Boss DM-101 Analog Stereo Out BBD Delay Machine

The Boss DM-101 Delay Machine is an analog delay pedal from Boss, marketed by the maker as "the ultimate analog delay"¹. What makes it unusual is the combination: a fully analog BBD (bucket brigade device) audio signal path, but with digital CPU control deciding how that analog circuit is configured, plus stereo outputs, 12 programmable modes and MIDI¹².

BBD chips are the technology behind the classic analog delays of the 1970s, including Boss's own DM-2. They pass the signal along a chain of capacitors, which gives analog delay its darker, more degraded repeats as the signal travels further. The DM-101 puts eight BBD chips inside one pedal, under what RockBoard's PedalPedia entry calls "smart CPU control"²³. On That Pedal Show, Dan and Mick described it as "using eight BBD chips to create a true stereo, programmable, MIDI-enabled ANALOGUE delay"⁴.

How the 12 modes and stereo routing work

The DM-101's core idea is that the CPU reconfigures the analog circuit for each mode. As Pedal of the Day explained, multiple internal circuit elements are switched to define each of the 12 modes, including the number of active BBDs, their connection order, the low-pass filter settings and the clocking rates¹¹. So each mode is a different analog circuit, not a different digital algorithm.

Six modes are mono and six support stereo operation¹. Guitar Pedal X listed the full set⁶:

Boss's own descriptions of a few modes show the spread. Modern mode gives what Boss calls "a uniquely clear analog delay sound with a distinctive high-end tone and up to 840 ms of delay time." Multi-Head "emulates a multi-head tape delay while imparting a uniquely analog BBD sound character," with a Variation knob that cycles through 10 different head combinations. Wide is "a stereo delay with offset left/right delay times for an expansive sound," and Dual Mod is "a stereo delay with different modulation phase settings on the left and right outputs," with the phase fully inverted at the maximum setting¹.

Overall delay time runs from roughly 10 ms to 1200 ms depending on the mode⁶, and Guitar World's review likewise cites "up to 1200 milliseconds of delay time"⁸. The pedal carries two 1/4-inch outputs for mono or stereo use⁸.

The MIDI implementation is part of what separates the DM-101 from most analog delays. Guitar.com's big review noted "stereo output for six of the modes and MIDI" among its features⁹, and That Pedal Show called it a MIDI-enabled analog delay⁴. For a player running a larger rig, that means mode changes and preset recall can happen remotely rather than by bending down at the pedal.

Where it came from

The DM-101 sits in a long Boss delay lineage. Guitar World's Michael Astley-Brown recounted the history of Boss's analog delays, including the classic DM-2, when the DM-101 was announced³. Boss's compact analog delays like the DM-2 and DM-3 were mono, single-mode pedals; the DM-101 takes that BBD circuitry and adds programmable, stereo, MIDI-equipped features. The name itself reaches back to the rack-era DM-1 Delay Machine.

What reviewers said

Reviews were strongly positive. MusicRadar's Rob Laing found "an impressive array of spectacularly good analogue delay modes"¹⁰. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson went further, calling it his favorite delay pedal of the year:

Stefan Karlsson, Guitar Pedal X, December 2023⁶

His one reservation was practical: he felt it needs a stereo input overall to show what it can do⁶.

On That Pedal Show's comparison of the DM-101 against the MXR Carbon Copy, Suhr Discovery, Boss DD-200 and Strymon Timeline, the DM-101 was the only genuinely analog option in the field. As Dan put it, "the dm101 is actually analog," unlike the other three digital delays, and when the question was which to buy for the sound of analog among Boss's big-box delays, the answer was the DM-101¹².

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Gearnews named it among its five favorite stompboxes of 2023, summing it up as "Not bad for a stereo analog delay"¹³, and Guitar.com's launch coverage called it the "ultimate stereo analogue delay"¹⁴.

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