NPD!! Malekko 616 Dark

[nad]

I have a 600 Dark and 616 Dark. The 600 is on my big board, and the 616 is on my small board. NEVER SELLING EITHER ONE.

To be honest, the 600 Dark is only very slightly more amazing than the 616 Dark. A bit more organic sounding? Also, the oscillations have thicker/humping-organ sound on the 600, which the 616 can almost get, but not quite. Otherwise, they are very, very similar in overall character.

The regular 616 is perfectly solid, but nothing special really. The 600 Bright is better than solid, but only mildly magic.

Malekko Dark delays are the best, without question, at least for me, and I don't question my love for them, at all. At all.

All that being said, I had a second 600 Dark at one point, and while the "normal" repeats were a thing of titfucking beauty, the oscillations were minimal at best. To me that is where these Dark delays truly shine, so that one found a new home after a few months. "The future belongs to the analog loyalists."

[DADGBD]

Two 600Ds, huh...?
Wow. That's my "DONE. AND. DONE" dream board.
One day.

I found it strange, comparing the two... that the repeat decay on the 600D were smoother, than on the 616. The 600 had way more artifacts and lo-fi warmth/goodies in the repeats, but the decay was smoother (which is the opposite of what I expected).

[Holy Schnikes]

Thanks for the thoughts dudes. I really want to try this thing out. Damn it.

Two 600Ds would be a thing of beauty but this sounds like the next best option. I'll never dump my 600D no matter how good this one sounds but I'll def give it a rest on occasion, keep it on the big board only like nad mentioned. For $150, seems dumb to pass it up.

[blunder]

Welp. The 616 mkII sounds great.

But would you dudes do me a favor? Turn your REGEN all the way up. Now turn your TIME all the way down. Now turn your guitar volume all the way up. Now turn off your pedal. Can you still hear the oscillation? I can.

I suppose I could put the 616 in a TB loop, but that's annoying. I'm sad about this.

C

Did you get the bleed in both buffer and TB mode? It would make sense in buffer mode that you might hear some bleed thru.

I recently got a 616 dark. I really dig it. I owned a 600D a while back but had to sell it when I needed cash. I've missed it ever since. The 616D does a pretty good job of doing what the 600D did. I haven't compared them side by side but plan on borrowing the 600D and 300B from a friend for a proper comparison.
I love the way the repeats hang out behind what you are playing and never really overpower your original signal. I really like that you can add modulation too. The fast vibrato setting makes for a good time.

[01010111]

I got the 616D today AND I'M CONFLICTED

[MEC]

I got the 616D today AND I'M CONFLICTED

You like it more than the 600D?

[MaxMaps]

I had a chance to play one for 30 minuets over at Trade UP last week.

I REALLY liked it, had a very rich delay sound similar to that of an El Capistan. There was something that playing Bass on the El Capistan did not translate well, at least not for my deft ears. However the 616D brought that low-fi sound that the El Cap could not do for me. Really loved how easy it was from going to normal to bat shit crazy on the regeneration and mix knobs. If the steam sale was not happening with my wife's birthday a week away I would have walked out of the store with with it.

[01010111]

I got the 616D today AND I'M CONFLICTED

You like it more than the 600D?

Maybe, I need more time to decide. They both are great delays, but they do behave kinda differently. The 616D is definitely a 616. On shorter decay settings they're verrrry similar. I kinda get what was said earlier about the 600D having more analog eccentricities, but I wouldn't describe it that way. It's like comparing a broken photocopier, the 616D, to a manic depressive copying a photo by hand, the 600D.

The photocopier will take the image and, regardless of setting, will make a nearly perfect copy that's slightly darker. If you keep feeding the copies into the input, eventually the page will turn black. Ergo, on short decay settings you get some sweetly darkening delay sounds, but on long decay settings everything's going to turn to an indistinguishable rhythmic pulsation. I could never get that indistinct but shifting cloud of sound from the 616D.

If you take the image from earlier and have a manic depressive copy it by hand (looking at it and drawing it). The result will be a an image slightly changed. Some harshness will have gone out of it and the colors will have a slightly darker hue. If you keep letting manic depressives copy the image, eventually you'll be left with an image that now longer looks like the original, but will have become an abstract thing. So, on short decay settings the 600D is going to sound dark and the sound will be changed slightly. The longer the decay setting the more changed the signal becomes, it can be percussive, or it can become an indistinct cloud. How the long decay setting sounds depends on the nature of the signal the 600D is fed.

