What's your favorite Delay pedal?? [Archive] - GuitarsCanada.com

Stratin2traynor

04-25-2007, 06:30 PM

TTE

warm sounding and being all tube it fattens up your tone.

...and empties your wallet. Those things are like $1000. I've never tried one myself so I can't comment on the sound. But...it had better be awesome!!

I believe that deep deep down inside me, a rationalization process has begun in support of the purchase of yet another pedal. The ideas are still churning away.

As for the DD-3, I had mine modded by Greg at Solid Gold Sound Labs. He added a switch to toggle between standard digital delay and simulated analog delay. It sounds pretty good actually. There is quite a difference between the two and it's definitely a keeper.

I have a Deluxe Memory Man but I find it a pain in the $&% to adjust. I love the tone when I can dial it in right. Nice, warm analog tone. Maybe I don't have a solid understanding of the controls because as soon as I adjust one of the dials I screw it all up. I want to get something a little simpler and easier to adjust.

Ripper

04-25-2007, 11:35 PM

I love my Danelectro Danecho, great sounding delay, and I'm also really happy with my Ibanez DE-7, it's a little harsher sounding but what I use it for it works really well.

bagpipe

04-26-2007, 02:04 PM

I've had great success with the Digitech Digidelay. I've had mine for a few years and I've used it for a bunch of different sounds. Its the only pedal which I havent considered replacing on my board.

droptop88

04-26-2007, 02:10 PM

Diamond Memory Lane. Modulation, too!

4STYX

04-26-2007, 06:17 PM

DOD FX90/with MN 3005 chip! :D

riffboy76

04-26-2007, 09:32 PM

I absolutely love my Electro harmonix Deluxe Memory Man. It beats any delay i've ever played.

Stratin2traynor

04-26-2007, 11:15 PM

I have to admit that after starting this thread I decided to really give my Electro Harmonix DMM a try. I don't use delay very often and only bought the DMM because it was such a great deal I couldn't pass it up. (No it's not hot!) So I spent a few hours today messing around with both my modded Boss DD-3 and my DMM. First I checked the net for video demoes of the unit then experimented with what I learned. I found the DD-3 to be a good sounding easy to use delay. When I AB'd the two, the DMM came out the clear winner soundwise - plus it has the added option of Chorus/Vibrato which can be handy. As for the controls, once I found out exactly what each one did, I was off to the races. Both great pedals for my needs but the DMM came out on top for sweet analog delay tones with options.

:food-smiley-004:

iggs

04-27-2007, 09:28 AM

Diamond Memory Lane for me ... I love how long repeats start to decay and artifact, really adds to the whole "analogue" vibe.
Tap temp is a must and modulation sounds great. Also, EQ should be standard on all delay pedals IMHO ... the DML has it all!

ENDITOL

04-27-2007, 11:56 AM

The memory lane is awesome for sure. For my rig I use an Eventide rack unit and it's the best delay and other FX I've ever heard. The new pedals look cool too.

Ti-Ron

04-27-2007, 01:10 PM

I don't know if it will help but the Boss Corporation put some sounds sample with the settings to show you how their pedals works and sound! Maybe a little useless for the ones who buy the effects new but for the one with no user guide it's a really great place with examples!

To see the demos just click on the model and chose the Demos options. Don't panic, nothing will happens at this moment you will have to click again on the "click" button !
Enjoy !

allthumbs56

04-28-2007, 10:27 AM

I have to admit to being a bit of a delay junkie. Right now I have a DM-2, DM-3, DD-3, Ibanex DL-10, H20, and a Digidelay. I usually cycle two on my board - currently the H20 and the Digidelay. I use the Digidelay in my lead loop with the tap tempo enabled and set the tempo for each song and then it's ready to go when I hit the loop. The H20 sits outside and is set more for slapback for the occasional tune where I want it on throughout.

I would love to pick up a Memory Lane though and that new Empress sounds sick. Just a little pricey right now for my tastes.

The Tourist

04-28-2007, 10:13 PM

I heart my DMM.

