Prime Time Delay
Johanne
The unusual lo-fi and pitch-glitching effects were literally one of a kind at the time. It came stock with 128 milliseconds of delay, and could be optionally upgraded to 256 (for a substantial fee). Like many classic pieces of audio gear, over time, the limitations or imperfections are often what create the character that people come to love. In the case of the Prime Time, RAM was expensive, so in an attempt to get the most from the least, the engineers came up with the multiply function to increase delay time at the expense of sonic quality. That limitation is what was exploited to make this a highly sought after sound, and that sound is what drove us to create PrimalTap.
While the original was limited to 128 milliseconds of delay time (or 256 with a very pricey upgrade!) PrimalTap maxes out at a comparatively massive 2500 milliseconds. Create extra long echos, or sample and loop up to 2.5 seconds of audio with the Freeze feature.
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I have enjoyed your music for years! I've been curious for quite some time nowas to how you acquire your distinct guitar sound: I suspect there is alot moresound processing going on than simply attenuating your guitars tone control. Iwould really like to know the details, from your guitar and amp settings,choice of signal processors, to your studio recording setup (microphones used,equalization, etc.). Also, what steps do you take in recording your spaciousand pleasant stereo guitar sound from what what originally a monaural source?
i'll be happy to go into detail abouthow my gear works, etc., but i had a revelatory experience a few years agowhen i realized that "equipment", althoughcertainly a component in my sound, really had little to do with why i sound likethe way i sound. for years, between around 1977 to 1987, i never did ANYTHINGwithout my "rig". i would never "sit in" unless i could have my amps and stuffthere, i basically didn't do any record dates at all other than my own cause iwas sure they would "mess up my sound" etc. etc. then in 1987 i went to the thenUSSR on a tour with the group and there were a few "jam session" situationswhere i HAD to play with some russian guys on their "gear" (and i use the termloosely). i played one night on a polish guitar and a czech amp. someone tapedit and gave me the tape the next day. i was shocked to hear that i sounded JUSTLIKE ME!!!! since then, i sit in all the time on any old thing and have a blastand do record dates without worrying (too much) that it's gonna get mixed wrongetc. etc. i feel much better knowing FOR SURE that it's more about conceptionand touch and spirit and soul etc., than whether my hardware was in place. ido, however, totally envy horn players who are "sonically self-contained". theyARE their sound, especially if they can tote their own axe around with 'em asthey all easily can do.the REAL answer to your question though is this. i used an acoustic (brand name)134 model amp for 20 years from 1974 to 1994. that amp had the SOUND for me.flat, kind of midrangy-bright but mellow and LOUD without any distortion. a hardcombination of things to find in one place. unfortunately it was also reallynoisy and tended to break alot. i paid alot of dues keeping that guy around.during the josh redman tour i could see i was finally gonna have to change andalso i had the urge to get modern a little. i knew there were new things outthere and so i started trying everything. i finally settled on the digitech 2101dsp guitar preamp. with it, i could get the SOUND and some cool bells andwhistles too, mainly pre-programmability. (no more moving thebarely-hangin-on-the-134-front-panel treble control exactly 2.3 centimeters toget the sitar on "last train home" to sound right and then in the 1.7 secondsbefore the next tune starts trying to get EXACTLY back to where it was. etc.)like the 134 always was, the output of the digitech is run into 2 lexiconprime-time digital delay lines, one on my left at 14 ms delay, one one my rightat 26 ms delay. each delay has a very slight "pitch bend" controlled by the VCO(sine wave) inside the prime-time. this is what gives it the "chorused" thingthat i guess i would have to say i was the first to use extensively in jazz andthat seemed to have influenced alot of other guys to do the same. only thing, iHATE the way "chorus boxes" sound, my sound is mostly the "straight"134/digitech line which is behind me with NO PITCH BEND which gets blended INTHE AIR with the the two DISCRETE delay pitch bends (which are much softer thanthe "straight" amp volume) to get a bigger sound. i HATE when i hear the "pitchbend" and the straight mixed together and coming out of the same speaker. itdrives me crazy. you can then imagine that it's hard for me in a studio. studiosand records are STEREO and i have THREE discrete sources, "straight", delayleft, and delay right. i don't feel like i've ever gotten it right on anyrecord. i'm anxiously awaiting the coming days when we get to go back in andre-mix everything for everyone's home 6-track surround systems!!! i'll finallybe able to get the guitar sound right!!!!!! (also, i forgot one thing, i alwayshave a slight 450-500 ms delay mixed in right off the guitar too. if you hearit too much, it's too loud. it just lengthens the notes some.)
