That choppy repetitive part of some songs

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I would like to know the following about some songs:

I know that some songs, usually pop, dance, and techno songs, contain some parts where they have the music or lyrics set to be repetitive and choppy on purpose. So, what is that called when songs have a choppy, repetitive part? How would you do that kind of music on a computer using music making software? Would I need to just break up the audio I want to repeat, then copy and paste the parts to make it sound choppy and repetitive?

Thanks in advance.

I call it "stuttering."

There are different ways to do it, and I think there are some plugs that will do that for you.

I'm just guessing here, but you could use a sampler to get the effect. First sample what you want to stutter. Route an LFO to Amp. Use either a ramp or a square/pulse wave. Adjust the LFO depth so that the bottom of the LFO wave is complete silence. Use your mod wheel for a source, and you can induce a gate-style stuttering any time you want.

That's the EASY answer.

You could also cut the waveform in the audio track and set it to loop. Personally, I'd cut the wave a little short and add a few milliseconds of silence to get a hard stutter, which to my ears is more effective.

You can also get some similar effects with a granular synthesizer, like Absynth. Set a large grain size, lowest possible density, no randomization, and drop the percentage down to 0% when you get to the part you really want to mangle. That means that whatever grains are sounding at that point in time will loop on themselves until you bring it back to 100%. The percentage is the playback speed of the sample, btw, and when you drop the percentage the pitch remains intact.

Generally referred to as stuttering, or dubstep depending on usage. As I understand it, BT engineered his own stutter effect and used it mathematically in his album This Binary Universe.

I also call that 'stuttering', and I've usually done it by looping the part I want to repeat, and then using the crossfader and / or horizontal 'source' switch on the mixing board to rapidly turn the audio off and on. One could also use a tremolo effect along with the looping to get the same or similar result.