Eventide Timefactor Delay mini-review

[jzucker]

OK, so I hated it at first. As with all these things, the factory presets are crap. Also, it has some annoying niggles:

• inability to scroll the banks in both directions - you have to go through all 10 banks to get back to the beginning. (An external pedal can solve this)
• Extremely sensitive controls. Hard to get to a specific delay setting. Trying to dial in my typical 385ms for example is annoyingly difficult.
• Tape emulation is not very good. Ironic because I had heard such good things about this particular feature. The Axefx echoplex is *MUCH* better.
• [UPDATE] Unit is being returned. Periodically makes digital noise squawks

However, after playing around with the unit for several days I have really grown to love it. A couple of the strong points:

• Vintage Delay - This is a bit reduced delay to simulate early delay units. I found that by dialing this back to 12 bits, I was able to get very close to the thick and rich tones of my '70s MXR rack mount Digital Delay. This has always been my favorite sounding delay and chorud unit. Big plus with the timefactor is the ability to get modulation and delay together (unlike the MXR)
• ModDelay - Gorgeous thick and juciy delay chorus combinations though I think I like the Vintage Delay version better

So, I've only scratched the surface with this unit and have already found several really great sounds. Glad I stuck with it.

Here are a couple really sloppy clips I made with the moddelay setting. I will redo these with better playing and using the vintage delay version which sounds better IMO.

http://www.sheetsofsound.net/demos/timefactor1.mp3
http://www.sheetsofsound.net/demos/timefactor2.mp3

[alex_toney]

The clips may have been a little sloppy, but great playing! Thanks for making demo clips with good playing... there are so many where the playing is pretty brutal and it makes it hard to really hear the quality of a pedal!

[overlookfran]

this pedal is tits. i own and love it. wish i could name presets tho.

[jzucker]

Wait 'til you hear them re-done with the 2.x beta update and the vintagedelay/mod settings. Just gorgeous.

[donbarzini]

Props to Mike Fuller for using "Layla" to demonstrate his TTE. I now always play that when I am trying to cop that tape echo vibe as well

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by donbarzini

Props to Mike Fuller for using "Layla" to demonstrate his TTE. I now always play that when I am trying to cop that tape echo vibe as well

How about props to EC ?

[JeffreyC]

How about props to EC ?

But wasn't that particular piece of music on piano in the original?
Anyway, great piece of music. Anyone have the tab for it on guitar?

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by JeffreyC

But wasn't that particular piece of music on piano in the original?
Anyway, great piece of music. Anyone have the tab for it on guitar?

There are only 3 chords. C (maj7) F and Bb7 (#11)

[donbarzini]

Originally Posted by jzucker

How about props to EC ?

No, props to Fuller for doing it to demonstrate the tone of his TTE.

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by donbarzini

No, props to Fuller for doing it to demonstrate the tone of his TTE.

It's not even that good of a echoplex demo. I'd rather give the props to the original players.

[donbarzini]

How about doing a tape echo demo with the Axe-Fx, can that get pretty close? Wear shorts though.

[jimfog]

Originally Posted by jzucker

How about props to EC ?

Jim Gordon (yes, the drummer) wrote the piano outro to Layla.

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by donbarzini

How about doing a tape echo demo with the Axe-Fx, can that get pretty close? Wear shorts though.

haha! Yes, I will do that. I need to upgrade to version 5 of the firmware which has an incredible implementation of an echoplex. I'll see if I can get to that this weekend.

[Roobin]

Originally Posted by jzucker

• Extremely sensitive controls. Hard to get to a specific delay setting. Trying to dial in my typical 385ms for example is annoyingly difficult.

You can edit them to a resolution of 1ms. After adjusting Dly A Time for example, press the right footswitch then turn the Encoder. You can do the same thing with tap tempo (eg 119BPM -> 120BPM).

[jzucker]

Originally Posted by Roobin

You can edit them to a resolution of 1ms. After adjusting Dly A Time for example, press the right footswitch then turn the Encoder. You can do the same thing with tap tempo (eg 119BPM -> 120BPM).

Thanks. I figured there was a way to do that.