Bucket Brigade Delay
Although some analog delays e g binson echorec were based on tape others used analog bucket brigade technology.
Bucket brigade delay. What s a bucket brigade device bbd. Its repeats feature a slightly overdriven tonality that sits perfectly behind dirty tones and adds depth and dimension to clean sounds. The basic series path is arranged like any fet audio switch see how a boss. Bbd delay is available as a mono mono to stereo or stereo plugin.
The stored analogue signal is moved along the line of capacitors one step at each clock cycle. Bucket bridge delay is a long series of sample and hold the bbd chip is really just a lot of mosfets lined up in a row. Bucket brigade devices were the first wholly electronic devices for producing time delay of electronic signals. The full bucket brigade delay is a software effect for microsoft windows vst and apple macos vst au simulating the functionality and sound of classic analog delays.
Prior to their development most effects that time staggered an audio signal relied on magnetic tape and manipulation of tape speed. Developed in 1969 by philips research laboratories the bbd shuttles a stored analogue signal through a consecutive series of capacitors kind of like a fire brigade hence the name. 279 a great sounding delay but not the most affordable option out there maybe because it features eight custom bucket brigade ic s for 900 milliseconds of warm organic analog tone. Teer of the philips research labs.
It consists of a series of capacitance sections c 0 to c n. Fortunately by the start of the 70s an alternative was on offer in the form of the bucket brigade delay bbd circuit. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors in the signal path have been replaced with higher quality film capacitors for improved clarity over the original dm 2. It s the bucket brigade device or bbd chip the integrated circuit ic responsible for creating the delay effect as well as other time based effects like chorus and flange in these vintage units.
Authentic simulation of a bucket brigade device bbd delay line. A bucket brigade or bucket brigade device bbd is a discrete time analogue delay line developed in 1969 by f. Examples include the various iterations of the echoplex and roland s space echo. It is written in native c code for high performance and extremely low cpu consumption.
The bbd is fairly old tech. The bbd delay became a classic thanks to its smooth round delay sound and a chorus vibrato mode that let it double as a modulation effect. Bucket brigade integrated circuits like the panasonic matsushita mn3005 or reticon sad 1024 incorporated thousands of capacitive elements controlled by a clock. The main features are.