KHINGPYNN

05-01-2007, 08:53 AM

NB_Terry

05-01-2007, 10:10 AM

My alltime fav is an old Loco Box Anolog Delay as seen on this page... http://www.locobox.com/80s.html. i used to own one back in the 80's what a great delay... got stolen. Currently my fav is a Visual Sound H2O.

Khing

Locobox make great pedals. I contributed some pics to that page, you should find my name there. :tongue:

Dave

05-01-2007, 11:27 AM

I also love the Memory lane... and the deluxe memory man. ok I confess, I'm a echo junky.

KHINGPYNN

05-01-2007, 02:56 PM

jcayer

05-01-2007, 03:23 PM

+1 for Digitech Digidelay

NB_Terry

05-01-2007, 05:14 PM

Calgary Terry said...

"Locobox make great pedals. I contributed some pics to that page, you should find my name there."

Very cool I'll take a look. Do you still have any Loco Box pedals?

I would love to replcae the one I had but they are hard to find.

Khing
Hi

I only have the yellowy green Locobox Rotophase.

I have a Washburn analog delay pedal that looks identical to the 80s Locobox pedals. This pedal is identical to the Locobox analog delay.

Rhythmeister

05-02-2007, 01:43 PM

Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with Jacques "Prisoner" analog delay?

Cheers,
Blair

adamthemute

11-26-2007, 11:51 AM

I just got a TC Electronic Nova delay pedal and it's awesome! Highly recommended. I'd like to get a small single pedal delay...maybe analog. I'd like something like a Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, but don't have an extra $300 right now haha.

The Boss RV-3 is popular, any users here?

Sneaky

11-26-2007, 12:04 PM

I like to fool around with delay pedals a bit. I currently have a DM-2 , a Line 6 DL-4, and a Memory Lane. Also a TTE, and a Chandler SDE (rack unit), and have a Boss RE20 and an EchoCzar on order (2 years on the wait list now - I hope I'm getting close). The Memory lane is the best delay pedal I've tried.

riffboy76

11-26-2007, 08:00 PM

I've have/had a few delays over the years:

Korg SDD2000
Roland SDE1000
TC Electronic D-Two
Boss DD-2
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
Ibanez AD-9
Maxon AD-999
Analogman AR20DL XL

Dont know if i could just pick one as my favorite. Digital wise I really dig the TC Electronic D-Two. For analog i'd say my Analogman delay or EH Memory Man, giving the edge to the Memory Man with the added chorus/vibrato/preamp feature that i love.

exhausted

11-26-2007, 11:28 PM

the deluxe memory man is beautiful. that's probably my favourite but i really like the digital modeling echos too.

the new RE-20 space echo is awesome and i also really like the DL4 for the following, modulated echo, sweep echo and lo-res digital.

Ophidian

11-28-2007, 05:25 PM

My favorite is the DD-3 but I've only tried 2 delays.

iaresee

11-28-2007, 07:27 PM

So I'm really digging my Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai. The analog filter is great. Very nice, dimensional delays. And it does so much more than just repeat...repeat...repeat...

Modulation on the delays is my new favourite feature. You can get this wonderful soundscapes going with tons of ambiance to them.

I've only started to toy with the looper features. I'm having trouble figuring out when it's started recording so that my loops line up nicely. But I'll figure it out. Just needs practice I think.

It's a simple pedal to start using with enough features to keep you exploring for weeks and weeks.

adamthemute

11-28-2007, 08:27 PM

The Freakshow FX Digilog Delay looks awesome, gonna buy one right away just thinking of which way to get it painted!

The right switch is a feedback/oscillating thing, great for wacky spaceship sounds or just continuous walls of ambiance.
http://www.freakshoweffects.com/home.htm

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/adamthemute/digilog3.jpg
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/adamthemute/digilog4.gif
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/adamthemute/freakshow_digilog21.jpg
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/adamthemute/digilog.jpg

The Tourist

11-28-2007, 09:21 PM

DMM and SMMH. Using both and I think I'm pretty much set for delays.

monochocke

01-04-2008, 08:54 AM

the memory man deluxe is very warm, just love it , i got the de7 ibanez and del dl4 line 6 , but just love more my mmd ehx.

david henman

01-04-2008, 09:02 AM

...i'm still pretty enamoured with my boss dd20, but i plan to upgrade soon to either of the new tc electronics and eventide delays.

recommendations welcome!

