**Requires firmware 5.00 to operate**
Fime tlies is a patch of two halves. In the audio path are two stereo delays running in parallel — one is a traditional forward delay, and the other is the new reverse delay module. The other half othe patch is the set of three modulators — a rhythmic LFO, a looped envelope/LFO, and a shift register-based modulator. These modulators can be assigned to six different parameters in the audio path via a modulation bus found on the control page, allowing for a high degree of customization and modulation in the patch. Dynamically mix between delays while panning them through the stereo field and modulating the pitch of the reverse delay. For instance. Fun, wacky stuff like that.
I figured since the idea of this patch was to show off the reverse delay, one way to do that would be to give users access to some of its controls — pitch and tap ratio — along with a means of modulating them. Both are a lot of fun, but I especially enjoy modulating the tap ratio for glitchy, granular repeats. Since the tap ratio is accessible feature, that also means you can set up interesting ratios between the forward and reverse delay (when the delay time is under 1250 milliseconds; see below).
The delay can run up to four seconds. The reverse delay module is limited to 1250 milliseconds, however. So, there is a bit of a hack here where any tapped tempo greater than 1250 milliseconds is picked up by an auxiliary delay line. That doesn’t extend the buffer of the reverse delay — it won’t reverse sounds longer than 1250 milliseconds, but it does allow those sounds to “match up” with their forward counterparts better. It’s not perfect, but it helps.
Anyhow, I imagine people will do a lot more exciting things with the reverse delay, but I thought this patch might be a sort of playground for people to explore some of its sounds and capabilities.
The patch is stereo throughout. Delay time is set via tap tempo (stompswitch, UI button on the control page) or via MIDI clock.
Controls:
Stompswitch:
Left, momentary — tap tempo for the delays. As mentioned above, the delay supports times up to 4 seconds, with an auxiliary delay line picking up any excess delay time in the reversed signal path. This control is also mirrored in a UI button on the control page, which blinks in time with the tempo. MIDI clock can also be used (this will override tap tempo).
Control page:
The control page is broken up into three major parts. Across the top are the controls for the audio path. Along the bottom are controls for the modulators. Between the two is a modulation bus that allows modulators to be assigned to targets, along with bipolar depth controls to set the intensity and direction of modulation.
It should be noted that unlike some of my patches, which use feedback to limit the range of the depth control to only the useful span of the control, these ones allow you to exceed those limits as there are occasions in which “clipping” the waveforms might prove beneficial.
The modulation bus works as simply as I could make it: beneath a modulatable control is a DEPTH control in the same color; beneath this is a MOD SOURCE button that changes color as you move between the modulation options. Yellow is the rhythmic LFO; green is the looped envelope/LFO; aqua is the shift modulator. When you want to control those modulators’ parameters, you will find their controls in the same color as the modulation assignment button, and when the assignment is made, the button will begin to pulse in the manner of the modulation selected.
Let’s move through the AUDIO PATH. Controls that are modulatable will be identified with a double asterisk **
FEEDBACK — Controls the amount of feedback for both delays. The feedback of the reverse path is feedback into the delay, which means it is once again reversed (plays forward) but also any pitch effect is compounded (e.g. producing cascading octaves). Sometimes, the regeneration of those pitched up sounds can get intense. I didn’t have the CPU for it, but a multi-filter in the feedback path would help (a note for those making their own plans).
ALIASER FREQUENCY** — This aliaser, or sample rate reducer, only effects the forward delay. The reverse delay is, well, reversed, and it can change pitch, and you can do funky things modulating its tap ratio. The forward delay felt a little… drab in comparison. So, I always like the aliaser for a bit of lo-fi crunch, and being able to blend between crunchy repeats and clean reversed ones is a fun mix.
REVERSE PITCH** — The pitch of the reverse delay is quantized to specific values +/- 10 cents, +/- 4 semitones, +/- 5 semitones, and +/- one octave. (To be clear, this quantization is on the module itself — I would do things differently, as I note in my video.)
TAP RATIO** — Controls the tap ratio for the reverse delay. Set to a static value it can create a nice interplay with the forward delay. Modulated, it can produce some really neat, glitchy, granular-y sounds.
SPREAD** — A dual pan control. As spread moves from 0, one voice is panned in one direction, while the other voice is panned in the other direction, allowing you to have reverse delays on one side and forward delays on the other. These panners are in the feedback loop of the delays, which means that echoes will be pushed further and further to the side as they regenerate (unless the spread control is modulated, which might cause them to move around the stereo field).
DELAY MIX** — This sets the mix between the forward delay (at 0) and the reverse delay (at 1).
DRY LEVEL — Sets the dry level for the patch.
WET LEVEL** — Sets the wet level for the patch. Because of ways that mixing the delays and changing pitch can affect perceptions of gain, there is up to ~+3dB of boost added to the wet signal path.
Each of the modulators has its own set of parameters, although they share one feature in common.
Beside each modulator’s parameters is set of blinking UI buttons. The one on top is labeled MULT and the one on bottom is labeled DIV. These are used to set clock divisions for the modulators. Each time you press one of the buttons, that value will increase, and the color will change. E.g. if you press the MULT button once, the color will change orange, and the LFO will begin to cycle at a 2x multiple. If you then pressed the DIV button twice, making it orange, the division would be set to /3, so the new clock divison would be 2/3. It’s not perfect, but it felt like a decent compromise for precision and grid space.
You can reset any of the clock dividers to 1/1 by pressing both buttons at the same time.
Beginning with the “rhythmic LFO”:
SPACING — This is what makes it a “rhythmic” LFO. It is a bipolar control, with different behaviors for positive and negative values. For positive values, there is a counter which masks steps, depending on the spacing parameter. At low levels, the LFO is continuous; as you begin to increasing the spacing parameter, the LFO will only signal every other cycle, then every third cycle, etc. and so on, resting between each cycle.
For negative values, the control becomes a simple probability, with values closer to 0 representing higher probability of the LFO cycling, and values closer to -1 representing a lower probability.
SHAPE — This controls a switch, so even though it might seem like a variable control, it’s actually navigating between four fixed shapes: sawtooth, square, triangle, and random.
INVERT — When spacing is positive, this inverts the relationship between LFO cycles and rests, instead counting the number of LFO cycles between rests, rather than the number of rests between LFO cycles.
The looping envelope/LFO is simpler:
SYMMETRY — Controls the shape of the envelope. At .5 the rise and fall are symmetrical, and so the output is a triangle. At 0 or 1 the shapes are sawtooth and ramp. Values between this produce different skewed triangles.
CURVE — This applies an exponential curve to the looping enveope. (Tip: When inverted, this becomes a logarithmic curve/swell.)
The shift modulator is a little more complex, but luckily, it’s also random, so the changes you make to it will have only certain effect.
LENGTH — This sets the length of the shift modulator from 2, 4, 5, 7, or 8 steps. Like the shape control above, for the rhymthic LFO, this actually controls a switch, so it is not really as variable as it might appear.
STABILITY — This determines how like the shift register that sits beneath the modulator changes. At 1, the waveform will never update and be locked in place; at 0, all the values will be new each time.
CURVE — Like the control for the rhymthic LFO.
TIME MOD — At ~ 0, the LFO timing the shift modulator is reset by the clock divider, making sure it follows the rest of the patch’s rhythms and timings. As you increase or decrease this bipolar control, the connection to the clock divider is severed, as the values of the shift register begin to affect the clock for the shift modulator, speeding it up and slowing it down. When the values are positive, higher values will speed up the shift modulator, and lower values will slow it down. When the values are negative, the inverse is true.
