the czar of delay

by 44ofjuly

Give a painter whole palette of colours and she/he can just paint a picture that is filled with so much magical enchantment it brings us to a world beyond what we see in our everyday life. The same could happen to a guitar player who delves deep into the world of guitar effects. Yes, besides distortion, distortion and more distortion, there is so much more. Of course, some purists might argue that nothing beats having just the purely the electric guitar and amp combination or having the barest minimum of pedals in the chain.  Another group just can't survive without having loads of effects between the guitar and amp. Can either one be right or wrong? Oh well, it's all choices that we make in accordance to our genres and preferences and who can be the one to tell us what it should and should not be? After all, if you can put it to good use in the music you are making, isn't it all that matters?

Bitching? Oh well, to some extent.

Anyway, for this month's Gear Gawk, we will be looking at a certain type of effect that has been an absolute favourite of mine. Delay! From slapback echo to spaced out delay to maniac oscillation to looping devices. All this wouldn't have been possible without delay. Can you imagine David Gilmour without a tape echo in the early days of Pink Floyd or The Edge without his stereo delay setup? Where would those signature riffs or great moments in rock history be!!

From the early days of oil can delay ( http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/) to tape echo to analogue/digital delay pedals to rack mount delay processors, echo/delay effects have certainly come a long way. All of which has made guitar playing so much fun and excitement that it just never seems boring. At least to me, that is... How many delay pedals are enough? Well, while less is more, more is still more, and I say, just bring it on!

Introducing the Echoczar Analogue Stereo Delay by Toneczar effects! Basically, the mastermind behind this great delay and 2 other brilliant effects pedals, the Powerglide Tremolo and the VFM Cross Fader is Ed Rembold.

This review of epic proportions will not only cover the Echoczar but also the Angelbaby (3rd channel modulated delay in use with only an Echoczar, sold separately) and a Toneczar Modded Ernie Ball VP Jr expression pedal. It's going to be long, so sit back, relax and read on!

I think it was around mid 2004, that I came to know about this pedal and on first look (Yes, it's all about the look at first!), it's really stunning, with the shiny chrome enclosure and the amount of knobs and switches. I thought that it looked pretty intriguing and mysterious for a delay pedal. Not long after, word was spreading, as usual, among the various effects forums over the net. While some groups were rather sceptical about a delay pedal that costs so much, some people went ahead with the deal. From then on, rave reviews came out slowly, but gradually...

So how unique and different is the Echoczar to warrant the rave about it? Let's take a look at it.

toneczar echoczar

Put simply, the Echoczar is a dual channel analogue stereo delay pedal. And each channel is capable of delay time ranging from 100ms to over 1000ms. You might think that 1000ms is an insignificantly short span of time but for an analogue delay pedal to achieve this, it's pretty remarkable! The other pedals that come to mind that goes up to 1000ms and beyond, is the forthcoming Moogerfooger MF104Z and MF104SD. Exciting times ahead for delay pedal lovers... Well, I am pretty excited about getting my hands on those babies for the ultimate delay pedals shootout, think it's going to be lots of fun! Who cares if it's indulgent? Mwahahahaha!! (Ed.: Oh no, GAS has induced 44ofjuly's maniacal laughter again...)

Various changes have been made to the Echoczar since the first version. Changes had been made to the exterior and the circuitry, including more features to satisfy the pickiest musicians who just can't delay on more delay (no pun intended).

On the exterior, gone is the nickel plated criss cross design across the stomp switches. While it might look plain, it's purely cosmetic and has no bearing on the awesome functions of this pedal.

On to the circuitry changes. The first commercially released version of the Echoczar had the following knobs on it (from left to right):

1. Mix
2. Delay 1
3. Repeat
4. Safety
5. Delay 2
6. Slide

Beside the 6 knobs, there are 2 toggle switches, one for the delay mode (vintage or modern) and the other for phase control (in or out of phase).

