Cooper Time Cube

The original Cooper Time Cube was a UREI-branded, Bill Putman/Duane H. Cooper collaborative design that brought a garden-hose-based mechanical delay to the world in 1971. The limited feature set of 14ms, 16ms or a combined 30ms delay meant it was less flexible (and popular) than tape-based delays such as the Echoplex or later electronic units, and only 1,000 were ever made. However, the CTC was noted for its uncanny ability to always sit perfectly in the mix and was used on many hit records, such as “Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus and “Low Rider” by War.The Cooper Time Cube sends live audio through long pieces of tubing, not unlike a garden hose, to create a time delay. The 2' x 2' plywood housing is filled with coiled tubing, Shure mic capsules (of the SM57 variety) at both ends of each line used as speakers and pickups, and a series of tooled aluminum blocks with "tuning screws" at various places to tune the delay to a relatively flat response. The whole delay mechanism is suspended on springs within the housing to maintain "acoustical isolation," and is then filled with packing peanuts, which stay in the housing.