Massive delay shootout

Taylor Barefoot and I put together a short (10 minute) video demonstrating usage of 10 high end delay pedals. We used:

Moog MF-104
Empress Vintage Modified Superdelay
Dr Scientist Sunny Day Delay
Way Huge Aquapuss
MXR Carbon Copy
Toneczar Echoczar
ElectroHarmonix Deluxe Memory Man Reissue
Diamond Memory Lane
Hughes and Kettner Replex
Roland SRE-555

The guitar was a '59 Strat. Amp was a Black 'n Tan from Alessandro with a 1x12 cab, also from Alessandro. R-121/SM-57 into a Shadow Hill Gama 8, to Lynx Aurora 16 into Protools. Monster cables were used for interconnects and a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II provided the juice. Nothing else was in the guitar's chain. Recorded the video in 720p HD. The H&K Replex is taped up, because otherwise the lights are somewhat blinding on-stage.

Taylor played all parts, and we didn't reamp him. Some of the pedals had shorter delay times and required using different tempos anyway. We didn't have the time or ability to go through every single setting on each pedal, but instead just set each for a solid sound with modulation that worked for the riffs being played. This is very similar to if you were recording in the studio and trying to figure out what delay pedal fit a song.

We didn't record more (other) delay pedals because we didn't have them. Taylor, nor I own a DD-5 or a Tube Tape Echo. We asked for people requesting those to let us borrow one, but no one did. This wasn't sponsored by a company and there wasn't a multi-thousand dollar budget to buy extra pedals just for people to hear. Just because Taylor owns more pedals than most stores doesn't mean he actually is one

Overall, I'm really pleased with the results. All of the pedals did their job well. None of them presented much noise except for the SRE-555, which is somewhat expected from a vintage tape delay. The only ones that I felt were a bit of a (shocking) letdown were the Aquapuss (delay time too short at 300ms, not enough mojo), and the Electro Harmonix (we've been told this reissue is nowhere near as good as the original Deluxe Memory Man, and I think it shows). Otherwise, even the $150 MXR Carbon Copy held its own fairly well against the massive $900 EchoCzar. None of them would be poor to have on your board, but each certainly make different sounds. Taylor wishes that some of the pedals had longer delay times (Diamond Memory Lane), but as we all know things get funny using BBD pedals at over 650ms. The digital pedals held their own perfectly against the analogue ones, and I don't think anyone would call out the Empress as digital if they listened blindly.