2023 Best New Time-Based Effects Pedals of the Year

Controls  - Decay (Trail Length), Bright, Dry>Wet Mix, Mode : Hall / Room / Church / Spring / Plate / Swell / Shimmer / Cloudy (Floating) / Wave (Lapping Sea Shore), PreDelay / Mod knob, Toggle switch : Freeze : PreDelay | Freeze / ∞ Explore Mode 5s Gesture Control, Footswitch Freeze : Hold for Freeze | Footswitch  ∞ + Hold activates Gesture Control for Decay, Bright, Mix, and Mod.

My runaway favourite of the recent ALABS Audio Adam Adventures Series - a quite superb Stereo Reverb Workstation - with Eplore Mode Gesture Control and Expression Ramping - and one of the best mixes of algorithms including 2 brilliant unique ones. I really love the second half of the Modes here - Plate, Swell, Shimmer, Cloudy and Wave. The pedal is worth it almost for just the Wave mode alone - the sounds of waves gently lapping the sea shore!

Controls - Time (Short : 20ms-1100ms | Long : 40ms-2200ms), Repeat, Dry>Wet Mix, Mode : Tape / Digital / Analog / Reverse / Warp (Chorus + Pitch Modulation) / Granule (Grains / Glitch) / Octave / Sweeper (LPF + Mod) / Swell, Tone / Mod knob,Toggle switch : Tap = Tone / Tap Tempo | ∞ Explore Mode 5s Gesture Control, Footswitch Tap : Hold for Tap Tempo | Footswitch  ∞ + Hold activates Gesture Control for Time, Repeat, Mix, and Mod.

My second favourite of the ALABS Audio pedals - again the more unusual Modes are what makes this pedal great - Warp, Granule, Octave, Sweeper, and Swell. It does the basics so well and then throws some further twists on top - including the Explore Gesture Control Mode. Not quite as magnificent as the Cetus - but pretty close. And for a budget pedal - just incredible. We will have full reviews of the Cetus and TimeSlip in the new year - I kind of ran out of time in this one!

Controls - Mix, Feedback, Time, Pain (Modulation), Preamp : On/Off, Preamp Level, Tap Divisions : Eighth / Dotted Eighth, Tone, Bypass / Engage Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch / Hold for Max Feedback and Oscillation.

Really cool PT2399 Delay with a more worn-out Tape Sound - Crazy 'Pain' Modulation, and a 4-step sequencer. A limited edition run where pre-orders rand from the 1st to the 17th of this month - so closed now. This is a Mono delay - so not really perfect for me - would have been more of a nice-to-have really - while I have other priorities which got in the way of that!

Controls - LFO Speed, LFO Depth, Feedback / Repeats, Time (30ms - 1250 ms) Mix / Intensity, Bypass Footswitchs (Hold to enter Menu / Modes function - and then use either Bypass or Tap for options listed in visual), Tap / Hold Footswitch - doubles down on Feedback / Oscillation and sets Tap Division Mode.

An excellent analog voiced PT2399 delay with LFO flutter and tap-tempo. Sounds amazing - while its mono output doesn't provide the immersive soundstage that I favour. Amazing on mono rigs though!

Controls - Expression type : Time / Off / Rate, Delay Time : 30ms - 110ms, Feedback / Repeats, Mix = Repeats Level, Wow (Warble / lower end slow artefacts degradation), Dry options : In / Out, Modulation Type : Sharp Random Modulation / Smooth Random Modulation / Sinewave Uniform Modulation, LPF Low Pass Filter : Darkest / Standard / Darker, Flutter (high end rapid artefacts degradation), Flutter Rate, Swell Feedback + Intensity, On / Off Footswitch, Ramp / Swell Footswitch (Momentary).

Fantastic Ambient Atmospheric delay by my good friend Phil at Bleak District. This is a delay wholly packed with flavour and a perfect companion for your ambient excursions. Sounds really great for a mono delay - even I am tempted here despite its lack of stereo support!

Controls - 3-Digit Display, Time, Pre-Delay, Effect Level, Mode : Room / Hall / Plate / Spring / Shimmer / Arpverb / Slowverb / Modulate / +Delay / Lo-Fi / Gate / Reverse, Param, Low, High, Density [Hold for Panel Lock], Memory [Hold to Save] : Manual / 1-4, On/Off Footswitch, Memory/Hold Footswitch.
 
Rear Ports - A/Mono In, B In, A/Mono Out, B Out, CTL 1,2/EXP, 9V DC [-] 260mA.
 