The second version, which this review is based on, has an additional 2 toggle switches:

Effect out mute/normal toggle switch

Multihead mode (MH-SB or MH-RV). Other than the normal delay in vintage/modern mode, the guitar player will have the choices of adding 2 more features. The M-SB setting will have the "slapback" follow the original note being played, and "ping pong" off the expected repeats. The MH-RV will add sustain to the note being played while adding some reverb.

And on to the latest additional feature, the Echo/delay mode switch.

From the words of Ed Rembold on Toneczar Effects in an Echoczar related thread on the Gearpage forum,

"One of the things you can be assured of, with Toneczar effects, is that no new features will be released, until I can come up with a method of adding new features to the previously built unit.

For this Echo/delay mode switch, it is a new standard feature that not only allows me to build the best possible tune up for echo and for delay, and allows you to switch between them.

Echo is very atmospheric, and begins to morph and decay beginning with the 1st repeat, and is the sound heard in my Echoczar videos.

Delay is the opposite, clear repeats that go on and on and on..."

You would be wrong to assume that this would be the end. According to some unconfirmed sources, it seems that Ed is/was working on having another mix knob to have individual mix control for delay 1 and delay 2.

Another change is concerning the Angelbaby. Changes can be done on the board so that you can have the Angelbaby on the same enclosure as the Echoczar.

No one knows for sure whether the changes mentioned will be made to future versions of the Echoczar and Angelbaby but what can be said now is that the Echoczar is definitely among one of the top analogue delays available, both in terms of the delay's tonal quality and the wide range of control features.

The whole story begins around November/December 2004, where the order was made. After a wait of close to 15 weeks (the shipping took pretty long), the Echoczar finally arrived with much anticipation round March this year, together with a Toneczar modded Ernie ball VP Jr expression pedal, that is used to control either the repeats of the 2 channels of delay separately or delay timing for the 2 nd channel delay only.

On opening the well-padded box, what greeted me was the beautiful Echoczar. While the shiny pedal looks good, it's also a fingerprints/footprints-collecting device in disguise. Not that it has anything to do with the performance, but for anyone concerned about dusty-looking or fingerprints-laden looking effects, put yours in a showcase for admiring. Kind of like having a car and only driving it around on sunny days and keeping it in the garage during the rainy season.

Anyway, back to the pedal. From the label on the base plate, the serial number is indicated as 0018E, which according to someone with an earlier batch of the Echoczar, the E means that it's an export model. Thus making the one I have as the 18th one outside of USA (not sure how true this is, though).

Perhaps you might find someone being slightly overprotective in the picture here, but I think it's understandable for a product of such depth... But being the curious person I am I did open up the base plate and couldn't help but be amazed by the details on the circuit board... Pictures? Haha, no way!

Spread across the top are the following knobs, toggle switches and 3 stomp switches (from left to right):

Mix. From a 100% dry signal to a 100% wet signal and any setting in between. For a two amplifier set up (stereo), the mix knob will control the amount of delayed signal to the second amplifier, from 100% dry to any mixture of the dry and delayed signal.

Norm/Fx out mute toggle switch. For stereo set up, this toggle switch is used to select between having the signal output from both the "effect out" and "direct out" jacks or only from the "direct out" jack when the pedal is bypassed. When using a single amplifier, this will be set to "normal" position.

Delay 1(green LED) time. Rate control for 1st channel delay. With the delay mode toggle switch in modern mode, the delay time ranges from 50ms to 825ms. When in vintage mode, the delay time ranges from 100ms to 1100ms.

Effect in/out phase toggle switch. In use only when having a two amplifier set up (stereo). For creating two types of stereo field, from a focused, narrow field to a wide expansive soundscape of the delayed signal.

Repeats. Amount of delayed signal, from one repeat at minimum to about 8 repeats on maximum.

Multihead modes toggle switch. 2 modes of  "colours" to add on the delay in either vintage or modern mode. MH-SB: A "slapback" follows the note played and ping-pongs off the expected repeat. MH-RV: Sustains the note and adds reverb.

