[sdiy] Delay / Reverb options

[Byron G. Jacquot]

>I'm interested in building my own delay/reverb effects, and I was wondering
what you guys have found to 
>be the more economic and / or better sounding optiosn out there.  Any help
is appreciated.

Economic:
Spring reverb driven by a one-chip audio power amplifier.  You can use
slinky springs taped or glued to small speakers if you really want to
experiment.  Put 2 speakers on opposite ends of the spring.  Drive one as
you would normally, and wire the other backwards, as a moving coil
microphone.  You can impart some interesting character following the output
with an EQ or compressor.

Or your own take on the "Cooper Time Cube" for delay: a long piece of
tubing, with a speaker at one end, and a mic at the other.

Better sounding:
Look into DSP development kits from Analog Devices, Motorola and TI.  Delay
is pretty simple to get working, reverb can take some tweaking.  If you've
got the processing horsepower, look into convolution against good impule
response samples.

You might also look around at some of the semiconductor companies.  At one
point I know I saw some "dedicated" reverb/deley/multiFX chips from someone.
It might have been Holtek, but National rings a bell, too.  Does anyone else
remember?

Byron Jacquot