Delay Pedals - Let's Talk Favorites!

[garrett]

I have an Ibanez AD99 that I bought new in the late 90's and it's still my fave. The sound of it works just right for me.

For versatility I like the TC Electronic Flashback series. Simple, yet tweakable and affordable. They sound great, but still miss that "something" of a true analog delay.

My interest has been piqued by the NUX Tape Echo lately. Sounds great on demos and still not overly complicated.

I'm also curious about the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade. Part of the magic in my Ibanez is the bucket brigade chips, which went out of manufacture for a good while (a big driver for all the faux analog pedals using digital chips). But now that the chips are available again, it hopefully means good things for analog fans like myself.

 

[theDeepender]

I have a bunch of delays and enjoy them all for various reasons. I find it fascinating how certain pedals excel at one type of effect while other pedals excel at a variant of that same effect. There are so many nice ones out there that can do amazing things.

My favorite just might be the Free The Tone Flight Time Delay....(Green Pedal). It is absolutely fantastic sounding! It is easy to get sounds out of and it just works beautifully.

Some of the others I have and love I will list below.

- Source Audio Nemesis - An absolute beast of a delay. Smaller footprint than the big box pedals and packed with features and options. Bang for the buck it is very tough to beat.

- Strymon Timeline - Is it the king of the delays? I could say yes and I could say no depending on the conversation. Regardless, it does it all and with excellence.

- Empress Echo System - Full of great sounds, no menus and has some weird but cool algos to boot. You have to read the manual and get an understanding of the why of the pedal. Once learned, it is super fun to play with.

- Mad Professor Dual Blue Delay - Fantastic delay, straight forward, easy to use and sounds terrific!

- Boss DD-500 - This pedal has some great modern and vintage delays in it. Fairly simple to navigate and get complex sounds out of easily.

- J Rockett Clockwork - Modern day features and spin off of the Deluxe Memory Man. Enough said! This pedal is cool.

- Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man 1100 - Old School Memory Man with tap tempo. Great subdivisions. Really fun pedal without being a deep menu dive and full of tons of preset banks.

- Pigtronix Echolution III - A very modern yet simple delay with a smaller footprint and big sound and practical options. Easy to use, sounds right, sits right and just works. Under the radar pedal but shouldn't be.

- Diamond Memory Lane - Legendary analog pedal for many folks. Such a nice sounding pedal that doesn't get in the way and compliments nicely. In a word...Superb!

- Dawner Prince Boonar - If you are looking at the multi head Binson Echorec sound this one is a gem of a pedal. Easy to use, full of incredible sounds. You can get lost playing it and realize 2 hours just flew by!

- Universal Audio Starlight - Some legendary sounds captured in this pedal. Not as feature rich as some others but a beautiful sound quality. Slightly bigger footprint that the typical single pedal but again, a beautiful sounding delay with very usable and straightforward controls/settings.

- Meris Polymoon - Cascading multiple rack units in a pedal for unique sounds? If that is your thing you will love this pedal. It is really unlike anything I have. I love the simpler side of it as well. It has very round edges on some settings and is not harsh/sharp or staccato like in the repeats. It very much can be out of your way and do some really great things. Very Unique!

Well that just about covers it.

 

[Bogner]

Well that just about covers it.

There are so many pedals out there now a days it is ridiculous. I have only scratched the surface of the pedal world BUT enough is enough. I doubt there are very many algo's and chips I don't have covered in some form or fashion.

 

[Bogner]

I have two delays. TC Electronics and Boss DD200

Both of these Pi$$ me off. I bought these because I want at least four different delay settings to choose from.
My complaint is the TC will change your delay settings if you step on button too long and while I was actually playing at my show last weekend my boss went into some strange mode and my rig went silent.

Yanked it out of the chain as quickly as I could. During break I plugged it back in which is like turning it on and it was fine.

What I didn't realize was without paying attention to my pedals, I was stepping on both buttons at the same time and switching to a loop mode.

The second time it happened the loop played during a song and it caught me 100% off guard. Had to unplug from amp to stop that from coming through, kind of a panic mode.

