Short Delay

A free-running stereo delay built for the very short end of the time range. At a few milliseconds it acts as a comb filter and flanger; a little longer brings chorus and doubling; longer still gives slapback and short echoes. The left and right channels run fully independent delay lines, so a stereo source stays wide instead of collapsing toward the centre.

How it works

The delay time follows an exponential 1–1000 ms curve, so the bottom half of the knob's travel covers the short flange-and-comb range where tiny time changes matter most. The tap is read with smooth fractional (Hermite) interpolation and the time is glided rather than stepped, so you can sweep it — by hand or with CV — through its whole range without zipper noise or clicks, even modulating fast enough for vibrato and chorus.

Controls

  • Time — delay length, 1 ms to 1000 ms on an exponential curve. Short for comb and flange, mid for chorus and doubling, long for slapback and echo.
  • Fbk — feedback amount, 0 to 0.85. Higher settings stack repeats and sharpen resonant comb tuning; it never self-oscillates to infinity.
  • Mix — wet/dry blend, from fully dry to fully wet (the default).
  • Tone — damping in the feedback path, 1 kHz to 20 kHz. Fully open at the top of its travel (the default), so every repeat stays as bright as the first; roll it down to darken each pass for tape- and analog-style echoes that mellow as they fade, and to tame harsh comb-flange and high-feedback tails.

Inputs & outputs

  • In L / In R — the stereo signal to process; each channel feeds its own delay line.
  • Time / Fbk / Mix / Tone CV — voltage control over the matching knob; the same modulation is shared by both channels.
  • Out L / Out R — the processed stereo pair.

Tips

  • Set Time very short and turn up Fbk to tune a resonant comb — sweep Time for classic flange.
  • Modulate Time CV with a slow LFO at small depth for chorus and natural detune.
  • Because L and R are independent, feeding it a stereo source keeps the width; feeding mono gives a centered echo.
  • Push Fbk high and pull Tone down so the regenerating tail darkens as it repeats instead of building up metallic high end.