Yamaha UD Stomp preset demo - big, modulated, and here.

Quite easily the most fantastic and complex delay I've ever got my hands on. 

Preset list. 

Pearl CH-02 analog chorus - another very good Pearl pedal that doesn't erase your money in seconds.

The thing that consistently gets me about the old Pearl pedals is that they aren't perhaps the best sounding. If you plug this in as a straight-up chorus, you probably won't be blown away (it's more Small Clone than CE-2). The delay doesn't instantly fill you with a golden glow of amazement and wonder. But you then start to play around with the Pearl pedals and there's something interesting to them, they do some things that make me think 'Oh, I like that'. 

Take the analog chorus. It's a decent enough analog chorus, no complaints there. As you tinker with the depth, mix, and speed, then you get into the territory of tape warble-type sounds, the Boards of Canada obsessive in me comes out, and it then gets more interesting. 

Prices: usually under £40. Sometimes much lower. 

The Boss RV-6 reverb - sensible trousers for everyone.

Just look at it. You can't upload anything, download new settings, USBify, or memstick it one. In a world of plugins and touchscreens and phone apps, there is something almost quaint about the RV-6. It's the shiny top panel that does it, adding a slight air of the swish to it whilst operationally it's everything you'd expect from a Boss pedal. 

Stereo inputs = a very good thing. In a perfect world I'd have a DD-500 behind it and a DD-7 in front of it. Instead I've got limited talent at both ends. Going through the modes:

1. +Delay - reverb and delay. The Tone knob acts as feedback controller. I really like this sound. It's subtle, not overblown, very clean. It won't do self-oscillation. Instead it will loop over and over until it fades off. When you use this pedal is 100% wet mode, it sounds really cool and this going into a looper definitely gets my vote. Recently I've had the OBNE Procession and the Earthquaker Afterneath reverb pedals jump onto my testing chair: blah was my response. This one sound alone makes me rate the RV-6 higher than both pedals. 

If you listen to this sound using headphones at 100%, you can hear that it's almost a bit of reverb coming in before the delay. It almost reminds me of the way the reverb would come in with the Bloom settings on the Midiverb II. 

2. Shimmer. I'm sat here typing with headphones on. The guitar is still opened up going into the RV-6, Audiomulch as my usual DAW host. Every time my arm moves against the Epi Dot and makes a thud on the body, the Shimmer picks up the input. And if I whack the body with my hand? Yes! It's based on the mode 7 setting on the PS-3. Most of you will know how that sounds. Something Mode 7 can't do comes when you wind the Tone knob on the RV-6 down to 9 o'clock and earlier. You take the high-end out and you can get some seriously peculiar sounds. Another fab setting. 

3. Dynamic. A setting that was pointless to me on other pedals and so is on this one. Seriously, have you ever seen anyone on a guitar forum rhapsodising about dynamic delay? 

4. Room. Pretty workable. Room is seldom that exciting on any pedal but this works nicely. 

5. Hall Same as the room reverb in that it's workable without being that exciting. 

6. Plate. Now the Hall of Fame had a really nice plate setting in that it was a bit blurry sounding, not hugely clear. The RV-6 is clear even with the tone knob right down. I'm actually liking this more than the hall setting. 

7. Spring. Actually pretty good. It'll do the Dick Dale thing with the effect level up to 75%, tone at 50%, time at 75%. Liking this.

8. Modulate. Taken from the RV-5. It's still lovely. 

Opening up the doors to the verdict cat... what do you say, verdict cat? 

"Mieow mieow mieow". 

Which translated means: it sounds like a Boss pedal. It won't blow you away with everything but it's totally workable and the Shimmer and +Delay settings are superb. 

Because of the range of sounds in the pedal, I decided to do two videos. The first is a simple run through the effects at 50% effect level. The second is 100% wet. 

Mooer Yellow compressor - is it really up to the standard of the Diamond compressor?

When I'm not flouncing around trying to play blurry guitarnoiserock from 1991, I like to play weak chord sequences and to pretend I'm Johnny Marr. For some time I played through a lovely JC-120. Ignore the hiss, love the chorus, and embrace solid state, people. It was a cracking pedal platform and not as heavy as you'd think (at least the 3rd series weren't. I did have a 1st series temporarily that had been butchered by the previous owner. He'd thrown two Celestion speakers from the 70's in there that had magnets built like the average Samoan prop forward. The whole amp weighed nearly 50 kilos). 

