Vox Delay Lab

[captions87]

I just got this pedal on Monday, and have had a couple sessions of tinkering and playing around with it. I'd say this is without a doubt a DL4 killer. There's only two features that it doesn't have from the DL4, and that's the volume swell echo, and the ability to slow your loop down to half time. The latter feature is something I enjoy a lot on the DL4, but both of those features I can definitely live without because the Delaylab does so much more.

One cool feature that I was playing around with, is the ability to switch between looper types while the loop itself is playing. There's three looper types: digital, analog, and space. All of these have a delay effect in them that you can dial out. You switch between the three modes by pressing the category button. This is a really cool feature because each looper type has some different characteristics, that, along with each delay that is in each type, you can come up with some pretty crazy layers of ear candy. And yes, the space looper mode, as well as two of the delays in the ambient section contain shimmer tones. And they have a tone control so that you can take out some of the trebliness if you want. Saving presets is a breeze, and cycling through the banks is speedier than I thought it'd be. Overall, this has exceeded my expectations, and really inspired me to come up with some new musical ideas, both for recording and live performances.

[Deltaphoenix]

NICE.
I am on the edge of getting this...You have pushed me closer Captions.

[Bellyheart]

I may opt for this instead of the lil looper

[captions87]

I may opt for this instead of the lil looper

DEFINITELY DO ITTT. I've actually read some bad reviews for the lil looper as far as sound quality goes. Definitely a non-issue with this pedal. A few more goodies I've found through reading the manual. You have bypass options, you can choose between DSP bypass, or analog bypass. Also, you can select an option called "Constant Parameters" where if you switch a delay using the type selector knob, the time and feedback settings will stay the same through each delay, and won't reset to the default setting.

[Bellyheart]

This thing does a lot...may need the manual on hand constantly.

[captions87]

This thing does a lot...may need the manual on hand constantly.

To be honest, aside from the section with some of the hidden features, and the parameter chart in the back, the manual is pretty useless. I tore out the parameter chart, and have it with me as I tinker with different delays to save in my user presets to use potentially for shows or song ideas. That's the only thing I could see being potentially frustrating at first is remembering what the "tone/speed" and "intensity" knobs do for each of the settings. But for most of them, they do exactly what their name implies.

[ryan summit]

this thing makes me want to play
hooked on the space delay this week
im digital dumb but settin the presets is cake, i agree
if you got iphone or ipod, i saved the manual into ibooks
settin up some of the technical stuff(exp pedal, stereo) i need walkthrough
its handy havin the manual but
the dog ate mine

[captions87]

Finally got to play it through my amp on Sunday for rehearsal/recording. I love it, it's a done deal. One of my favorite little quirky features so far has been that on the reverse delay modes, the tone/speed knob controls the mix between the reverse delay, and a normal forward delay, so you can basically get it to shift between reverse and normal delays and get really wacky with it. Sounds tits in the analog reverse mode.

[ryan summit]

does anyone else notice certain situations where the vox is noisy as hell
had 2 dist/fuzz, 1 od, 1 philosophers tone(its own power), volume pedal, then the vox
at first i had everything hooked up in daisy chain(power)
after weeding out the prob it was the vox, so gave it its own power supply and the noise went away
the noise it was makin was louder than the delay it produced
never had a problem when it was fuzz into delay on same chain
I was wondering when i first got it why they didnt give a power supply in the first place

still kicks butt though
been messin with the looper alot
its my first looping experience so im really bad at it
any tips?

[greyscales]

does anyone else notice certain situations where the vox is noisy as hell
had 2 dist/fuzz, 1 od, 1 philosophers tone(its own power), volume pedal, then the vox
at first i had everything hooked up in daisy chain(power)
after weeding out the prob it was the vox, so gave it its own power supply and the noise went away
the noise it was makin was louder than the delay it produced
never had a problem when it was fuzz into delay on same chain
I was wondering when i first got it why they didnt give a power supply in the first place

still kicks butt though
been messin with the looper alot
its my first looping experience so im really bad at it
any tips?

Daisy chaining your power supply can do that with pretty much any pedal, you'll find. There's a risk for ground loops since there isn't any isolation between the pedals. Hence the necessity for those expensive power supplies/bricks. I've found distortion pedals of any kind are usually the least daisy chain friendly.

[Bellyheart]

Proper power supply should clean that right up. Does anyone know if the stereo ins are dedicated to their outs? Will in 1 loop or delay through out 1 only? Can ya do two different loops per in?

[CBA]

So this thing is pretty much the shit, huh? I've had two DL-4s, and love them, but I might get one of these instead of another DL-4 (I miss it already, though I replaced it with an El Capistan).

Haven't heard anything bad about this ass... probably a surefire box of funness.


C

[captions87]

The only thing that I have to nitpick, and this is really like a super stupid anal thing, but as far as looping, the DL4 and Headrush loopers have a sloped front, which makes it a little easier to have your heel on the ground and still hit the switch in time. It's taken a few times tinkering and getting comfortable with looping on time sort of stuff, as opposed to just ambient looping, because it has sharp corners in front. It's tall, and when it's on my pedalboard, even taller, so I had to figure out how to hit the switches in time, especially the "trigger" switch, while still staying balanced. Again, it's a stupid little thing that I'm sure I'll get used to, but I dunno if anyone thought of that.

[julius_deane]

anyone figured out what expression pedal works best with it? The moog one is not perfect. Any suggestions?

[Deltaphoenix]

I am on board, I just bought one.