Why I Still Use A BOSS DD-20 Delay

For nearly ten years, I've used the BOSS DD-20 as my main delay. I've had several others come and go, but I've always stuck by the BOSS Twin Pedal. When I bought it, it was one of the best delays you could buy. As the years have gone by, I've seen many impressive delays come to market. There are a few reasons why I haven't upgraded.

It's Simple

If you can use a any of the BOSS digital delays, then you can use the DD-20. With just a few turns of a knob, you can dial in just about any delay sound you want. That's not to say that it's lacking features, but the interface is very easy to understand and use. There are no menus. There is a screen to give you all the information you need. It's all right there in front of your face. So simple, it's almost dumb. Just the way I like it.

It's Deep

This pedal does a little bit of everything. It's not perfect by any means. However, there are plenty of options to choose from. Not only that, but there is feature that you don't see often on a delay. Not only do you get Tape, Analog, Ping Pong, Looping and other modes, but you get a Tone knob. I know that's not super exciting, but it let's you dial in how dark or bright you want your repeats. I'm sure that some of these uber delays can do the same thing or similar, but when this was new on the market, it was very unique.





It's A Value





I paid top dollar back when I bought mine, but now you can regularly find this pedal for under $100. I've done a lot of looking recently, and $100 doesn't buy you a lot in regards to delay. In this case, You can get tons of delay for your money.




Conclusion




If I had the 200-250 dollars it would take to buy a DD-20 at its original price, I'd do one of two things. I'd save up for the DD-500 or I'd get the Carbon Copy Deluxe. The DD-500 might be a little overkill, but it won't leave you wanting. The Carbon Copy Deluxe is a great delay made even better. I'm running analog type delay sounds most the time anyways, and the Carbon Copy is just about the best deal going for one of those. If I had to put together a full feature pedal board for the least amount of money, then the DD-20 is my pick. For about a hundred dollars, the DD-20 is very hard to beat.

Hands On Review Of Joyo Digital Delay

Those that shop thrifty pedal know the Joyo brand. It's been years since I've played my first Joyo pedal. It was an Ultimate Drive. I didn't like it very much despite the fact that it's supposed to be an OCD clone. I've tried other offerings of their to varying level of, "Meh". But I saw a Digital Delay sitting in my local music store's used bin and I bit. I've been on somewhat of a delay search, so I decided this would be the black horse. Oh boy...



Right Off The Bat

I wanted this pedal to be more. I wanted it to defy the expectations that pedal snob would have for it. I love to find a sleeper pedal. Too cheap to appeal to the cork-sniffers, but those willing to get it a shot would know it is indispensable. This pedal, well, it's not that. As soon as I power-up and plug in, there is a very audible, screeching noise (and it's not even on!). I turn it on and it's deafening. I quickly turn it back off and contemplate the mistake I made when purchasing this pedal. However, I realize that the delay is dimed and the signal bleeds through while in bypass. Not a good start.



Not Much Else

So, there are the standard features of a delay of this type. It has about 600ms of delay and standard Time, Repeats, and Level controls. The repeats are the rather standard digital type, nothing special there.



Conclusion

I know that there aren't as many points as I usually have, but there just isn't that much more to say about this pedal. That's about the worst thing you can say about this pedal. It is exactly what you might think. It's super cheap and you get what you pay for. Actually, you probably don't get what you pay for because if you have this pedal in your chain then you are going to get unwanted noise. You'd have to put it in a bypass loop. The only application I can see for this pedal is a practice rig, or a paperweight.

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.