The Lexicon 'Super Prime Time' Model 97 is IMHO the most cosmic and inspiring digital delay ever created. On my first day of using it, it has changed the way I think about echoes. To quote some insightful comments from an eBay auction:
The Lexicon Super Prime Time is a serious classic and it's destined for revival. This box is not just a simple delay for the non-rocket scientist as some may claim but is actually a rich well of complex tonal joy. Like an old Minimoog it is inspiring to use and has real-time easy-to-grab and manipulate controls. Enjoy leading yourself into wonderful sonic landscapes and rich complex loops that would use up all of your left brain on any other box. Forget the TC 2290 with its less than pleasant up and down nudge arrows buttons and under-the-hood controls where the fun is "In The Box". The Super Prime Time has the fun is "On The Box". Just grab and go. A real time roller-coaster of pure audio enjoyment.
Yes, other delays from AMS, TC, Ursa Major, Bel, MXR, Roland and others may be nice, but the SPT is the most musical. I also own the TC D2, a very fine modern unit which extends the features of the 2290, but like the 2290 isn't as hands-on in use as the SPT, with all those faders and knobs on the front panel allowing realtime level mixing of the various delay ins+outs. Front panel settings can be saved in 32 memories. It has funky LED displays. There are two balanced inputs and separate Delay A/B outputs for ping pong panning madness; I use the Aux Input from a console Aux send, and feed the Main Input from a DAW bus output. Despite being made in 1982 (according to the manual), the bandwidth is a full 20kHz even at 1920ms delay time (mine has the 97/MEO Memory Expansion Option upgrading from the standard 480/960ms). It does everything you could want, even through-zero flanging if you have two SPTs! It doesn't have a cooling fan like the equally stunning Model 200 reverb (or the classic 480L for that matter); that is the only thing that's stopped me getting one of those beauties, as well as the fact that their front panels, while similar, are hardly lined up to look good together. Lexicon, like many companies, knew how to make gear look good back then (and so it should, since it cost s!). Sadly no longer...
To be on the safe side, I invested in a Survival Kit of spare parts, but haven't installed them yet. Maybe some new capacitors might help people who reckon the M97 is noisy? Mine does have a noisy power supply transformer hum though, but that just causes an audible hum in the room like some other gear, and doesn't affect the audio signal. I will check though... Anyway, if you just need a pristine 24-bit clean echo, do it in the DAW or use a D2; the SPT is a more fun box for sound design where character and control is more important than noise specs.
"When I first worked with Eno we had very limited equipment to create those sounds. We had an AMS harmonizer, Lexicon Primetime, and an EMT 250 which is essentially a reverb type of unit. So we made the ambient sounds by re-routing back through the initial processing equipment. So let's say we do a bit of processing on a piano, we would print that sound onto the multitrack, which would then free up the processing devices to handle another job. We would send the already printed processing back to the original boxes. That's when it starts getting interesting. That's when you start adding VCO on top of VCO and you get these little irregularities. The best of ambient music has that in it. The constant motion of nature that never repeats. Like when a sunlight shimmers on something it won't be the same in a minute. It keeps moving. So introducing irregularities and the bits of flow that life has to offer within, that's what gives ambience its trembling effect. There are lots of instant ambient sounds available at music stores. When you take them to the workplace and challenge them with process on top of processing that's when you get something really organic." - Daniel Lanois
To ensure compatibility with virtually all professional equipment, there are standard phone jacks and balanced XLR connectors, plus a 20 dB input gain boost switch for low-level sources such as electric guitars or -10dBV to -20 dBv line level equipment.
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