The following is a guest post by Kevin Ian Common. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Hello Kind Readers!

Today I’d like to talk about my newest pedal acquisition, the Boss DD-20 GigaDelay. I recently acquired this pedal used. I love delays, and it is really unfortunate I can only fit three on my board right now!

What drew me to this effect is the “Twist” mode. It slowly ramps up and downthe delay time, creating a slow oscillating effect. This effect is similar to turning the regeneration to maximum on an analog pedal and messing with the delay time. This is a lovely feature for adding quick ambient textures to your playing. The “Warp” function also allows you infinite repeats–something also great for short ambient bursts!

Going through the functions, I have found many of the parameters useful. I’m not much of a “warm, dark” repeat guitarist most of the time, so the tone function was really nice in giving me either really dark or bright repeats. I really like the dual head delay setting as well, as I can choose two different delay times and it simulates turning on two delays at one time… something I really enjoy doing!

I chose this pedal because it gave me enough options for the price. I am a big fan of what I call the “Helicopter Delay,” which was made well known by The Edge of U2 and various other bands of that genre. I have an MXR Carbon Copy, but the settings were always slightly different, and it was hard to find the right setting after going into an oscillation frenzy! Having the ability to instantly recall settings has made a big difference in my creativity — I don’t have to stop and find the “sweet spot” when practicing or writing.

I have included two videos. One is the ProGuitarShop Demo. I love Andy’s work! The second is a video of my band, The Common Men during our recent stint at Capital Public Radio. I use the “Twist” function often towards the end of the song. Enjoy!

Kevin Ian is a multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays guitar and sings in The Common Men, a Post-Punk trio based out of Northern California. He also currently hosts an Alternative/Electronic/Ambient show on www.sacrockradio.com entitled “The Mad Owl.” You can find everything Common Men related at his new website, www.thecommonmen.tk

Andy’s video:

The Common Men:

The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay is available for $229.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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The following is a guest post review of the Eventide TimeFactor Twin Delay Guitar Effects Pedal by Nick Georgiou. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Many of us have been through pretty much every delay in the TimeFactor’s class; Boss DD-20, Line 6 DL-4, TC Electronic Nova, T-Rex Replica, Empress Superdelay, etc. and been relatively dissatisfied with the lack of certain features, or just on overall feeling of hitting “a brick wall” when it comes to parameter adjustment. Wait, lets back up, the TimeFactor is in a class by itself.  Not because of the price (it is well worth the money) but because of the features that make this pedal bar none. It is all of Eventide’s best delays wrapped in a stomp-box, times two by way of independent stereo, with one of the best user interfaces out there.

It has a USB hookup for infinite update possibilities. Like to update the internal firmware to allow for things such as; more accurate analog and tape sounds, more storage banks for presets, smoother user interface, and the list goes on. You can check for updates on Eventide’s website and updating is a breeze. You can even backup all your banks and preset settings online. From the digital delay to the reverse delay, all the way to the on board looper, you’re in for a wild ride of sounds so good, you’ll be changing your underwear with every twist of a knob. The control expansion is fantastic as well. You have your typical 3 footswitches built into the chassis, but you also have an expression pedal jack along with an aux switch jack that’s programmable to act as a tap tempo, bank select, or a number of other controllable functions. Not to mention the MIDI in and out for those dudes who want to rack this beast and control it using a MIDI controller or get creative and do creative MIDI things with it (my generation has a hard time fathoming all that MIDI stuff). The LCD readout and tempo display is fantastic for those players who play in bands or with artists who just so happen to enjoy a click track and maybe one or two or ten BGV tracks, programming tracks, and percussion loops. Just dial in the tempo and you’ll be rocking your way to a set tighter than Russell Brand’s trousers. The LCD readout also allows for the display of numerical setting values to either write down and patch back in later (should you choose not to save in one of the 100 available preset slots) or to remember and adjust for crazy oscillation manipulation. You have complete control over everything in this pedal. Granted, you’re not going to master this thing in a night. It’s like a woman; you have to spend some time alone with her, buy her nice things (like sick OD’s and Whammy pedals), and never under any circumstances talk about her size. Then, (even that’s a maybe,) she’ll put out and be easy to work with from then on.

About the author:
Nick Georgiou

Nick Georgiou is a freelance player currently living in Nashville and playing with many Christian music artists and worship leaders. Nick is currently with artist Sarah Reeves, and on the road with Decemberadio. He also plays with songwriter and worship leader Chris McClarney.
http://www.sarahreeves.net/
http://www.chrismcclarney.com/

You can follow Nick on Twitter (@rewindstuff)

The Eventide TimeFactor Twin Delay Guitar Effects Pedal can be purchased for $399.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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The following is a guest post review of the Boss DD-20 Giga Delay by George DesRoches. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Boss has been at basically the forefront of digital delay technology since their release of the DD-2 in 1983. The DD-20 Giga Delay is a twin pedal that takes everything available in all of Boss’s delay pedals, adds a couple of new features, and puts it all in an easy to use, easy to adjust and edit twin pedal format. It has 11 delay settings, several knobs to alter your tone, memory/delay recall, 4 methods of tempo setting, and up to 23 seconds in delay time! Really, this pedal is PERFECT for anyone who wants multiple types of delay at a moments notice, be it for solos, adding depth to your tone, or giving a massive finish during a break or at the end of the song.

