Digitech TimeBender...WOW!

[Will Chen]

Picked one up over the weekend. Throughly impressed. I was able to program in a setting emulating what Steve Vai used on Ballerina and had that song down, a goal of mine for quite some time. In fact, listening to Passion and Warfare you can hear pitch shifted delay all over the place. It's really opened my mind to some tones I wouldn't be able to pull off without it.

In an answer to a question on another forum, I understand it can kinda emulate a Whammy pedal as well with an external expression pedal (gotta get me one). Any other users?

[Will Chen]

Holy cow! No love for this incredible pedal? I know it's a bit of a niche pedal at a higher price point. But I figured the more experimental of you guys would be all over this bad boy...

[Brettski]

I've been curious about that sucker for a while. I'm sorta getting over my Nova Delay. Yeah, it stores nine presets but you can't get to them on the fly. The ducking delay sucks and the tap tempo light also accompanies a cool little thud sound.....EVERY FREAKING TIME IT BLINKS.

How would you rate the Timebender for more traditional delay sounds?

[grozeil]

Curious too. I considered swap my good old DD20 with this one

[Will Chen]

I've been curious about that sucker for a while. I'm sorta getting over my Nova Delay. Yeah, it stores nine presets but you can't get to them on the fly. The ducking delay sucks and the tap tempo light also accompanies a cool little thud sound.....EVERY FREAKING TIME IT BLINKS.

How would you rate the Timebender for more traditional delay sounds?

I think it sounds great but am still getting to know the different settings. The tone control allows a more neutral setting at noon (depending on the voicing of the selected delay mode) and progressively darker repeats when turned counterclockwise and progressively thinner repeats when turned clockwise. The ducking delay here is implemented extremely well and having the ability to store 5 settings (4 plus manual) is very nice. Also very cool is the ability to tap tempo or mute your strings and strum tempo (or strum multi-tap patterns) or set the intelligent pitch shifting key by strumming a chord.

Still getting to know the unit but so far the only thing I find lacking is no MIDI port (if I ever wanted to go to a full MIDI controlled pedal board). If you haven't heard it in action yet, check out the clips and vids over at http://timebenderdelay.com/. The Sweetwater vid, as in depth as it is, still doesn't cover all the sounds I've been able to dial up with just a few days experimentation. Just blowing my mind...

I hope to have a full review up Monday at my site but won't have time to cut any clips.

[david henman]

I've been curious about that sucker for a while. I'm sorta getting over my Nova Delay. Yeah, it stores nine presets but you can't get to them on the fly. The ducking delay sucks and the tap tempo light also accompanies a cool little thud sound.....EVERY FREAKING TIME IT BLINKS.


...i haven't encountered any of those issues with mine. is yours defective, perhaps?

[ABKB]

Always been curious about this pedal. It does some cool things, and I can see how it might do some cheesy things as well. But most of what I have heard is cool. But one thing I have not heard one way or another, how are the basic delays on it? Does it approach the DMM when it comes to modulated delays?

I ask because while some of the tricks it does are cool, if I were to buy it, the regular analog delays (with some modulation at times) would get the most workout. Also, does it only hold 4 presets?

The lack of midi on it is a downside, especially for a pedal that can do so much.

[Will Chen]

I don't have a DMM for comparison. It does do modulated delays, but I'd bet the DMM probably beats it as that is it's strong point. On the other hand can the DMM do pitch shifting, reverse delay, or looping?

Personally I think the analog delay emulation is hot, but like I said I'm still getting to know it. My manual setting is the analog setting with the tone rolled slightly dark and it sounds great. I'll mess around with the modulation a bit tonight.

Yep only 4 presets (expandable to 8 if you attach an expression pedal), a bit of a shame considering the wide variety of sound capable from the unit.

[Brettski]

...i haven't encountered any of those issues with mine. is yours defective, perhaps?
I suppose it's possible. It's most obvious through the serial effects loop (modded it) in my triple recto. Maybe it needs to be calibrated to line level.

The Nova has a lot going for it. If I were gigging more, I'd probably look elsewhere. I'd hate to go back to the DL4. I killed two of those poor things already.

[giantrobotswinbig]

I bought a Timebender from GC for about 4 weeks before returning it.

Even though the sheer array of creative possibilities and features was very impressive, I honestly couldn't imagine realistically using 70% of them in a band setting. I also wished that the pitch-shifting delay had better tracking. Mainly, if you don't completely stop the vibration of 1 string before you play on another string, the pitch shifting will churn out warbly overtone noises, which became very limiting and tedious.

I returned it and put the $200+ toward buying a looping station, which I've enjoyed much more.

[sahhas]

had one , i thought it was ok, just didn't love the delays for the most part.
i thought it seemed more like pitch shifter, which didn't really impress me...
i did like the envelope function-which i like a slicer, so i ended up getting a slicer instead, and then a bit later got an EH 16 ddl-reissue, which i love much better....
oh well

[ShaneV]

Looks like a really cool unit, I'd like to try one out. Digitech is really going all out lately and making some nice stuff.

[Will Chen]

But one thing I have not heard one way or another, how are the basic delays on it? Does it approach the DMM when it comes to modulated delays?

For traditional delay I've been using it exclusivly in Dynamic (ie Ducking) Analog mode and digging it. Last night I experimented with the modulation and while there are some cool tones there, if modulated delay is your primary goal there are probably better devices available. Not that this sounds bad, I thought it sound quite good. But it didn't give me enough control over the modulation to get it sounding exactly how I would've liked it. The best results were using the moving head tape delay emulation and dialing the modulation on the lower end of the medium range (there's only a single dial which dictates both speed/depth and level).

...I honestly couldn't imagine realistically using 70% of them in a band setting. I also wished that the pitch-shifting delay had better tracking. Mainly, if you don't completely stop the vibration of 1 string before you play on another string, the pitch shifting will churn out warbly overtone noises, which became very limiting and tedious...

Well, it depends on what type of band your in. Players a little left of norm are likely going to get some usage out of the more exotic tones. In a 12 bar blues band, absolutely not. It's not the right fit for all players. I imagine for the average player which only uses delay for some slapback any number of more affordable and less complex devices would suffice.

Must disagree on the pitchshifting. While the pitchshifting isn't 100% stable in a polyphonic setting (few devices are, though it will track basic chords of 4ths, 5ths, and octaves perfectly) I found it as stable as a whammy in most settings. I mean, come on. How many pedals can pull of Steve Vai's Ballerina? It's dual pitch shifted delays one +9 one +5 and it's totally stable doing it: http://timebenderdelay.com/?p=130. I dialed these settings in myself and have gotten similar results of that recording.

had one , i thought it was ok, just didn't love the delays for the most part.
i thought it seemed more like pitch shifter, which didn't really impress me...
i did like the envelope function-which i like a slicer, so i ended up getting a slicer instead, and then a bit later got an EH 16 ddl-reissue, which i love much better....
oh well

Are you referring to the Boss slicer? Does it allow you to set the pattern by strumming? The tremolo sequencer in the Adrenalinn III is one of my favorite effects on that unit and I can get the similar sounds much easier using the TimeBender.

The EH 16 sec delay is more of a looping device than a delay, I've got a JamMan for that (though the TimeBender does 20 sec looping as well).

Guys, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say this is the right unit for all of you, but it is for me due to it's uniqueness. I'm not concerned with what it can't do but what it can, and I'm unaware of another unit competitive in both features and price...

[Will Chen]

Here's the Sweetwater vids showing off what the pedal go do...

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