Pittsburgh Modular Intros Lifeforms Analog Delay Unit Eurorack Module

December 4, 2019 Synth Anatomy Eurorack, Hardware, News 0

Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms Analog Delay Unit is a 6HP Eurorack module that is based on a pair of 4096 stage BBD chips with time control over CV.

This new analog delay module is based on the same design created for the Voltage Lab Synthesizer module. The developer describes the module as a finely tuned circuit designed to enhance the source material by adding depth and warmth.

Analog Delay utilizes a pair of 4096 BBD chips to produce a voltage controllable analog delay signal. The clean delay time can vary from 16ms to 340ms. The maximum delay time can be increased using the TIME CV INPUT delay time maxes out at 465ms but the increased time comes at the cost of fidelity and a bit of high-frequency clock noise bleed

The Circuit

Each stage of a BBD chip contains a single capacitor. Pairing two chips together create a chain of 8,192 capacitors. Like the water buckets, an audio signal is passed from capacitor to capacitor within the BBD chips once every clock step. A slower clock produces a longer delay and a faster clock produces a shorter delay.

Interface

The module features knobs for the input level, time CV, dry & wet. Sliders are available for the delay time and repeats. The delay time can be voltage controlled by patching into the delay time cv input jack and adjusting the delay time cv trimmer which is also an attenuverter.

The delay repeats sliders sets the amount of repeats created by the delay. Moving the delay repeat slider all the way down will produce 1 repeat. Adjusting the slider up increases the number of repeats until the delay begins to self-oscillate. The delay mix knob