Retiring the Line 6 DL4. Other Delay options with Tap Tempo?

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

User avatar
Jeff White
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3263
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Retiring the Line 6 DL4. Other Delay options with Tap Tempo?

Post by Jeff White » Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:36 am

Hey everyone. I've been getting back into playing in bands and rebuilding a guitar rig for live performance. Figure that I'd ask some questions regarding the new analog or hybrid delays available out there. I'd love to ditch and sell my Line 6 DL4. It's footprint is way too large and to be honest I've never loved the thing.

Anyway, I would like to hear some feedback about some boutique delay pedals available out there today. Tap tempo is definitely a requirement. Not sure is this is an issue regarding analog delays, but I want to have a little more control over tempo "sync" when playing live. Any advice is appreciated!

Jeff

PS...Yes my Echoplex is awesome but needs work!
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

User avatar
ulriggribbons
steve albini likes it
Posts: 398
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:50 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by ulriggribbons » Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:20 am

The empress vintage superdelay sounds really good. Worth checking out.

ju

User avatar
Jeff White
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3263
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by Jeff White » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:18 pm

http://www.empresseffects.com/vintage-m ... delay.html

Holy crap! It's twice my budget but that thing looks amazing.

Jeff
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

User avatar
roygbiv
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 703
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 6:02 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by roygbiv » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:20 pm

I dig my Boss RE-20 (Space Echo clone)

The tap temp function works great - its the pedal on the right, you can tap the tempo of the echo before you engage it with the pedal on teh left.

Its no Space Echo, but is similar, and is a reliable Boss pedal. You can wrangle some cool sounds out if it, especially if you change the delay rate in the middle of an echo, you get the nice tape warbly thing

Things that suck: no true bypass, controls your volume, and you have to use a separate 18V power supply for it to sound good.

Image

EDIT: NOTE - As pointed out below, the RE-20 does not need 18V (not sure where I came up with that, really). Indeed, a normal 9V power supply will work.

HOWEVER, the reason I mentioned a power supply at all is that it works best with a dedicated/isolated power supply - or you can get swhooshy background noise stuff going on. They warned me about that when I bought it, but I ignored them at first. Sure enough, without the power supply I got the swooshy sound. So now I just power it with its own power supply (which is NOT an 18V tho'!).

Here is a link discussing that same issue:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=443956
Last edited by roygbiv on Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

User avatar
terryb
pushin' record
Posts: 217
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:31 pm
Location: portland

Post by terryb » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:15 pm

I want to try the re20 with vox sometime. I bet it could do some neat stuff

User avatar
Stablenet
ass engineer
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:46 am

Post by Stablenet » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:21 pm

Another vote for the RE20. The differences between it and a real tape machine are pretty much imperceivable in a live setting.

Works wonderfully. Smaller than the Line 6 and works better all the way around, unless you need the looper on the DL4.
You get the bonus of reverb as well.

Doesn't use 18v, which is hard to find, it runs of 9v. You probably shouldn't chain it, bit just as well, you should isolate your power anyway.

The Empress is nice, and I'll throw in a big vote for the Strymon El Capistan. Well built, beautiful stuff.


-A
Alex Maiolo
Carrboro/Chapel Hill, NC
My studio is Seriously Adequate

spiffychap
audio school
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:00 am

Post by spiffychap » Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:37 pm

Stablenet wrote:Another vote for the RE20. The differences between it and a real tape machine are pretty much imperceivable in a live setting.

Works wonderfully. Smaller than the Line 6 and works better all the way around, unless you need the looper on the DL4.
You get the bonus of reverb as well.

Doesn't use 18v, which is hard to find, it runs of 9v. You probably shouldn't chain it, bit just as well, you should isolate your power anyway.

The Empress is nice, and I'll throw in a big vote for the Strymon El Capistan. Well built, beautiful stuff.


-A
Yeah, I'd look into the Strymon. I have multiple real tape echoes and the Strymon is the closest. It is kind of too much with it's very calculated tape warble and fluttering, but it is a very great pedal. It also has spring reverb and is capable of boosting your signal.

