Digital vs. Analog

[Thrash]

Which is better for a delay pedal?

[mi2tom]

Personal preferences..... I like analog

[crevis]

Theres some powerful digital delays now.

[C.Thep]

digital, you won't need analog for thrash, as your name implies.

Line 6 echo park.

[ibanezdiehard]

while analogue has a different sound, you can do alot more with digital

[rummy]

Boss DD3 does what I want it to do.

[Batchimp RG]

Originally Posted by IBANEZDIEHARD

while analogue has a different sound, you can do alot more with digital

+1, I used to collect Boss DM2s, some were good, some were not. I think getting warmth in delays can be achieved in other ways.

[Rob A]

I'm gonna be really annoying now and say "It depends what you want to use it for".

If you want varying or long delays, and do some odd tap tempo n stuff, go digital. If you value warmth to your sounds, and can handle shorter delay times (5-600ms or less) then go analogue. Digital is not 'necessarily' better than analogue, neither is analogue 'necessarily' better than digital

[Rodney James]

Originally Posted by Rob A

I'm gonna be really annoying now and say "It depends what you want to use it for".

I agree, they both offer excellent qualities.

[crevis]

Originally Posted by Rob A

I'm gonna be really annoying now and say "It depends what you want to use it for".

If you want varying or long delays, and do some odd tap tempo n stuff, go digital. If you value warmth to your sounds, and can handle shorter delay times (5-600ms or less) then go analogue. Digital is not 'necessarily' better than analogue, neither is analogue 'necessarily' better than digital

it is if youre using < 24 bit a/d/a. Bad quality digital delays sound like a mushy version of what you just played.

[The Euphor]

Isn't it so that one digital item in the chain will make everything sound digital?

[crevis]

Id imagine that it would improve a little if its early in your chain, but as long as its 24 bit, it should be unoticable.

[Rob A]

Originally Posted by crevis

Id imagine that it would improve a little if its early in your chain, but as long as its 24 bit, it should be unoticable.

Well, yes a good ada converter is necessary, otherwise, as crevis said, it sounds like mush. The reason soem people find digital to be 'cold', and analog 'warm' is because of them olden days...

When analog delays first came out, they had to use a low pass filter to remove the 'ticking' that was a result of the BBD (bucket brigade delay) chip. This noticeably affected the guitar tone, by knocking some of those high frequencies. Digital doesn't have the same problems, so they sound far more open and don't have the same h.f problems.

Hmmm, that didn't actually answer your question, thrash. What type of music do you play?

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Can digital delays do those freaky laser gun effects like Steve Stevens does in those Billy Idol songs? I remember having a cheap analog delay that could do it, but most digital delays I've had lately don't let you set a short enough delay time or vary it smoothly to get those crazy sounds -- not that I was ever able to control them well enough for musical purposes anyhow, but I think it might be one thing an old crappy analog stomp box delay can do that a typical digital delay can't do. I'm pretty sure the delays in my Pod XT for instance cannot do it.