Safety. This knob will set the rate at which feedback/oscillation occurs, when the feedback stomp switch is engaged. From an almost instantaneous wild feedback (at minimum) to no feedback when set to maximum.

Delay mode toggle switch. 2 modes of delay, modern and vintage. In modern mode, the delay time ranges from 50ms to 825ms while the vintage mode ranges from 100ms up to 1100ms.

Delay 2 (Yellow LED) time. Rate control for 2nd channel delay. Similar to the Delay 1 knob.

Slide. To set the rate at which delay 1 changes to delay 2 timing (vice versa) when interchanging between the settings of both delays. From near "instant" switch at minimum setting to approximately 5 sec interval where a clear and smooth pitch shifting effect will occur when changing from delay 1 and delay 2 and vice versa.

From the above descriptions, all these should give you a rough idea of what the Echoczar is capable of as well as the delay options available to the guitar player. But if you think it seems like there is nothing more that can be added on, Ed came out with a third channel, a modulated delay in the form of the Angelbaby!

toneczar angelbaby

Basically, the Angelbaby is a separate pedal that is connected to the Echoczar to form the 3rd channel delay (red LED). Once connected, the Angelbaby will have all the same features like the other 2 channels of delay (In/out phase when used in stereo, mulithead mode, modern/vintage mode and so on).

Amazingly, while having all the same features as the 2 channels of delay, the Angelbaby does not require batteries or its own power supply as it is powered by the Echoczar via a ¼ stereo TRS cable, connected to the expression pedal jack input 2 (input jack for expression pedal control of channel 2 delay timing).

And on the Angelbaby, 4 more knobs, 1 toggle switch and of course, the stomp switch.

The knobs on it are for the following purposes:

Delay 2 (Yellow LED). With the Angelbaby connected to the Echoczar, this knob will provide the 2nd channel of delay time control. This means that the delay 2 time knob on the Echoczar itself will be completely bypassed, transferring the time control of the 2 nd channel delay to the Angelbaby.

Delay 3(Red LED). This knob controls the time of the modulated delay signal. It has the same range of delay time as the other 2 channels of delay, namely 50ms to 825ms in the modern mode and 100ms to 1100ms in the vintage mode

Depth. This knob varies the "lush" feel when using the 3rd channel modulated delay! This work together with the delay 3 time knob. When the time setting of the delay 3 knob is around 500ms and beyond, the depth setting should not be too much, if not, extreme pitch shifting will occur. Not that it’s a bad thing at all as the pitch shifting will sound like a tape being slowed down, thus sounding out of tune. Great for the moment when you want to grab the attention of the listeners... On the other end, Having a short delay timing and depth pushed higher will yield a lush sounding modulated delay instead.

Rate. This knob will control the speed of sweep for the modulated delay, from slow (1 complete sweep every 3 sec) to fast (15 sweeps in a second).

Chorus voice mode toggle switch. This 3-way toggle switch provides the modulation to the delay in the form of different chorus voices. It consists of "solo", "duet" and "trio" mode. In the solo setting, it is best used with a short delay time setting to get a usual chorus sound. For duet setting, it goes well with a faster rate setting. Lastly, the trio mode will give a lush sounding chorus with the modulated delay.

With the Angelbaby, the interaction among the delay time setting, rate, depth and the chorus voice toggle switch contributes towards the eventual sound of the modulated delay. Far from being just a plug and play delay, tweaking the settings of the Echoczar and the Angelbaby will take up lots of time. Thankfully, one will eventually be lost in the beauty of the delay tone once the tweaking persists.

toneczar modified ernie ball vp jr expression pedal

Next up, the Toneczar modded Ernie ball VP Jr. What's special about it is that it can only be used for Toneczar effects pedals (Powerglide, VFM etc) and can only be connected via a TRS stereo cable. Mono cables will not work and in fact, might cause damage to the expression pedal... Other than this, 2 toggle switches are added and fixed at the front panel, as shown in the picture.

