Delay units

notbillcosby · Post by **notbillcosby** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:27 pm

I'm finally in a spot where I can start doing more stuff away from the computer; I have a couple patch bays finally set up, so I can mix my DAW sessions on my Toft, and have been really enjoying my Tascam 388 lately and would like to get into more OTB mixing. I need a good delay! Mixing off the DAW, I wind up using the board for summing more than anything, but mixing off of the Tascam means I don't have the luxury of plugins for effects. I see so much talk online about compressors and mic pres, but man, no one talks about what outboard delay units they use! I'd like something analog, but if that's out of the question, good-sounding digital is fine. My only worry there, is if I'm mixing on the computer, I have PLENTY of good digital delays in VST country. If I'm going outboard, I might as well keep it analog. Right?

What's everyone use for delay? Stereo would be awesome, especially if it could be used as two independent monos as well... Show me some options. Open up my eyes and ears!

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:33 pm

Roland RE201 Space Echo is the bee's knees!

signorMars · Post by **signorMars** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:42 pm

Deltalab (original company, not the current Deltalab, which has nothing to do with the old company) Effectron. I have the ADM1064 Effectron and it is amazing.

standup · Post by **standup** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:51 pm

I had a Yamaha analog delay for a few years that was fun. Ibanez, I think, had some funky delay/octave rack boxes in the 80s. What about multi-purpose TC Lexicon or Alesis reverb/FX boxes that do delay as well? Certainly cheap and available.

notbillcosby · Post by **notbillcosby** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:15 pm

I suppose I should've asked if anyone has sound clips to demo any of this stuff for me...

Is the Space Echo stereo? I always thought it was mono. Also, I've seen some of those weirdo Ibanez rack units from the 70s/80s... I always assumed those were for guitar. Also, I'm new to interfacing outboard gear with other outboard gear... If it's for guitar, will it be able to deal with whatever level of signal it'd be getting from an Aux Send or an insert? I've tried using pedals here and there as aux sends and it seems to react weirdly... I have to keep the volume going into the pedal real low (understandably) and then the output winds up being lower than I want it to be. I'm assuming this is because those are made for an unamplified signal going in and an Aux Send is hotter than that, and since there's no guitar amp after it in the signal chain, that's why it's too quiet on the way back in. Am I righ?

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:31 pm

signorMars wrote:Deltalab (original company, not the current Deltalab, which has nothing to do with the old company) Effectron. I have the ADM1064 Effectron and it is amazing.

+1

I own a Deltalab Super Timeline, and it absolutely rocks. Delay plus an LFO modulation. Sounds awesome slapping a vocal or feeding into a spring reverb, or just to give an guitar some mojo. To me the deltalab stuff of that era (late 70's-mid 80's) seems to personify digital delay with an analog feel.

And yes they do make a stereo effectron....however it's not dual mono...so the controls effect both channels.

You may be hard pressed to find a rack unit that is dual mono. Maybe the old MXR stuff....i seem to remember a 2RU delay that had either dual mono, or a built in fully parametric eq....not sure which one it was.

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 4:59 pm

signorMars wrote:Deltalab (original company, not the current Deltalab, which has nothing to do with the old company) Effectron. I have the ADM1064 Effectron and it is amazing.

+2. I have an Effectron 2 that gets used on every mix. I also use a lot of tape delay. I have a Tascam 3 head cassette with veri-speed that is on permanent slap-back duty as well as a WEM Copicat and my Otari 5050 2 track that often get used for the same job. I also have a crappy old Yamaha R100 1/2 rack reverb that has a very decent and usable stereo delay (which is great for making a stereo reverb out of a mono send from the spring or plate).

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:27 pm

I have a ton of delay options, and I use the effectron II (1024) with a jensen output transformer I put on the output, more than any other single delay in my studio... including a bunch of tape echoes, an SDE3000, a PCM42, and a bunch of others.
I wind up using the effectron because the tone is awesome and the face is so simple and easy to dial in what I want in like 1 second.

notbillcosby · Post by **notbillcosby** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 10:37 pm

Man, that's hard to deny. Sounds like I should be looking for a Deltalab or two!

Dr Rubberfunk · Post by **Dr Rubberfunk** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:02 am

Don't know how you feel about modeling hardware, but I've seen and heard people doing amazing things with the Line6 DL4, both live and in the studio. They've been making them since 2000 too, so there ought to be a few second hand models floating about if you fancied experimenting ...

Recycled_Brains · Post by **Recycled_Brains** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:25 am

I use a Deluxe Memory Man and/or Fulltone Tube Tape Echo.

Sounds like I need to get an effectron though.

ofajen · Post by **ofajen** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:47 pm

I use an MXR Digital Time Delay. For a long time (over 20 years) I had a blue face MXR delay, but it got fried and I haven't managed to get it fixed, so I picked up this other unit. What I miss on the blue face unit was the option to modulate at audio frequencies, though that is more of a tracking/tone generation thing, not usually a mixdown mode for the thing. Still this one sounds good. Perhaps too good, the low sample rates for longer delay times was one of the best features of the blue face model.

Cheers,

Otto

CedarSound · Post by **CedarSound** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:37 pm

I have a 70's Echoplex that I use all the time, but my friend has a Roland Space Echo, and I love that thing...

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:05 pm

EFFECTRON!
Another one of the pieces of gear I need to get back in my rack. They have a high freq roll off that really works well in mixes. Also the way the repeats deteriorate sounds much more natural to my ears than any VST/AU I have used. IIRC the Deltalab effectrons use a different kind of digital audio math that makes them more akin to analog bucket brigade delays than to other digital delays. Also, the inputs have a nice crunchy limiter on them. And they do a good chorus/flange as well. Albeit, in mono.
Also gotta second the notion, these things are a breeze to use. no menus, no cryptic hidden modes. Knob, knob, knob, button, button button, knob, knob.
I mean, uh, they suck. They break. They make you sound like Milli vanilli!
(we gotta stop talking about these before the prices blow up!)

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