Left Side Panel -  Mini MIDI Out / Mini MIDI In, USB-Micro-B for updates.

Long-awaited 200-Series Reverb finally lands! Perfect mix of algorithms onboard - including the brilliant new ArpVerb algorithm. Much like the DD-200 - another perfectly executed workstation pedal - has everything it needs and some cool innovative added features - like the smart new Density control.

Controls - Presets : Manual (Panel Controls) / 1 - 4, Memory Button / Hold to Write / Save Presets, Tap Division Selection : Tap Division Button : Half Note / Quarter Note / Eighth Note - Triplet / Dotted, Modulation Rate, Modulation Depth, Variation / 1-10 : Different Per Mode (see below infographic), 12 Modes : MONO } Classic / Vintage / Modern / Multi-Head / Non-Linear (Reverse) / Ambience, STEREO } Reflect / Doubling + Delay / Wide / Dual Modulation / Pan / Pattern, Delay Time : ≈10ms to 1200ms (varies per Mode), Intensity / Feedback, Delay Volume, On/Off Footswitch, Memory Select Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch (not active for every mode).

My favourite Delay pedal of the year - absolutely phenomena in its patterns, features and output. Love the Stereo Output - while it really needs to have a stereo input too - something that Flower Pedals and Walrus have achieved this year - while the DM-101 has the best algorithms by far!

Controls - 13 Character Display, 1-4 Presets, Bank A/B / Write-Hold, EVH, <, >/Exit, ±Time, ±Feedback, ±Out, ±Rate, ±Depth, Filter, Time x 2, Delay Phase, Mod, Feedback Phase, Digital Delay 1, Digital Delay 2, Setup, Enter / Lock-Hold. DDL1, DDL2, Tap/Ctl1, DDL1+DDL2 is Bank Up, DDL2+Tap is Bank Down.

Killer recreation of 1983 EVH favourite Roland SDE-3000 Rack Mount Digital Delay (Mono). With this new unit you get to run 4 Delays simultaneously across full stereo. Some sub-menu complexity learning curve here - but pretty intuitive once you get used to it! A fantastic modulated digital reverb - while for my preferences I prefer the warm gooeyness of the DM-101. That said each pedal has its own advantages - and there's plenty that the SDE-3000/EVH can do which the DM-101 can't like  recreate the the Andy Timmons Halo Echo Effect!

Controls - Time, Mix (Ramp), Feedback, Offset (3-voice Delay Ratio) / Depth, Balance (3-Voice Blend) / Rate, Filter (<HPF|LPF>), MODULATION } Sync / Off / Free, Vibrato / Tremolo / Frequency, Sequence : Run / Off / Envelope, Tap Tempo Footswitch, Presets 1-0-2, Bypass Footswitch, +16 dip-switches on rear.

A fantastic recreation and evolution of the Empress Superdelay Reverse Model C with a heap of new features. Unique 3-Voice Multidirectional Delay with smart parameters - including a variety of Modulations and secondary effects.

Controls - Mix, Decay, Tone, Program : Spring / Tremoloverb / Hall / Octave, Control : Warm Overdrive [Spring] / Trem Speed [Tremoloverb] / Mod Speed [Hall] / Octave Level [Octave], Preset Footswitch [1-3], Bypass Footswitch.

Really neat 4-mode Stereo Reverb with 3 Presets onboard. Covers you for Spring, Tremoloverb, Hall, and Octave - so mix of regular and more unusual flavours. Only complexity is remembering different Control variables per Mode- otherwise really simple to operate.

Controls - Decay (Tail) / EchoVerb Delay Time, Blend (Dry>Wet) / ±4dB Boost, Tilt EQ Tone / RotoTrem Speed, Vibrato Mod Depth / RotoTrem Depth, Footswitch Short Press = On/Off, Footswitch Long Press = Secondary Params On/Off, Internal Stereo-Out Dip-switch, Micro USB Port on right-edge for Updates and Requests.

Super smart Compact Reverb with hidden depths - 3 Modes - Echoverb, Studio, and Spring Tank, also Rototrem Modulation. Has MISO routing - could really do with Stereo In also - to meet my own preferences - but sounds phenomenal either way.

Controls - Mix, Feedback, Delay, Modulation, Tap / Mode : Modern / Warm / Vintage, On/Mod Footswitch, Tap / Doubler Footswitch.