3 position taper toggle switch. For setting the "feel of the sweep", or having extra sensitivity in the beginning, middle or end, of the expression pedal sweep range.

2 position direction toggle switch. For changing the sweep direction. For example, delay repeats: more to less or, less to more when in toe down/heel up position.

Let's move on from what it can do to what it can't as well as my thoughts about this pedal.
When connecting the expression pedal to the Angelbaby and the Echoczar, the following things are what it can't do
At anytime, only 1 of the 3 channels of delay can be engaged. Sorry, but no cascading delay. (Not a problem to me, since I am using another 2 more delay pedals on my board other than the Echoczar.)

No tap tempo function. This is due to the all-analogue nature of the circuit. (Delay time knobs are big enough to be adjusted by the toe if needed)

No effects loop. Definitely not an issue at all, the rest of the functions and sound available will rid any thoughts of having an effects loop for more manipulation.

Not digital sounding enough! (Hahaha, yeah right!)

The verdict on this delay pedal? Well, I was just getting warmed up!

i dream of oscillations...

Over the couple of years, from the first delay pedal that I started messing round with, the Boss DD-3, to those that I have owned (Line 6 DL-4, EH 16sec Delay reissue, Akai E1 Headrush) to the couple of others that I have tried (EH Memoryman, Ibanez DE-7 etc), none has the distinctive character of the Echoczar. Not a fair comparison, I know, but since I have little experience with any other analogue delays other than the EH Memoryman, this is the best judgement I can pass.

I can only say my sense of hearing has gotten so used to the delay tones of those pedals mentioned above that it spoilt the fun of playing with the Toneczar pedals! It took me some time to actually appreciate what the Echoczar and Angelbaby had to offer. In a way, the experience has taught me all over again about what constitutes a good sounding delay.

First of all, regardless of what delay mode (vintage/modern) the Echoczar is in, the delay tone sounds smoother, thicker and darker than the delay pedals mentioned. Basically, the repeat notes fade off with a loss in the high frequency. Not a bad thing at all, considering there are all sorts of modifications done to digital delays to get this effect. While those modifications might make those digital delays sound analogue, it will not be on the same level as what the Echoczar can do.

Other than that great thick and dark sound of the repeats, another good thing about the pedal is its really low noise factor. While the pedal is engaged, it has little to no noise at all. The only hiss that one might encounter is when turning up the delay time knob. As the delay time gets longer, there will be some audible hissing in the repeats. The hissing is not so bad after all, as I find that it only sounds obvious sitting all by myself in an enclosed room with the guitar, the pedal, the amplifier at volume 2 and having a totally clean signal into the pedal. Other than that, it will most likely go unnoticed with other instruments and sounds. Oh, and it goes really well with mild overdrive, distortion and crazy fuzz, placed before or after it. Thanks to the 18V DC input, the effect has huge headroom. Gain and delay together never sounded so sweet! For more ambient delay, I have a reverb pedal before the Echoczar with the multi head mode at reverb setting.

Between the modern and vintage delay mode, the modern mode (50ms-825ms) offers slightly clearer and brighter repeats than the vintage mode (100ms to 1100ms). I suspect that the delay quality with the modern mode engaged still sounds warmer and natural then most delays.

Besides the vintage and modern mode, the 2 multi head modes, the M-SB (slapback) and M-RV (reverb) provide further tonal differences and variety in the delay. According to the manual, these 2 modes were "inspired" by various multi-head tape machines...

In the M-SB mode, the repeats sort of fade off but yet continues feeding into each other. With the expression pedal to control the repeats and making it go into oscillation when needed, it yields interesting sounding oscillations… The bad part would be blowing your amplifier’s speaker when the oscillation goes out of control. I had a compressor put after it to tame it and so far, it has been useful. At certain points when the oscillation starts to get over the top, when the compression kicks in and when I do some fast picking, it sounds really intense, as if the three sounds were trying to overpower each other, fighting desperately like sonic gladiators in my amplifier arena.