The DD-20 has, as said above, 11 settings. Of course, it has the basic Digital delay, which is labeled “Standard”. It also has an analog delay, which is modeled after the DM-2 compact delay, and produces a pleasant warm delay, which is GREAT for light solos and guitar melodies. A tape delay is also included, modeled after the RE-201, where you can edit the number of tape heads to get the sound you want. A dual delay, which, as it sounds, is two delays in one, a short delay and a long delay (both are adjustable). Usually short delay is a slab back, with long delay being a longer, more spaced out delay, making this setting GREAT for thickening up solos. The smooth delay is said to “spread the delay out spatially, producing a more natural reverbation effect” (according to the manual). Really, it’s nothing more than a reverb heavy delay, which is great for solos and cleans arpeggios. The pan delay, which needs two outputs to work, alternates the delay from one output to another (or, more commonly from left to right). The modulate delay adds a subtle wavering to the delay signal. Personally, i love the modulate delay for clean guitar best, especially arpeggios, because when you play especially high up arpeggios the delay sounds like a choir in my opinion (though any pickup on my strat).

Four noteworthy effects on here are the reverse delay, twist delay, warp delay, and sound on sound capabilities. The reverse delay creates a swell effect and reverses the guitar signal (the first instances that come to mind when I think reverse delay/guitar is the outro of Master Of Puppets by Metallica, and the intro to Loving The Alien by Velvet Revolver). The reverse delay has two modes: with the dry signal, and without the dry signal, which can be changed by turning the effect level knob all the way to the right or left (besides that, this knob is essentially deactivated in this mode). The twist delay, as well as the warp delay, are unique to this pedal (at least as of when i got the pedal a few months ago). The twist delay is basically the standard delay with a twist (pun intended): when you hold down the left pedal in this mode, it causes the delay to oscillate and raise in pitch, creating an insane swirling effect which is PERFECT for ending a song/part of a song. Warp delay, like twist delay, is activated by holding down the left pedal. Normally, it’s a standard delay, but when the left pedal is depressed it increases the feedback and effect levels greatly, creating an otherworldly delay which is perfect for breakdowns, insane guitar “solos” that, or creating an ambient feel/sound. Both twist and warp delay revert back to their original settings when the left pedal is released.

The last mode on this pedal, and probably the most notable, is the Sound On Sound capability. Sound On Sound is basically a fancy way of saying “Looper”. That’s right: this pedal not only has every delay sound you could ever want, but it has a LOOPER AS WELL! You can record up to 23 seconds worth of phrasing, and layer over and over again.

To enhance your BOSS delay experience, boss has included several handy and nifty features to the DD-20. For starters, you can adjust the tone, feedback level, effect level, and time of the delay. The pedal has 4 ways to change the delay time, including THREE methods of tap tempo: you can dial the delay time/tempo in with the delay knob (you can turn it, or press down and turn to adjust the time much faster), you can tap the tempo by pressing the “TAP” button under the screen, you can tap in the tempo by holding down the right pedal for two seconds, then tapping your foot to the desired tempo, or you can tap the tempo via BOSS F5-FU by plugging it in via the “CTL PEDAL” jack. You can adjust the timing of the delay (quarter note delay, quavers, dotted eighth notes, even whole notes and half notes).

Boss also allows you to save up to four custom delay settings. These can be saved by selecting the number you want to save the delay as, setting the delay to the desired settings, and pressing the “WRITE” button, conveniently located beneath the LEDs that show what memory slot is active. The saved delay can be selected by pressing the right pedal and cycling through the saved delays (when not in tap delay mode, of course. Tap delay can be deactivated the same way it’s activated, by holding down the right pedal for 2 seconds). With the 4 saved delays AND manual mode, you can go on stage with 5 completely different delays (or 4 delays and a looper).

The DD-20 can be powered by either a BOSS PSA power adapter (sold separately. I use a 1 Spot daisy chain for all my pedals, which works fine, but BOSS recommends their adapters) or by 6 AA batteries. The effect can be turned on and off with the left pedal. It has two inputs and outputs for full stereo capabilities, a headphones jack, and a CTL jack for an F5-FU/F5-FL for tap tempo or channel switching. Overall, this pedal is amazing! It’s completely worth every cent, and is probably the best delay available on the market (at least, the best delay I’ve found).

About the author:
George DesRoches

My gear: Fender HSS Stratocaster (soon to be HSH within the next week or so), Dunlop Dimebag Darrel Cry Baby From Hell, BOSS MD-2 MegaDistortion, DS-1 Distortion, TR-2 Tremelo, CH-1 SUPERChorus, and DD-20 Giga Delay, with a Raven RG200 amp and a Line 6 Spider III 15 watt when needed.

Check out my band, T.R.B., at
http://www.myspace.com/teearebee
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/The-Random-Band/110510314252?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=67927983941&ref=tsm
http://twitter.com/therandomband

You can follow George on Twitter (@TeeAreBee)

The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay can be purchased for $219.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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