

The Starlight echo station leverages huge digital power for some seriously great sounds, made all the more appealing by the lack of menu-diving. So when it announced that it would be bringing a range of guitar effects to the world of physical stompboxes, expectations were high, and UA delivered. Universal Audio is best known in the pro-audio world for producing recording hardware and a number of VST effects. – The lack of MIDI control might be a sticking point for some, especially at this price Trails: No Universal Audio Starlight Echo Station The simplicity really means that there’s just very little in between you and excellent delay sounds, ranging from springy slapback to the more destructive longer delay times, thanks to a pair of MN3205 bucket-brigade chips.ĭescription: Fully analogue vintage-inspired delay pedal There’s a secondary footswitch for tap tempo, as well as a jack for an external footswitch. It takes inspiration from much-loved analogue delay pedals of the 1980s, such as the Boss DM-2 and Ibanez AD9, but isn’t a direct clone.Ĭontrols are pretty simple, with just three knobs for mix, delay time and feedback. Mythos Pedals’ Oracle Analog Echo was designed in collaboration with John Snyder of the excellent Electronic Audio Experiments. Trails: Switchable internally Mythos Pedals Oracle Analog Echo However, for a lot of guitarists, the way the repeats sink into the background thanks to their filtering makes the pedal all the more appealing.ĭescription: Analogue delay pedal, recreating a vintage Deluxe Memory ManĬontrols: Blend, feedback, delay time, master level, modulation rate and depthīypass: Switchable true or buffered, depending on trails setting The completely analogue nature of the pedal means that repeats are far from pristine, and have a lot of top-end rolled off – which might not be ideal if you’re looking for that super-clean, digital delay sound. A vintage unit could set you back at least several hundred of your chosen currency, but luckily Electro-Harmonix recently revived the pedal in this ultra-compact format, offering the same dark, characterful repeats as the original, as well as the same musical modulation options.


The original Deluxe Memory Man is one of the most sought-after analogue delay pedals of all time – one of the first bucket-brigade delays, and certainly one of the widest-used. + Affordable, compact version of a classic Earthquaker Devices Disaster Transport Sr.Electro-Harmonix Nano Deluxe Memory Man.Equally, you may swear by them, especially if you have a unique delay sound for each song in your set, and know your audience won’t be too thrilled watching you adjust pedal knobs. Like tap tempo, not every pedal and not every player is going to benefit from MIDI connections or presets. Keep in mind that none of the above features make a pedal better or worse – but they do affect the kinds of sound it is suited for. This is great for smooth transitions in your set, but often comes at the expense of true-bypass operation. With trails turned on, repeats will be mixed on top of your dry signal. Others allow for much more extreme affectations of your sound, from adding reverb to delay trails, reversing them entirely or ping-ponging them across stereo channels.Īnother feature to look out for is trails, which refer to the final repeats of a delay after the effect has been disengaged. In the heyday of tape recording, this effect was achieved by varying the speed of the tape being used to play the signal back, and some delays emulate this subtle pitch wobble. Some pedals will also offer the modulation on repeats. With that in mind, it’s crucial to know what you plan to be using your delay for before dismissing a delay pedal for a lack of tap tempo. While this can be useful for certain types of delay sounds – such as U2-style rhythmic pulses – other sounds, such as ambient washes, don’t really need it. A feature you’ll see often in the world of delay pedals is tap tempo, which lets you stomp on a footswitch to set your repeats at a particular tempo.