The design of the slapback mode is like having 2 delay units in series, one set at a shorter time with short repeats, and the other at a longer time with more repeats. Depending on the delay timings on the Echoczar, these 2 sets of repeats will feed into each other eventually, resulting in ping-ponging, stuttering or morphing effects and becoming more obvious when the delay goes into oscillation.

The M-RV mode adds a subtle yet pleasing reverb effect to the delay tone. At certain settings of the repeat and delay time, it sounded like having a sweet overtone in the background with the repeats fading off. As if there was an entire "dimension" in which the delay tone was being projected from.

One very distinctive characteristic about the Echoczar. It is "open" sounding and has a feel that is "alive". From subtle repeats with shimmering overtones when plucked/strummed lightly, to clearer sounding with more repeats when digging hard into the guitar, the delay style will respond to how much dynamics one applies when playing.

Frankly speaking, before the Echoczar, I had not experienced anything like this before. Thus, on the first few occasions that I was playing through it, I was puzzled at how subtly the sense of the repeats were being held back every time I played. It was only after getting the hang of this pedal and understanding the dynamics behind it that made me feel like learning about delay all over again.

When it seemed like there were more than enough features with the Echoczar, the Angelbaby comes along and springs us more surprises! With the Angelbaby connected, on top of all the available features mentioned before (vintage/modern mode, multi head mode etc), it also provides modulated delay. The intensity of the repeats can be varied with the chorus voicing toggle switch (along with the depth and rate knob working together) and what you get are gentle and smooth chorusing to wacky pitch shifting over one octave. Another amazing area is that the modulated effect applies only to the repeats and not the original signal. While I know nuts about effect circuitry and stuff, I thought this was pretty cool, considering that some of the modulated delays out there modulate the original signal to get the modulated delay sound.

I feel that in order to fully appreciate the beauty of the Angelbaby, it would be best to use it in a stereo set up. While one can still can the vibes of the modulation through a single amplifier the ideal would be having two amplifiers, one with a 100% dry signal while the other with the mixture of the dry and wet signals or 100% wet signal.

The 3-position chorus voices toggle switch (solo, duet, and trio), together with the channel 3 delay time knob, depth and rate control on the Angelbaby, plus the slide knob on the Echoczar works interactively to affect the overall modulated tone. Although the slide knob it is not going to make a huge difference, it does varies the wacky pitch shifting intensity and the quality of smoothness of the modulated signal. One area that is most noticeable when using the Angelbaby has got to be the chorus quality in the modulated signal. It can sound really gentle, yet smooth and thick when set right. In some instances, I thought the tonal quality of the chorus was similar to the Foxrox Paradox TZF with its chorus setting...

Although not everyone might go crazy over the modulated delay, it certainly completes the whole delay package by giving the player more delay choices to play with. As mentioned before, less is more...but more is still more, ALWAYS!!!

From the 3 channels of delay, we shall now move on to the more interesting features on the Echoczar that I have yet to see in other delay pedals. Let’s start with the in/out phase toggle switch. This mode will only work when using a stereo set up. To my ear, with it in phase, there was this atmospheric wide open sounding feel and besides hearing the repeats, it sounded like a mild dreamy overtone when I did clean runs across the frets. When out of phase, the delay tone was "sturdier" and focused, while still maintaining a smooth feel to it without making it sterile and cold sounding.

By the way, anyone love oscillations?

I know I do, from bleeps, blurppps, plutttttttttt to weeeeeeeuuuuoooooeeee to massive out of control sounds that feels like the amplifier has died on the spot with blown guts and everything else! I have always loved these sounds and always wanted these sounds to be within control, as and when I need and only when I call for them. And I have found it in the Echoczar!

Usually, for a normal delay to go into oscillation, the key is to have the repeats at maximum or near maximum and proceed from there. While this definitely gets the oscillation going (varies from pedal to pedal), in most cases, the guitar player has to bend over, with hands on the knob and do all sort of "stunts" to tame it, sustain it and end it in the most natural way without sounding like cutting those oscillation off too abruptly.

