Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

[millsart]

Time to upgrade the delay pedal. Line6 Echo Park does the job and is awesome bang for the buck but I just feel like theres something better out there. Additionally I just don't like Line6.

I know thats really dumb, and probably all in my head as plenty of folks like their gear, but I've just got this mental block over it.

You know how certain gear has so called "mojo" ? Well to me I can't get away from feeling like Line6 gear has a sort of "anti mojo".

It feels like whatever pure and organic tone you've got going on, channeling Hendrix and just ripping it up gets sort of snuffed out when you step on the Line 6 box.

Maybe to put it another way, for those of you who ride bikes, you know what its like going down the highway on a V2 machine. The way it vibrates, how you the motor and the frame all become one and make up the bike as a whole. Its just connected.

Contrast that to a fancy Honda or BMW touring bike. Sure it gets you down the road fine, but its so smooth and perfect. Too comfortable, too much like driving a car.


Anyways, to keep a long post as short as possible, I'm looking for a new delay.

Requirements are it has to sound good and needs to have tap tempo.

Theres plenty of good analog pedals out there, DMM is one I really like, but the lack of tap tempo honestly is a deal breaker for me.

Its just too big of pain to try to dial in otherwise and its not an option to have a drummer keep up with my delay line. I need the ability to quickly change tempo midsong.


A pedal I'm thinking about is the T-Rex Replica. I know its $400 and thats pretty expensive for a digital delay but I do have a 20% coupon for MF so that would make it $320 which is much more reasonable.


I don't care that its digital, I just don't want something steril. I actually sometimes prefer a digital pedal over analog as analog can be a bit muddy at times, depending on the song.


So the Replica sounded nice because it can do analog or digital style, its got tap tempo and can even do triplets.

Hows it sound though is the question ?

I know its got great AD/DA's but that all is just specs on paper. I want to hear some actual feedback from those who used it.

Thanks

 

[jeremy]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

its the only delay that i would consider buying, it sounds great

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

They have one annoying thing..the tempotap is slightly too fast!
Had a mate who had three of them...neither worked right there.
Plus I do not like that little plastic switch for the more dark delay setting
Otherwise is is a fine unit.
Just too expensive...as it is nothing new they use!

 

[jeremy]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

never noticed the fast tap, ill have to check it out on my buddys. maybe my foot is just slow

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Well it is slightly too fast...my mate has very good timing and it just drove him crazy
It is embedded stuff...so I do not understand that they did not correct it.....tried a new one the other day, did the same!
Oh well it is a Dinosaur
Hehe and they do good with that one, so it cannot disturb too many then, only the silence when the time is changed really really riles me up!

 

[millsart]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

I actually thought the silence when you changed the delay time would be a nice feature. I know I'm in the minority, but I always hated that "space ship noise" when you tweak most delay pedals.

I know some guitarist love making noises, I played synths for about 15 years and had a full studio full of them, so I guess for me, I'm noised out and it drives me crazy watching some guitarist on his knees self oscilating his delay pedal for 2 minutes after the song is over. Its been done, its annoying, and as far as cool synth textures go, a delay self osc is pretty boring. get yourself a good modular synth rig and then your talking.


Back to the subject though, about how bad would this tap tempo difference be ? Are we talking about hundredth of a second, thats you can only notice by carefully paying attention and using a drum machine or are we talking about being like a 1/4th of a second off and making it pretty hard to sync in a groove.

I guess its a difference of being a little ahead of the beat or causing a "train wreck" with the rest of the band. The first not so bad, the later so of defeates the purpose of tap tempo.

If I wanted to have my delay's out of time, I'd just use the knob LOL

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Wonders what we ever did before all this fancy nancy stuff
Dunno enough to make my mate sell them.....
Plus he thought that somehow sounded pretty close to some old Boss stuff, with more dark repeats to it.

 

[millsart]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

before the "fancy stuff" I used to piss off all the drummers and/or bassplayers I jammed with telling them they had to sync up to me and my delay pedal LOL

I'd get the knob set close, and then I'd have to just strum a few chords so they could hear what the exact tempo was and play in time to it.

Not bad for drummers that play to a click track I suppose, but I don't know any who do

 

[wahwah]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

I've spent an afternoon with the Australian T-Rex distributor looking at most of their pedals. The Replica was an immediate standout. It was very difficult to tell that it was digital from the sound of the repeats, particularly when set in "Brown" mode. These guys have really done their homework. The inclusion of an overall level control (for level matching against the bypassed signal) as well as the usual wet/dry mix control is a useful feature. It also has a subdivision switch for 1/8 triplets...nice. I didn't notice the slow tap tempo glitch, but then I was playing alone and not being hyper-critical of the way it functioned in that regard. Handles clean and driven sounds equally well.

