Welcome to Buckets And Decay

Thanks for spending some time to get more familiar with Buckets And Decay. Buckets And Decay is a BBD and PT2399 delay, chorus, flanger, and vibrato plugin.

BBD (bucket brigade device) chips create warm, analogue delays with a natural high frequency roll-off and increasing color on each repeat. Introduced in the 1970s, they became a defining sound of chorus, flanging, vibrato, and analogue delay throughout the 1980s, and remain popular today.

PT2399 chips are inexpensive digital echo processors originally developed for karaoke systems. Their limited bandwidth, distinctive filtering, and gritty repeats have made them favorites in countless guitar pedals.

Although they work in very different ways, both technologies are prized for the character they bring to echoes and modulation effects, offering musical imperfections that can be desirable over pristine digital delays.

Delay #

Delay sets the delay time, from 1ms to 5 seconds. Under about 10ms you get flanging, 10 to 30ms is chorus and doubling, 50 to 150ms is slapback, and beyond that it sounds like echo. The delay mode can be changed between note synced delays to milliseconds at the bottom of the plugin.

Spread #

Spread offsets the delay time for the left and right channels, making the delay sound wider. The left channel gets longer and the right shorter, or the reverse with negative values. A few milliseconds is a wide chorus, larger amounts read as two distinct taps. At 0 both channels are identical.

Feedback #

Feedback sets how much of the delayed signal is fed back into the delay loop. At half way and below, repeats decay away. By around 80% Buckets And Decay starts self-oscillating and screaming like a banshee. This is a good thing, and honestly, one of the reasons we built this plugin.

Mix #

Mix blends the dry and processed signals. Chorus and flanging need the dry signal present, so keep mix somewhere near the middle. Vibrato needs the dry signal gone entirely, so set it to 100%. For echoes? Set it wherever you’d like, but somewhere around 30% can be good.

Rate and depth #

The modulation section moves the delay time, which is what turns a plain delay into a chorus, flanger or vibrato. Rate sets the modulation speed, and depth sets how far the delay time moves. A few milliseconds is chorus, more is a seasick warble.

Shape #

Shape selects the modulation waveform. Triangle is useful for keeping the rate of change constant. Sine is smoother. Square is very off-on-off-on-y, as you might expect. Smooth random is good for tape worble-style effects.

Low and high filters #

The low and high controls set the low and high cut filters for the wet signal. The low and high cut filters are outside the delay loop, just before the wet and dry mix. They can be used to clean up the wet signal. Please note that BBD and PT2399 chips have a limited frequency response, so the delayed signal in Buckets And Decay will typically sound quite dark. That’s things working as intended, and the sound we were chasing when creating this plugin.

The low and high cut filters do not affect the dry signal at all.

Mode #

Mode switches between four models of the delay line itself. BBD 1 and BBD 2 are different bucket brigade voicings. PT 1 and PT 2 are different PT2399 chip voicings.