With the Echoczar, there are some ways to get the oscillation going while keeping it in control and letting it loose when needed.

Firstly, using the safety knob and the feedback stomp switch. The safety knob will be for determining how fast the oscillation kicks in when the feedback stomp switch is activated. At anytime, any one of the three channels of delay must be "on".

For instant "kill the frickin amp" oscillation, set the safety knob to minimum and engage the feedback stomp switch.

For "sensual and smooth" oscillation (my usual setting), I had the safety knob at the 11-12 o'clock position. When the feedback stomp switch is engaged, in response to the playing dynamics, the oscillation will come on and take over.

For "quiet and obedient, what the hell is oscillation" mode, turn the safety knob to maximum and kick in the feedback stomp switch. There will not be any oscillations at all.

With the feedback stomp switch engaged, not only will it induce oscillations when needed, the best part is that when I don't need it, a step on the stomp switch will make the oscillation go off smoothly without cutting it abruptly. This feature is really useful.

Besides the safety knob and the feedback stomp switch, another way to get oscillations going is with the expression pedal controlling the repeats. Sounds familiar? It is! Just like how guitar players have to bend over to control the oscillation most of the time, the expression pedal definitely eases the hassle and at the same time, allows me to keep the "near oscillation and yet under control" wall of sound going on. I had another delay pedal put after it to make it more chaotic. Indulgent it might sound; it sure was plenty of fun.

Another unique characteristic of the Echoczar is that the act of getting into oscillation is touch dependant. Yes, just like how the numbers of repeats react to the playing dynamics as mentioned earlier in this review, having oscillation is the same. I have gotten the best results using the multihead mode (slapback and reverb). Both give interesting oscillations and the ways it oscillates, in a way, depends on the last note being played. Playing a single note or playing triplets yields different feel in the oscillation. And as it gets over the top, the expression pedal will tame it down smoothly and gently.

Moving on from getting and controlling oscillation, the last feature to talk about is the slide knob.

Basically, this slide knob will set the time it takes for the any one of the 3 delay channels to switch between each other and settle in the new delay time. In the process, either a "slowing down" (detune) or "sped up" (tune up) sound will be heard. The time changes range from near instant to about 5sec of pitch shifting, depending on the different delay time settings among the 3 channels of delay. The pitch shifting is really great sounding, transiting smoothly among the delay channels!

One of my favourite uses, when having a wall of sound going on, is to combine the oscillation and change among the 3 channels of delay with the slide knob set to the 12 o'clock position or more. The sound will be like having sirens going off in different speeds (slowing down or going faster), over and over again. And when you add in some reverb, another delay or fuzz pedal, it's sonic mayhem time! Whatever the Echoczar can achieve, it's all up to the individual player to bring out its unique characteristics. In a way, this pedal is alive!

Up to this point, I have to say that I am about done with all my thoughts and experiences with the Echoczar and the Angelbaby. Hopefully it didn't bore you out reading all this and that I have done justice to this really wonderful delay pedal...

One extra note and I must really mention this. Ed Rembold not only builds quality effects pedals, he really stands behind his product. From the correspondences I had with him through numerous emails regarding the Echoczar (another story too long to write here), not only did he go through details and offered solutions to the problem that I was facing, his replies were always prompt. Even though the Echoczar was sent back to the US (no problem with the pedal, it was all due to my folly…), the story had a happy ending. Ed upgraded the power supply circuit in the Echoczar for free (in order to accommodate the Angelbaby) and gave me priority on the waiting list of the Angelbaby. All I can say is I can never thank him enough for his help as well as constructing the effect.

Unless there exists another delay pedal that has the versatilities and tone of the Echoczar and Angelbaby and at the same time costing less, it will be hard to beat it. Yes, it’s that good...

With great thanks also, to the two cool fellas who helped me with the ordering, Mr Misse and the cool Cat...Steady as always, thanks a many!!!