-dh

ne1roc

01-04-2008, 10:23 AM

I really like the Visual Sound H20. Very thick, warm sounding delays with a great chorus on the other side of the pedal!

jimmy c g

01-05-2008, 01:59 PM

as an old Boss fan with not a lot of cash right now who NEEDED a delay pedal I just bought an Ibanez DE7 delay echo pedal and was very pleased.Honestly didnt expect the quality to be as good as it turned out to be.I find myself using the echo function most but the delay has settings & time of repeat plus level control that should make most players happy.At 89.00 bucks Canadian this thing is got to be a winner in most catagories.PLUS the recessed knob feature may protect the product from evil.Im an at home player so I cant comment on heavy gigging abuse but so far it works with out a hitch.May have won me over from the Boss people and saved me bucks.Try one,if you dont agree return it, Jim im im im im im im

flashPUNK

01-09-2008, 10:53 AM

IMO, You cant beat an echoplex, or a EH Memory Man..

However, in my live setup, i'm using the Nova Delay and (now that i've learned how to use it properly), it can do everything i need it to, with as many presets as I could want for a set.

Line6 DL4 is an awesome pedal too.. i highly recommend it if you like modulated/weird delay sounds.

mhammer

01-09-2008, 11:26 AM

I was fortunate enough to be given a Line 6 Echo Park. It is essentially a scaled down version of the delay modeller in a smaller footprint at a lower price. Though I dislike the incorporation of the tap tempo and bypass under the same foot treadle, I like a great many other things about it.

One of the things I like very much is the dual input/output structure. I know a great many delay pedals have stereo outputs, but having two inputs, and the opportunity to take one output and recycle it back to the other input is rich with possibilities.

I happened to be in the loop during its development, and one of the programmers told me that they had to make a choice between "true" stereo (i.e., both wet and dry distinct from in to out) or quasi-stereo. Because they would have had absolutely no battery life from true stereo (more DSP clock cycles required, and greater current consumption as a result), they went with quasi-stereo that would at least give them around 6hrs life from a fresh alkaline 9v. We didn't discuss it, but my sense is that they wanted store sales staff to at least be able to have someone demo the pedal without having to search for a wallwart and available outlet behind the amps. Can't sell 'em if you can't demo 'em.

The quasi-stereo arrangement has true stereo for the dry path, but a pooled/shared wet path that gets redistributed at the output. As a result some of what enters in Channel A shows up in the output of Channel B, and some of what enters in Channel B shows up in the output of Channel A. Naturally, if you plug into just one channel, and run two separate outputs to two amps, you'll have lots of ping-pong possibilities. What you will not have, however, is dry out one jack and delay out the other.

I'm working, slowly but surely, on a dual delay rack unit for myself, using the older Holtek HT8955 delay chip. It's only 10-bit resolution, but the inclusion of companding and suitable filtering should move it close to the range of a decent analog delay. Each side has up to 800ms delay time, which is long enough for lots of things. The neatest part, though, will be that, unlike the Echo Park, each side will have its own delay time, wet/dry blend, and recirculation control, and be capable of crossfeeding that recirculated signal to its own side, the other side, or both. I'm looking forward to getting it up and running.

I'm also looking forward to trying out the Stereo Memory Man when I get the chance. It looks like a very cool pedal. Same thing with the new Eventide unit.

Steve P

01-11-2008, 06:59 PM

I love my Deluxe Memory Man -- the sounds are warm and musical, and the vibrato and chorus work well with the delay features.

My only beef with it is that it is fiddly to adjust on the fly, and lacks a tap tempo function.

