( Please contact first before visiting)
Analogue Modular System A-100
Bucket Brigade Delay Line
The A-188.1 is a Bucket Brigade Delay line module (BBD). BBDs were used to delay audio signals before digital delays became available, but BBDs have some very unique advantages over digital delays which result from the special properties of BBDs. BBD circuits can be thought of as a chain of Sample&Hold units which pass on their voltages to the next S&H in the chain at each clock pulse. (The term Bucket Brigade, relates to the way fires were put out in the past where a bucket of water was passed along a chain of people, and so the bucket took an amount of time to pass through the chain - the more people in the chain, the longer it took).
Typical applications are for BBD's are: Flanger, Chorus, Analogue Delay or Karplus/Strong synthesis. As the A-188.1 has a lot of very unique features (voltage controlled clock rate / delay time with extreme range, polarity switches for the CV inputs, feedback and BBD out/mix, clock and CV output of the high speed VCO, BBD clock input, feedback insert, feedback up to self-oscillation) a lot of unusual applications can be realized with the module (e.g. delay controlled by ADSR, envelope, random or sequencer with positive or negative effect). The A-188-1 also has no built-in anti-aliasing filter in order not to limit the possibilities of the module.
Originally the A-188.1 was developed for 1024 and 2048 stage BBDs, as these circuits are still in production, but a limited quantity of discontinued BBD devices with 128, 256, 512 and 4096 stages are available.
These are 6 different versions available:
A-188-1X with 128 stages BBD (MN3006/MN3206, limited availability)
A-188-1Y with 256 stages BBD (MN3009/MN3209, very limited availability)
A-188-1A with 512 stages BBD (MN3004/MN3204, limited availability)
A-188-1B with 1024 stages BBD (MN3007/MN3207), standard version
A-188-1C with 2048 stages BBD (MN3008/MN3208), standard version
A-188-1D with 4096 stages BBD (MN3005/MN3205, limited availability)
Note that all BBDs have a limited useful delay range, a long delay (like the 4096 stage) will not allow a short delay, so using a long delay BBD will not be suitable for all applications