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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Reverb and Delay Comparison!
Reverb and Delay Comparison!
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Dox
168 posts
Mar 10, 2018
6:43 AM
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Hi
I've decided to change my reverb section in the pedalboard and I made some A/B comparison tests.
I could not record the test so you have to believe me. :D
Short story: until now I've used a Lone Wolf Harp Reverb + Mxr carbon copy delay bright. This pair is nice
but wastes a lot of space in the pedalboard. At sound level the LW Harp Reverb is very good, the decay range
is not very wide but the sound is very good. I think he shows his real potentiality if there is a delay in front.
Without the delay, maybe lacks of some deepness. The Mxr Carbon copy has never convinced me through and through:
the clean sound is compressed a little to my ears and the delay signal is too colorful. These characteristics
can be nice, they are not necessarily unwanted, but they doesn't work for me. Because I feel better
the reverb than the delay I've decide to switch to only one unit with pre-delay to save space, weight and change the
reverb taste. Because I have 2 delay, I've decided to make a comparison with these pedals also.
THE REVERB TEST:
Reverb pedal: Lone Wolf Harp Reverb, TC Electronic Hall Of Fame 2, Strymon Bluesky.
Lone Wolf Harp Reverb.
simple unit, good sound, good taste. It's bigger than classical boss-dimensions pedals. As I said, the decay range
is not very wide (you can't achieve a very long reverb) and without the delay he lack some of deepness. The tone
control changes the reverb tone with more high or low frequencies and works fine.
TC Electronic Hall Of Fame 2.
very technological unit. Standard dimensions, a lot of reverb types, toneprint and tone control and is possible to achieve
very long reverbs. The toneprint pc application is really nice, you can get out all reverb sounds you have in mind
investing some time to play with the software and understand underneath concepts. Anyway, normally you don't need that: the reverbs types
included (there is a shimmer also!) are very beautiful and sound terribly awesome! Is a more complicated unit than the LW
Harp Reverb but if you are a little skilled about pedals you get hand-down a better sound and feel than the LW Harp Reverb.
Last but not least the HOFII and the LW HR costs the same price (at least in EU). Special mention to the MASH function which
integrates an expression pedal into the stompbox. Nice idea but for my purposes isn't very useful in case of reverb.
Strymon Bluesky.
Yes, I know, strymon bluesky is a very expensive pedal but I've took a very good second-hand at good price and
I wanted to try it. The dimensions are almost the same of HOFII considering that the jacks connections are on top of the unit.
The set of reverb types is less than the HOFII: there are room, plate and spring. For each reverb you can use a "taste switch"
selecting among normal, modulation and shimmer. Ok, you have less option than the HOFII but the overall quality of reverb is at
superior level!!! This is THE reverb: god has thought to this bluesky when has created our world! :D
Beyond easy enthusiasm, I have to say that I've tried all units with headphone and then with my rig. At the headphone test the
Strymon Bluesky wins hand-down. His deepness and sound texture are beautiful. At the rig test there is a less noticeable difference.
So, I think that in a live situation I'll not be able to find out a real difference. Anyway, because I plan to record with my pedalboard
also, I decided to put on that the strymon bluesky!
As final comment about the reverb pedal, I have to say that the HOFII is the best value-for-money pedal. Get it blind and you will be
happy with a reasonable cost.
THE DELAY TEST:
Delay pedal: BBE Two timer, Carbon copy delay bright.
Carbon copy Delay Bright.
As I previously said The Mxr Carbon copy has never convinced me: the clean sound is compressed a little to my ears and the delay signal
is too colored. These characteristics can be nice, they are not necessarily unwanted, but they doesn't work for me. Obviously, as
all delay I've tried in the time, the regen parameter can amplify some slight error during play, generating some un-musical distorsion
peak but this is a matter of harp technique not a defect of pedal. Standard dimension but he weight a lot! Sturdy case very heavy!
BBE Two timer.
Is bigger than the carbon copy. For me this delay sounds very harp-friendly, the delay signal has a little "gritty" with a little old-school
taste very good. The clean signal isn't altered, contrary to I've noted for the carbon copy. Maybe this delay is a little more feedback-prone
than the carbon but very a little. You can set 2 different delay time and switch them with a dedicated switch.
As final commend about the delay pedals, I have to say that the BBE Two timer is my favorite. I use it as standalone pedal when I don't carry out
the pedalboard.
A picture of the current pedalboard!!
Bye!
Last Edited by Dox on Mar 10, 2018 7:16 AM
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Martin
1440 posts
Mar 10, 2018
8:45 AM
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Thank you, Dox. Interesting.
May I ask you, that "shimmer" you talk about in the TCE HoF pedal, what is that and where do you find it?
(I own one of those and I like it a lot, but as usual there are many ways to skin the cat and I still haven´t even killed it, I suspect.)
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Dox
170 posts
Mar 10, 2018
9:20 AM
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Hi Martin, the shimmer on the HoF is different than the strymon, you can like it or not but is good. I'm not a "shimmer-guy" addicted in the field of harmonica, but I think y'll be use it with profit.
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Martin
1441 posts
Mar 10, 2018
11:16 AM
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OK, so the shimmer is sort of an "aspect" of the reverb, or of ceratin reverbs; or is it an effect in its own right?
If the latter, where do you find it on the HoF, if you follow my meaning?
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Dox
171 posts
Mar 10, 2018
11:31 AM
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You can consider the shimmer a TYPE of reverb. In the strymon you can "shimmify" the base reverb but in the most reverb pedals the shimmer is a type of reverb itself. A shimmer is a complex reverb alghoritm which involve pitch alteration (using octave or other intervals) and modulation. It's very popular for guitar player, in my knowledge not very popular for harp player.
Look at this video for an example (around min 9:00):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNwS2JBq2A
Because I'm even a bass player, I've not spent a lot of time around the shimmer (in general the bass doesn't need reverb) but I think I'll do some experimentations with harp.
Bye :D
Last Edited by Dox on Mar 10, 2018 11:38 AM
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hvyj
3545 posts
Mar 10, 2018
2:51 PM
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@Dox: Although the MXR CC is supposed to be true bypass, it's not. That's why it adversely affects your signal when it's disengaged. I have the original CC dark and I like it. I almost never turn it off so its not being true bypass doesn't make any difference for the way I use it. FWIW. For reverb, I use the reverb as n my amps.
Last Edited by hvyj on Mar 10, 2018 2:55 PM
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Martin
1442 posts
Mar 10, 2018
4:13 PM
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@Dox: OK thanks. Can you say right off the bat which setting on the HoF that gives the most "shimmer"? Not sure that I´ve discovered that (there are many options on that pedal).
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Dox
172 posts
Mar 10, 2018
4:20 PM
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Martin pay attention to the HoF version! Shimmer is present in the version 2 ONLY!!! Hall Of Fame 2 is the correct version. The first version has no shimmer!! If you have the version 2 there is an explicit reverb selection option called "shimmer" :D
Last Edited by Dox on Mar 10, 2018 4:21 PM
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Martin
1443 posts
Mar 11, 2018
7:18 AM
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Aha, that explains it! I´ve got the earlier version.
Well well, I´ll live with it.
Thanks.
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