MOTM

In a message dated 4/20/00 1:20:54 AM, synth1@... writes:

<< Well, all I can say is probably by the time I get around to looking
at it, Panasonic will discontinue all the MN300x series parts and
as Baretta said, "That's the name of that tune!" >>

Is Reticon totally out of the SAD business?  Anyone else do any more runs of 
these?  

What is inside of all of those cheesy Radio Shack reverb units?  Or for that 
matter the millions of awful sounding reverb circuits in Karaoke machines?

Ivan

>Panasonic will discontinue all the MN300x series parts

Now this is my opinion but I think the BBD sucks. Horrible mushy nasty
distorted noisy, and just horrible to use. Sorry!

It is quite possible that the sound that is so loved by the owners of
this stuff, is due to the companders on either side of the delay unit.

The best way I think is to do what the early 80s designs did and build a
'BBD' delay unit but with DRAM. The DRAM acts just like a big wide shift
register. Everything else stays the same, the VC clock, the multiple
taps etc. Keep away from DSP, and you will have everything you need. A
soft clipping circuit with VCLPF could be easily implemented to get the
over fedback infinity echoes.

Of course, the DRAMs will probably be discontinued too...

Regards,

Tony Allgood  Penrith, Cumbria, UK

http://www.techrepairs.freeserve.co.uk/projects.htm

>
> Is Reticon totally out of the SAD business?  Anyone else do any more runs
of
> these?

Reticon is out of business, period. About 1983.

>
> What is inside of all of those cheesy Radio Shack reverb units?  Or for
that
> matter the millions of awful sounding reverb circuits in Karaoke machines?

Mitsubishi chips that are designed specifically for them. Small delays,
clocks built-in,
and "not available for sale in the US, sorry".

Paul S.

In a message dated 04/20/2000 9:01:52 AM, synth1@... writes:

<< Reticon is out of business, period. About 1983. >>

Wow!  Time flies while you're busy growing old....

Ivan

ivancu@... wrote:
> 
> What is inside of all of those cheesy Radio Shack reverb units?  Or for that
> matter the millions of awful sounding reverb circuits in Karaoke machines?
> 
Just a guess:
http://www.holtek.com.tw/docum/Consumer/8970.htm

TechAmerica (Radio Shack superstore) carries a lot of Holtek
chips.

Thomas

In a message dated 04/20/2000 9:24:15 AM, thudson@... writes:

<< http://www.holtek.com.tw/docum/Consumer/8970.htm >>

Looks like an interesting chip... not sure if it would be worth basing any 
serious project on it though.  And unfortunately you can't increase the 
amount of SRAM.

Ivan

On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Paul Schreiber wrote:

> Reticon is out of business, period. About 1983.

  Actually, I thought Reticon was acquired by EG&G at about that time,
creating the "EG&G Reticon" name.  Then, EG&G became PerkinElmer
optoelectronics.  No idea if they still make BBDs.  (EG&G Reticon did--I
have a couple 2048-cell 8-pin chips from them).

Crow

/**/

ivancu@... wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 04/20/2000 9:24:15 AM, thudson@... writes:
> 
> << http://www.holtek.com.tw/docum/Consumer/8970.htm >>
> 
> Looks like an interesting chip... not sure if it would be worth basing any
> serious project on it though.  And unfortunately you can't increase the
> amount of SRAM.
> 
Yeah, I have a couple of older model chips on my bench that used
seperate RAM, but it was still limited to about 400ms.

I haven't had a chance to play with them, but I believe someone
on synth-diy said the quality was not that great. Of course, I'm
not sure what they were comparing it to.

The interesting thing is that the VCO clock controlling delay
time can be varied with a resister. I thought about using something
like a vactrol to get VC delay.

Thomas