Boss DD-500 & Strymon Volante discussion

[dave robinson]

I've been looking on YouTube at some of the alternative digital delay units that are out there that many of us seem to ignore, but I'm very interested in the Boss DD-500 and I ordered one to have a play with. I also had a look at Strymon's different machines as well as a few others and those demos sound damn good.
We've been trying for ever to get the Meazzi echo sound and I have to ask myself if I really need it, because the more modern sounds are so much more vibrant and exciting to play with. I should get this DD-500 tomorrow and I'll investigate the 'Drum' & 'Tape' options of course, but the other stuff intrigues me and I hope to enjoy myself playing around with it. Has anyone else had a go with the newer generation of echoes yet ?

[Egelund]

Hi Dave

I would guess that you can get really good sounds out of the boss DD 500
Most of the modern High end pedals, perform very well, just think of the catalinbread echorec, smaller than small, it sounded so Binson, like a Binson.
A lot others Strymon El Capitan Dtape, Gurus, Waumpler and quite a few others.
Not cheap though and most of them can not save the settings.
Funny thing is, that these pedals also are reviewed with the settings set to spille the echo all over, close to or past feedbask.
No one play anything like a instrumental tune.
For some years back, I had a MR carbon copy delay pedal on my board.
It had a nice feature inside the pedal the trimmings could add chorus, done right like a flutter effect.
I was always impressed with the sound, though no options for choice of more than one head.

regards
Niels

[dave robinson]

As far as I can see, all the relevant parameters are in there and editable, hopefully down to seperate heads and if they are, then there's no reason not to get a good vintage echo should we wish to do that. I am surprised at the lack of knowledge or imagination of the guys that do the demos on these. All the ones I have heard sound terrific, I have chosen the Boss because the reviewers from Andertons indicated that they thought it better than the Strymon, well see.

[dave robinson]

Well it arrived at 11-o Clock this morning and I stuck my own batteries inside and gave it a try. I'd scrutinised the You Tube demos by many people so I had a good idea what to expect by way of sound quality, it is excellent. Sadly that's where it ends, because the necessary editing isn't available to do what needs to be done to achieve those Shadows echoes. There is a hell of a lot in there and it is a big improvement on stuff we've had in the past, but you cannot individually adjust the heads (or taps) tonally or by sound level, which is key to those magic patterns on the Meazzi. It does an almost perfect Binson Echorec II as well as a perfect Roland Space Echo, but the Binson was never right as the heads are all the same level on the real machine.
If I was desperate, I could easily use it as my main echo and put up with the 'flaws' and I don't think anyone in an audience would ever realise, but I won't be keeping it as I have several other machines that do the same thing.
Just one thing that niggles me about these people on YouTube who make these videos demonstrating this gear. Why don't they play recognisable music that is associated with the piece of kit they are demonstrating, instead of just occasionally name dropping David Gilmour or the bloody Edge whatever he is. They sit there spouting crap and strumming chords, totally ignoring the stuff for which we would be interested in buying the piece of kit. Just saying.
I ended up sending for this in the hope that the required editing would be on board, simply because the demonstrators mentioned many times how a great Binson, Space Echo and EchoPlex could be mimicked, but they never once showed it's multi-tap capabilities, instead buggering about with 'bit crushers', 'sweeps' , 'filters' and gimmicks that I don't give a toss about. Every echo they choose is a single delay, be it digital, analogue or tape. They do occasionally mention the 'dual' delay, but you find yourself losing the will to live, waiting for the best bits with the multi-taps, I honestly don't think they have a clue. Bottom line - it's going back from whence it came.

[roger bayliss]

I find these multi echo type machines are brilliant such as the Strymon Timeline which does almost everything. But I nearly always end up using a Tape Echo sim as its got the right warmth and feel to it. Other guitarists say similar to me. The business of finding a tape echo machine that has taps editable to match a Meazzi is such that there are not many out there that can do it.

I Have a Strymon Capstan and a Volante which I was about to set up on a new pedal board layout and bought a new power supply today to get that together. I was thinking of using the Capistan for the main echo and the Volante for the other 3 to 4 echos.

I did use the Capstan with a Baby Blue a short while back with main echo provided by the El Capistan and the rest off the baby blue which worked well.

The Baby Blue however is all you need and very well priced. But I like to experiment !

[roger bayliss]

Has anyone tried the Eventide H9 or H9 Max ?

Some guitarists rate these highly.

The H9 and Max have an Ultra Tap delay which sounds promising .

Edit

I have gone through the documentation and would appear you can only use one algorithm in a preset , thus would appear you cannot for instance use 4 tape delays in a preset. Pity, but there is a multitap available, but not sure it would be suitable for Meazzi emulation.

[dave robinson]

As the Boss is disappointing, I'm now considering the Strymon Volante. The point is, do I need it ?
I have the Hall & Collins as well as the Blue Nebula, Catalinbread and of course the Klemt Echolette & Varispeed Copicat.
I just read that the Volante has editable heads but does the Volante allow you to save your patches ?

[roger bayliss]

The Volante has a provision to save 8 presets on the pedal and 128 via MIDI.

The quality of the echos are great as is the tweaking of them.

The down side is there are only 4 echos which is fine for EM2 but not for other 5 or 6 head echo emulation. The heads also can be either full volume or 1/2 volume, but can be controlled by MIDI to any head level you want in 128 steps. The head timing or spacing is not done by accurate time but by a simple 25% 50% 75% and 100% of the echo delay time set on the volante, with the option to vary the head spacing using another control.

I did manage a credible EM2 simulation with it using a Baby Blue echos to help me time it up.

It is a fabulous tape echo sim, but not perfect for Shadows , but close enough to be usable live.

This is why I thought I would use the El Capistan with it .

I don't like the idea of having to mess with Midi Roger, so if I keep the Strymon Volante I'll manage with the eight pre sets on board.
I'm currently enjoying playing with it, but as I get more familiar and compare with what I already have, I'm asking myself do I need it, or is it just an object of desire ?
I recorded The Frightened City & Man Of Mystery using the same settings, all in straight 'takes' so they're not by any means perfect and when they've finished preparing I'll post them for people to hear.

[roger bayliss]

Tried the Nux Tape Core pedal Dave ? A Roland 301 sim pedal for under £50.

[dave robinson]

Thanks for those bits of info Roger. I have the perfect digital echo on the Mac in Logic, it does everything. Now if only I could get those parameters in a pedal . . . .
As much as I like the look of it, I'm sure I'd want to invest in the Strymon if it won't do what I'd like it to do.