Review - Electro Harmonix 16 Second Delay

Firstly, this review is looking at the pedal from a looping point of view. It is a delay pedal but the reissue was brought out with looping in mind (with 4 minutes possible recording time) and superseded by the four-track 2880. There is an external footswitch (that I don't have) but the pedal itself has three stomp switches; bypass, play and record. One input, one output and one MIDI out. The MIDI out is extremely useful as it can be used to send its MIDI clock out to a drum machine/click track that the band can use to sync up their playing to the loops created. Now to the looping...

This pedal works on the looping principle of pre-allocating the bar length of your loop-to-be. Unlike the Boss RC pedals and the DL-4 where the lengths are triggered by a loop-start stomp and loop-end stomp, the 16 Second Delay requires you to preset the number of bars you wish your loop to be. The record switch is stomped once to activate recording and will automatically end your loop after the number of bars you programmed in. The length of the bars vary from 1 to 32+. This is controlled by the COARSE slider and the tempo is controlled by the FINE slider.

There are three functional modes; single loop (S), continuous (C) and short delay. The (S) mode starts playback after one loop of pre-determined bars. To record you must hit the record switch again. (C) mode starts overdub mode after one loop. This means playback starts however record is still on so you can 'continuously' add onto the original loop. Click record again to go from overdub to playback. Short delay mode is the straight delay mode with the FEEDBACK slider controlling the... feedback.

There are two modes for the control of the FINE slider; tempo (T) and pitch (P). (T) changes the tempo of the loop in playback without affecting the pitch. (P) affects the tempo AND the pitch. This mode is useful in getting a good octave up and down sound in your loop. However you must originally play in double/half speed to be applicable to your song. One of my songs has the loop at a slow tempo and using the (T) setting I slowly increase the original loop to double speed over a few minutes as the volume and layers add on top ... pretty fkn' cool. Also, I believe the external FC has an 'OCTAVE' switch that allows you to play either up and down by hitting the switch before or after the loop is played.

Modulation can be added to the loop with the use of the SPEED and DEPTH sliders. Again, the external FC has a 'SWEEP' switch that when pressed adds either chorus/flange/vibrato to your signal. The pedal alone allows modulation to your pre-recorded loop, not your guitar signal (like the OCTAVE setting). A REV/FWD switch on the pedal allows you to flip loops in reverse and overdub on them. This is also controlled by a stompswitch on the FC.

Other sliders include FEEDBACK (controls the number of repeats of loops), CLIX level (next paragraph), EFFECT OUT, DRY OUT and INPUT GAIN. These three sliders are terrific in providing very finite control in making sure your guitar tone and level are the same when bypassed or not. If you spend some time setting this up correctly you can leave it on at all times (DSP bypass) instead of hitting the looper out all the time (BYPASS stomp switch = TRUE BYPASS). The three slider setting is then transferable no matter what volume your amp is set but differs when you change amps (obviously, but thought I'd state it). The clarity of the 16 Second Delay is the best of the few loopers I have used and I think this is attributed to the control of the last three sliders.

... and the pedal has three vents - WTF?

But the main negative of the pedal is the CLIX system. The looping is counted in with a four count and then the duration of the loop has a CLIX sound to keep you in time (as well as some blinking LEDs to indicate tempo and start bar). This is the divider amongst users. 90% of people hate this count-in and time keeper and I am one of them. The original count in can be modded out and later reissues came without it, but alas mine has it. This CLIX system makes it extremely tough to play in a live setting as your drummer needs to follow this or else it falls to shit. I like playing with a drum machine so it's not so bad for me but if you are trying to set-up some ambient loop with a metronome clicking away, everyone will be disappointed. It does go away in play-back but it's still an unattractive. This is where the two-stomp system (Boss, Line6) wins over the EHX but I have found a way to do it!

If you set the pedal to (C) continuous mode, (T) tempo mode, slide up the FINE to the max 32+, FEEDBACK slider to max and CLIX LEVEL to min/zero you have a two-stomp system. Hit RECORD and the count-in starts (or not if you are fortunate), then recording begins without the metronome clicking. Disregard the flashing LEDs. When you have finished your loop, hit PLAY and your loop begins playback. If you want to OVERDUB hit RECORD on/off when you feel. This way your band can play along to the recorded loop, not a hard-to-hear metronome. This loop can be up to 4 minutes long too. I have found this the best method to combine the functionality of the DL-4 with the great sound quality of the EHX 16 Second Delay.

So in a nut-shell...

PROS
- Great sound quality
- Good control to allow your guitar tone and level gain to come through
- True BP or DSP Bypass
- Octave, modulation, reverse and speed control over loops
- MAGNA storage saves the last loop even when powered down. I use this feature to save song ideas, record them on the 16 Sec, then unplug from rig, plug into my computer and save them on hard disk. - MIDI out for drum machine use - External Foot controller to provide hands-free control.

CONS
- CLIX system (IMO)
- no undo function
- vulnerable slider system for pedal
- external footswitch utilises 100% of the pedals capability but is sold separately
- now discontinued

Depending on your usage of a looper, this may or not may be the one for you. I tend to record background sound/noise layers with it (Nels Cline style) and it works brilliantly for this. If you want to lay down multiple layers with your band members, constructing whole songs based on loops (a la BATTLES) then this may not be the one. However, with the octave/reverse/modulation capabilities, this beast can provide you with a tool that can make your loops stick out from a DL-4 crowd.