janzen@pldvax.DEC (Tom J. LMO4-2/B5 279-5421) (12/05/85)
I just bought a cheap RDS1900 of DOD Digitech for $240 in semirural Massachusetts. It is 8 bits, a homebrew ADC made with a DAC, and the famous DAC08, and is companded. It's OK for me. I really wanted about 5 seconds of delay for this piece using a loop of two bars of Chopin that I wrote. I also needed 2 seconds (but 1.9seconds is OK) for this alto recorded piece called Four Old songs that I wrote. Also, I am interested in longer delays. I figure I could get 6.4 seconds if I built a delay with 256K RAMs. Also, Paul Dresher has used, I recall, 22 second delays, using two tape recorders twelve feet appart. Long delays are very useful, but not in regular pop stuff. I like to process the delayed signall, maybe with a ring modulator, or a harmonizer if I build one, (the cheapest is $540, but the variable speed tape recorders that don't change the pitch have cheap harmonizers in them, and they're only $100), before mixing it back in. It sounds like not a delay but another instrument altogether in canon with me. The ring modulator on the piano sounds like a percussion orchestra or prepared piano, playing percussion against me. TOm