Expensive, yes. Best of its kind on the planet, probably. Sometimes the Danes really are great.



Cheers...............................wahwah

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Faster tempotap glitch...
There is no secret in getting a hybrid pedal into sounding less digital...

 

[millsart]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Faster tempotap glitch...
There is no secret in getting a hybrid pedal into sounding less digital...

Secret or not, all I know is that the Boss, Line6, Digitech et al offerings all sound quite digital

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Eh I think that there are quite a few others, who supply delays with very different sounds than those

 

[wahwah]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Eh I think that there are quite a few others, who supply delays with very different sounds than those

There are a few, the Ibanez DE-7 for example, but they don't have tap tempo, a triplet subdivision switch and a master level control and sound as good as the Replica. I'd be interested to see the list of delays that directly compete with it.



Cheers................................wahwah

 

[millsart]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

The DE-7 could certainly stand a level control

Its not a bad pedal in the "tape" setting but I found the one I used to own quite steril and sort of "ice pick"-ish in the clean delay setting

For the price is a solid basic delay

 

[wahwah]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

The DE-7 could certainly stand a level control

Its not a bad pedal in the "tape" setting but I found the one I used to own quite steril and sort of "ice pick"-ish in the clean delay setting

For the price is a solid basic delay

You could be right, I don't know because I've never tried mine in the clean setting! I have no use for a digital sounding delay! But it lacks the tap tempo, which immediately discounts it from the subject of your thread. Its level is actually quite well matched, so the mix control suffices. It's the delay I use when I need something beyond the time constraints of the DM-2. But I still have my eyes on the Replica.



Cheers................................wahwah

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

DLS Echotap
Diamond Memory lane(analouge with tempotap)
Boss DD-20
Boss RE-20
TC-Nova delay
Gyatone TDX Tubeecho
Stereo Memory Man XO w/ Hazarai
Eventide Timafactor(maybe too hifi)
And our own XL, The upcoming Echotone we yanked out the extra head.
And there is a few that I am forgetting...dunno seems to me that there is more than the Dinosaurs out there

 

[Axl H]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

DLS Echotap
Diamond Memory lane(analouge with tempotap)
Boss DD-20
Boss RE-20
TC-Nova delay
Gyatone TDX Tubeecho
Stereo Memory Man XO w/ Hazarai
Eventide Timafactor(maybe too hifi)
And our own XL, The upcoming Echotone we yanked out the extra head.
And there is a few that I am forgetting...dunno seems to me that there is more than the Dinosaurs out there

Even though the TC Delay's Tape setting doesent sound 100% tape like, its very good.

And just the fact that I can tap in tempo by strumming the tempo on my guitar, is golden!

Plus its build quality is way better than T-Rex...



Btw Rid, what is that Hazarai stuffy, that EHX has added to the MM?

 

[vladmarr]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

Have you tried the Akai Headrush e2? i just got one and i love it. it's got a tap tempo, plus tape delay setting which works in both the tape and regular delay. also it comes with a high frequency damper that allows your to take the ice pickiness off. you can probably pick one up for under $200, but if you want what i think is the best, there is nothing like the original memory man delay...(everytime i see one i have to resist wacking it's owner over the head and running with it out the door) there's also nothing like the price...
i hear that the boss DD20 is pretty good too, but i have not tried it.

 

[millsart]

Re: Tap Tempo Delay quest: T-Rex Replica, anyone got some experience ?

The DD-20 is definatly a good pedal for the money, I've got one right now. I've a/b'd it quite a bit against my DMM and while not exact, it can do pretty much everything the DMM can except for the self osc stuff which the DD-20 doenst really do. I've never actually been a fan of that or how people find it musically useful to make weird noises but thats neither here nor there I guess.

The DMM does edge it out for clean mod delay of course, but the problem with the DMM is that its sort of a one trick pony and at over $300, thats a pricey trick.

As I've said, I do really love it for clean mod delay, its the best in the world for that, but I've always found it to sound rather poor playing leads and anything else with higher gain. Sometimes the noise of the unit can be a bit annoying as well though usually its not a dealbreaker.

I have heard really good things about the headrush for a looper pedal. I guess you can overdub and delete the overdub takes but keep the first loop which is pretty huge. Using the DL4, DD20 etc if you screw up you've got to start from scratch.


I' think I'll order a Replica next week probably to check it out, but another pedal I'm really excited about is the new Boss space echo. Its basically a digital moderler, or COSM or whatever they call it, but given how well they did with the DD-20, I've got some high hopes.

Might be a huge disapointment but I've always loved multitap delays and its got some good realtime control possibilites with a controler pedal so its also on my short list to check out.