Also, there are other delays that will do more for you (like the new Stereo Memory Man with Harazai or DL-4), but the tones produced by the DMM are so awesome I continue to use it.

plato67

01-13-2008, 02:03 PM

Anyone try the Eventide Timefactor? I've read great reviews.

mhammer

01-14-2008, 11:15 AM

iaresee

01-14-2008, 02:35 PM

Had a nice chat with Steve Bragg, who makes the Empress Tremolo that has garnered some very enthusiastic reviews. The next product he's getting ready is a digital delay that from the sounds of it, may give the EHX Stereo Memory Man a run for its money in terms of the tricks it can do. I'm hoping to get a look at the prototype next week. Empress FX are made here in the nation's capitol.

Ahh...the Superdelay. It looks amazing:

http://www.empresseffects.com/images/superdelay/delay_top.jpg (http://www.empresseffects.com/images/superdelay/delay_top.jpg)

I really dig the dry analog signal, something I wish my SMMw/H had. I'm not sure how you tell what preset you're on with out a display though.

mhammer

01-14-2008, 04:09 PM

Ahh...the Superdelay. It looks amazing:

I really dig the dry analog signal, something I wish my SMMw/H had. I'm not sure how you tell what preset you're on with out a display though.
That's the one. From talking to Steve, that's part of the challenge: giving an easy "dashboard" to the user, when you have a pedal as deep as this one. If I am understanding the posted picture correctly, those are not dots on the surface, but rather machined holes for status LEDs. Conceivably, when you select a preset, it would light up the appropriate comination of LEDs, regardless of where the knobs are set. That would tell you what preset it is. I'm just guessing, though. I'll let you know more when I meet up with Steve this weekend (hopefully).

He seems to still be open to suggestions. Yesterday we were talking about the "dynamic" feature, which is essentially like the "ducking" feature on the Line 6 delays. The L6 feature is one I've wanted for a while. Essentially what it does is back off on the delay level while you're picking, and let the wet signal come in as you stop playing. I like to call it a "declutter" feature. I mentioned to Steve that the decluttering is most important when the delay time is short, and you get too damn many notes showing up at the same time. As delay time is increased, the need to get the wet signal to back off for a bit declines. The suggestion is that the dynamic feature needs to be more...well...dynamic. That could be either in terms of how long you wait to fade the wet signal back in or perhaps the clues you look for in the signal to begin fading the wet signal back in. From the sounds of it, while the dynamic feedback is a feature that is easy enough to design/program, what you actually DO with it is another thing.

hollowbody

01-14-2008, 08:03 PM

I've been through a bunch of delay pedals in the last little while looking for one that i really REALLY like. I've had a Visual Sound H20, which I never liked very much, an Ibanez DML20, which was a great digital delay and the modulation was awesome too, but it was a bit noisy. I replaced it with a DL4, which I loved, especially the tap tempo feature, but I found that the setting I liked best were the DM-2 and DM-3 settings, so I went and got a DM-3 and I ain't lookin back!!! All I need now is another DM-3 (or a DM-2) set for slightly longer delays, and I'm set!!!

mhammer

01-15-2008, 09:58 AM

Retro-Sonic, an Ottawa company (if one guy can be a "company"), makes what is essentially a DM-3 clone-alike. The DM-3 is basically identical to a DM-2 but used the 2nd generation MN32xx delay chips from Matsushita, and incorporates a few minor circuit changes to do so.

Some technical info to set any rumours on the straight and narrow.

ALL analog delay chips require that the signal fed to the chip sit atop a DC "bias" voltage. When the bias voltage is set right, the sound is at its cleanest. When the bias is set a little high or low, the delay sound starts to distort and is of generally poorer quality. Unfortunately, most pedals using these chips set the bias by dividing down the battery voltage, sometimes with a trimpot on the board, and sometimes with simply a pair of fixed resistors. When the battery is fresh, that isn't a problem, but as the battery starts to lose voltage, that bias setting can become a bit off and delay quality suffers.

The second generation MN3205 chips used in the DM-3 and many other commercial pedals were capable of running fine off 5v. So, what Boss and many other companies would do is feed the 9v from the battery to an on-board 3-pin 5V regulator (looks like a transistor and is labelled LM78L05), and take the bias voltage from there. That would permit the bias voltage to be "valid" and accurate for a much longer period of the battery's lifespan, compared to the MN3005 that would need to use the full 9v from the battery. Other than that particular change, there is no reason to suspect major differences in sound quality between the DM-2 and DM-3.

