The Space Station is a signal processor that uses time delay techniques.
It's different than just a plain digital delay those usually have one
or perhaps 2 taps. The Space Station has eight taps just for listening:
These are called Audition Delay Taps. There are a number of others
used to synthesize reverb and echo.
You can think of the Space Station like a multi-head tape recorder,
operating with a loop of tape 255 milliseconds long. The tape is like
the Space Station audio memory and the multiple playback heads are akin to
the Space Station's multiple taps.
The eight Audition Delay Taps are placed along this imaginary
piece of tape with a resolution of 1 millisecond, and can
be repositioned at will to any of 16 pre-programmed patterns.
You also have continuous control over another tap, the Echo tap
(active in Echo mode), which can be set from 1 to 255
milliseconds and can be fed back to the input to create
the traditional effects of tape loops.
A Reverb mode is also available. Proprietary internal programming randomizes
these taps so that they can be stably fed back to produce reverberation.
The equalized sum of these taps appears at a pot (Reverb/Echo Feedback)
where the level of this sum can be adjusted to create any decay time from zero
to about 3.5 seconds.
An important part of the Space Station's fundamental concept is contained in
two groups of delay taps, one for auditioning (output) and the other for
reverberation. They operate independently of each other; that is, the Audition Delay
Taps set up a way of hearing the contents of memory, while the Reverberation or Echo
taps, when fed back, determine the type of reverberant sound existing in the memory.
Each acts independently so that endless varieties of sound can be created.
For example, a sound approximating normal room reverberation may be set up by feedback,
and then auditioned with any of the 16 programs to sound like rooms, like a slap, an echo,
or even a reverberating comb filter. Or, a comb-like reverberation effect can be
set up by feedback and then auditioned in a room, another comb, or as echo, slap, etc.
Even more versatility derives from the built-in mixer, where Audition Taps may
be mixed in any desired ratio to emphasize earlier reflections, to delay the onset of
reverb, etc. The possibilities are endless yet the front panel is intuitive, due
in part to the flow chart displayed on the background graphic of the plug-in.
You'll find that you will be able to create a wide variety of effects on a wide range of input sources with the Space Station.
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