BBD-modeled analog echo, sampled from real hardware.
Most vintage-delay plugins start from a wishlist of features. This one started with a screwdriver. We measured a real bucket-brigade (BBD) hardware delay, the same chip family and circuit topology that defined analog echo from the early 80s onward: companded input, BBD clock-tied bandwidth, soft-clipped feedback path, self-oscillation through saturation. Dirac impulses, log sweeps, sustained sines, saturation curves at a dozen feedback levels.
The plugin is built from those measurements, not from a marketing brief. The coefficient that decides how dark a 300 ms repeat sounds (820 Hz cutoff at minimum repeat rate, 1037 Hz at maximum) came straight from the sweep deconvolution. The 11.5 % THD at self-oscillation came from a 1 kHz spectrum of the actual oscillating loop. None of it was tuned by ear until it "sounded vintage".
On top of the faithful model we added a few things the original could never do, chiefly a three-band frequency tilt that delays bass and treble at different times. As far as we can tell, no other delay plugin does this. Roll the knob right and your highs float behind, basses come back fast. Roll it left and the bass tail is the longest thing in the mix while the highs are tight and short.
What makes it different
* Frequency-tilt time per band: unique, nothing else like it.
* Asymmetric saturation that matches the measured even/odd harmonic ratio of the hardware.
* Multi-LFO drift instead of a single sine: capstan + pulley + bearing-friction noise.
* Compander-pumping built into the delay line, not faked with a separate VCA.
* Cross-feedback ping-pong per band: three rhythms running at once when tilt is active.
* Sidechain ducking with internal fallback so it works even without a side-chain bus routed.
Where it shines
* Vocals: sidechain duck keeps the echo out of the way of consonants. Tilt right for an "air" trail of consonants only.
* Drum bus: tilt left to hold the kick echo and let the hi-hat slap come back fast. Multiband keeps the low end clean.
* Synths and pads: three-band ping-pong gives a built-in stereo width that no single-band delay can produce.
* Ambient and texture: freeze a moment, layer on top, clear when the next section comes in.
Standard controls: time, feedback, mix, drift, drift rate, tone (±12 dB high-shelf at 2.5 kHz), duck amount, frequency tilt, kill-dry, freeze, clear and tap. Sync per channel with link, A/B snapshots with copy, six factory presets and unlimited user presets via .xml save/load.
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