OTO - BIM

A long time of silence settled over OTO and we're still reminiscing about their great Biscuit, but now they return with a smasher: a stunning 12Bit stereo delay which instantly amazed us! It sombines analog signal processing with AD/DA converters and RAM chips for the delay - just like 80ies delays with their special sound.
The features are plenty and very impressive: up to 3.2 seconds stereo delay, 4 delay types, filter both in the delay path and the feedback loop, Tap Tempo or MIDI synchronisation with sub-division, memory bank, total MIDI control of all parameters and three bypass types (!). This is going to be big.

The unit is operated with six controls, four direct buttons and four function buttons with ten functions. The values are shown on the LED display as dots.

CONTROLS
The BIM's delay time is set with the Delay control. If you wish to control less than the full 3276ms but a smaller value, you can limit the global delay size with RANGE (see below). F-BACK sets the feedback amount, MIX the dry/wet mix, DATA is used to set values of the buttons. RATE and DEPTH control the LFO's speed and intensity of delay time modulation.

BUTTONS

• ACTIVE is the Bypass switch. Three modes are selectable:
  • direct bypass. Inputs are connected directly with the outputs via a relay.
  • electronic bypass with spillover funktion i.e. the feedback fades out continuously.
  • Aux: MIX sets delay level and ACTIVE supresses the input signal.
• TAP TEMPO. Can be assigned to delay time, LFO rate or both. If set to LFO rate only, a division can be with "LFO divisions".
• PRESET saves the settings or recalls one of 36 presets (six presets per bank)
• FREEZE reads the delay memory in a loop.

FUNCTION BUTTONS

• DIVISION/RANGE: Both values are related.
• Division: rhythmical division of the tempo (seminotes, triplets, quarters, eighths etc.)
• Range: global size of the delay memory.
• FX TYPE / GAIN:
  • FX TYPE selects one of four effects:
    • Normal: normal delay.
    • Dual Head: two different "tape heads" allow for stereo delays.
    • Distortion: adds a soft distortion to the delay.
    • Lo-Fi: the delay signal is asymetrically distorted and low pass filtered.
  • GAIN adjusts the input gain from 0dB bis +15dB.
• FILTERS / F-BACK: Filter frequencies of the analog delay and feedback filters.
  • HPF: High pass filter's cutoff frequency (20Hz, 100Hz, 250 Hz, 500Hz)
  • LPF: Low pass filter's cutoff frequency (2kHz, 4kHz, 8kHz, 16kHz)
  • FB Filters: Flat, Lo-Cut, Hi-Cut, Lo-Cut + Hi-Cut
• OFFSET / LFO:
  • Offset determines the percentual relation between left and right channels' delay time. Right is fixed, left is variable between 0%, 3%, 12% and 50% (ping-pong)
  • LFO Waveform: Sine, Triangle, Square, S&H
  • Range of the LFO rate control: 0,025Hz-12Hz, 12-37Hz, 25-73Hz, 50-147Hz)

MIDI: All parameters can be remote controlled with Control Changes. Switching between presets can be done with Program Changes. Four individual MIDI filters are integrated to prevent the BIM from reacting to certain MIDI messages.

Further adjustments like local modes, LFO rate division, feedback limiter, dipslay modes can be set as well, see manual.