DigiDesign Bomb Factory, Manual

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Bomb Factory Plug-ins Guide 32
How the Moogerfooger Analog
Delay Works
A Delay Circuit produces a replica of an audio
signal a short time after the original signal.
Mixed together, the delayed signal sounds like
an echo of the original. And if this mixture is fed
back to the input of the delay circuit, the de-
layed output provides a string of echoes that re-
peat and die out gradually. It’s a classic musical
effect.
The Moogerfooger Analog Delay uses Bucket Bri-
gade Analog Delay Chips to achieve its delay.
These analog integrated circuits function by
passing the audio waveform down a chain of
thousands of circuit cells, just like water being
passed by a bucket brigade to put out a fire. Each
cell in the chip introduces a tiny time delay. The
total time delay depends on the number of cells
and on how fast the waveform is “clocked,” or
moved from one cell to the next.
With the advent of digital technology, these
and similar analog delay chips have gradually
been phased out of production. In fact, Bob
Moog secured a supply of the last analog delay
chips ever made, and used them to build a Lim-
ited Edition of 1,000 “real-world” Moogerfooger
Analog Delay units.
So Why Analog?
Compared to digital delays, the frequency and
overload contours of well-designed analog delay
devices generally provide smoother, more natu-
ral series of echoes than digital delay units. An-
other difference is that the echoes of a digital de-
lay are static because they are the same digital
sound repeated over and over, whereas a bucket
brigade device itself imparts a warm, organically
evolving timbre to the echoes.
Of course, Bomb Factory’s digital replica re-cre-
ates all the warm, natural sounds of its analog
counterpart.
Not Better—Different
Working directly with Bob Moog, Bomb Factory
enhanced the Moogerfooger Analog Delay to be
even more useful for digital recording. An inte-
grated Highpass Filter allows you to remove un-
wanted bass buildup from the feedback loop, al-
lowing you to have warmer, more-controllable
echo swarms while minimizing the potential for
digital clipping.
How the Moogerfooger Analog
Delay is Used
Delay Section
Delay Time allows you to select the length of de-
lay between the original and the delayed signal.
Used with Feedback, it also affects how long
apart the echoes are.
The Short/Long switch sets the range of the De-
lay Time control. Set to Short, the Delay Time
ranges from 0.04 to 0.4 seconds. Set to Long, it
ranges from 0.08 to 0.8 seconds.
Feedback determines how much signal is fed
back to the delay input, affecting how fast the
echoes die out.
Filter Section
The Highpass knob removes low frequencies
from the feedback loop. It removes undesirable
low frequency “mud” common when mixing
with delays and also allows the creation of
amazing echo swarms that won’t clip the out-
put. Dial in a highpass frequency from 50 Hz to
500 Hz. Frequencies below the setting are fil-
tered from the feedback loop.