Analog or Digital Delay??

[tone?]

i want to get a nice delay unit to put in my VHT Pitbulls loop.



what would color the tone less, Analog or Digital??

any recommendations?

i know that putting anything in the signal will effect the tone but i like a bit of a wet setup. Would a Boss DD3 do a good job you think or will it thin out the sound, being digital and all?

Please something a bit affordable too!

[lex666]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

I have the DD3 and like it very much.

I haven't really compared it to an analog type delay pedal, so I can't say this is better than the others. Try it and see if it is for you...

[saladin]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

I've had and used my DD-3 exclusively for the last 12 years.

[GuitarStv]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

Digital delays can be too crisp and bright a sound for some people since they (ideally) perfectly reproduce the sound being delayed. The older digital delays used to run conversion after conversion after conversion on the sound as it was being delayed, so if you set it for infinite repeats you would hear degredation of the delayed sound (after 4-5 seconds of delay at equal volume to the original signal).
The analog delays are usually less perfect a reproduction, rolling off the highs of your signal with each delay. The up side is that they sound warmer, the downside is that they are less accurate, and you often need to use more delay to get the desired effect . . . which can lead to mushy confusing sound. It really is just a matter of personal preference . . . I use a boss ps-3 pitch shifter/delay which is the same as a DD-3 and I like it. . .

[tone?]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

yeah i guess just like anything i have to try a bunch of stuff out.

i wont know untlil i try.

My pitbull is already warm sounding. i just dont want it to make the sound too harsh or anything. i just want to wet it a bit. give it that rock stadium vibe i guess. i guess that is what i like about delay. Makes the sound a bit bigger than life.
then again i do like the down to earth blues sound with nothing in it as well sometimes.

[open]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

Boss DD2

I own several analog delay but mostly use the DD2

[some_dude]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

Digital for clarity, analog for ambience.

If you're going after that rock stadium vibe, you'd probably be happer with digital. Particularly if you're using alot of gain.

Keep that last sentence in mind as you try them out in a store.....analog will tend to get quite muddy.

[Gunny47]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

I got a chance to play an old Electro Harmonix Memory Man and it sounded really bad-ass! Very clean and incredible warm. It is a little noisy though. I dont think you can get as long of a delay with an analog unit compared to a digital unit and of course the tape ones. A digital delay can also work as a noise gate sort of thing. David Gimour and other guitarists just put a digital delay pedal after some boutique style pedals (figure some noisy fuzzes and such) and the delay cleans it up a bit.

[kevlar3000]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

I just snatched up an Ibanez DE7. Really great sounding unit and a huge bargain. Really warm lush delay with perfect taper. I set it to echo vs digi delay, but both sound great. Ibanez has some cool sound samples on their site.

[BigBazz]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

I have a Digitech Digital and its lovely, it does a pretty decent model of a tape delay but i generally dont use that sound as much as the "set the time" basic delay sounds built in, anyway its really nice and pretty versatile.

[James Rock]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

wat about digital / analog T.REX Replica type stuff
Listen to the edges(U2) early stuff (GREAT DELAY) thats a EH Memory man.

[Aceman]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

They both have their tonal purposes. Go listen to a DD-3 (Love it) and a new Ibanez AD-9. There are some newer deays that offer "analog" switches if you feel you need both. I think for shorter "fatten the sound" delays, digital does well for the price. If you are going for medium and loud repeats I like analog. For really long it's your call. Digital gets a mor pritine sound and maintains highs better, analog gets a more organic decay.

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

Digital for clarity, analog for ambience.

This is my opinion in a nutshell. screamingdaisy's post absolutely nailed it. I had an analog delay and it was sweet, but with too much going on, it simply mushed out. With the type of stuff I do, I actually like the "more sterile" digital delays, they're simply clearer and more pronounced.

[Mincer]

Re: Analog or Digital Delay??

i use a line6 dl4 that i love- it can clone a lot of vintage delays, sound as crisp or clean as you want, be used as a chorus, autowah, overdrive, be used in true- or non -true bypass (I use *non* so the delays trail off), tap tempo and 28 seconds of looping time.