What do you want from a delay or reverb pedal?
- Thread starter Orvillain
- Start date
Mikael Dez
Rock Star
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- 2,588
An SPDIF in and out
I’m not trying to do more AD/DA conversions that necessarysynthpenguin
Roadie
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- 296
Presets, and the ability to seamlessly blend between two (either via expression input / MIDI or by holding an A/B footswitch)
slip
Groupie
- Messages
- 35
basically what everybody wants: love and affection.
first I need to delay to delay the sound and then I need the reverb to reverberate the sound.
jellodog
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,071
@Orvillain I guess I'm a bit of a delay freak.
I am very predictably going to say that the kind of delays I want must have the most glorious modulation, and that modulation should sound great in both mono and stereo.
Also, I don't want to have to adjust dotted 8ths myself and like a bit of math help in that department.
Low cut / hi cut options is also welcomed. Especially low cut so I can avoid muddiness in my repeats.
And then I demand high quality signal processing and dry thru. Yes there are already a lot of delay offerings out there; but it's frustrating that so many of them mess with dry tone and degrade it or use a cheap-ass chip with a low sample rate.
I am very predictably going to say that the kind of delays I want must have the most glorious modulation, and that modulation should sound great in both mono and stereo.
Also, I don't want to have to adjust dotted 8ths myself and like a bit of math help in that department.
Low cut / hi cut options is also welcomed. Especially low cut so I can avoid muddiness in my repeats.
And then I demand high quality signal processing and dry thru. Yes there are already a lot of delay offerings out there; but it's frustrating that so many of them mess with dry tone and degrade it or use a cheap-ass chip with a low sample rate.
Last edited:
Progressive_disclosure
Roadie
- Messages
- 275
I want it to have the controls accessible. No mandatory app, no internal trims or other hidden shenanigans.
And always support dry through. I want to be able to plug in pedals and stuff without my signal going through conversions. Doesn’t matter how good the A/D and D/A is, I have modelers and plugins for that. Just add the wetness to it.
And then what everyone else said!
And always support dry through. I want to be able to plug in pedals and stuff without my signal going through conversions. Doesn’t matter how good the A/D and D/A is, I have modelers and plugins for that. Just add the wetness to it.
And then what everyone else said!
laxu
Rock Star
- Messages
- 7,673
I want to see more delay + reverb pedals. The best on the market is still the SA Collider, and everything else is a less capable or worse sounding thing. Unfortunately the delays on the Collider are not as good as its reverbs, so it can't be my one and only delay pedal.
For delay, there's one delay type that is always above others to me: tape delay. I don't really care for distorted tape sounds, but I love wow&flutter modulation, aging the tape etc and the overall sound of tape delay. For multi-head tape delay, there's no better than the Strymon Volante because it's so easy to mess with the tape head playback/feedback combinations.
For reverb, the type I use the most is plate reverb. Throw some modulation with that and it's lovely. After that, hall and room reverbs are something I use and spring is "meh". But I get its popularity so a multi-type without spring reverb might seem like an odd duck unless it's a specialty reverb ala Strymon Nightsky.
I use the SA Collider with my BluGuitar rig for reverb and it's the right amount of complexity for me. Ventris is too much - too many options, too many things buried under the hood. I use the plate reverb on clean/edge of breakup tones the most, and switch to room for higher gain.
I use the Strymon Flint V2 with my Mesa Mark V "big rig" and love the Flint for its straightforward simplicity. It always blends in with the sound instead of overpowering it. I think it could benefit from being able to become brighter, but otherwise I have few complaints about it. Perfect meat-and-potatoes pedal.
I don't care for super complex delays/reverbs like the Meris X series. The UI is not great and you quickly end up in the weeds with it. I liked the Strymon Nightsky because the majority of its functions could be accessed with a dedicated knob or button so it's fun to experiment.
For hardware features, I think separate stereo 1/4" in/out jacks are ideal, but for compact I'm ok with the Strymon TRS input + mono/stereo toggle switch approach.
For MIDI I'd go with 1/8" TRS jacks today unless the pedal can fit 5-pin DIN jacks.
I like Source Audio's approach to presets where you can easily cycle them and have a few LEDs for indicators up to 8 presets. It's a good compromise when there's no screen.
I like Eventide's approach to 2nd layer functions: Dedicated button to toggle between main and alt layers, with dimmer labels under controls for the secondary functions.
If I were to build a delay + reverb pedal, it would most likely be a bit larger (maybe a bit smaller than Volante) to be able to fit maybe 4 knobs per side. That way you don't run into the Collider's stupidity where for either effect, the knobs never point at the actual settings because you need to flick between the sides.
Alternative if it has a screen, I'd say 4-5 encoders with a screen showing the values. I think the IK X-series design is actually pretty good, the big mistake of the design is using 0-10 style encoders instead of infinite rotaries and showing the actual values on the screen at all times.
For delay, there's one delay type that is always above others to me: tape delay. I don't really care for distorted tape sounds, but I love wow&flutter modulation, aging the tape etc and the overall sound of tape delay. For multi-head tape delay, there's no better than the Strymon Volante because it's so easy to mess with the tape head playback/feedback combinations.
For reverb, the type I use the most is plate reverb. Throw some modulation with that and it's lovely. After that, hall and room reverbs are something I use and spring is "meh". But I get its popularity so a multi-type without spring reverb might seem like an odd duck unless it's a specialty reverb ala Strymon Nightsky.
I use the SA Collider with my BluGuitar rig for reverb and it's the right amount of complexity for me. Ventris is too much - too many options, too many things buried under the hood. I use the plate reverb on clean/edge of breakup tones the most, and switch to room for higher gain.
I use the Strymon Flint V2 with my Mesa Mark V "big rig" and love the Flint for its straightforward simplicity. It always blends in with the sound instead of overpowering it. I think it could benefit from being able to become brighter, but otherwise I have few complaints about it. Perfect meat-and-potatoes pedal.
I don't care for super complex delays/reverbs like the Meris X series. The UI is not great and you quickly end up in the weeds with it. I liked the Strymon Nightsky because the majority of its functions could be accessed with a dedicated knob or button so it's fun to experiment.
For hardware features, I think separate stereo 1/4" in/out jacks are ideal, but for compact I'm ok with the Strymon TRS input + mono/stereo toggle switch approach.
For MIDI I'd go with 1/8" TRS jacks today unless the pedal can fit 5-pin DIN jacks.
I like Source Audio's approach to presets where you can easily cycle them and have a few LEDs for indicators up to 8 presets. It's a good compromise when there's no screen.
I like Eventide's approach to 2nd layer functions: Dedicated button to toggle between main and alt layers, with dimmer labels under controls for the secondary functions.
If I were to build a delay + reverb pedal, it would most likely be a bit larger (maybe a bit smaller than Volante) to be able to fit maybe 4 knobs per side. That way you don't run into the Collider's stupidity where for either effect, the knobs never point at the actual settings because you need to flick between the sides.
Alternative if it has a screen, I'd say 4-5 encoders with a screen showing the values. I think the IK X-series design is actually pretty good, the big mistake of the design is using 0-10 style encoders instead of infinite rotaries and showing the actual values on the screen at all times.
