IThe Idea
Rubato; stolen time; is the player's freedom to push and pull against the beat, to let a phrase breathe out of the grid. This tape delay steals time the way an old machine does: with wow, the slow seasick drift of a warped reel, and flutter, the fast shimmer of an unsteady capstan. The repeats saturate and darken as they pile up, never quite running away. Set gently it is warm slapback and dub; pushed hard it wanders drunk and pitch-bent, the sound of a tape machine slowly losing its grip on time.
IIThe Controls
- TIME
- Delay time; from tight slapback to long dub echo.
- WOW
- Depth of the slow drift; seasick pitch wander.
- FLUTTER
- Depth of the fast warble; audible shimmer on the repeats.
- FEEDBACK
- Number of repeats. Tape-saturated and clamped so it nears but never quite runs away.
- TONE
- Brightness of the repeats; bright above noon, dark below.
- MIX
- Wet amount; dry stays full.
IIISwitches & Footswitches
- HEADS (3-way)
- Tape multi-head taps. 1 = a single repeat; 2 adds an echo at half the delay time; 3 adds a third at a third of the time, for Space-Echo-style subdivisions. Only the main head feeds back.
- AGE (3-way)
- Tape condition in one switch. NEW is cleaner and brighter with light wobble; WORN is the standard worn-reel voice; RUINED deepens the wow and flutter, dirties the repeats, and adds slow volume dropouts.
- SYNC (toggle)
- Locks the delay to host tempo: TIME selects a note division (1/32 up to 1/2, with triplets and dotted values) and the readout shows it instead of milliseconds.
- HOLD (footswitch)
- Sound-on-sound. Pins feedback near unity and ducks new input so the tape blooms into a sustaining wash; hold it, release to let it decay.
- BYPASS (footswitch)
- True dry passthrough.
IVStart Here
Slapback
TIME short, FEEDBACK low, WOW/FLUTTER low
Tight rockabilly echo.
Tape Echo
TIME mid, FEEDBACK mid, TONE down
Warm, darkening repeats.
Triplet Dub
HEADS 3, SYNC on + TIME at 1/4, FEEDBACK high, TONE down
Tempo-locked triplet echoes trailing dark into the mix.
Dying Reel
AGE Ruined, WOW/FLUTTER up, FEEDBACK high
A tape machine losing its grip; drift, dropouts, dirt.
Bloom
HOLD held, TIME mid, MIX up
Swell the current repeats into a sustaining wash.