Tim's/Retro-Sonic's DM-3 clone uses a pair of MN3205-type chips, where the original used only one. One advantage this provides is that two chips provides double the delay time. However, if you are content to live with less than double the delay time, you can up the clocking/sampling rate of the chips a bit for higher sound quality, and still get more delay time than the original. And that's what Tim did. The higher sampling rate makes it possible to have more bandwidth in the delay signal. The Retro-Sonic also includes a delay tone control to be able to make use of that extra bandwidth...or not.

iaresee

01-15-2008, 11:46 AM

That's the one. From talking to Steve, that's part of the challenge: giving an easy "dashboard" to the user, when you have a pedal as deep as this one. If I am understanding the posted picture correctly, those are not dots on the surface, but rather machined holes for status LEDs. Conceivably, when you select a preset, it would light up the appropriate comination of LEDs, regardless of where the knobs are set. That would tell you what preset it is. I'm just guessing, though. I'll let you know more when I meet up with Steve this weekend (hopefully).
I was talking to Wayne Eagles who had a chance to play with Steve's prototype and he said it wasn't much bigger than the tremolo pedal. A bit, but not much. I'm floored he got all that into that package. I think he could make it a little bigger, build in some room for a display, and not be hurt by the decision. Small is good but look at a company like Catalinbread, where they've started offering large form factor versions of their pedals (I've always thought their Semaphore was in too small a package).

As for the holes, I was thinking along the same lines, but it's mighty inconvenient to recognize your preset by a series of dots around multiple knobs. That seems like a case study in bad UI design waiting to happen if that's the route Steve is thinking of going.

He seems to still be open to suggestions.
At-a-glance I'd like to know where I am in my preset traversal. Am I on P1, P2, or P3? A series of lights in the middle for the banks then is my suggestion. The SMMw/H uses this approach and it's fairly easy to manage in low light. Ideally a 7-segment display would be used which is the clearest way to indicate the preset number. The LEDs around the knobs to remind me where I had them set for the preset are a nice touch but I think the Nova, Eventide and SMMw/H have all shown that controller position recall isn't necessary in preset mode to still have good usability. Especially if it comes at the cost of accuracy: the controller is probably more accurate than he can fit LEDs for around the dial, right?

Yesterday we were talking about the "dynamic" feature, which is essentially like the "ducking" feature on the Line 6 delays. The L6 feature is one I've wanted for a while. Essentially what it does is back off on the delay level while you're picking, and let the wet signal come in as you stop playing. I like to call it a "declutter" feature. I mentioned to Steve that the decluttering is most important when the delay time is short, and you get too damn many notes showing up at the same time. As delay time is increased, the need to get the wet signal to back off for a bit declines. The suggestion is that the dynamic feature needs to be more...well...dynamic. That could be either in terms of how long you wait to fade the wet signal back in or perhaps the clues you look for in the signal to begin fading the wet signal back in. From the sounds of it, while the dynamic feedback is a feature that is easy enough to design/program, what you actually DO with it is another thing.
I'd have to try that to see how useful I'd find it. Sounds academically interesting but not applicable to anything I've ever used delay for. Of course, it could be a "I don't know what I'm missing" type situation. :smile:

You mention programming, do you know what DSP he's using for the innards? I ask because I design FPGAs for a living. I've been toying with building a delay pedal around one of our low density FPGAs for a while now.

mhammer

01-15-2008, 12:21 PM

As pedals get more complex, "user dashboards" become all that more critical. Ironically, a neighbour and friend of mine is a human-factors psychologist who works in the area of displays and UIs/dashboards. At the moment, he focuses on operating rooms and patient status information during surgery, but the notion of just about ANY UI is of intrinsic interest to him.