So jingle-jangle Marrology picking... what compressor? For ages, the Diamond compressor has been my favourite. Stuff like the Keeley 4-knobber and all of the usual names squash the top end and you lose that sparkle. The Diamond dials it back in with the Tilt EQ. It still sounds nice and open, it's not a big squashed compressed sound, but it adds thickness in the right areas. 

I bought the Mooer Yellow to see if the claims were true. 

In short, I disagree. 

For £30 the Moeer Yellow offers you a lot for your money. The first thing that hit me was just how small it was. I've had bigger buttplugs than the box this came in. When hooked up to the DAW, it's quiet enough, definitely not unreasonable in the noise floor department. It definitely isn't as nice sounding as the Diamond. Ovni Labs reviewed the Diamond and the Mooer Yellow, and I'd agree with everything said there. The Diamond has a fullness that the Moeer simply doesn't have. In my pedal test, I ran the Moeer on its own then compared that to playing directly into my favourite software compressor, Klanghelm's MJUC. I preferred going into the software compressor which is not something I ever said when I had the Diamond. 

That said, the Moeer going into MJUC is rather good. 

Is this worth £30? Yes. At that price it is a ridiculous bargain. Does it beat the Diamond compressor? No. 

Yamaha Magicstomp reverse reverb and my continuing quest for My Bloody Valentine fabulousness

For years on gear forums, people have claimed that the algos from the Yamaha SPX90 can be found in the Magicstomp. This includes the much vaunted Early Reflections reverse reverb programs so beloved by shoegaze nerds like myself.

To get the best out of the MS, you need to use the software editor. It is somewhat hard to find since the Magicstomp website came down but I did find the stuff I wanted and got it working eventually (you have to set the Midi I/O in a specific way - Yamaha software used to be very quirky. The drivers for the 01X were completely hideous). Editing city, here I come...

So what did I discover? Well, the Magicstomp doesn't sound like the SPX90. The bypass is as bad as people say so throw it in a true bypass loop. The reverse is pretty good actually, not as clanky as the SPX90 and not as thick as the Midiverb II, but it isn't bad at all.

I created a quick demonstration below. First the bypassed sound then the reverse reverb on its own. I threw a Boss HM2 pedal into the MS then tightened everything up using Klanghelm's MJUC compressor.

Finally I added some pitch variations using MVibrato by Melda Productions. The step sequencer allows for some very erratic variations. As I play a modded Epi Dot and so don't have a JM/Jaguar type trem system, MVibrato is my pitchbender.

It's not a great demo and doesn't pretend to be. So there!

Hopefully over the weekend I will have an EHX Cathedral to experiment with. 

Digitech Supernatural ambient reverb pedal - yes and no. Obviously.

Good points:

-The plate, plate mod, and spring settings are really good. It will let you go to 100% wet unlike the Hardwire delay and reverb pedals. 

Bad points:

-The shimmer and variation presets do nothing for me (Valhalla's Shimmer plugin has ruined all shimmer effects for me). Doesn't sit well behind delay pedals. I like stuffing reverbs into delays and tried the Supernatural going into the Flight Time and a TC Nova Repeater. No real sonic happiness for me. 

Conclusion:

Dump overdrive and delay into this, you'll be happy and you can gaze at your shoes for hours. 

Free The Tone Flight Time digital delay pedal - it's pretty special.

If you want a big clean clear delay pedal that sounds big, this is the clear winner. Something like the Eventide Timefactor is a very good pedal in its own right but it is not as pristine as this one. The FT doesn't sound harsh or sterile. 

Good points:

-The sound. Loads of headroom. Easy to program and operate. The sound. Oh, the sound!

Bad points: 

-The modulation is good but it's not 'Deluxe Memory Man vibrato' modulation which is the golden temple for me. A fair whack of cash for a pedal with one mode really. 

Verdict: 

If you need a clean big sounding delay pedal, hit this softly and enjoy.