Effects - Echoes

J&J SE-4200 Delay

Ibanez Analog Delay AD 80

Type of pedal : Wonderful lush analog delay with a slight Lo-fi feel to it
Controls : Delay time, blend, repeat.
Description : This is one of the more expensive delay units I have and use…Not so much that the pedal itself is that expensive even though I think it is becoming a collectable…No the main expense is that it runs on two 9v bateries and if you are as forgetful as I am you´ll probably leave it hooked up and it´ll cost you 12 dollars each time you decide to use it…maybe it is time for an adapter.

But how does it sound…Well. I must say that I hadn´t used it for a couple of years and but when I got it hooked up for the Blanc sessions I felt slightly mad at myself for not using it more. It sounds amazing. Very dubby, spacey echo effects. Reminiscent of tape delay but without the wobblies. Possibilities to make metallic sounds by having the shortest delay time, only one repeat and 50/50 blend. It is also great to do chorus, Automatic double tracking ( ADT ) tricks with. The worst and best thing with this pedal is that it isn´t very transparent…The echo you get back is pretty muddy and lo-fi which is in my opinion wonderful. If you want to have a clean nice replica echo this probably isn´t for you.

Since I have started to use it again I have used it on almost everything…Not as an effect that is always hooked up and ready to go but for a little splash of colour here and there.

Montage

Roland RE-201

Boss Digital pitch shifter/delay PS-2

Type of pedal : Pitchshifter delay pedal.
Controls: Balance, Feedback, fine manual and Mode.
Used by : Slowdive, Stars of the lid.

Description : This was the second delay that I bought ( the first one was the Rocktek Super Delay ). And I must admit that I wasn't too impressed with what I heard when I sat on the floor of Tords Music shop in Stockholm. But then by accident I turned the feedback knob to max and then the longest delay time and I all of a sudden had a very noisy lo-fi loop machine. The delay records all the time so noise just builds up but it is a very interesting noisy sound that I really like. After a while the noise drowns out the ” real ” sound in a puddle of white noise chaos. And it is of course even better if you run the pedal on a bad battery. Together with Andreas (Andreas & Jag/Geller) we even made arpeggio loops using a Seiko tuner with sine-tones and the ps-2

The delay section is really good (boss quality) but as the title suggests there is also a Pitchshifter section. But I must admit that I find it to be pretty useless. I have only used it once for a guitar part on a Kit Le Fever song because it is so terrible. It will make your sound all of a sudden turn into a really obnoxious digital mess (as I read that I realise it sounds cool but trust me it isn't)…You can either go one octave down or up and then one free setting. There is a tuner out output so that you can tune your pitchshifted signal…. I don't know maybe there are people who love that kind of sound…I just can't figure it out.

The Boss PS-2 is a real workhorse in the studio and live and I use it a lot for a variety of delay/echo sounds. I have had it for a couple of years and it has never caused me any problems. So if you find one cheap get it yourself or give me a call…I could always use a spare.

Rocktek Super Delay

Digitech Multiplay

Electro Harmonix Full Double Tracking Effect

Type of pedal : A small, primitive delay with the sole purpose of imitating Automatic double tracking. A classic recording technique used in the 60´s and 70´s to fatten up sounds often vocals.

Controls: Tempo (50 ms or 100 ms) and mix-knob.

Description : Somewhere along the line it seems that Electro harmonix just went mad. Releasing pedals constantly. Some really great pedals and others that probably sounded better in the lunchroom of the research department than they do in real life. So what is worse…Companies releasing questionable products or customers who actually buy them?

Well, when I saw this pedal pretty cheap at a local music store I bought almost without hearing it. Having read about the wonders and miracles performed with Automatic Double Tracking (ADT being the snappier name for it). So I thought…Ill go for it.

The whole idea of dubbing something is to record something twice exactly the same way…not too exact though, just different enough to widen the sound a bit. This is a technique used everywhere in music recording but one of the first (and finest) examples of it was John Lennons vocal sound on the later Beatles albums. After he had recorded his vocals they would open up a second track for him to record his vocal performance again in the almost exact same way. But it was tiresome to record everything twice so he asked if there was a way of doing it electronically…and you can. By using a very short delay you will get almost the same effect as singing it twice. This was done by delaying the signal and recording it again so there would be…Automatic double tracking.

So…what does this pedal do? Well it is a short one bounce delay with two settings, 50 or 100 Milliseconds. And when it is that close…well that means that you are in slap back territory which means you've got a kind of bathroom thing going…which means that you have a 50´s – 60´s vibe going on. Then you have a mix knob between the direct and delayed signal and that's just about it. Useful…? Well you tell me…If you are going for that kind of sound this is the pedal of your dreams. I actually think that Danelectro has created a new slapback echo pedal. Because that is what this is.

I have actually used a bit but in a very subtle way. I think it is on one of the lead vocals not quite sure…I don't think this pedal is quite what Tony Visconti and George Martin used on all those great recordings…but for a noisy slapback echo…. It's ok

Boss Chorus CH-3

Type of pedal: 80´s Stereo Chorus pedal
Controls: Rate, depth and stereo mode.
Used by: Stars of the lid, Mighty lemondrops
Description:
Well here is a slight problem…. Writing wise. I am not a big fan of Choruses. I am not sure why. I grew up in the 80´s and there was something just a bit too much about all of these chorused guitars everywhere. I always felt the sounds were a bit…lubricated for easy insertion or something. The only band that I thought were ok with the overly chorused guitars were the Cure. I guess it is kind of all or nothing attitude. It became such a signature sound for them so that they kind of killed the whole thing.

When I started out playing in bands people would often have chorus pedals but very seldom use them. Me and Jonas (Änglagård) had a discussion once about choruses and he was very pro saying that they can be very effective on acoustic guitars and stuff but I am sorry Jonas…In my ears it is just too slick.

On the rare occasion I have used a Chorus I have always used the Chorus on Olle Söderströms Roland RE-501 tape delay. On the lowest speed setting it would just fatten the sound up a bit.

This little box featured here has only been used once as far as I know. The Mellotron Clarinets on the Celestine song “ City of lights “ are given a slight Boss Chorus feel. If you go to the Mellotron page and listen to the Clarinet sound…you can actually hear that there is a slight modulation going on…