Tim A
gettin' sounds
Posts: 116
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 1:26 am

Post by Tim A » Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:58 pm

hey

i did the same thin earlier this year (only my DL4 died :()

i replaced it with an EHX memory man deluxe. the delay itself is al analouge apart from the tap circuit i believe. Its sounds pretty great and its super easy to use. Im a fan

User avatar
jgimbel
carpal tunnel
Posts: 1688
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:51 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by jgimbel » Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:59 pm

I've been looking at the El Capistan lately. I think it'd be a very valuable tool in the studio since it has control over such insanely specific things (as spiffychap mentioned). It seems like it'd be great live too if you found settings that were ones you wanted to kind of stick with more. Maybe not as ideal if you want to be going super knob crazy, unless you want to be REALLY specific in your knob craziness.

Before I saw the El Capistan, the RE20 was the main one on my list. Great to see people here liking it, makes me think a bit less twice about it than I had been. Either pedal seems like it'd be great. The RE20 definitely seems like it'd be nice live.
My first new personal album in four years - pay what you want - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

llmonty
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 661
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 10:17 am
Location: richmond, va

Post by llmonty » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:21 am

I have been looking too at the strymon - they are also coming out w some super deluxe timeline. For live I use a boss dd-7. I think it sounds a ton better than the dl4 which I still use for looping. Good for knob twiddling. Tap tempo really needs ancexternal tap switch which you can plug in
richmond is a really cool town - supafuzz

User avatar
Jeff White
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3263
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by Jeff White » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:42 am

Let me also add that I've been using and LOVE using tape echoes in the studio. Reamping through them, printing the wet tracks. My Echoplex EP-3 has finally gotten to the point that it needs to be seriously serviced, so I can't use it in the studio for vocals, guitars, etc. As much as I am looking for a new delay for my guitar rig, I'd also love to have something that I can use in the studio to, for now, replace the EP-3.

Anyway, the El Capistan sounds killer. The A/D and D/A converters are 24-bit / 96K, there is a dedicated permanently analog path (dry) that gets blended with the wet signal in the analog domain(MIX), I love the modes and tape degradation possibilities. Tap Tempo. And there is the save switch (additional $50) for a preset. The Empress Vintage Modified Super Delay sounds great too, but the El Capistan seems way more vibey to me...for $150 less.

Keep 'em coming. I'm really enjoying the research!

Jeff
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

User avatar
ulriggribbons
steve albini likes it
Posts: 398
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:50 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by ulriggribbons » Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:21 am

That's the danger in starting/participating in threads like these.

I'm going to have to check out the El Capistan as well =)

ju

User avatar
Jeff White
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3263
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Post by Jeff White » Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:59 am

http://www.strymon.net/products/elcapistan/

I think that I am going to buy this thing. It sounds killer and is super tweakable. I love the small footprint, tap, expression pedal input, audio paths, etc. I'll use it all of the time in the studio, too.

Gotta put a list of stuff together that I want to sell to pay for this and the Fulltone GT-500 that I just picked up to replace my Tubescreamers.

Jeff
I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

User avatar
austingreen
gimme a little kick & snare
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2007 5:34 pm
Location: santa clara, ca

Post by austingreen » Fri Jun 24, 2011 12:41 pm

I've had the opposite reaction to my El Capistan as almost everyone else. It's sounds very sterile and not vibey at all for me but too prestine sounding... And at the same time i've had problems with subtle noise using it with a lots of other pedals, daisy chained or not. I've tried to use it on vocals while recording a few times with two different bands and got the, "eh, not feeling it" response, and once described as it sounds like a boss reverb/delay pedal. As a lover of all things analog delay this was not a vote of confidence for me. The looper section is also not, i dont know, ...fun I guess and i love loopers. I'm not giving up on it yet because of all the love it gets. i just must not be finding my sweet spots yet, it is deep. Also i dont own or use any real tape echos so i dont know how it compares to the real things, i just know it lost its place on my main board.
To give some perspective, delays I do like are the analogman delay, my (older big box reissue) EHX DMM, my two new effectrons, a I and a III. None do tap as the OP requested, the analogman is suppose to have a addon that will have tap but it's been awhile since they said that. Does anybody know how the newer DMM's sound compared to the older ones?

Side note: I did not like GT500, again sterile & no mojo, and its one of the few pedals i've sold. please hold on to your tubescreamers for a bit until convinced.

User avatar
joninc
dead but not forgotten
Posts: 2099
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2003 5:02 pm
Location: canada
Contact:

Post by joninc » Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:20 pm

no love for the diamond memory lane?
the new rules : there are no rules

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 65 guests