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I need a good delay that will inspire me - does that exist? Something that can easily get into freaky psychedelic territory, when it's called for.

I was thinking about the Boss Space Echo, do any of you guys recommend that? It seems to do a hazy, sound-on-sound type of thing almost by default(?) Or is that my imagination? Because hazy sound-on-sound would be good...

I have a Line6 DL4 that just leaves me cold. I can't get into it for some reason. Anybody got some DL4 settings that will change my mind? Why is it hard to dial in a good sound? (5 wide-ranging knobs is probably why).

I'm not sure what I want... I want a delay that is versatile, but I don't want it to do 87 different things. Looper (no thanks), tap tempo (no thanks), modulation (I don't think so), 20 seconds of delay time (no thanks). I just want it to sound good at almost any setting (fuck dialing in a good sound, make a decision pedal builders), not too sterile but not muddy either. Delay level is important to me (I have a DOD FX9 where the echoes won't get very loud). So, it should be versatile as far as adjustability, but not versatile as in "this delay does 87 different things". Do a few things really really well, instead.

I'm not sure which direction to go, and some of the nice looking units are 200-300 dollars new (and hard to find used) which makes me nervous about making an expensive bad decision. I like the idea of a momentary feedback switch, seems like a good idea on paper, but maybe it's not useful on a routine basis? (I don't know).

Interested in (but no experience with):

EHX Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazarai (a lot of musicians I like are using these)
EHX Deluxe Memory Boy (has effects loop for your echoes)
Freakshow Digilog (momentary runaway feedback switch)
Solid Gold FX Electroman (has effects loop, momentary runaway feedback switch)
EAR AD4096 - (two types of delay, momentary runaway feedback switch. Hella expensive)
DMB Lunar Echo (momentary runaway feedback switch)
Boss Space Echo
Line6 Echo Park (DL4 for dummies? I dunno? It's less complicated)

I play noisy, non-rock, harsh ambient stuff. Some of my other pedals upstream have delay (or repeats) built-in, like the Goodbye 24. Need a good delay to go at the end. I'm a bargain hunter, I prefer to buy used gear, clones etc. So I will probably never buy an AD4096.

Help! I'm not smart!

Can you get some place to demo them each? I prefer used gear too. I went in to demo a few used delays this one shop had, and walked out with the AD4096 [granted I'd just sold some stuff to create some cash]. It's awesome. It shows up in some of UG's demos on his rotating pedal demo thread.

None of our advice is going to compare to you just sitting with a few options and trying them out.

I personally have found that it's definitely worth trying out the MemoryMan variations. They are each different. You'd need someone smarter than me to clarify all the differences.

Unfortunately, I haven't tried the Boss Space Echo. Always been intrigued.

The Lunar Echo is really awesome. I anticipate one showing up on my doorstep this week. It's a bit "crisper" for an analog delay than expected, but taken as a whole, it's rad, and someone had one on BST for a great price last week.

I have a few other things to your list, keeping in mind you'd need to keep an eye out for these coming up used:

The Empress Superdelay. There's one used at a shop out here for just sub $300 and it does a whole lot and sounds great. Find one. Try it out.

I think the ILFDayDelay's look great. If I hadn't just gone on a delay binge, I'd probably be picking the one on BST that just went up.

Disaster Transport Sr. Delay. Reverb. Wash of noise...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDPQX0_9aCI[/youtube]


This TWA Fly Boy seems like a steal at $80 new:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUZTYPgzQY[/youtube]

Maybe look real hard at the ad4096. It also has aux out for stereo, or as a wet signal so you can dial up runaway feedback then bypass the pedal and the feedback continues. Pretty fun, you can contour the feedback further with the knobs.

Good luck

It sounds like you want a good analog delay. Really the best thing to do is try out as many of these as you can before making a decision. That said, of the ones you've listed I'd try to check out the deluxe memory boy (or the deluxe memory man with tap-tempo 550, it's toooooo good), or the Lunar Echo.

I'm skeptical about the EAR. It reallly doesn't have very many features for how expensive it is, so unless it sounds DAMN good I don't think I'd suggest it.

