Favourite Delay pedal?

[CelticDude]

Hello everyone,

As Musician's Friend has dropped the price on the MXR Carbon Copy, and Amazon has it even cheaper, I'm being tempted by an MXR Carbon Copy. However, a little research brought up the Malekko Ekko 616 as a comparable choice. Does anyone here have experience with either pedal?

Then I think to myself, "Self, wouldn't a cheap digital pedal like the Behringer, or a Rogue or DeltaLab, do what you want at a fraction of the cost?" This brings me to the next question - why is analog better than digital? It's supposedly warmer, and YouTube demos show this, but shouldn't the warmth come from your instrument/amp rather than a delay pedal? The delay should just repeat in fun and funky ways?

So what are people here using for a delay pedal?

Thanks, DWP

[Tom Wright]

One reason to choose analog is the much lower current use, i.e. batteries last much longer. But an analog delay will sound "warm" because it loses fidelity with each repeat. If you want the retro effect of repeated echoes going all squirrely, go analog.

If you just want useful echo, digital is fine. It can go to arbitrarily long delays, which analog can't, ditto infinite repeat or hold. I have a Boss DD-3, eats battery but I use an AC adapter. I have analog distortion and chorus.

[rico mando]

Pedals take a beating . if you use it on stage a lot it may be in your best interest to go with something sturdy and reliable .

[CelticDude]

Tom - Thanks for the analog/digital explanation. You were much clearer than anything I found on the guitar fora.

Rico - Point taken on reliability. However, at this point all my gigs are acoustic (I do threaten to pull out the electric at a contra dance. Some of the purists would have a total conniption. Which may be more reason to do it...)

I did go with the Behringer DD400. At under $30 it's hard to not try it. The reviews say it sounds pretty good, although are mixed on QC (seems to be true of Behringer in general.) At some point in the future, if I like what delay does for me, I'll get a better pedal.

Thanks

[Ben Milne]

I use an electro-harmonix memory man with hazerai.
It does so many different things so well that I haven't gone looking for other delays. I guess that means it's my favourite.

[Christian McKee]

Sounds like the OP mostly has this taken care of already. Buuuuut... I find the first question to answer is what do you want delay to do for you - be a short, relatively fast shadow sound to thicken up the instrument? Or longer, clearer trails that clearly become an element in the music in and of themselves? Analog pedals generally sound better for the former, digital pedals generally function better for the latter, assuming you're not getting an actual tape delay unit. If you can find one for under $1,000 (not a typo) the recently out of production Moog delay moogerfooger is an analog unit that has much of the adjustability and functionality of a digital unit. And it sounds GREAT. I play with a Line 6 echo park, because it has the very best tap tempo setup I've ever encountered, and I value that very highly, but it's not the greatest sounding thing ever...

[CelticDude]

taboot,

I'm not quite sure what I want, but the second sounds more like what I imagine. So starting off with a digital may not have been such a bad idea? (And yes, I've already ordered the thing, knowing it's a cheapo pedal.)

Ben,
I did research the EH Memory Man. Seems like a close choice, based on reviews and sound clips, if I go analog someday.

Again, thanks everyone for the clear explanations.

[Verne Andru]

Digital delays can and do sound quite good.

What they call "analog" delays use "bucket brigade" chips that are [to my knowledge] no longer made ~ although I vaguely recall somebody thinking of tooling up for another production run. Regardless, supply and demand tends to make pedals based on these more expensive. Bucket brigade chips suffer from lack of headroom and can sound pretty bad when pushed but do tend to sound "warm" when operating below their distortion threshold.

One of my fave delays is a digital model I made a number of years ago. It's based on a digital chip that sounds awesome and is used in many commercially available delays. I have a couple "analog" delays that also sound good.

What I'm trying to say is the all analog argument doesn't tend to stand up to real-world scrutiny outside the "purist" community. If you find a digital version that sounds good, has the features you want and is priced right, then go for it. For the record, I design for an analog boutique effects company.

[Polecat]

I haven't used it in a long time, but in the days that I used a lot of effects, I loved the Ibanez PDM1. Apart from the delay (goes to 1000ms, as I recall), it has modulation features meaning that you can program your own phaser, flanger and chorus sounds. I was playing in a jazz fusion band at the time and used it a lot in combination with a volume pedal to produce organ-like effects.

[CelticDude]

As a follow-up, I did receive the Behringer DD400 delay pedal on Halloween. The pedal sounds pretty good, and does everything I'd want it to, plus a couple things I had no idea about. (My 12-year old guitar-playing son figured out the Hold, for example.) I agree that it's cheaply made, and an all metal one would be better, but for banging around at home, it's a good deal at $30.

Ironically, it arrived a couple of days into a week-long power outage, so I had to wait to try it.

[Barry Wilson]

to me, unless it's a tape delay, it's digital...

[Charlieshafer]

to me, unless it's a tape delay, it's digital...

Well, I agree, yet I don't have the bucks for THIS ONE. At least Fulltone still makes one that seems to be a lot more reliable than the old echoplex, among others.