Monday, February 10, 2020

The Prophet Digital Delay What it does and how it sounds

The Prophet Digital Delay
What it does and how it sounds.

(All music recorded through the Prophet Digital Delay direct into Garage Band).

The TC electronic the profit Digital delay pedal has a surprisingly rugged construction. It can either be powered by a 9 V central negative centre power supply or a 9 V battery which is inserted by unscrewing the four screws at the side.
The rugged metal case has been nicely Sprayed with a design under the repeat button that looks boutique.

Digital delay pedals like the prophet are not the same as analogue style echo units.


Analog delay pedals
Usually rely on a bucket-brigade device (BBD)
chip that sends the analog signal through a series of capacitors.

Digital Delay pedals
Copy and print the original signal directly.

The repeats of analogue style  delays tend to get a bit more diffuse (broken up) with each step, which imparts a very particular sonic signature.

With Digital delay pedals the repeats don’t break up because they are an exact copy of the original. This allows for more precise control of the colour and still allows for weird echo effects.

There are three knobs on the top of the Prophet Delay pedal
From left to right they are:

TIME:
This controls the speed
between the repeats.

MIX:
 This controls how much of
the effect you get between
the wet and dry sound.

REPEATS:
This controls the number of repeats.
As this is a real Digitlal Delay the repeats don’t degrade
they just stop.

On the right side of the repeats knob there is a
3 position switch marked
1/16 1/8 and 3/8.
This refers to 3 separate delay time signatures that can be further altered using the 3 other controls.
The Pedal can be powered by a 9V battery or a 9V - centre PSU