The Simmons CLapTrap, 80s Perfect Clap Machine

Authentic and repeatable ensemble handclaps, 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

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 running internaly 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 or/and digital circuits in many ways: single mode, dual mode and even multi out.

Version 1.0 of ClapTrap wasn't available standalone before v2.0, it originally came as a free bonus with any VSDSX 2.0 plugin purchase and could only work alongside VSDSX 2.

The ClapTrap plug-In version 2 is it's own thing and can also work alongside v1.

note to v1 owners:
With v2.0 now being released you should have received a free v1.3.0 "platform" update for version 1.0.
It gives v1 Universal 2.0 (Native Silicon/intel) Mac VST3 & AU and an updated PC VST3 format.
Of course you can buy v2 if you want, V2 is it's own thing, can run alongside v1 and contains tons of new features and many additions you can find in the changelog bellow. In case you missed the info to get version 1.3.0 here's a direct link

AJ.

v1.3 still needs a VSDSX 2.0 license to run.