OR-0003
Halvyn
United Kingdom · 1983 – c. 2008
Ser. 4000/B112
1990 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2024 from 1990 hardware.
Halvyn D-4000 — Digital Delay
Halvyn D-4000 · digital delay · restored from unit no. 4000/B112 · Halvyn, United Kingdom, 1990
The restorer's note
Repeats that degrade in steps rather than fading gracefully — each pass shedding a little resolution and a little top, the digital counterpart to tape's smooth decline. The stepping is deliberate and preserved, including the pitch glitch when you sweep the time.
Acquisition
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The plate
The controls
The controls.
- Time 1–2000 ms · 375 ms as issued
- Sets the delay time, in milliseconds. With Sync on, it locks instead to a subdivision of your studio's tempo.
- Feedback 0–110 % · 35 % as issued
- Sets how much of the repeat feeds back into the delay, in percent; past 100 % it builds toward runaway feedback, softly limited short of clipping.
- Bits 8–16 bit · 12 bit as issued
- Sets the word length the feedback path is requantized to, in bits — fewer bits, more stepped degradation with each repeat.
- Bandwidth 2.0–20.0 kHz · 12.0 kHz as issued
- Sets the low-pass filter in the feedback path, in Hz — each repeat loses a little more high frequency.
- Mod 0–100 % · 0 % as issued
- Sets the depth of the modulation applied to the delay time.
- Mod Mode Stepped as issued
- Chooses how Mod alters the delay time: Stepped, which jumps the read point in whole samples for the period's pitch glitch, or Smooth, which glides it.
- Sync Off as issued
- Switches the delay time from its own control to a subdivision of your studio's tempo.
- Input -24.00–24.00 dB · 0.00 dB as issued
- Sets the level going in, in decibels, before the signal reaches the restored circuit.
- Output -24.00–24.00 dB · 0.00 dB as issued
- Sets the level coming out, in decibels, after the restored circuit and the Mix blend.
- Mix 0–100 % · 30 % as issued
- Blends the restored circuit against the untouched signal at equal power, from the untouched signal alone at 0 % to the circuit alone at 100 %.
- Bypass Off as issued
- Takes the restored circuit out of the path and passes the untouched signal, delayed to match the circuit so nothing shifts in time.
A stored setup is a program. PROGRAM hands the DATA wheel to the list, and each program applies as the wheel reaches it; line one shows its number and name, line two ARCHIVE, a pack's name or USER. STORE asks STORE? PRESS AGAIN; a second press opens the name, which starts as USER NN, and line one reads NAME, THEN STORE. The wheel changes the letter, PROGRAM moves on, and STORE stores it; the computer keyboard may type the name instead, Return storing and Escape cancelling. Holding STORE on a user program asks CLEAR? PRESS AGAIN.
Listening
Listening
Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.
The delay, plainly
Plucked phrases, dry, then the delay at 30 % mix — Time at 375 milliseconds, Feedback at 35 %, the repeats left to fall away.
0:00 / 0:30
Feedback, past the rail
Feedback climbs from 35 to 105 % — past self-oscillation — and is brought back down. The Time control is then jumped mid-ring, 375 to 125 to 500 milliseconds, and the repeats jump with it.
0:00 / 0:30
Eight bits in the loop
Every repeat passes through 8 Bits and a 2 kHz Bandwidth, losing resolution and highs as it circles. Mod starts Stepped — sample-jump glitches — and turns Smooth at twelve seconds; Sync locks the Time to the pulse at the end.
0:00 / 0:30