Thoughts on Delay...

[hawaii121]

Donnel, if you are a leave it on all the time guy there are some cool settings on the Timeline where you can set the echoes to drop in volume when you play the next note. There are also some cool things you can do with Ducking, Swell and Lo-Fi for an always on. YOu should look at the Strymon site and check out the Instruction Manual to see what it can do. There are also a ton of demos on the web. FWIW I thought the always on was the Deep Blue's strongest feature.

What delay does Bonnamassa use? I think I know the sound you are after, but I don't know the delay market well enough to say what else to look at.

On the Exotic site (home of the BB Booster etc) there is a guy Alan Hinds who does the always on sound. You could check his demos and see what he uses.

Thanks for the advice and input. Not surprisingly, that TES blew the roof off any TES sale I have seen - $2800! I have seen used Hubers for close to that! I'll check out the sites you mentioned.

[colourtones]

Like many others I would dig nabbing a TES(tape echo simulator). Considering the pursuit of delays that emulate the mighty Echoplex EP-2's people seem to fall into two camps.

Camp A: must be analog with correct circuit and magical bucket brigade chips.
Camp B: must be digital with correct circuit and lower bit processing rate(12 is the DD2)

I wrote a post a while back about my experience with the analog blue SIB Echodrive I am attaching. I have heard them mentioned a bit on this forum but far away from frequently. I won't gush on about how they are the best ever and nothing compares. As much as I hear about the EC, Moogerfooger, DMM, Maxon AD900, etc... I would think more folks would want to track one of these down and check it out. Here is what I previously posted:

I too am a delay/echo junkie. Started my journey 15 years ago with an original Deluxe Memory Man with transformer attached AC plug. I was not savvy enough to understand the potential of operating it or knowledgable/experienced enough to know the difference in bucket brigade chips. Keeping that in mind, it sounded excellent and probably had Panasonic MN3005's. I next went into an obsession with the EP-2 Green Tube Echoplexes. I had 4 at one time(yes 4) and 1 solid state EP-3. I loved the tone yet loathed the maintenance. I slowly sold them off and during that period obtained a Maxon AD900 with the 2 Panasonic MN3005's. It sounded very excellent and could be dialed in but never quite satisfied my tape echo ears. I sold it and bought a SIB Red digital Echodrive. That was truly incredible and a tweakers delight. As warm as it gets, from my experience (which does not include the rack Lexicon PCM-42) for digital delay/echo. A very fun pedal to cut the clock time in half or double with the switch(do they call it range?) on the side. This led me to find the ultra rare and elusive SIB Blue Echodrive. It sports 2 Panasonic MN3005 and a tube preamp(like the red). It has more than enough delay time on tap (at least 600ms) for most analog applications and fully satisfies my tape delay/echo needs. I have had 3 of these at different times and will always keep one.(which is all I have now) The diminishing echos are beautiful and the ability to alter the gain structure by substituting the 12AX7 with a 12AT7, 12AU7, etc.. makes this pedal the top rung of the ladder for me.

[SteveA]

Yeah, no digital delay i've ever tried has come as close to my sound than a real analog delay. But i've never tried the TES so i cant really comment on those. For me, I still miss my toneczar Hope donnel is enjoying it ! I'm probably gonna go out and get one soon.

[colourtones]

If we are only talking pedals, I too am firmly footed in camp A however......
There have been some lush digital rack delays made over the years. i.e. Lexicon PCM41, PCM42, PCM70 etc...

The three things the great sounding ones seem to have in common:
1. Excellent algorithms
2. Excellent modulation adjustments
3. Not too high a bit rate

The TES strikes me(from sound samples only unfortunately) as having these attributes. It is obviously highly tweeked. Especially in it's decay modulation.

Side note: Has anyone noticed the TES is not stereo? Any first hand info there?

DD2's, although having a nice decay for that circuit, just do not have that analog depth of modulation. But having said that(and not being a particular Boss fan in general) the DD2 pedal was quite a feat for that time in technology and at that price point.