Now I know, but it could still happen if I'm not careful.

I have two delays. TC Electronics and Boss DD200

Both of these Pi$$ me off. I bought these because I want at least four different delay settings to choose from.
My complaint is the TC will change your delay settings if you step on button too long and while I was actually playing at my show last weekend my boss went into some strange mode and my rig went silent.

Yanked it out of the chain as quickly as I could. During break I plugged it back in which is like turning it on and it was fine.

What I didn't realize was without paying attention to my pedals, I was stepping on both buttons at the same time and switching to a loop mode.

The second time it happened the loop played during a song and it caught me 100% off guard. Had to unplug from amp to stop that from coming through, kind of a panic mode.

Now I know, but it could still happen if I'm not careful.

Hitting two buttons at a time (especially if you don't release them quickly) can take you all kinds of places....most of them you don't want to go to, especially mid song and live! All the more reason to get you a switcher maybe? One button holds all the sounds!

 

[Bogner]

I have an Ibanez AD99 that I bought new in the late 90's and it's still my fave. The sound of it works just right for me.

For versatility I like the TC Electronic Flashback series. Simple, yet tweakable and affordable. They sound great, but still miss that "something" of a true analog delay.

My interest has been piqued by the NUX Tape Echo lately. Sounds great on demos and still not overly complicated.

I'm also curious about the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade. Part of the magic in my Ibanez is the bucket brigade chips, which went out of manufacture for a good while (a big driver for all the faux analog pedals using digital chips). But now that the chips are available again, it hopefully means good things for analog fans like myself.

I bet you would really like the J. Rockett Clockwork pedal.

 

[László]

Those are some great ones! I wasn't aware of the Echo-Fix. Checked it out online and it is way cool. I would love to get one some day.

I ordered one in 2020, but there was a wait. I was doing some audio post mixing for some Ford ads in early 2021 and needed some additional acoustic panels and a pair of the Audeze LCD-X headphones. So I canceled the order, and had them transfer my deposit to the headphones.

I was mixing at my studio with the clients live online via Evercast. They were in three different locations, and couldn't come to my place due to COVID. So the most accurate cans I could find were paramount needs. I just couldn't afford to take any risks with the project.

So it goes, I guess. I still don't have an Echo Fix, and I still want one. Maybe the right project will come along. Or not...

Nonetheless, the headphones and the additional acoustical panels were good investments. The panels removed a standing wave problem at 143 Hz like magic. I had a bunch of them in the room, but 3 more solved the problem completely. My room's accurate now, which is kind of a miracle for a studio that wasn't purpose-built. The cans have become something of an industry standard for mastering engineers and serious mixers. When I check my speaker mixes against the cans, I'm hearing pretty much the same thing now, because that standing wave issue in the room is gone.

My studio is basically an in-the-box POS now (was once all-analog), which is why I call it Studio Craptastic. But it's a good sounding room, and I'm getting accurate mixes.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

My “board on a budget” has a Pockverb, Delay/Reverb. I bought it for the Tap delay feature.

It probably has more settings than I will ever use, but it was budget priced and it does what I need.

I lusted after a Keeley Workstation after watching “That Pedal Shows” Simon McBride build. I also liked the Mini Vent he uses too.

 

[phillybri]

TC Electronics Flashback using ProGuitarShop's EP-3 Toneprint

 

[andy474x]

I also have the Clockwork and Echosystem, and share your feelings on them.

Also have a Walrus D1, which is nice, the Attack parameter is very useful and it has some great sounds. Although I wish they would've done their homework and included the USB port as they have on all subsequent Mako series pedals, they changed one of the algorithms significantly when they came out with the new version of the D1, but all the V1 owners are just SOL I guess. Still a really nice pedal, though.

Also have a TC Flashback, and had an Alter Ego V2 for a while. Perhaps not the top of the heap for sounds, but very, very good, and both have a lot of versatility. The big gripe I have about TC delays is that their modulation is often heavy-handed and can't be adjusted for more subtleness. Especially with the Alter Ego, which is why I sold it.

