room, TONE darkens or opens it, SHIMMER adds a +12 st feedback pitch shift, and FREEZE holds the tail forever.
Get started in 3 steps
1. Put Gremlin on a loop. Drums are the classic. It opens on Init: Stutter only, at 1/8, so you hear it working immediately.
2. Switch on the gremlins you want. CHOP for rhythmic holes, STUTTER for repeats and pitch tricks, SMEAR to melt it into reverb. Run one, or all three at once; each keeps its own settings.
3. Raid the presets. Machine Gun, Frozen Lake, Full Meltdown. Find one that ruins your loop in the right way, then tweak and save your own.
Make it yours
CHOP: RATE. Tempo-synced slice size, 1/4 down to 1/32. Always on your DAW's grid.
CHOP: GATE. How long each slice stays open. Short is choppy, long is pumping.
CHOP: PATTERNS + SEED. Pick a gate pattern or roll the seed for a new one. Same seed, same pattern, every time.
STUTTER: RATE and REPEATS. Slice size and how many times the buffer fires.
STUTTER: REVERSE. Plays the repeats backwards. Instant tape-rewind moments.
STUTTER: PITCH. True pitch, -12 to +12 semitones. All repeats in a burst share one interval; noon is 0 st.
STUTTER: DECLICK. Stutters copy whatever hard edges are in the loop, so a chopped sample can click at the start of every repeat. DECLICK finds those exact spots and smooths only them, a few milliseconds each. Hits keep their punch. Leave it at 0 if you want the clicks; a quarter turn is usually enough to lose them.
SMEAR: WASH and DECAY. How much melts, and for how long: 0.6 s up to a 14 s tail.
SMEAR: DEPTH. Predelay, early/late balance and a high-cut in one move, so the verb sits further back instead of on top.
SMEAR: TONE, SHIMMER, FREEZE and MIX. Darken or open the tail, add a +12 st shimmer to the feedback, freeze it forever, blend it in.
PRESETS + INIT. Preset dropdown in the header, save unlimited of your own. Right-click, two-finger tap or Cmd-click any knob for INIT: that one control snaps back to the preset you loaded.
Presets
12 to start: Init, Chop, Smear, Gentle Hiccup, Plucky Cloud, Rewind Room, Machine Gun, Frozen Lake, Broken Toy, Tape Chewer, Sugar Rush and Full Meltdown. From polite hiccups to a beat that no longer exists.
Common questions
How much is Gremlin? $15, one-time. Instant download after checkout. Full version, no locked knobs, no subscription.
Is Gremlin three plugins? No. One plugin with three switchable sections: CHOP, STUTTER and SMEAR. All three sit side by side, each with its own ON switch, so you can run one, two or all three at once.
What DAWs does Gremlin work in? Any DAW that loads VST3 or AU plugins: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, GarageBand, Reaper, Studio One and more.
Is there a Windows version of Gremlin? Yes. Gremlin ships for macOS (VST3 + AU) and Windows (VST3), code-signed on both. One purchase covers both platforms.
How do I install Gremlin? Run the installer and it puts the plugin files in the right folders. Restart your DAW, rescan if needed, done.