Digitech's Hardwire Delay replacement, the Obscura

[Seance]

More than 2 seconds of delay can allow for using the pedal as a delay-line loop pedal.
The decay of the loop can then be set to fade out. Or not. And ideally a delay will
allow for pitch shifts as the "delay time" is moved while the delay line is repeating
in the background. That way you can mangle a pattern into a new pattern, play
along to that pattern, and then drive that mess into a slower tempo. Add to the
delay loop, and then speed it up.

Lots of fun. Necessary? Not for everybody, and certainly not for all situations.
But for creating a tapestry of smeared versions of something played it can
be a lot of fun.

Word, appreciate the responses duders. I use my Boss PS-2the way described above, but ultimately I hope the count to five can help me out there.

The Count To 5 seems like a ninja assassin in this application. I'd love to have one. Hopefully I'll have money for one at the same time that an updated version
comes out (fingers crossed). But outside of that eventuality, I've had my eye out on the horizon for a relatively affordable (even if tamer) alternative to the CT5.

Loopers, delays, manglers—there's more than one way to comb a goat.

[Seance]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0_EV0VdJ8s[/youtube]

i like the warp sounds when switching up the time/tempo.

Yep. Sounds pretty nice on time/tempo switches. A definite plus!

In the TGP discussion of this pedal a lot of people seem to be saying stuff like:
"Why doesn't it do XY & Z?"

The DigitechRep guy responded bluntly by saying:
"The pedal that did that did X, Y, Q and Z was the Timebender. And nobody bought it."

I guess companies like Digitech are in a bind if they come out with something too quirky then not enough people
"get it", literally and figuratively. And if they try to strip back a few of the options so it is more palatable to a
wider audience, then it risks being too "dumbed down" for a segment of people who would otherwise want it.

I think this thing seems like it has some promise. It's not breaking any new ground or shaking the firmament. But it
seems like it could deliver the goods at a reasonable price point. And be more widely available than the quirkier
and more earth-shaking offerings from smaller companies.

[rfurtkamp]

The success of the idiot-class TC stuff...has doomed products like the TImebender at this point, which was both behind its time and massively ahead of it (only 4 presets, but had a rack's worth of processing under the hood effectively).

Nobody here listened to me on them until...they were gone.

I did NOT feel (and still don't) feel cheated at the $240ish I paid for mine when it came out). I'd pay that again for one with a more modern amount of presets and some sort of actual editability for reals (it's good but it's not full on silly editable).

It's sort of funny.

[D.o.S.]

Digitech also did an awful job of pitching the Timebender, and it had the unfortunate timing of running up against a whole bunch of similar mega-delays with slightly more exciting pedigrees.

[rfurtkamp]

Yea, they did, and they never seemed to get off their back in trying to tell people why they wanted it.

[Gone Fission]

(For people who prefer the Hardwire to the new guy, it's Musiciansfriend's Stupid Deal of the Day today for $59.95.)

[D.o.S.]

Yea, they did, and they never seemed to get off their back in trying to tell people why they wanted it.

I think this goes back to the essential problem a lot of musicians have -- they need someone to show them the cool sounds that can be coaxed out of something before they actually take the plunge themselves. It's a nice bit of conservatism. Sometimes the cool sounds are self-evident: the hype around the Ct5 started with the fact that it was an updated GB24 but I'll wager a whole host of the people who're buying mtl.asm now are doing it because of the knobs demo. The pedal is amazeballs, obviously, and Scott is a rad dude, but it's also an idea that's very easily translatable into "wow, I've never heard anything like that before. I Must Have It" when you Youtube it.

Compared to that... to a big delay from Digitech with a weird power supply? I'm not going to be the next *insert cool pedal band here* with that! (gloriously ignoring, of course, the fact that most of those pedal bands used the offbrand stuff because it was cheap and weird and no one was using it).

[rfurtkamp]

I'll be honest, I've listened to the CT5 demos.