 

[László]

I think to some degree, we tend to become attached to gear we find that works for us, and claim it's the best.

Problem is, as I always insist, there is no best. There's only what works for you. All of this makes awarding the Guitar Effects Oscar a difficult proposition!

Moreover, every week something new comes out, and sometimes it's even pretty good and becomes The Flavor of the Month. So things can get confusing.

One of my self-imposed maxims is that when I want a digital sound, there's only one way to get the full measure of that, and it's going digital. Sometimes I want an analog sound, and the same rule applies: If you want analog sound, the choice is analog.

Ne'er the twain shall meet.

If you want the sound of tape, it ain't digital. I know, I've tried as many digital emulations as I could buy, including hundreds of plugins, and have utterly wasted my money on them. Because digital freakin' sucks at being analog. They sound no more like tape than the man in the moon.

Of course, there is no man in the moon, but there also isn't a digital box that sounds like tape.

There also isn't a tape box that does digital as well as digital, so it's a two-way street. Everything's got compromises and issues. I guess that's why we have lots of gear, so we can pick our poison.

"Les, perhaps you should pick a poison and take it. Socrates took hemlock."

"Yes, but he wasn't happy about it."

 

[garrett]

TC Electronics Flashback using ProGuitarShop's EP-3 Toneprint

I need to dust off my Flashback X4 and give that one a try.

 

[Rod/]

I have two delays. TC Electronics and Boss DD200

Both of these Pi$$ me off. I bought these because I want at least four different delay settings to choose from.
My complaint is the TC will change your delay settings if you step on button too long and while I was actually playing at my show last weekend my boss went into some strange mode and my rig went silent.

Yanked it out of the chain as quickly as I could. During break I plugged it back in which is like turning it on and it was fine.

What I didn't realize was without paying attention to my pedals, I was stepping on both buttons at the same time and switching to a loop mode.

The second time it happened the loop played during a song and it caught me 100% off guard. Had to unplug from amp to stop that from coming through, kind of a panic mode.

Now I know, but it could still happen if I'm not careful.

Now that you know this, you probably won’t make that mistake again……

 

[Rod/]

Hard to beat the Carbon Copy for what it does and price point. Good little pedal to have around for sure! I feel the same way about the MXR M300 Reverb..great little pedal as well.

Their Analog chorus with treble and bass controls is really nice as well. I love their pedals and they ain’t $400

 

[dmacino]

I'm a big fan of Analogman's ARDX20 and the AMAZE1 controller. There is a bit of a learning curve. You need some board space. Once those two things were straightened out and I had some time to tinker I became a big fan. Two delays and the ability to tweak fairly quickly on the fly.

 

[gush]

Now that you know this, you probably won’t make that mistake again……

Wanna bet???

 

[sergiodeblanc]

You know what? I own neither of these but totally should have both.

That DOD Rubbernecker and the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay pedal.

I owned an R-880 for years, and a 860 that I passed on to a beloved childhood friend, and they were amazing analog delays. The R-880 had this crazy unique feature where it had buttons that would x2 double or subtract the delay times you set. And it had the coolest effect for dub stuff! You could go from a (kinda synced) 1/4 note delay to a half-note delay, to an eighth-note (or longer) delay with a few pushes of a couple buttons. It wasn’t instantaneous, it was like, a portamento or “glide-ish” effect that bobbed and weaved around the beat, and was Irie for some fundamentalist riddims. The Rubbernecker reintroduced these features in a smaller box with less leaky old caps and a lil’ more high end being reproduced.


That Ernie Ball delay is/was an invention that I employed decades earlier with midi CC programming, and always thought would make a great stand alone pedal.

I hate static on/off delays for the most part. Delay and reverb tails/trails going on over to the next part of a song is more “natural” sounding than an abrupt end to an otherwise epic crescendo of approximated musical echos, and the ability to “fade” them up or out while playing is like the creative difference between a wah pedal and an envelope filter: it can be more subtle and musical, and sound more like a recording than just turning the s**t on and off.

