Delay

As I wrote in my last thread, I just purchased a Burns B3 (Should be here next week! Cant Wait!) I gathered that effects were practically a must-have.

I purchased an Electro Harmonix Small Stone Nano phaser and I feel very confidant in that purchase. However, the delay I purchased is a Danelectro Dan-Echo. This seemed like a solid purchase as I've always had good luck with the Dano mini's and have heard generally positive things about the larger pedals too. I decided to spend a bit less on Delay. Now, I'm getting nervous that I won't be pleased with it. I can always return it, so it's no big deal.

Question is: What are delays that you find to be good for theremins? I know the Boss will likely be the most popular model. Preferably, it will do delay, echo, and reverb, and not cost a bundle (preferably right around $100). Is this asking too much?!?!?1

Thanks!

Pamelia uses the Line 6 DL4. Me too. I love it. I seldom use all the effects on it--just the looper.

Dear Goat Punishment (does this name really mean what my dictionary translates???),

are you sure that this is the right moment to purchase additional modules and effects for your theremin, even before you have seen that you are able to play on it and without any practice or without having taken lessons?

The first steps on the theremin need only headphones (your family and neighbors will be thankful). If after several months of intense work you see that you start mastering the instrument, there will be still enough time to think about effects.

Beginners on the violin normally don't start with an instrument made by Stradivarius... ;-)

I think you'll be happy with your Dan-Echo - my first delay pedal was the Danelectro PB&J - one step down from the Dan-Echo - nice tone, easy to use, my only gripe was the maximum 1 second delay - more is better.

I also have a Marshall EH-1 Echohead - up to 2 seconds - which I am very pleased with. Some of the settings aren't a whole lot of use - emulating tape speed variations for instance - it's hard enough to hold a note steady - when I do so I don't want the delay to take it off tune for me!

I'd get a separate reverb - chances are you're going to want delay and reverb running at the same time, not an either/or situation. (I use a Marshall RF-1 Reflector.)

Not sure what the difference between delay and echo is - the terms tend to get used interchangeably. Could you expand on that a bit?

I'm more interested to hear how the phaser works out for you - my understanding is that they rely on a harmonically rich input to sweep across, and the theremin sound is not gifted with a whole load of harmonics. My guess is that it would be better to put it after the delay in your chain.

LULZ, "Goat Punishment".

Gordon - there's no difference between echo and delay. That's why it's called "echo delay".

Boss just released the DD7, if that intrigues anyone.

On Phasers - shop by resonance. The one I've got (Boss PH3) sounds like a cleaner Korg filter. It has loads of rich lovely harmonics to bust out, which is really cool if you're playing in the top octave since it all starts to shimmer. It also does stepped phasing, which is where it moves in stages rather than sweeps. If you do it fast enough it sounds nice and garbly.

...and to edit the post again...

I've found great things with the Alesis Nanoverb. When I was just performing quiet stringy pieces, I used to use it very subtly to fatten the sound a little bit. If you turn it right up it will distort to hell and give you lovely screaming noises.

This is a point - get small things. I can't recommend enough a rig that fits into one suitcase. Modules and racks might be nice but in the long run they'll paralyse you and give you leprosy if you're gigging on your own.

Thierry, according to urbandictionary.com "people who dont already know what goat punishment is.. dont deserve to find out"

Sorry. I was going to explain it to you until I read that. :-(

Alexander - that's why I asked for a bit of clarification.

Boss DD7. Hmm. Not so much intriguing as puzzling. 3.2 Secs delay - nice. Double that in "long delay mode" - er, ok, I had a VCR that could double the recording time on a tape in "long play mode" at the cost of halving the quality. I never used it. Or maybe they're just abandoning stereo on the long delay. And then... "and it's a 40 second looper" What?! Is it doing hardware compression to mp3 on the fly or something?

Me am puzzled. And a little bit tempted. And going to wait until there is a pdf manual at bossus.com that might answer some of this.

I think the reason for having different delay times is so that you can be a bit more specific about them. The DD7 will have a range from mere milliseconds to 6.4 seconds. So you want to be able to vary the length of the delay as much as possible. Hardly very practical to have one knob going from 50ms to 6 seconds as that doesn't allow for those minute and specific adjustments, so you select from several different delay lengths and fine tune the timing on that. High-quality sampling is easier and easier by the year. My RC-50 takes a maximum of 24 minutes in stereo (over 40 in mono) without any loss. I doubt you'll experience any lower quality depending on delay times in the DD7 either. Same goes for the 40 second looper. That's probably just the pedal's limit!

Hello,
In an earlier thread I wrote this:
"Hi,
I find that almost any synthesizer sound can be made thru the use of effects pedals processing a Theremin--- any Theremin.
In the older days of electronics manufacture, one would buy a single pedal or device at a time, to complement their muse. In the present day, multi-effects pedals are available for guitar, bass and vocalists.
Perhaps, a vocalist's multi-effects pedal would fit your needs better than a single ... pedal. Your sonic options would be much greater with a multi-effects pedal specifically designed for a vocalist, considering the Theremin's intrinsic voice. I should know, I own one: Digitech's VFx400. I, also have an Ibenez DE7 Echo/Delay, just for fun!"
Since then, I have purchased an Akia E2 Head Rush delay/echo/looping pedal, and recently tried and returned a Boss Giga-delay pedal. The Akai E2 is much easier to use while playing the Theremin than the Boss Giga-delay. Also, the E2 sounded better and it's controls were easier to use and immediately understand.

Good luck, on whatever you decide to acquire!

teslatheremin

Hmm... I don't like multi-FX pedals and usually their potential isn't as great as a chain of individual pedals. Usually because they're designed to be jack-of-all-trades devices with stock distortions, delays, choruses etc. If you want to add very very subtle effects then they may be the right thing, but if you care about making specific sounds with an effects chain then stay away from multi-FX.

When you start thinking like that you'll probably buy an awful lot of BOSS gear, as I have. Just stay away from BOSS distortions, unless you're thinking of getting a Hyper Fuzz, in which case I'd say "buy a Hyper Fuzz".

Alexander,
When was the last time you tried some the new multi-effects pedals?

Good Luck!

teslatheremin