Please help me find a haunting piece of dirt delay

Hey nauts, fellow travelers in the musical realm,

I’m looking for a real, gritty, lo-fi, haunting (but not nasty) delay. I’m aware of the other delay threads, but since my need is quite specific, I figured I’d dare to post this on its own.

I’d like it to have -
Filters on the tail - high pass and low pass. I’m ok with not both operating at the same time, though that’d be awesome if they did. Like the Digitakt.

Lots of weird time settings. Synced delays are so 90’s. For me, at least :slight_smile:

Full control over wet and dry, as in the wet mix being only the tail, not the source at all

Pitch control over wet signal.

Stereo. Ping pong. Or even better, control over levels in the stereo field. Prophet 12 four delay chain is just awesome in this regard.

LFO. One is enough. That can affect most parameters, though no one in particular is more important. I just want that dynamic that modulation brings to fx.

Character - I’m with Chase Bliss. If they had a stereo delay, I wouldn’t post this. But they don’t, and I need one.

I’ve had Meris Polymoon. Great, but not enough going on in the character, lo-fi, grit and noise department. I’ve eyed BIM and considering it. The Tonal Recall is kind of along the lines of what I’m going for, but again, I need stereo (and it’s touchy with line input levels in general). I’m not into Strymon. Too clean. I’ve tried the Volante and Timeline. Don’t like them. I used to have a MiniFooger Delay, which had the right vibe but not enough dirt and features going. The MoogerFooger had the right idea, but also too clean, too polite in the grit department.

So … where do we go from here? :slight_smile:

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Have you considered Strymon Volante?

Not sure it has everything you’re asking for though.

Does it have to be all in one pedal?
One distortion unit (or many?), one delay and a mixer channel to close the loop is always fun!

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I had much fun with this for a couple of years:

Edit: Oops, missed the criteria for stereo.

I enjoy the bug brand too for a lofi sound. My stereo delays are oto bim and zen delay, both of which can get quite grimy

I think a ZOIA would be up to the task. :slightly_smiling_face:

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If you’re willing to revive your modular journey, then perhaps 4ms Tapographic Delay.

@MichaalHell yep, it’s too clean for me :slight_smile:

@Lauli yeah, all in one, I’m a very singular kind of guy when it comes to gear.

@leighzi88 the BIM is def on my radar. Seems the closest candidate so far.

@AldoVino interesting … thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

@blipson see, I knew you were gonna say that :slight_smile: I will not go modular. Thank you, though :slight_smile:

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Reading your requirements list, it honestly sounds like Eurorack (Rainmaker plus a distortion and modulation source would give you everything you need) is the best route.

Or if you know you like Chase Bliss or something mono, buy two of them?

If it has to be pedal and has to be in one box, the best suggestion above and probably the only real solution for all those requirements … is an Empress Zoia.

Otherwise I think you’re going to struggle.

Erica Zen Delay? (Edit: Already mentioned)

Ooh yeah, ZOIA would probably be good for this task. All though you’d have to put in the work to tailor the delay to your specific needs…

All though it’s not as knobby as a normal pedal

Some of the settings on the Eventide Timefactor/H9 could work.

The new Raster V2 has a lot of this, not as grimey though

Not ticking the stereo box but the Mid Fi Pitch Pirate is an otherworldly ‘is it broken or is it meant to sound like that?’ delay pedal that has schematics available. I have a clone from a friend which lends itself well to all manner of grungy delayed sounds.

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This (hand built in the UK):
http://www.spacecataudiotechnologies.com/timefreek.html


They have another delay which is very expensive, but was used by Lee Perry:

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I agree with @AldoVino (shocking I know) that I think ZOIA could accomplish a lot of this (the question of character is always a difficult one). Although I don’t know of a patch that has all of these features yet – it is a fairly specific list – when I started reading through the items, I thought of this patch I wrote:

Which produces all sorts of “lo-fi haunting delays” with (very) weird time signatures and high or low-passed tails with separate wet/dry levels. It misses on a few of the other things, and may venture into the too-weird territory, but I’ll submit it as a partial proof of concept.

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The Binson Echorec emulation in the Boss DD-500 sounds really good. The pedal gives you filters and modulation options too.

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Volante too clean?? Send me some audio, and i will push it through volante, at the dirtiest settings! hehe.

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It is simpler than your description, but it does have many features. Digitech Obscura has never let me down. Sounds absolutely disgusting if you want it to sound so…

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Whoa. So many options, all of a sudden.

Surprised no one’s coming to defend the BIM, though. I almost assumed everybody and their cousins would just say “Get an OTO already.”