Automate and synergize your jam with the Thyme, a one-of-a-kind audio effects processor run by Robots to which you can delegate your audio processing workload.

Bastl’s Thyme is best described as a sequenceable digital tape machine that optimizes your sound and liberates you from the shackles of mundane labor. With many parameters at hand, you can get a good grip on time-based effects and their wildest combinations. You’re free to play with delay, phaser, reverb, chorus, pitch shifter, multi-tap delay, tape delay, tremolo, vibrato, and compressor, and all of that in stereo!

Your tunes can explore many sonic spaces, real or imaginary, from a tiny cubicle or to luxurious halls of corporate headquarters. The Thyme builds up a new world that can be sustained or let fall into ruin and chaos – the choice is yours, boss!

Sequencer, Robots, and Delay

The device offers 9 different parameters to play with: Tape Speed, Delay Coarse & Fine, Feedback, Filter, extra heads Spacing and Levels, Dry/Wet Mix, and Volume. Each has a dedicated, flexible modulation source – called a Robot – which can be phased out differently for the left and the right channel in order to create psychedelic sound effects.

Robots can either be LFOs with diverse waveshapes, external CV sources, or envelope followers, enabling effects reacting to dynamics. The Thyme is designed for exploring the vast space of all the time-based sound effects.

On top of everything, 8 buttons allow selecting presets sequenceable by a built-in meta sequencer. Synchronization to an external or an internal clock is possible for the Sequencer, the Robots, and also the Delay. The Thyme can interface with other gear via MIDI, analog clock, and CV. The device has a switchable stereo/mono input, stereo output, headphone output with level, and a footswitch jack.

“The particular stroke of genius here is with one set of controls, mimicking a whole lot of effects categories normally found in multi-effects units. [... W]e can count on Brno’s scene of inventors to shake things up,” says Peter Kirn in his review of the Thyme for CDM.

Features

• analog Input Gain knob up to +20dB
• 9 parameters: Tape Speed, Delay Coarse & Fine, Feedback, Filter, extra heads Spacing and Levels, Dry Wet Mix and Volume
• each parameter has a dedicated modulation source called the Robot
• each Robot is a powerful modulation source: LFO, envelope follower, external CV
• freeze button reconfigures the signal flow to create tape loops
• link button compensates the change in Delay time caused by adjusting the Tape Speed
• tap tempo
• internal or external clock for synchronizing Delay, Robot, or Sequencer
• 8 presets organized in 8 banks (64 presets)
• 32 step sequencer with 4 patterns for sequencing presets
• switchable stereo/mono input
• stereo output
• stereo headphone output with a volume knob
• MIDI Input and Output
• analog Clock Input
• CV input 0-5V (volt per octave for Tape Speed and Delay Time)
• footswitch jack for bypass
• hi-fi audio quality

Technical details

• dimensions: 210 x 110 x 55 mm
• 9-12V DC center positive power supply input
• getting started manual pdf
• complete manual here or pdf
• complete documentation here
• firmware uploader app github
• firmware MIDI sysEx file download

Audio

Video