Of course, one of the principal challenges with floor pedal info is that the user is at a real disadvantage viewing it. First, they are supposed to be focussing their attention on the instrument and audience, not the floor. Second, the lighting and viewing conditions are generally poor to bad (viewed from an angle, the control knobs are simply "visual noise"). Third, they are frequently moving around. Fourth, there are real space and cost limitations that constrain what one is able to show the user in a floor pedal. The 7-segment alphanumeric LED displays that can work so well for chest-level boxes doesn't always work so well for floor boxes. Under those circumstances, the user is probably best off with a pictorial representation rather than alphanumeric information, and perhaps a colour-code. Pointer knobs can provide a sort of picture, but then they introduce some space requirements. One approach that might work nicely is to use one of those sloped-front enclosures that Hammond makes, with all knobs mounted on top, a stompswitch on one side of the sloped-front panel, a stompswitch on the other, and a nice easy-to-read display panel mounted between them with no knobs to get in the way.

Boutique pedal-makers tend to spring up because the supports for starting a small-scale production are there in terms of suppliers,commercial PCB-makers that accept small-scale runs, a distribution network like pedalgeek, musictoyz, etc., and chassis-makers like Hammond that can provide a range of products perfectly tailored to pedals. Unfortunately, once you start to stray beyond the obvious or tried and true, like the ubiquitous Hammond 1590B, 1590BB, and 1590DD chassis, you're kind of forced to pony up the dough for custom chassis, and there you step into a major financial commitment. So, what happens is that pedal-makers get hamstrung in their designs by the boxes they stick them in or have to stick them in. If you're Menatone, or Robert Keeley, or if you're Zachary Vex and treat the physical limitations of the 1590B as an intellectual puzzle and half the fun of design, that's no problem, but when you start to branch out to more complex digital designs with more options, AND you want to make things easy to use, you start to find yourself trying to sprint with your winter boots on.

Delay-ducking - where continuous playing will momentarily suppress the wet signal - is just like what happens when a radio DJ talks over music or sports announcer talks over spectator noise. The music gets turned down temporarily so that the voice is not cluttered by the music and become unintelligible (and vice versa). Once the talking stops, the music auomatically fades back in. In this instance, the dry signal is the "voice", and the delay signal is the "music". It's a nice feature to have, though it strikes me as one of those things you probably need either a fade-in time control or a VERY intelligent algorithm to guess the appropriate fade-in time for the suppressed signal.

As for DSP, I have no idea. Haven't asked, and he hasn't brought it up.

iaresee

01-15-2008, 03:46 PM

One approach that might work nicely is to use one of those sloped-front enclosures that Hammond makes, with all knobs mounted on top, a stompswitch on one side of the sloped-front panel, a stompswitch on the other, and a nice easy-to-read display panel mounted between them with no knobs to get in the way...Unfortunately, once you start to stray beyond the obvious or tried and true, like the ubiquitous Hammond 1590B, 1590BB, and 1590DD chassis, you're kind of forced to pony up the dough for custom chassis,...So, what happens is that pedal-makers get hamstrung in their designs by the boxes they stick them in or have to stick them in.
I say: you think outside the box. (sic) :smile:

For example: a two-box approach here might make sense. Where one box houses the knobs and display and the other the switches. If you take the switches away on Steve's current design you've got a decent amount of surface area on which to put a unique and highly visible preset display. The switches need only be housed in something small like the narrow, long boxes used by the guys who build true bypass loopers. A simple, lockable interface for the connector like a locking RJ-45 setup and you've got a control unit that can be place at the front of the board and a brain with more room for displaying status that can be placed elsewhere on the board.

If you're Menatone, or Robert Keeley, or if you're Zachary Vex and treat the physical limitations of the 1590B as an intellectual puzzle and half the fun of design, that's no problem, but when you start to branch out to more complex digital designs with more options, AND you want to make things easy to use, you start to find yourself trying to sprint with your winter boots on.
And if you're based in Canada you find out some of your local users are trying to use your pedals with winter boots on too. :tongue:

Delay-ducking - where continuous playing will momentarily suppress the wet signal - is just like what happens when a radio DJ talks over music or sports announcer talks over spectator noise. The music gets turned down temporarily so that the voice is not cluttered by the music and become unintelligible (and vice versa). Once the talking stops, the music auomatically fades back in. In this instance, the dry signal is the "voice", and the delay signal is the "music". It's a nice feature to have, though it strikes me as one of those things you probably need either a fade-in time control or a VERY intelligent algorithm to guess the appropriate fade-in time for the suppressed signal.
That sounds interesting, and I agree it'd need to be done with some sort of fade-in approach to make it useful and appealing to me. As input signal strength decays, wet signal strength rises and vice versa. In a wet line, dry line setup that could produce a really cool panning type effect actually. Make the fade-in/out times adjustable and you're really onto something unique there I think.