I just don't see the hype but I have LFO-controlled delays already.

[phantasmagorovich]

I'll be honest, I've listened to the CT5 demos.

I just don't see the hype but I have LFO-controlled delays already.

It's not actually an LFO, by the sounds of it. But I'm sure you can replicate the delay side of things with your crazy rack gear. But what about modes 2 and 3?
Personally I clicked with it much more than f.ex. the Rainbow Machine that does very similar things. I think it's in the reverse repeats.

[rfurtkamp]

The 2/3 samples in demos sound like slicer-type stuff (the Boss pedal comes to mind) with harmonized delay.

Again, a case of nothing new under the sun at this point in effects.

[backwardsvoyager]

Yea, they did, and they never seemed to get off their back in trying to tell people why they wanted it.

I think this goes back to the essential problem a lot of musicians have -- they need someone to show them the cool sounds that can be coaxed out of something before they actually take the plunge themselves. It's a nice bit of conservatism. Sometimes the cool sounds are self-evident: the hype around the Ct5 started with the fact that it was an updated GB24 but I'll wager a whole host of the people who're buying mtl.asm now are doing it because of the knobs demo. The pedal is amazeballs, obviously, and Scott is a rad dude, but it's also an idea that's very easily translatable into "wow, I've never heard anything like that before. I Must Have It" when you Youtube it.

Compared to that... to a big delay from Digitech with a weird power supply? I'm not going to be the next *insert cool pedal band here* with that! (gloriously ignoring, of course, the fact that most of those pedal bands used the offbrand stuff because it was cheap and weird and no one was using it).

Yeah this is an interesting point. It seems like demos make or break pedal sales nowadays since there's fucking hundreds of them out there that do almost the same things and any sonic difference is often arbitrary enough that the quality of the demo and the person playing it is the biggest factor as to whether people are gonna buy it or not.
Personally i'm trying to stop watching demos and look at things primarily based off detailed technical specifications, i think by doing that it's maybe a bit harder for interesting things to fly under the radar.

If there's any reason i'm not interested in this pedal personally it's because they're continuing the whole digital emulation of analog/tape sounds trend rather than focusing on overtly digital-sounding madness. e.g. nowadays it's things like the bitquest that stand out more to me but unfortunately it's less viable for a builder like Dr S to make the pedal priced more accessibly, have stuff like trails and stereo i/o etc that bigger companies like Digitech can do.

[rfurtkamp]

The thing is that the big companies have pretty much done the BitQuest etc for the last twenty years, they didn't sell - only thing that's not in it that's in the old 90s and earlier rack units is the bit crusher.

They didn't do it in a pedal but on a large scale, people want Mini Tubescreamers and boring shit.

Stuff like the Lexicon Vortex do sounds that *still* aren't in anything else - but lead balloon pretty much say it all there (and they're $100ish used still!).

Current stuff also has a ton of flexibility, routing, and automation in the assigns on the Boss multis, but people don't go past "Generic Death Patch 1" most of the time before deciding that they're useless or unhip.

[D.o.S.]

I'll be honest, I've listened to the CT5 demos.

I just don't see the hype but I have LFO-controlled delays already.

The big thing for me is/was the fact that it's a higher-fidelity GB24, which makes a huge difference for someone who records direct in. However your point about 'Death Patch #1' totally stands -- for the most part people don't want to do their own legwork, which is what leads to the Deep Impact being worth hundreds and the Vortex being worth nothing.

[CyaNitrate]

As someone with no experience with delay outside of cheap amp dsp, the RP155, and kinda with the Rainbow Machine (I know, guys, I know) this seems pretty awesome. If you're a seasoned delay connoisseur, and it's not your cup of tea, cool. But I think it sounds good, and might try one.

[UglyCasanova]

I actually think it sounds pretty damn good. Maybe GAS.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgijFJAupJM[/youtube]