Best Delays

I’ve owned a lot of high end delay pedals including a Timeline, El Capistan and an H9. I replaced them with a DD-500 when it came out and haven’t had any regrets.

The Timeline sounded amazing, but there’s “baked in” modulation on a lot of the algorithms that sounds a bit artificial for my taste. I prefer the “cleaner” — or maybe slightly more raw — base sound of the BOSS and lots of control over modulation via the ASSIGN slots.

The El Capistan is still my favorite tape-only delay pedal and I actually still have one. It’s really musical and the interface is dead simple. But the space echo algorithm on the DD-500 is in the same league and it’s more convenient (presets, separate L/R ins and outs) so I rarely the El Capistan any more.

Th H9 is brilliant but I didn’t love the delays and I’d rather have multiple effects boxes to run simultaneously at a lower price than multiple H9’s.

I think BOSS really killed it with the DD-500 (and the entire 500 series). It sounds fantastic, has a ton of modulation options, the LCD makes on-pedal editing pretty easy, it has full MIDI support, it can play two delays at the same time and it’s cheaper than most of the competition. It’s to find any faults with it as long as you like the sound of the algorithms.

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As I looked into the details the last time I saw that there is no real ping pong delay mode available in a few of the huge and expensive devices. (Note that a dual delay is something different). For me this is a no go.

As a guitarist I’ve been through a bunch. Proud owner of Moog 104 super delay, it’s sounds amazing and I paid a lot for it - home use only. Also have digitech obscura which I really like the sound of but don’t like the strum for tap tempo thing as it kills the signal. EQD dispatch master is a really nice sounding delay reverb i use.
Like the demos of the poly moon and I’m hit and miss with strymon.

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If it’s just the jacks that are crackling, then use some De-oxit spray and it should be good as new.

100 agree with this,
Although you kinda need to use the screen to really edit a patch.
For something much simpler I like the source audio stuff, no app, just twist the knobs and play.
The Meris stuff looks amazing too.
But yeah for ultimate flexiblity go boss 500 series. The MD 500 is amazing!

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What do you plan to do with your “broken” Timefactor?

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Another recommendation for the Digitech Obscura here on the more budget side of things. It really does sound great.

Francis, I think you’re talking about the TC Electronics Flashback with the Strum tempo, the Obscura has a normal tap tempo with the foot switch. I sold my Flashback for that reason.

I also have an H9 which I tend to use more for reverb, but the delays also sound amazing.

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I recommend either the OTO delay (name escapes me just now) or a Boss DD500.

I have had an eventide H9 Max for some years now, but ’m not feeling the sound quality anymore. I’d like to try one of the eventide heavyweights (H3000 and up) to hear if they exhibit the same sonic qualities… All the algos sound grainy and a bit dull somehow, comparing to my Boss DD500… In a way it feels like when I change fx algos on my H9, it still sounds like a H9, whereas when I change fx algos on the DD-500, they sound like different pedals, if that makes sense?

But YMMV as usual.

Had the timeline. Extremely feature rich and great sounding, but it was too much money for a delay pedal for me to keep it. And I mostly was switching presets.
Would love to have the el capistan, but decided to buy the obscura, which sounds really great for the price.
Also loving my old Boss RV3. Sound always reminds me of Radiohead’s Ok Computer.

The Delays I’m GASing most for are in Eurorack… The 4ms Delays and the new Strymon Magneto. But they are not cheap at all

Could anyone elaborate a bit more on the looper function of the Boss 500 delay? Since it have midi, does it quantize when the loop starts? I saw that for stereo is up to 60 seconds /48k resolution which is fine. Can you shorten the recorded loop while it playing (dj style - 1/2, 1/4 etc) In general - can you use it as a more or less fully capable looper besides the delay?

Many thanks!

Roland SDE330 is wicked!

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I just picked up a Korg sdd-1200 and it’s fantastic. 12 bit digital delay with tons of routing/cross mod options. I love those old rackmounts.

The 4ms tapographic delay has me gassing hard. Looking at building a small efx eurorack rig with a 4ms pod. Anyone have experience with the tapographic and recommend it. The new make noise one looks pretty sweet also.

I have a Meris Polymoon. It sounds pretty nice, but it’s a bit…unpredictable compared to a typical delay pedal. It can get way, way out there real quick. Also, if you sync to MIDI clock, you’ll need a MIDI I/O converter box, as the 1/4" expression input doubles as the MIDI jack.

I have noticed this with Polymoon as well. I think it’s by design, though. Still getting used to it myself, but I do like it.

I’m using a Strymon Volante right now. Love everything about it, including the lime green design.

There’s a couple of things it doesn’t do, though, which delay afficionados might expect. For what it is, it’s lovely, though.

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What are those things the Volante doesn´t do?

Barring that I maybe don’t have it all figured out yet, there are two things worth mentioning -

There’s no high pass on the delay. You can’ get those thin but long tails that sort of become an ambience on their own.

And classic ping pong delay isn’t a given. You can get it there, but it might not be the ping pong you’re looking for.

But who cares? It has four tape heads. That’s almost like the hydra of delays😎

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Thx. A high pass filter is actually something I’d really miss :thinking:
Hmm…have to check the manual. From the demos I’ve heard it really sounds amazing…

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It’s lovely, for sure. Also, I’m new to it, so I could be wrong.