As for DSP, I have no idea. Haven't asked, and he hasn't brought it up.
How approachable is he? I'm really curious.

mhammer

01-15-2008, 04:44 PM

That sounds interesting, and I agree it'd need to be done with some sort of fade-in approach to make it useful and appealing to me. As input signal strength decays, wet signal strength rises and vice versa. In a wet line, dry line setup that could produce a really cool panning type effect actually. Make the fade-in/out times adjustable and you're really onto something unique there I think.
Craig Anderton had an idea for a sort of "event-collator" as part of a broader guitar processing system that he laid out in DEVICE (all scanned issues available at my site http://hammer.ampage.org on pages 10 and 11). The idea was that if you generated a trigger pulse (just like a synth) on a per-note/strum basis, and had a circuit that would smudge the trigger pulses together to produce a control voltage proportional to how many notes you were stuffing/producing per unit-of-time, you could use that summed control voltage to control things in interesting ways. One of the experiments I always wanted to try was to use that control voltage to manage the wet signal of a delay line, such that when I wanted to quickly throw a lot of notes at the amp, the wet signal would be held off for a bit, and then introduced when I created the space for the echoes to be heard more distinctly.

As far as I'm concerned, performance control is where its at, baby. Particularly gestural control and features that allow a pedal to track a player's intentions/direction and adjust parameters based on that. Had a delightful conversation with a guy I know in the music faculty at McGill who works on gestural controllers, and apparently I'm not the only person who has pondered the possibility of using Wii controllers to "conduct" MIDI files in real time.

How approachable is he? I'm really curious.
Quite...when he has the time. I'm supposed to get together with him for coffee and chat this weekend. We could make it a threesome. Drop me a PM and we can set it up.

rwe333

01-21-2008, 09:53 AM

As for the holes, I was thinking along the same lines, but it's mighty inconvenient to recognize your preset by a series of dots around multiple knobs. That seems like a case study in bad UI design waiting to happen if that's the route Steve is thinking of going.

From Steve:

Hey Wayne,

There's little lights under the knobs, five of them, which let you know
what preset your in. We're going to be putting up videos soon to show
exactly how it should work.

Steve.

FWIW, I've been using a Damage Control Timeline - very high fidelity, low noise. Very much rack quality in a pedal form. Concerns are that it's big/heavy, and w/ the tubes it draws 1000 mA (!). So, you need to use their power supply - too much for the Burkey, PedalPower, PowerAll, OneSpot, etc.

Steve's delay sounded similarly great, though it will be at least a couple of months before it's released.

Keep us in the loop re: your design Ian.

Greenbacker

01-23-2008, 11:26 PM

For me, nothing beats my '81 Ibanez (Maxon) AD-80 at doing what it does. From what I hear, the Way Huge Aqua Puss is a clone of it.

mhammer

01-24-2008, 09:33 AM

Though the various original Way Huge pedals were not entirely original designs (and quite frankly, what IS these days?), they tended to have select minor improvements intended to bring out the best characteristics of the source design and provide optimum performance (though from looking at some of the new Way Huge pedals, on-line at least, Jeorge "Mr. Huge" Tripps seems to have taken steps in the direction of more interesting designs, albeit with the same attention to construction and reliability. He has promised to send me some pedals for review, so we'll see just how far he has stepped in the direction of originality since his days at Line 6.).

When it comes to BBD-based analog delays, there are a bunch of things that the use of BBD chips itself absolutely compels the designer to do. Consequently, a great many of the numerous assorted analog delays from the 80's and 90's shared MANY characteristics, and individual experiences with this one or that one being "just right" had a great deal more to do with the manner in which small cosmetic changes to the tone suited the player's needs or gear.