The digital resurgence

[newpedals]

Hi!

It seems to me that older digital pedals and rack units are kinda trending. I saw an old rack unit going for lot of $$$ on a used marketplace.

Some observations:

1. People seem to love analog-voiced digital delays. Such people used to prefer analog delays earlier, which had BBD chips in them. While there are exceptions, the characteristic of such delays seems to be removal of highs, making it kind of sit unobtrusively in the mix. Analog delays suffered from issue of inability to handle gain sometimes. Analog-voiced digital delays don't have this issue. Many such pedals have looper and tap tempo modes, making it useful for practicing and sounding as similar to a recorded song as possible.

2. Some digital choruses seem to be less noisy than their analog counterparts.

3. Some people seem to prefer running digital phasers before the amp but after their dirt pedals. Although something analog like a Phase 90 is easier to tweak, some digital phasers can temporarily be used to sound like a wah making them more versatile.

 

[the swede]

Analog delays suffered from issue of inability to handle gain sometimes. Analog-voiced digital delays don't have this issue.

digital delays made to simulate analog delay sometimes actually simulate that “issue” to.
My Digitech Obscura is kinda an homage to different analog peculiarities. The degrade control there, changes different things depending on wich mode I chose. I mostly use it’s Lo-fi mode with tone backed off and degrade set to max, wich results in dark murky repeats that have texture (distortion maybe) to them.

Personally I like having one digital delay pedal with “analog” voicings or simulations. And one digital delay pedal that is pristine clean and basically repeats what’s feed into it. Both can then be used together for creative stuff.

 

[2112]

As an aside, there's a lot of variations in design & implementation with digital delays themselves.

Early digital delay line based delays (DDL's) employed analog feedback paths, filtering, emphasis/de-emphasis and companders to work around the limitations in analog/digital and digital/analog conversion. In turn they imparted unique sonic characteristics of their own. There's a a Strymon white paper worth reading here.

 

[gearJunkie]

I am still a huge fan of my Rocktron Intellifex and have a ridiculous ear-to-ear smile on my face when I fire it up in my Mesa Boogie Triaxis + 2:90 rig.

 

[the swede]

As an aside, there's a lot of variations in design & implementation with digital delays themselves.

Early digital delay line based delays (DDL's) employed analog feedback paths, filtering, emphasis/de-emphasis and companders to work around the limitations in analog/digital and digital/analog conversion. In turn they imparted unique sonic characteristics of their own. There's a a Strymon white paper worth reading here.

It’s interesting indeed. Many of the musicians I’m nerdy about specifically use the DD-3 “long chip” because of its artifacts or whatever it is.

 

[RGB]

Still using an Eleven Rack (with an IR loader for FOH) and still think it's great...I only use the Matchless patch, but it's a good one.

Just haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade, for my uses.

That Tone King Imperial preamp looks interesting though...

 

[newpedals]

It’s interesting indeed. Many of the musicians I’m nerdy about specifically use the DD-3 “long chip” because of its artifacts or whatever it is.

Boss DD-3 history – stinkfoot.se

stinkfoot.se

I have borrowed a DD-3 once, I don't remember the version. It's repeats did have kind of a low-fi quality, but my ears may have deceived me. It was simple and could be used when you needed a prominent delay.

 

[ChordInversion]

I never stopped liking basic digital pedals (though I certainly like analog ones as well). Groupthink is a plague.

 

[Blix]

I am still a huge fan of my Rocktron Intellifex and have a ridiculous ear-to-ear smile on my face when I fire it up in my Mesa Boogie Triaxis + 2:90 rig.
View attachment 43090

The Intellifex was a godsend back in the day when I was a broke 20-something, it was the only affordable multieffects unit that didn't ruin your base tone due to it being analog dry-through (as long as you kept Hush off).

 

[maguchi]

I got a analog one, but it gots tap tempo

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've never been that fussy about delay pedals. As long as it has a mix and preferably a tone control, it usually works for me. I really liked the L6 DL4 when it came out. Having the tape and analog options was cool, and they all sounded great imo.

 

[la szum]

I've never been that fussy about delay pedals. As long as it has a mix and preferably a tone control, it usually works for me. I really liked the L6 DL4 when it came out. Having the tape and analog options was cool, and they all sounded great imo.

Recording is one thing, and where the details matter. I have found my own persnickety ways
when playing live where often self-defeating. So much gets masked/lost in the mix. This
is especially the case with heavy-handed rooms where the room imparts its own character
to what you sound like to the audience.

 

[Funk Soul Brother]

As long as you don't sound like electrified cat, most audiences don't care...

If they feelz like dancin' + the singer is *hot*, they'll even overlook electrified cat sounds!

This is a scientifically proven fact...

 

[newpedals]

I got a analog one, but it gots tap tempo

View attachment 43162

I am guessing this is functionally similar to carbon copy deluxe (with the dedicated tap tempo footswitch). However, CC Deluxe had received a somewhat lukewarm response according to some info I read online because the knobs reacted differently than the "regular" non-tap tempo carbon copy which people were used to.

