Delay - How to choose?

I myself am not professional yet. I am working towards to become one though!

Anyway, if you are looking for a delay pedal and it is your first, maybe my "Journey of the Delays" will help you make your choices better. 

There are so many delays out there. So what I did what to get a piece of paper and ask myself a few questions. These are the ones I think are the most useful.

• What am I looking for in a delay?
• Digital or analog?
• Do I want a bright sounding delay or a darker tone?
• Am I looking for a delay with a looper?
• Is 400ms of delay enough? Or do I need more?
• WHAT IS MY BUDGET?

Yes, these are the questions. What exactly are you looking for in a delay? If you are looking to imitate some of your idol's delay tone, the best to do is to study their rigs. What delay did he use? For instance, you want that delay tone from U2. How is that achievable? In my opinion, original is the best but everyone has to start off from somewhere isn't?

The next question is: Are you looking for analog or digital delays? Now some of people will dismiss digital. Technophobes... They will say like "Oh digital sounds sterile. I want analog." And they will be worshiping at the altar of an idol who uses Boss DD-5. Most of them are what you called "Monkeys see monkeys do" in Singapore. They have no idea of what sounding 'sterile' and they are probably saying because all the rest are saying. 

Here is my view on digital and analog. I owned both kinds and tried many of them. Digital delays usually sounds brighter. Actually, it doesn't really make it sound brighter but I would say it preserves the tone of your guitar and do no colouration to your tone. Analog on the other hand 'decorates' your tone with a darker tone and warmer feel. 

I'll cover the rest of my questions right now. Analog delays usually have a shorter delay time than a digital delay. Analog has about 400-900ms of delay time while digital delays can go up to 10 seconds, 21 seconds or even a minute! Now usually those delays with such delay abilities usually comes with a looper function. I mean, who uses a 1 minute delay or 50 seconds delay in any song. Digital delays also will have many modes of delay like 'analog', 'modulated', 'reverse', 'momentary' etc... The analog there is actually a sound generated by the computer in it. Now they have quite awesome 'analog' tone in digital delays nowadays. Why am I not talking anything about analog delay? Because they don't usually have any additional features. They are just... straightforward delays. 

Delays are never cheap. You can find cheap delays of course, but majority of them are expensive (around SGD 150-200). If you are new on delays and do not wish to spend a hundred bucks, there are cheap delays. I don't know how much Behringer Stereo delay is but I think it's pretty cheap. Another digital delay is the new nuX TIME CORE delay (just for SGD80 at SV guitars). If you want an analog delay, Artec SE-ADL Analog delay is just SGD80 away from you. Of course it would be the best if you can save up and buy what you want at once. Then you wouldn't have to spend your precious money twice. 

My personal preference? Go digital. Get one with looper. It will come in handy. I am usually my delay on my ME-70 and I like the sound I am getting from it as well. 

All you have to do before getting a delay is to do your homework. You wouldn't want to buy a Nova System and then totally clueless of what feedback is even. 

De(lay)licious

This is my X'mas present~ (Sorry if I kept repeating this. Guess the delay is contagious and I am being 'delayed' as well.

Summary

This is a very simple delay. Delay knobs control the delay time (well, duh). The depth controls the modulation. As you know, Memory Boy is a delay with modulations like chorus and vibrato. Blend allows you to blend between wet and dry signal. When it is totally turned down, it's 100% dry signal and if it is turned fully up, it's 100% wet signal. 12 o'clock would be where there is an equal amount of wet and dry signal. It's kind of different from MXR Carbon Copy which comes with a Mix control. Mix allows you to mix the signals (from 100% dry to 100% dry + 100% Wet). Actually, I like the Blend control. It allows you to create some type of reverse delay. And to control the number of repeats, there is Feedback for you. I usually keep it from 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock. Once it passes about 3 o'clock or so, it will start to self-oscillate and it is LOUD, so don't get shocked! xD

Modulations

Still haven't try the all the modulations apart from Chorus. I don't have an expression pedal. So without it, the modulation selection switch controls the rate of modulation (chorus for slow, Exp. pedal for medium and vibrato for fast). The waveform toggle switch there allows you to choose between triangle wave and square wave. The toggle switch only affects the modulation and do nothing to the delay. When it is in the 'triangle wave' form, the chorus it produces is the usual chorus of many chorus pedals. The Square wave is the one I am not used to. It produces a temporary pitch shifting effect. Well, but it's a useful function and I will definitely have some use of it in the future when I get used to it.

Delay

As for the delay sound, it is relatively bright. It doesn't add too much colour to your guitar tone like CC would make your tone darker. Memory boy's delay is relatively clean and brighter compared to some other analog delay pedals. The pedal's max delay time is 550ms or approximately half a second. But I think it is kind of shorter than 550ms. So I checked up on the net and apparently, it is said that you would need an expression pedal to get the full amount of delay time. However, the delay time there is still good enough for me. Some would say that 400-550ms is a very short delay time compared to those delay time given by digital delays (2s-8s or even 21s). But my question is, does everyone really need such a long delay time?

Sorry if this review is lousy. It's my 1st time ever talking about a delay pedal!

Loki 

My Early Christmas PRESENT!

It's a month early, I know. But I got a super early Christmas present!

I didn't get any Christmas presents in the past few years. This present definitely makes me very happy! 

THANKS WALTER! (if you are reading this now!)

Currently in the midst of trying it out so I don't have anything to write about yet. I'm also still trying out the Satchurator. Will write about that soon!

Loki 

2 more papers before the end of A lvl!

Timeline @ SG

Finally, Timeline has  finally arrived.

If you have watched all the demos on Youtube, you know what this box can do. It is without a doubt a very good delay. But this is definitely not for me. SG$625 isn't in the 'affordable range' of mine, for now.

Available at SV Guitars.