Moog Music Forum

I know this is probably sacrilege...BUT...is there a way to completely bypass the filter on the 500 delay? As it stands...it's either a bit colored or a lot colored. I'd really like a full bypass or fully open option.
any ideas as i didn't see anything but less or more in the standalone and plug in apps. I thought I was nuts...lol

thanks in advance

Dennis

BBD analog delays filter high frequencies due to the way they produce the delay. There is no way to produce a delay without some low pass filtering with BBD. That being said, Moog's is one of the darkest.

Hello Dennis, and welcome to the forum.

Like Sir Nose said, Bucket Brigade Delay (BBD) chips use rather low frequency clocking, and to eliminate possible aliasing artifacts due to high frequency content of the input signal interfering with the low clock frequency at long delay times, it is heavily low pass filtered.

Bypassing the filter would result in a heavily distorted and harsh sound (similar to aliasing in digital lo-fi samplers). That's why ALL delays that are using analog BBD technology filter out the input signal.
Some, more than others.

The EHX Deluxe Memory Man filters the input signal a little less heavily than Moog, but at long delay times it becomes a little distorted and aliased with an input signal that has a high harmonic content.

EDIT: After checking the specs for the Moog 500 Delay, I was a little surprised to read a frequency response of only 2.6KHz in short mode, and 1.65KHz (!) in long mode, which is really really "dark". But, you can "brighten" the signal a little bit (1/3 of an octave higher frequency response) by sending MIDI CC#89 with value 0. It will bypass the long mode filter and apply the short mode filtering instead, even in long mode.





BTW, please refrain from creating two identical topics. Thanks.