Anxiously Awaiting On Everything Eternal…

Jduv’s Echo Quest IV: The T-Rex Replica

Welcome the final installement of the echo quest. I like going out with a bang, and the T-Rex Replica does just that. Here are the three delay feature categories that I will be examining today:

1. Sound Quality
2. Ease of use
3. Range of Application

Just like in the previous posts, each category will be ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, and the rating will appear beside the section heading

T-Rex Replica

The Replica has been touted as the best digital delay pedal of all time by several artists and review shops. After owning a pair of these wonderful little devices, I must admit that claim is not unfounded. There's some extra juicy details surrounding the two Replicas that I own that should be visited before I actually get into the review.

My first replica was a wonderful experience, but after the novelty wore off I found that the repeats were mildly distorted in the digital delay mode. Given that the manual touts pristine, crystal clear delay tone I was worried that maybe I had damaged the unit because I was powering it with unregulated DC voltage on my pedal power 2. I sent an email to T-Rex, and after about 2-3 months of communication with the designer of the pedal I shipped it off to Denmark for testing. After about a month I was sent my original Replica back along with another free unit to test. Each unit had another knob installed to control the input gain into the main circuit of pedal. With this modification I can control the amount of distortion and warmth on each repeat. In addition to getting one free modified Replica I was also sent a Juicy Lucy 12 volt DC power supply to power them with. In summary for this reason alone, T-Rex is the coolest freaking company ever. Forgive me now for my bias but I think you see where this review is going to go .

Sound Quality: (9.5/10) The claims are true. This is quite possibly the best sounding digital delay I have ever heard. I would put this baby up against any of the famous analog delays out there like the Carbon Copy, Diamond Memory Lane 2, and the Empress Super Delay. The brown switch engages a high pass filter that warms up the repeats giving them a more natural analog tone--which sounds better than any  analog delay model I have heard and/or owned including those from Boss, TC Electronic, and even the famous modeling masters at Line6. The only reason this pedal did not receive a perfect 10 in this category is because there is no such thing as perfect tone . No pedal deserves a perfect 10, but the Replica is about as close as you can get.

Ease of Use: (8/10) The Replica has four knobs--well five in the case of the input gain mod--all of which are well labeled, intuitive, and well spaced. There are two additional switches on the top of the unit--a brown switch and a subdivision switch--which enable additional modes to the dialed in delay settings. It also has your standard on/off DPDT stomp switch and a built in tap tempo (hooray!) switch.

The dip switches on the top of the unit are a little flimsy in construction, but as long as you are careful with them there shouldn't be any issues there. The brown switch engages a high pass filter (as described in the sound quality section) that darkens your tone significantly, and the subdivision switch transforms your taps to triplets. Note that triplets are NOT the same thing as dotted eighth notes, but they get you close enough to that sound if you're lazy.

The tap tempo can be a little wonky sometimes, but it's not a big enough deal to justify a serious dock in points. The biggest issue here is that tapping a new tempo mutes the unit and results in some quirky sounds and bad transitions--so it's really better to switch it off if there is a need to adjust the tempo. Also, this pedal has a midi-in for synchronizing with midi-clocks. Not useful to me, but I'm sure someone out there thinks it's cool.

Finally, I have a fifth knob on the unit that controls the input level of the guitar. This modification was performed as described earlier to control the amount of distortion in the repeats. In addition to doing that, it also allows me to dial down the gain to my amp resulting in cleaner delay settings when I have my overdrives engaged. The downside to the input gain modification is that the Level and Echo knobs will need to be readjusted if you change the setting at all because all three of those parameters are linked to one another inside the pedal. Despite that, this mod is awesome, and should come stock on every Replica as far as I am concerned.

Range of Applications: (9.5/10) Because it sounds so natural, the replica has the ability to transform your favorite guitar riff into a pad of yummy ambient goodness, a 50's slap-back throwback, a group of warm decaying analog repeats, or an arsenal of pristine repeated goodness. The brown switch adds some points to this total, but even though the Replica doesn't have all the modes, bells, bobs, and whistles of the other delays I have reviewed, it's transparency enables it to far outweigh the one-trick pony delays. How you play shapes how this pedal reacts, and that is what makes it so versatile.

Overall: (9/10) This is the best delay I have ever used. I understand that this is subjective, but honestly because of the tonal transparency and simplicity of this unit it's benefits far outweigh it's shortcomings. I would go so far to say that it's shortcomings really aren't of any importance because what it does well it does phenomenally well. These are a little pricey, and they don't offer presets like some of the other delays in their price category, but if you are after an amazing set-it and forget-it delay unit get one of these! Or two!

The King of Chorus? The Analogman Bi-Chorus

After spending time with the Retro-Sonic Stereo Chorus I found that I loved having two chorus tones at my feet, but I really wanted the ability to control the speed and depth of both of them. The Boss CE-1 style controls of the Retro-Sonic unit weren't cutting it considering the range of chorus settings that I tend to favor, and Leslie tones are a one-trick pony--albeit a very nice one. Luckily my chorus feature-lust has already been addressed by Analog Mike, boutique pedal maker extraordinaire and owner of analogman guitar effects. Mike can craft a chorus to match your every whim, but I was only after one--the Analogman Bi-Chorus, stereo flavor. Lets take a look at it shall we?

Analogman Bi-Chorus

You can think of the Bi-Chorus as two choruses (chori?) in a single box with completely individual controls, a switch to swap between each settings group, and another switch to turn the effect on and off. Bingo! With the Bi-Chorus we have the versatility of two completely independently configured chorus effects and the ability to switch between them on the fly--but this is too good to be true right? Surely the tone isn't up to snuff? Wrong. The Bi-Chorus is a very rich and lush analog chorus that shimmers like an ocean sunset. The clips below will prove it.

In addition to any other feature your heart desires, Mike can add a depth switch to the Bi-Chorus, which I highly recommend. This allows for three different settings on the Bi-Chorus: deep, thin, and normal. Each setting has it's own voicing and figuring out the setting that is your favorite requires some experimentation but the general idea is this: deep emphasizes lower frequencies and has a wider depth range, thin is a very subtle and shallow chorusing effect, and normal is standard operation. Tones from all three modes are spot-on and usable depending on the application. Gorgeous leslie tones are easily dialed in and retain a subtle shimmer from the voicing of the chorus circuit.

Check out the following two clips for a demonstration of the stereo Bi-Chorus. For both clips, the Bi-Chorus was set to "normal operation" mode on the depth switch. In the ambient clip, I start out with the bypass signal, move into an ambient low intensity chorus and then into a more shimmery Leslie mode; near the end of the clip I engage the series pickup switch on my Telecaster for a variation in tone. The blues clip has a leslie tone dialed in and is played entirely on the neck pickup. Both clips were recorded on my Telecaster plugged directly into the effect, and then straight into my Orange AD-30R.

Check the ubiquitous Pro/Con table above for a nice summary of the unit. In Summary, based on the ratio of feature set to sound quality the Analogman Bi-Chorus is hands down the best chorus that I have ever encountered. Single coils will sound a little hollow due to the shimmery voicing of the circuit but I don't hold a grudge simply because it's expected behavior and a classic chorus sound. If you can afford it, grab one of these guys. I recommend shelling out the additional money for the depth switch, as it really opens up an incredible number of chorus tonal characteristics on the fly and can help you tame the hollower sounds on single coil guitars by adjusting the depth and frequencies affected at the flip of a switch.