The New Age of Delay Effects Pedals

This month will see the launch of two new pedals that will raise the standard of stompboxes in the marketplace. As technology advances, so do the metal effects boxes that litter all music stages, rehearsal rooms and bedrooms. These new pedals are the Eventide Timefactor and TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay.

These two pedals will be the first of many new effects that aim to bring "studio-quality" sound to the live mix. Both of these units have taken off from the ever popular Line 6 DL4 and Boss DD-20 and have brought the idea into the 21st century.

_______________________________________________Eventide has established a great reputation thanks to their impressive rack units. They aim to bring that same quality to their stompboxes. Introduced at this year's Winter NAMM, the Eventide Timefactor is now available in stores in the US. Features include:

• Two independent 3-second Delays
• Studio quality sound
• Instant Program change
• Real-time control with 10 knobs, MIDI or expression pedal
• Tap Tempo and MIDI Clocksync
• 27 User Presets, unimited through MIDI
• True Analog Bypass
• Rugged cast metal construction
• 12-second Looper
• Metal footswitches for Instant Preset access
• Mono or Stereo operation
• Gutter or Line Level Inputs and Outputs

10 Stereo or Dual Mono Delay effects include; Digital Delay, Band Delay, Vintage DDL, Filter Pong, Tape Echo, MultiTap Delay, Modulated Delay, Reverse Delay, Ducked Delay and Looper.

Here is a video demo from GearWire showing some features from WNAMM:



As seen in the demo, Eventide will also be releasing the Modfactor after the launch of the delay pedal.
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TC Electronic have established their reputation in the effects realm with their many releases over the years (including the TC 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay). They too have brought the technology forward with the release of the ND-1 Nova Delay. The Nova Delay was previewed at the expo Musikmesse Frankfurt, Germany in March this year.

The ND-1 also boasts "uncompromised studio quality digital effects in a compact floor-based design". Although not as large as the Timefactor, the pedal contains many features for every delay enthusiast. These include:

• 6 studio quality digital delay types
• Two switchable settings: manual and preset
• 9 user programmable presets
• Up to 2290 ms delay time
• Audio Tapping™ – audio-generated tap tempo
• Modulated delay
• Delay spillover

The 6 different delay types are; Delay line, Dynamic, Reverse, Ping-pong, Pan, Slap-back, with an option of modulation (light, medium and heavy) able to be applied to all settings. Also, each of these types can be modified with a delay style – a unique feature of ND-1 Nova Delay that allows you to mix and match your delay type and style infinitely.

Click here for a link to a video demo of the ND-1 from Musikmesse:

The NR-1 Nova Reverb is also highly anticipated as it is an effect pedal whose quality and innovation has been neglected by many of the big pedal designers.

Updates will follow once some sound clips and reviews become available.

C.

New Electro Harmonix Pedals and Rumours

Electro Harmonix have released three new pedals in the XO and Nano line. This line has seen old designs revisited with some of their negatives addressed; the addition of a 2.1mm DC input rendering the EHX adapter obsolete, and drastically reducing the footprint of the pedal's chassis. Gone are the huge Pulsars and Big Muffs. These pedals bring the same quality designs (with true-bypass) for a fraction of the size.

NANO SOUL PREACHER
"Three selectable attacks coupled with silky, long sustains blend in perfect harmony..."

The newcomer on the Nano line is the reissued Soul Preacher - a compressor originally released in the 70s. The original pedal had a Gain and Threshold knob with a Treble switch useful for boosts. The new Nano Soul Preacher has one knob to control the Volume and one for Sustain. The treble switch has been replaced with a three-way switch to control the Attack of the compression - either fast, medium or slow.

XO GERMANIUM OD
"Classic 60's Germanium transistor overdrive and more"

A fuzz pedal fueled by the popular Germanium transistors from the early 'Rock and Roll' era. A nod to the vintage fuzz stompboxes of the 60s with an EHX unique twist. Three knobs on the pedal control the Gain, Bias (fine tonal adjustment) and Volts. The Volts knob will aim to replicate the sound of a dying battery or to find that sweet spot found when a battery's voltage dips. All this control to achieve the famous "torn speaker" sound. Think of the Stones', Satisfaction.

XO #1 ECHO
"...analog flavoured decay"

A lot of the pedal modifiers, like Keeley and Analogman, offer mods to the current digital delay pedals to provide an analog-like tone to the repeats. Even multi-preset delays like the Boss DD-20 and Line 6 DL4 offer this desired sound as a setting. Here's a new digital delay that boasts two seconds of decay. A knob to control wet/dry signal Blend, Delay Time and Feedback (number of repeats). If this pedal can give a warm self-oscillation, it will intrigue many of the 'bucket brigade' fans and delay lovers alike.

XO OCTAVE MULTIPLEXER
"create effects ranging from a clear double note in harmony sound to subtle heavily undertoned notes"

The Octave Multiplexer works by generating deep, phat bass tones one octave below the notes you play into it. However this reissue two separate smoothing filters (high and bass), and a sub-octave on/off switch, enable you to tailor your sub-octave signal to the exact bass sound you desire.

...AND RUMOURS

There are a number of rumours around as to what classic EHX pedal is next in line to be offered the Nano/XO reissue. Here are a few that are circulating the forums. Please take these with a grain of salt as a few of these have been around for awhile, but exciting if just one of these comes to fruition...

XO Micro POG
A trim down of the popular POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator). Three Knobs said to control Dry Volume, Octave Up Volume and Sub-Octave Volume.

Holy Stain
A multi-effect pedal that will do reverb, tremolo, pitch shift and distortion in any combination.

Knockout
Pick-up emulator. Converts Gibson to Strat, or Strat to Telecaster.

Stereo Memory Man
A digital emulation to provide reverse echo, 30 sec looping with ability to overdub different delay settings or reverse(loop can play back the last 7 seconds reverse), tap tempo delay and tape echo filter (3 seconds, high and low pass filter).

Holy Grail Plus
The popular reverb pedal to be downsized. Three-way switch to select reverb settings. Now with Room reverb.

Stereo Electric Mistress
A reissue of the popular flange/chorus pedal.

If any of these rumours become fact, I will create a similar update. Hopefully with some sound clips too.

C.