Of course few people realized this and/or agree with me, otherwise they wouldn’t be cheap and plentiful on the used market.

… I should really buy them both.

 

[Tone-y]

I have an old Japanese boss DD3 that I like. Looking in to it it seems like it's the one with the same circuit as the DD2. Simple and does the job

 

[Bogner]

You know what? I own neither of these but totally should have both.

That DOD Rubbernecker and the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay pedal.

I owned an R-880 for years, and a 860 that I passed on to a beloved childhood friend, and they were amazing analog delays. The R-880 had this crazy unique feature where it had buttons that would x2 double or subtract the delay times you set. And it had the coolest effect for dub stuff! You could go from a (kinda synced) 1/4 note delay to a half-note delay, to an eighth-note (or longer) delay with a few pushes of a couple buttons. It wasn’t instantaneous, it was like, a portamento or “glide-ish” effect that bobbed and weaved around the beat, and was Irie for some fundamentalist riddims. The Rubbernecker reintroduced these features in a smaller box with less leaky old caps and a lil’ more high end being reproduced.


That Ernie Ball delay is/was an invention that I employed decades earlier with midi CC programming, and always thought would make a great stand alone pedal.

I hate static on/off delays for the most part. Delay and reverb tails/trails going on over to the next part of a song is more “natural” sounding than an abrupt end to an otherwise epic crescendo of approximated musical echos, and the ability to “fade” them up or out while playing is like the creative difference between a wah pedal and an envelope filter: it can be more subtle and musical, and sound more like a recording than just turning the s**t on and off.

Of course few people realized this and/or agree with me, otherwise they wouldn’t be cheap and plentiful on the used market.

… I should really buy them both.

I have the Rubberneck and like it a lot. Nothing else does some of the things it does the I have. I haven't tried the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay pedal but now I want to. Thanks for sharing your experience with these.

 

[gush]

You know what? I own neither of these but totally should have both.

That DOD Rubbernecker and the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay pedal.

I owned an R-880 for years, and a 860 that I passed on to a beloved childhood friend, and they were amazing analog delays. The R-880 had this crazy unique feature where it had buttons that would x2 double or subtract the delay times you set. And it had the coolest effect for dub stuff! You could go from a (kinda synced) 1/4 note delay to a half-note delay, to an eighth-note (or longer) delay with a few pushes of a couple buttons. It wasn’t instantaneous, it was like, a portamento or “glide-ish” effect that bobbed and weaved around the beat, and was Irie for some fundamentalist riddims. The Rubbernecker reintroduced these features in a smaller box with less leaky old caps and a lil’ more high end being reproduced.


That Ernie Ball delay is/was an invention that I employed decades earlier with midi CC programming, and always thought would make a great stand alone pedal.

I hate static on/off delays for the most part. Delay and reverb tails/trails going on over to the next part of a song is more “natural” sounding than an abrupt end to an otherwise epic crescendo of approximated musical echos, and the ability to “fade” them up or out while playing is like the creative difference between a wah pedal and an envelope filter: it can be more subtle and musical, and sound more like a recording than just turning the s**t on and off.

Of course few people realized this and/or agree with me, otherwise they wouldn’t be cheap and plentiful on the used market.

… I should really buy them both.

I forgot to mention the spillover effect is also something I insist on.

When you talk about the instant on or off annoyance channel switching comes to mind.

I got pretty good at rolling my guitar volume down then back up while changing from clean to dirt or vise versa back when I ran my amp that way.

The abruptness of stomping on channel switcher always bothered me.

When I was using my G Major I used the switcher jack on it for channel switching which could be part of a patch. That was incredibly helpful.

 

[theDeepender]

I have an old Japanese boss DD3 that I like. Looking in to it it seems like it's the one with the same circuit as the DD2. Simple and does the job

Simple is really good. I’m finding with my DD500 that I’m pretty much staying on the same patch and settings all of the time. I know that I’ll want to cop a particular delay effect to cover a song sooner or later, but this patch is getting a lot of ride time.