STRYMON OLIVERA VINTAGE OIL CAN ECHO

[- ★ - BROCKSTAR - ★ -]

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Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo - Strymon

Olivera precisely captures the dark and warbly character of vintage oil can delays — mechanical, fluid, and unmistakably unique.

www.strymon.net

 

[sashimi]

Nice, I had a feeling this was going to be an oil can delay. This is the kind of weird modulation I can get into, if I didn’t already have so many different types of wobble on my board.

 

[holoholo]

Strymon milking another delay pedal

 

[QQQ]

Sounds great. Not for me, but another cool Strymon product.

 

[laxu]

Sounds nice! Not for me either.

 

[Whizzinby]

In to celebrate the release of another Pete Celi deep dive video premiere.

 

[david57strat]

Sounds interesting. Not sure if it's a pedal I'm anxious to pick up, at this time, though.

Maybe later on down the road...?

I felt entirely differently about Celi's deep dive demonstration of the DIG. By the time I was through viewing that video, I knew I had to have one.

Same with the El Capistan :-).

 

[Aleksi]

You know they're just dropping these pedals while working on the Timeline MX. I'm not interested in this pedal, but the algorithm as part of the Timeline MX? Why not!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Adding this one to the ol' Christmas wish list.

 

[synthpenguin]

Seems cool. I think I'd go with the OBNE Black Fountain Stereo, as I prefer its sound for how I'd use it even if it's possibly less "realistic", but this size is pretty nice.

 

[sashimi]

I don’t know how I feel about the fixed delay times. So the first repeat can be as fast as you want it to be, but subsequent repeats are fixed to one of two delay times. I get that it’s a quality of the real unit and I could see it being cool for certain things, but it would also be nice to be able to make it act like a regular delay as an option. I guess this is why there’s no tap tempo. Also it seems like there’s no way to get one single repeat? Accuracy to a fault almost but still seems cool.

 

[david57strat]

I don’t know how I feel about the fixed delay times. So the first repeat can be as fast as you want it to be, but subsequent repeats are fixed to one of two delay times. I get that it’s a quality of the real unit and I could see it being cool for certain things, but it would also be nice to be able to make it act like a regular delay as an option. I guess this is why there’s no tap tempo. Also it seems like there’s no way to get one single repeat? Accuracy to a fault almost but still seems cool.

Fixed delay repeat times?

What?

That makes no sense, whatsoever. What kind of a delay pedal can only produce two fixed repeat times?

If this is true, that takes it off of my potential wish list permanently.

I can live without an oil can delay.

 

[sashimi]

Fixed delay repeat times?

What?

That makes no sense, whatsoever. What kind of a delay pedal can only produce two fixed repeat times?

If this is true, that takes it off of my potential wish list permanently.

I can live without an oil can delay.

According to the 3rd video posted in the OP, yes, unless I misunderstood. The first repeat is set by the time knob but after that they repeat at one of two fixed intervals determined by the drum speed.

Maybe someone else should watch the demo and tell me if I’m wrong, I watched it yesterday, I could be mistaken.

 

[synthpenguin]

My understanding (which could totally be wrong or incomplete!) is...

The switch chooses between the active play head: short, long, or both. "Short" selects the play head that is closer to the record head for shorter delay times, "long" selects the play head that is further from the record head for longer delay times, and "both" uses both play heads (like a multitap mode). This isn't too dissimilar from some of the other Strymon delays.

The big difference is that there is the "decaying static charge", which is basically an always-present repeat with a fixed regen amount—its feedback is always on and is separate from the main regen control, which controls the feedback of the selected play head(s). So, in practice it's more like a third play head that has a fixed feedback amount (and possibly different filtering?)

The rate of all three (both playheads and the static charge repeats) are controlled by the "time" control, which simulates changing the drum's rotational speed, with a range of 72ms to 290ms for the short play head, 155 to 620ms for the long play head, and 200ms to 800ms for the static charge repeats.

So it's true that the ratio between these three is not directly controllable, but it's all tied to the time knob, and designed in such a way so as to create atmosphere and a reverb-like effect (especially with the main regen control turned up). I'd think of it sort of like a golden ratio delay mode where it's part of the effect rather than something you'd directly control.

It would be cool to have the direct control as an alt option, but that's maybe a different delay effect, like something closer to a normal multi-head tape delay. The OBNE Black Fountain Stereo then would probably be perfect, because it's basically a two head tape delay, with both heads having independent time controls, and without the static discharge thing, but with the wonky "fluid" modulation, and a diffusion control that can add in some of that ambience the static discharge is supposed to give. It also adds tap tempo and subdivisions, and a clipping control.

The more I look at both, I like them both! If comparing the Black Fountain Stereo to the Strymon stuff, I'd see it more as an El Capistan competitor that has a murkier texture but is similarly flexible, while the Olivera is a very specific effect that, for a lot of people, might be better off as a single mode on a larger pedal... but is going to be absolutely perfect as an almost-always-on for others.