Delay Shoot Out: MXR Carbon Copy v. Malekko 616
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:14 pm
I've been dying for a 616 for over a year now. Ever since their existence was announced here on ILF. I've had a Carbon Copy since it came out, and it was my first analog delay. I wanted the 616 because i love my carbon copy, but the 616 has the modulation trim pots on the outside, making them more easily accessible to tweak. Not to forget the MXR is buffered bypass only, and the 616 has a switchable option.
So for me to do this, i acquired our good buddy Veteransdaypoppy's 616 for a week of recording it.
I went into the studio knowing exactly how every single track i play should sound, and what pedal combinations, amp settings, guitars, etc. etc. BUT this 616 was a variable.
here's what i learned.
The 616 is really finicky. It causes your guitar to feed back at loud volumes even when the regen knob is below 3. The regen knob is very touchy. It responds very sensitively to touch. You move it up a hair and it could send you in to space feedback in an instant. The Carbon Copy is slightly more controlled, it can send you to space feedback in an instant as well, but generally you need the regen knob to be above half way for that to work.
The repeats on the 616 are also a bit granier than the Carbon Copy repeats. It oscillates a bit more and i think i like that about it. in some cases. The oscillations are more in the vein of an old ibanez/maxon delay. I actually had a shoot out between a vintage ibanez analog delay and the carbon copy on the day i bought the carbon copy. Because the carbon copy had smoother sounding repeats, and a more ethereal tone quality to it than the Ibanez.
The worst part about the 616 is the buffer setting. The buffer for my clean tone was fine, it didn't effect the sound nearly at all, but the buffer when the circuit was on, was a giant muddy mess. I had alot of issues having the pedal sound right in my rig, due to the fact that i play a single coil guitar through a fender twin reverb with the bright setting on and treble 75% of the way up. But the fact that the buffered option made that sound muddy, was absurd.
The True Bypass option was what i went with 100% of the time, but it also didn't play very nice, due to how harsh the repeats got with my tone set that bright. I feel the Carbon Copy is a perfect middle ground (soundwise) between the 616's buffered and true bypass.
The modulation on the 616 was actually rather hard to have sound subtle when you were using it. It's awesome because it has a really neat warbley chorus vibrato effect (what modulation on delay does, i know), but when i say vibrato, I SAY VIBRATO. if i had the depth above two the repeats would be slightly out of tune here and there and that was just not what i needed. I've adjusted the Carbon Copy's trim pots inside to just where i like them, and it too has a pretty mean vibrato, but the modulation on it works more like a chorus, there's less pitch warble.
Personally, i preferred the carbon copy. Probably because i owned it much longer, but it's generally a lot less extreme in comparison. Everything when slightly changed on the 616 was changed fairly dramaticly. Which is awesome, because it's versitile. But i think i personally like the tighter toned down style of the carbon copy.
i still used the malekko on every single delay track on the album except one full song. The other songs sort of have this bright in your face quality to them, so it worked really well. but because i needed a smooth warm delay, and it was not cooperating at all whilst trying to get that. VDP had my carbon copy throughout most of my recording sessions, so i really had no choice but that or my trusty old Dano Fab Echo....
but the malekko sounds awesome where i needed it.
Ultimately: get a tape echo.
So for me to do this, i acquired our good buddy Veteransdaypoppy's 616 for a week of recording it.
I went into the studio knowing exactly how every single track i play should sound, and what pedal combinations, amp settings, guitars, etc. etc. BUT this 616 was a variable.
here's what i learned.
The 616 is really finicky. It causes your guitar to feed back at loud volumes even when the regen knob is below 3. The regen knob is very touchy. It responds very sensitively to touch. You move it up a hair and it could send you in to space feedback in an instant. The Carbon Copy is slightly more controlled, it can send you to space feedback in an instant as well, but generally you need the regen knob to be above half way for that to work.
The repeats on the 616 are also a bit granier than the Carbon Copy repeats. It oscillates a bit more and i think i like that about it. in some cases. The oscillations are more in the vein of an old ibanez/maxon delay. I actually had a shoot out between a vintage ibanez analog delay and the carbon copy on the day i bought the carbon copy. Because the carbon copy had smoother sounding repeats, and a more ethereal tone quality to it than the Ibanez.
The worst part about the 616 is the buffer setting. The buffer for my clean tone was fine, it didn't effect the sound nearly at all, but the buffer when the circuit was on, was a giant muddy mess. I had alot of issues having the pedal sound right in my rig, due to the fact that i play a single coil guitar through a fender twin reverb with the bright setting on and treble 75% of the way up. But the fact that the buffered option made that sound muddy, was absurd.
The True Bypass option was what i went with 100% of the time, but it also didn't play very nice, due to how harsh the repeats got with my tone set that bright. I feel the Carbon Copy is a perfect middle ground (soundwise) between the 616's buffered and true bypass.
The modulation on the 616 was actually rather hard to have sound subtle when you were using it. It's awesome because it has a really neat warbley chorus vibrato effect (what modulation on delay does, i know), but when i say vibrato, I SAY VIBRATO. if i had the depth above two the repeats would be slightly out of tune here and there and that was just not what i needed. I've adjusted the Carbon Copy's trim pots inside to just where i like them, and it too has a pretty mean vibrato, but the modulation on it works more like a chorus, there's less pitch warble.
Personally, i preferred the carbon copy. Probably because i owned it much longer, but it's generally a lot less extreme in comparison. Everything when slightly changed on the 616 was changed fairly dramaticly. Which is awesome, because it's versitile. But i think i personally like the tighter toned down style of the carbon copy.
i still used the malekko on every single delay track on the album except one full song. The other songs sort of have this bright in your face quality to them, so it worked really well. but because i needed a smooth warm delay, and it was not cooperating at all whilst trying to get that. VDP had my carbon copy throughout most of my recording sessions, so i really had no choice but that or my trusty old Dano Fab Echo....
but the malekko sounds awesome where i needed it.
Ultimately: get a tape echo.
