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Arion DDS1 & 4 DDL/Samplers | |
EffectsCheckArticle from International Musician & Recording World, December 1986 |
Paul Trynka puts his foot down on a pair of interesting pedals
It's well-known these days that samplers are de rigeur for every musician from saxophonist to conga player, so it's no great surprise to see the Arion DDS-1 and DDS-4 Digital Delay/Samplers which offer one and four seconds of delay time respectively, but are otherwise identical.
Both units are on the large size for a foot pedal and are made from moulded plastic, but don't feel too lightweight. Stereo outputs are offered; this means that you have the option of routing the straight sound through one amplifier, and the effected sound through another — there's nothing fancy like phase inversion on one channel, but this could prove handy all the same.
The units can be used as conventional delays, and control layout is what you'd expect from such beasts. Level controls the volume of the effected sound, and Tone determines the amount of treble on the delayed signal. Thus you can roll off a bit of the top to simulate the behaviour of an analogue device. Repeat and Delay Time are self-explanatory, whilst Mode can be used to switch between different delay times, or to select sample record/play.
You might have noticed the lack of any modulation facilities when in digital delay mode; these machines are restricted to straightforward replay of the original sound with no facilities for chorus or flanging.
As you'd expect operation is pretty straightforward. In delay mode, the 'Mode' switch selects between Short, Medium, Long and Extra Long, which range from 16ms to 4s, whilst the Delay Time mode provides a less coarse control. In sampler mode, the device may be used in two different ways; sound on sound, whereby you can stack more lines over a length of time determined by the Delay Time control, or straight replay, whereby the sampled sound repeats every time you depress the footswitch.
In use there are no great surprises. Bandwidth is easily adequate for guitar at 7kHz, so the delayed signal is bright and immediate, sometimes disconcertingly so, unless you roll off a bit of the top — that's just the effect of tradition, I suppose. In sampling mode, the reasonable bandwidth means the sampled sound is pretty indistinguishable from the original, so with one guitar you can have a fair amount of fun sampling short sequences (about two bars is the maximum with the four-second version) and then playing live over the top.
The sound on sound mode is fairly similar, but takes a bit of juggling with the delay time in order to ensure that the phrase recorded is of the correct length. It's necessary to make sure that the most recent line played is of adequate volume, because if you get too subtle the previous lines become very faint and you can hear clock noise breaking through.
Both straightforward sampling and sound-on-sound operations are easy to use once you've mastered the timing with the footswitch. All the same, I find such a basic sampler to be of limited use considering the price; a DDL with built-in modulation would probably be more useful for most people as a footpedal (I do hear that Arion are also introducing a digital chorus/flanger soon).
Power consumption is colossal; the supplied battery packed in after an hour or so. The unit tells you when the batteries are getting flat by means of the indicator light, which helpfully starts flashing. This indication is at a rather late stage, though, as it coincides with the effect output going completely dead. Presumably this visual aid is just to assure you that you haven't suddenly gone completely deaf.
Overall then, what do you get? Well, presumably this pedal is meant for guitars, so if you feel the need for a pedal that will sample a riff and play it back at the pressing of a footswitch, then get one of these. Otherwise, you've got a rather ordinary DDL, and whilst I admire the technology which can pack four seconds of sampling into such a small package, I'd rather see it being used to develop something which is rather more useful.
Arion DDS-1 & 4 Digital Delay/Samplers - RRP: £129 & £175
More info is available from FCN, (Contact Details)
Gear in this article:
Guitar FX > Arion > DDS-1 DDL/Sampler
Guitar FX > Arion > DDS-4 DDL/Sampler
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Review by Paul Trynka
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