Overall I'd say the 616D is better with dirt and the 600D is better with clean tones. The 600D kinda disappears if you hit it with dirt; you might hear two repeats but it's very difficult to get anything more. The 616D, however, retains a bounciness with the input and gives you something for your fuzz to interact with instead of influence/dominate. I need more time to compare, though.

I'm thinking I might keep the 616D. It does sound really really similar on shorter/more normal settings, and I'll have a delay on my board that plays nice with dirt. But the 600D just sounds and feels soooooooooooooooo much sweeter on longer decay settings; it's very soothing like being enveloped by kashmir. So

[rustywire]

At least yours arrived; I'm still waiting here...

[Tristan]

I'm quite curious what people think of the 616 Dark in comparison with the 616 LoFi, any thoughts on that?

wfs1234:
Didn't you have a DMM 550TT as well?
It's quite bright and rhythmic voiced but I find it does the cloud thing pretty well.

[CBA]

Welp. The 616 mkII sounds great.

But would you dudes do me a favor? Turn your REGEN all the way up. Now turn your TIME all the way down. Now turn your guitar volume all the way up. Now turn off your pedal. Can you still hear the oscillation? I can.

I suppose I could put the 616 in a TB loop, but that's annoying. I'm sad about this.

C

Nope, I keep the buffer off because I don't need it while bypassed. I don't even actually understand the point of the buffer... maybe for when it's at the end of a long chain? No idea. I went ahead and bought a tiny little TB loop though, and that will take care of any bleed.

It's intriguing to me that people are comparing the sound of the 616 Dark to the El Capistan... that sounds pretty great to me. However, I'm going to be using the 616 mkII for not only guitar but for vocal slapback on my tape 4-track as well, so I don't want the repeats toooooooo dark. Maybe in year I'll check out the Dark.

C

[01010111]

I'm quite curious what people think of the 616 Dark in comparison with the 616 LoFi, any thoughts on that?

wfs1234:
Didn't you have a DDM 550TT as well?
It's quite bright and rhythmic voiced but I find it does the cloud thing pretty well.

I do. I haven't compared the two yet. I'm gonna try the 616D on a different power supply. I used the team tesla that runs at slightly lower than 9v because it's the only regulated power supply I have (and because that's what I'm running the 600D with). It was weird, there was a big jump in the number of repeats on my 616D from 10ish to infinity at the bump of a knob; so, I have high hopes a higher output power supply could bring the clouds.

I can get the DMMTT550 to do the cloud thing, but I haven't been able to coax clouds out of the 616D yet. I'll try again later with a different power supply.

[Tristan]

I don't want to hijack the topic but the DMM 550TT is probably the ultimate delay for me, it can do so much and feels so natural doing so, rhythmic delays, clouds of feedback, gorgeous modulation, power ranger mode, tweakable infinite feedback on the footswitch, full expression control, tap tempo with lots of divisions (even quarter note triplets which is my favourite), it's pretty amazing.
Those Malekko's seem nice too though, I hope you can get the 616 Dark to work the way you want it to.
I'm still curious whether anyone has thoughts on the 616 Dark versus the 616 LoFi.

[MEC]

I'm quite curious what people think of the 616 Dark in comparison with the 616 LoFi, any thoughts on that?

I have had the Lo-Fi for a couple months and just got the Dark in yesterday. Overall, they are fairly similar and some of the sounds definitely overlap.
The LoFi does the springy ring moddy thing and the Dark can give you kind of a low background rumble.
I would say the Dark is a little more versatile but it really depends on what you're going for.
Also, the Dark seemed to darken up my overall toan a little, dry signal included.

I'd be interested to see if any one else noticed this?

I'm a bit of an idiot as far as describing effects/toans goes but if any one has a specific question, I'd be glad to do my best to answer it.

[Holy Schnikes]

I don't have a 616D just yet but the 600D def darkened up my dry tone in bypass mode. I run it buffered to brighten things up cuz otherwise it's just too dark in my setup, bleeds right out of any mix.