Usually when an analog delay has a tap tempo function, it's digitally controlled by a processor. "Analog heart, Digital brain" kind of a deal.

 

[maguchi]

I am guessing this is finctionally similar to carbon copy deluxe (with the dedicated tap tempo footswitch). However, CC Deluxe had received a somewhat lukewarm response according to some info I read online because the knobs reacted differently than the "regular" non-tap tempo carbon copy which people were used to.

Usually when an analog delay has a tap tempo function, it's digitally controlled by a processor. "Analog heart, Digital brain" kind of a deal.

I looked up the Carbon Copy Deluxe and it is analog technology with the delay circuit done with bucket brigade chips and I'm assuming the tap tempo is probly digital. The T-Rex does not use bucket brigade chips for delay. It is based on 1970s tape recorder technology like a old cassette tape recorder. In the pic to the left is a spare magnetic tape cassette for the pedal. It uses a couple electric motors a couple of magnetic recording and playback heads and a loop of magnetic tape that records your guitar signal and plays it back delayed. The tap tempo might be digital and similar to the Carbon Copy in that way. But I can't wrap my head around how tap tempo would work with electric motors, magnetic heads and recording tape. In practice it does work though.

 

[newpedals]

I looked up the Carbon Copy Deluxe and it is analog technology with the delay circuit done with bucket brigade chips and I'm assuming the tap tempo is probly digital. The T-Rex does not use bucket brigade chips for delay. It is based on 1970s tape recorder technology like a old cassette tape recorder. In the pic to the left is a spare magnetic tape cassette for the pedal. It uses a couple electric motors a couple of magnetic recording and playback heads and a loop of magnetic tape that records your guitar signal and plays it back delayed. The tap tempo might be digital and similar to the Carbon Copy in that way. But I can't wrap my head around how tap tempo wold work with electric motors, magnetic heads and recording tape. In practice it does work though.
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I enjoy reading about gear and electronics. I also admit that I don't understand such things.

As long as it's useful, everything is cool.

 

[newpedals]

I looked up the Carbon Copy Deluxe and it is analog technology with the delay circuit done with bucket brigade chips and I'm assuming the tap tempo is probly digital. The T-Rex does not use bucket brigade chips for delay. It is based on 1970s tape recorder technology like a old cassette tape recorder. In the pic to the left is a spare magnetic tape cassette for the pedal. It uses a couple electric motors a couple of magnetic recording and playback heads and a loop of magnetic tape that records your guitar signal and plays it back delayed. The tap tempo might be digital and similar to the Carbon Copy in that way. But I can't wrap my head around how tap tempo wold work with electric motors, magnetic heads and recording tape. In practice it does work though.
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This is interesting.

I have heard that tape delays required frequent maintainence. The "tape heads" needed to be properly cleaned for getting clean repeats.

Some digital pedals simulating them have dedicated controls to simulate a dirty tape/ head induced sound. Few pedals I heard seemed to have a low end roll off in the repeats, but they were inexpensive ones. I have not had opportunities to plug into real tape delays often, only heard sounds from pedals.

 

[laxu]

This is interesting.

I have heard that tape delays required frequent maintainence. The "tape heads" needed to be properly cleaned for getting clean repeats.

That's only if the goal is to get accurate reproduction. A well maintained tape deck would be pretty pristine sounding, which may come as a surprise for people used to tape delay pedals that typically emulate worn tapes.

I would imagine it would take quite a bit of use to make e.g the T-Rex unit sound very worn.

Some digital pedals simulating them have dedicated controls to simulate a dirty tape/ head induced sound. Few pedals I heard seemed to have a low end roll off in the repeats, but they were inexpensive ones. I have not had opportunities to plug into real tape delays often, only heard sounds from pedals.

Tape pedals can emulate things like splices in tape (e.g Strymon El Capistan), tape decks running at different speeds (e.g Strymon Deco), worn tape/heads (sounds darker), wow&flutter from inaccurate motion of the tape, distortion from driving the input too hard etc.

Pristine tape delays to me are kinda "meh". They sound fine, but don't do the interesting things I enjoy. I think digital solutions are the superior thing here because they can be whatever you want instead of what the actual hardware does.

 

[woody]

But I can't wrap my head around how tap tempo would work with electric motors, magnetic heads and recording tape. In practice it does work though.

On tape delays there's basically two ways to influence the delay time: head distance and tape speed.
I have an Echocord mini, where the playback head sits on a slider. Bringing the playback physically head closer to the recording head shortens the delay time and vice versa, while the tape always runs with the same speed.

On the other hand you could have a fixed head distance. Running the tape faster will result in shorter delay times, running tape slower will carry the recorded bits to the playback head in a longer time interval.
I guess that they calculate the necessary tape speed from the tap interval and control the motor speed accordingly.