AMS DMX 15-80

The AMS DMX 15-80 is a rack-mounted 15-bit digital delay/harmonizer, released by Advanced Music Systems in 1978. It has a mono input and stereo output. Not to be confused with its successor, the more well-known DMX 15-80S, which had stereo inputs and outputs (hence the 'S' suffix).

Producer Nigel Gray had an AMS DMX 15-80 delay unit at Surrey Sound Studios. He used it on studio work with The Police, especially for occasionally enhancing guitars and vocals on Outlandos D'Amour and Reggatta De Blanc. Normally he would set a delay of ~40 ms on one output and ~80 on the other to create a stereo chorusing effect. Nigel's AMS was an early version of the DDL; it was purely a delay unit, so it did not have the pitch changing and sampling functions many of the later AMS DDL's had.

Stewart Copeland's AMS DMX 15-80
The AMS DMX 15-80 delay unit was amongst Stewart Copeland's onstage effects units on tour with The Police in the early 1980s. The Frejus concert on 28 August 1980 is the earliest known he had the AMS around.

He intended the AMS as a backup to the Deltalab DL-4 as he preferred using a delay that was adjustable (i.e. with knobs) - he was only able to do this with the latter. By the time of the Synchronicity tour, the AMS was retired from touring use and was replaced by a Simmons drum module.

Stewart continued to use the AMS as a studio outboard unit, such as on The Rhythmatist and a variety of other projects in the 1980s.