Moog 500 Series Analog Delay

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Moog's second foray into the 500-series world (their Ladder filter was reviewed in SOS June 2012), is the Analog Delay, and it's exactly what its name suggests: a delay with a fully analogue audio signal path. More precisely, it's a bucket-brigade delay (see the box), based around four NOS Panasonic low-noise, high-voltage bucket-bridge delay ICs, which combine to provide a total of well over 8000 stages in the delay line. The delay line's oscillator/clock may be controlled in a variety of ways, including via MIDI, from an external controller or the bundled DAW plug-in, to create quite complex effects.

Although it's the first 500-series delay I know of, it's not Moog's first delay. They explained to me that "we essentially took what we knew from designing the [Moogerfooger] 104 and 104M delays, and then spent a lot of money on audiophile-quality parts. We also completely redesigned the input and output circuitry, which increases the headroom significantly, lowers the noise, and adds this beautiful body and colour to anything it touches.” They would say that last bit, I know, but it's not mere marketing bluster; this thing really is a joy to use and listen to, as I'll explain.