^ EAR 4096 does sound DAMN good But it's dark and wet and will colour your sound so it might not be to everybody's taste. And yeah, it's expensive. I was lucky enough to pick one up secondhand, which helped a lot. Momentary feedback switch is great but really, I don't use it a lot. It ramps up and decays too quickly for my taste. But the "Infinity Mode" is AWESOME.
Have you considered the Infanem Small Echo Array? $30 off at the moment (with the FEB30 code) so you could get that for $170. Like what I've seen and heard from it so far.

For cloudy, washy delays, I've had great experience with EQD Disaster Transport and Deluxe Memory Man. Great modulation as well!

Depends what you want, though. Some of the delays you wrote down have the momentary feedback, which can be extremely helpful for creating walls of sounds. If that's also what you'd be into, how about a Dirge Cavedweller? I'm sure skullservant (user) could build you something you'd like, i've seen his delays with modulation and momentary feedbacks and he's awesome to communicate with and if i remember correctly, he could build you one sub-200$

Cloudy, washy? You could try a 616 from Malekko - I had one for years and recently sold it because it was just a tad too hazy for me.... I wanted a tap and loop feature too so I grabbed a Delaylab.... it's great for me but has every unneeded feature you listed off.....

The Boss RE-20 isn't a bad pedal. It does faux Space Echo pretty well - the 5% it doesn't get is the stuff no emulation I've ever seen get right and isn't useful for most folks, the "I still have background oscillation but full-on normal repeats too" adjustment made by throwing the erase head a little out of whack on a real Roland, which is how I keep mine set). That includes the bad parts, the pre-amp is a love it or hate it affair (and isn't bypassable on either a real one or the RE-20), junky reverb (again, love it or hate it), etc.

If I was physically able to play live/tour any more I'd get a RE-20 and leave the real one at home for sure, but it's a case of "my sound is very sad without a Space Echo" as I've been using them for a couple decades now on and off and sadness ensues when I don't have one or more.

That said, it's not my only delay (and hasn't been since '93 or so) and it works very well paired with other stuff.

If you want the Space Echo sound in an easy to use format, the Boss works.

There's a few options in more feature rich pedals or rackmounts as well, but I won't mention those as they don't meet your requirements.

Delaylab is pretty deep without being horribly complicated. A small amount of time with the manual goes far. Might have more bells and whistles than you want, but you don't have to use them. I killed an hour playing with the reverse delay stuff the other day.

Similar level of deep without needing to drown, look out for a used Timebender. I'm still looking for one.

Yea, I love my Timebender as well (if I had to go with just one delay, it'd be the winner probably), but it's deep enough that I didn't think it met OP's requirements.

Even if it never leaves the Tape2 mode and the harmonizer is never engaged.

(although mine lives on the Ducking Analog setting most of the time now, set to feedback swells)

Gone Fission wrote:Delaylab is pretty deep without being horribly complicated. A small amount of time with the manual goes far. Might have more bells and whistles than you want, but you don't have to use them. I killed an hour playing with the reverse delay stuff the other day.

Similar level of deep without needing to drown, look out for a used Timebender. I'm still looking for one.

I've got both (and am cornsidering selling the Delaylab http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=39448 ), and find the Vox much more intuitive than the Timebender.

this thread kinda confuses me

Casavettes wrote:this thread kinda confuses me

It's because OP's original parameters were pretty open, so we are listing out the delay pedals in the market that fit his requirement and don't have a lot of additional feature sets, so no to Strymon, Eventide, Line6, etc…Really OP needs to go to a store and try a bunch out…only so much we can do to advise from here.

DarkAxel wrote:For cloudy, washy delays, I've had great experience with EQD Disaster Transport and Deluxe Memory Man. Great modulation as well!

Came to post exactly that ^
The ILFDD and the Hazarai are also top notch.

Gone Fission wrote:Delaylab is pretty deep without being horribly complicated. A small amount of time with the manual goes far. Might have more bells and whistles than you want, but you don't have to use them. I killed an hour playing with the reverse delay stuff the other day.

Similar level of deep without needing to drown, look out for a used Timebender. I'm still looking for one.

Yeah it's not too hard to figure out. I'm just not used to using/remembering presets, and there's so many options I find it a bit overwhelming ocasionally. Plus, it's ridiculously big!!!! I just traded another pedal for a DD7 and I'm really happy with both, I plugged in the DD7 and was totally relieved at the simplicity of it, but also how much can be coaxed out of it too.....