OR-0005
Halvyn
United Kingdom · 1983 – c. 2008
Ser. 2000/A088
1995 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2024 from 1995 hardware.
Halvyn T-2000 — Time Compressor
Halvyn T-2000 · time compressor · restored from unit no. 2000/A088 · Halvyn, United Kingdom, 1995
The restorer's note
Early time-stretching pushed past where it holds together — the smeared, underwater, spectral-glass sound, and a freeze that becomes a pad. Halvyn meant it for tidy edits; we restored it for the mess it makes at the edges.
Acquisition
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The plate
The controls
The controls.
- Stretch 25–400 % · 100 % as issued
- Sets how far the internal time-smear is stretched, in percent of real time — a live texture, not an offline tempo change.
- FFT Size 2048 as issued
- Sets the transform size: 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192 samples — small sizes warble in time, large ones smear in frequency.
- Coherence 0–100 % · 60 % as issued
- Sets how closely the engine locks phase between frames, from fully locked and clean at 0 % to free-running and warbling at 100 %.
- Overlap 4× as issued
- Sets how many overlapping windows the transform runs per hop: 2×, 4×, or 8×.
- Freeze Off as issued
- Holds the current spectral frame in place instead of updating it, turning the sound into a static drone.
- 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 % · 100 % 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 smear, plainly
The pad, dry, then through the machine at Stretch 200 % from five seconds — the same material smeared to twice its internal length, FFT Size at 2048.
0:00 / 0:30
Coherence, let go
FFT Size at 256 — the warble end of the machine. Coherence unlocks from 100 to 0 across the take and the phases run free; Stretch then climbs from 250 to 400 %.
0:00 / 0:30
A frame, held
Stretch at 400 % with FFT Size 4096 and Overlap at 2×. At ten seconds Freeze holds a single spectral frame and the pad becomes a drone; at twenty-four it is released.
0:00 / 0:30