n2design wrote:I didn't see any mention of tape delays.
I have the Fulltone TTE (Tube Tape Echo) and really like it.
Hi n2design,
I should be more clear on my statements. My list of delays
is specifically about things I like as opposed to things
that are important to other delay users. Tape delays can be
awesome, but they're often too delicate for road use, and
can require more maintenance than I am willing to perform.
At the end of the '70s I was using two Revox reel-to-reel
tape recorders to create wild ping-pong delays, and there
certainly is nothing else like real tape "bloom" on the echoes.
Here's my list of things I appreciate in a delay (no delay has
all of these that I know of, please let me know if you find one):
The ability to abruptly change Delay Time without scrambling
the original note order. (Easy for Analog, rare for Digital.)
The ability to go into endless delay using Feedback Amount,
and enough gain in the Feedback Amount so that I can bring
back and pump up an almost faded signal already in the loop.
Expression/CV control over 1 or more parameters.
CC# control over many parameters.
Locking to MIDI Clock (Clock Division option is even better).
Tone control (the more the better) of the repeats.
External processing of delay via Send/Return which gives you
the ability to make up for not having Tone controls as well as
creating many other neat effects.
Stereo In/Out. Or even Mono In/Stereo Out. I know that phase
inversion as a stereo trick does not do well when summed to
mono, but I still like the psychoacoustic effects it can create.
Choice of Tails or no Tails when Bypassed.
The ability to go to 100% Wet, not just 50%/50% Wet/Dry.
Tap Tempo of Delay Time with ability to choose a Clock Division.
LFO Modulation with 1 or more waveshapes.
Reasonable (or better) noise floor.
600+ ms of Delay Time and ability to go to really short delay times
(the lower the better).
So far, the MF-104M is the analog delay which has the most of my
wish-list items covered. (As always, anyone is welcomed to enlighten
me if they find others. I'm always willing to buy more delays;-)
For digital delays, I find that the Strymon TimeLine and DigiTech
TimeBender have the most wish-list items but, again, no hardware
digital delay (that I know of) has everything I want.