The original – and now vintage – Diamond Pedals Memory Lane Delay went down in history as the first (analog) delay with tap tempo, but the unit received plenty of great feedback for its sound too. It was a big pedal and based on a chip that went out of production, which forced a premature retirement. Startying in 2011 it was replaced with digital devices with a smaller – but still not compact – footprint. This latest iteration, after the company’s acquisition by Montreal’s SolidGoldFx, is fully compact, digital but analog-voiced, and multi-mode!
The new version is based around the digital chip Diamond’s own team created in the last ’10s, a digital replica of a Bucket Brigade Device (named dBBD), doubling its delay time to 1200 ms, and delivering the same tone as the sought-after original units.
The three modes offer variations on the original sound:
- Modern: fixed sampling rate with and 50 – 1200 ms delay time
- Warm: darker repeats, variable sampling rate and 150 – 1200 ms delay time
- Vintage: variable sampling rate, 65 – 550 ms delay time with automatically halved tap tempo divisions
It also features advanced features like a momentary footswitch affecting delay or modulation, Trails mode, and a Geezer mode that offers the classic operation of the vintage unit without a secondary footswitch.
Diamond Pedals Memory Lane Delay, Builder’s Notes
Blending analog companding, anti-aliasing|reconstruction filters with a bucket brigade style delay line, we have immaculately captured the ethereal essence of the original big-box Memory Lane using Diamond’s innovative digital Bucket Brigade Delay technology (dBBD). Basically what we’re saying is, you get all the goodness of the original Memory Lane in a smaller footprint, over double the delay time, extended frequency response, higher SNR, and at a fraction of the current draw.
This innovative progression of the Memory Lane is defined by 3 distinct delay lines to offer modern or vintage sounds.
Original Circuit
The Memory Lane Jr. circuit reincarnated. Our original compander equipped dBBD delay line delivering up to 1200ms of lush, modulated repeats.Three Distinct Delay Modes
The Memory Lane’s original fixed sampling rate delay line has been augmented with a new warm delay mode offering vintage BBD style variable sampling rate, warmer repeats and a 1200ms maximum delay time for gorgeous ambient delays as well as a new vintage mode designed to capture the magic of analog BBD delay pedals. Variable sampling rate, snappier repeats and 50ms-550ms delay times inspired by yesterday’s big box delays.The New Standard
For the modern pedal-user’s needs. Space saving design, without any loss of quality. Features include top mounted jacks, Burr-Brown equipped buffered bypass with optional trails, tap tempo with subdivisions, AutoDiv, Doubler, momentary or latching modulation and more.
Features
The Diamond dBBD Delay
At the heart of the original, analog Memory Lane is a BBD and Compandor. This new, compact Memory Lane is designed to capture the character of the original by implementing an embedded system that operates as drop-in replacement for a BBD and surrounding it with a custom Companding and Anti-Aliasing circuit similar to that of the original.A BBD operates by sampling the input, passing a copy in its series of capacitors bucket-to-bucket, and outputting the contents of the last capacitor, all clocked at a specific rate. This delay line operates the same but uses RAM to pass these copies and an internal clock to define the sampling rate. Our emulation has been pushed even closer with Warm mode’s ability to capture the BBD’s capacitive losses.
The analog circuitry aims to respond exactly as the original Memory Lane with the Compandor adding a slight compression and softness, allowing the delay to sit perfectly in the mix, the Anti-Aliasing filters creating warmth, and the analog feedback network highlighting and emphasizing these features.
