Hands on Review Of TC Electronic's Prophet Digital Delay

A few months ago TC Electronic released an entire line of compact effects that seem targeted toward the economically minded (cheap) customer. While I enjoy affordable effects. I found the timing slightly dubious. Right on the heels of TC Electronic being acquired by Music Group (Behringer's parent company), we have a massive unveiling. I've already spoken about the possibility that this is the Behringer effects line 2.0. I no longer think that is the case, but it's not much better.



I Want To Love This Pedal

Out of the box, this pedal is pretty impressive. The Prophet is built like a tank. It also looks kind of like a tank. Larger than a BOSS pedal in every dimension, these pedals are a little deceiving. The large knobs give you the sense that the pedal is smaller than it is. It's like the Duplo version of the tiny micro pedals. Imagen Mooer pedals on steroids. This should be good news. One of my main complaints of the micro pedal trend is the size. I have large feet and can easily cover the entire pedal. These pedals take care of that issue easily. It also puts the jacks on top of the pedal. That lets you put those bulky boxes right next to one another. You can line all these pedals up and make a pretty little pedal board.



They Are Unique

Unlike the Behringer line of effects, these pedal have no direct 'inspiration'. Other than the regular delay controls (Time, Mix, Repeats), this pedal has a switch to control the subdivides. The soft click bypass switch is also a feature that makes this pedal stand out. Noiseless-operation is something not seen much on a budget, true-bypass pedal. In addition, the way the pedal chops up the self-oscillating noises without bending the pitch of the repeats is different to say the least.


There are limits

The biggest flaw that this pedal has is its limits. Why does a pedal with  the TC Electronic name on it have such limited features. TC is known for nearly limitless options, and yet these are extremely basic pedals. They do cost less than half of their full blooded counterparts. However they are a strong contrast to the line of sleek, features rich products.


Conclusion


This pedal delivers on everything it promises. It's very simple but it works very well. If you already have several top-jack pedals this one will fit in. Inexpensive delays can be noisy, or have signal bleed. This pedal has none of that, which leads me to believe that TC Electronic might have had something to do with the development of this pedal. The closest thing I can compare this pedal to is the JOYO Digital Delay, and man is that thing a piece of junk. That pedal barley works, but it is a large format three knob digital delay. That pedal goes for something around $30, but it barley functional. So The Prophet is like that pedal but better, actually it's everything that pedal should be. Should you buy it? Do you want a basic digital delay? This is pretty much the best one.