Cool modernisation and miniaturisation of the legendary Memory Lane Tap Tempo Modulated Delay. I misunderstood the Digital to Analog relationship within the new totally authentic sounding pedal and wrongly stated that the pedal was DSP - which it is NOT - Greg from Diamond & SGFX kindly contacted me to set the record straight as below :

"Hi Stefan, thanks so much for including the he Memory Lane in your recent 2023 delay feature. I would just like to point out that the Memory is not DSP - there is no FV-1, Sharc, blackfin or cortex. It uses the exact same type of hybrid analog/digital circuit as the original Memory Lane Jr. with a PIC controller, industrial DAC and ADC, THAT corp. companders and an analog dry mix. Feel free to reach out any time if you need more information. Best regards and happy holidays! Greg"

Controls - Feedback / Repeats, Delay Time, Dry Signal Level, Wet Signal Level, Modulation Altitude / Depth, Modulation Density / Rate, Left Mode Footswitch : 100ms White / 400ms Pink, Right True Bypass / Engage Footswitch.

Amazing Dual Range Delay and Multi-Modulator / Virtual Reel-to-Reel Tap Deck - which not just covers you for Short to Medium Delays, but delivers Overdrive, Faux Reverb, Chorus, Tape Flanging and more - incredibly versatile multi-effect aided by an ingenious randomised modulation.

Controls - Upper knob : Analog Feedback / Reverb Size > Oscillation, Lower knob : Dry > Wet Mix, Tear-drop

Push-Button : Red Reverb / Blue Reverb, Left Footswitch : Max Feedback, Right Footswitch : Engage/Bypass.

Really smart dual-voiced FV-1 style Reverb with a colder, more metallic, almost plate-like AI-Infused Blue side, and a warm, dynamic and touch-sensitive Red side - second footswitch allows you to max out the Feedback.

Controls - MIX [ramp speed], TIME 60ms-770ms [ramp to], FEEBACK [ramp to], MODE : Series / Stereo / Parallel [mod shape : triangle / sine / random, CONTROL : 1 / 1+2 / 2 [time lock : width / independent / div], TONE / LPF [gain], DIV : quarter / dotted eighth / eighth / triplet / sixteenth [time lock], MOD [depth/speed], MIDI In, MIDI Thru, EXP/TAP slider switch, MONO/STERO slider switch.

Ingenious Full Stereo Analog Modulated Delay with Dual separate channels and myriad modulation options. Along with the Walrus Audio Meraki - one of only 2 full stereo analog delays on the market.

Controls - Mix, Repeats, Divisions : Quarter, Dotted Eighth, Eighth, Filter, Control 1, Tap Tempo Footswitch, Bypass Footswitch (Hold Bypass to change Preset, Double-tap to change Mode).
 
Presets / Modes / Algorithms - Tape (Cyan), Digital (Green), Analog (Yellow), Dual Delay (Orange), ESD (Echo | Slap | Doubler) (Pink). JET Signature - Slap/Analog Dual (Purple).
 
Control 1 - (Cyan) New > Old Tape, (Green) Pristine > Grit + OD, (Yellow) BBD Noise + Modulation, (Orange) Delay 2 Level, (Pink) Stereo Width, (Purple) Slapback Level.

Smart compact 6 Mode Digital Delay - Tape, Digital, Analog, Dual Delay, Echo Slap Doubler, Slap Analog Dual.

Controls - Decay, PreDelay, Control 1, Control 2, Preset / Pages / Save [Hold] (Control 3), Mix, Modulation. Push Buttons & Corresponding Footswitches } 1, 2, 3, Hold Modifier, 1+2 = Bank Down, 2+3 = Bank Up, 3 + Hold = Tuner.
 
Rear Ports : L [Mono] In, R In, L [Mono] Out, R out, EXP, MIDI In, MIDI Out, USB-C, 9V DC [-] 2.1mm 300mA.

Amazing Reverb Sound-Designer sibling to the equally expansive Meris LVX Delay Workstation / Sound-Designer. Beefs up Meris's existing classic Reverb algorithms - and adds in a couple of new ones - Prism Dual Tank and Gravity. This was high on my wishlist until the Poly Verbs came along - which puts back the acquisition of this one. I still have and love the LVX - but find it a little fiddly to use - and not as intuitive as prescribed!

Controls - Verbs Category : Pool of the Blackstar (x8), Capricornia Caves (x8), Santa Lucia Basilica (x8), Echo Plates (x8), Analog Devices (x8), Irregular Verbs (x8), Adverbs (x8 / swappable), Onset (Pre-Delay), Mix, Presets : 1-8, Low Cut, Smoosh (Resolution / Intensity), Footswitch A - hold to crescendo, Footswitch B - Bypass/On/Off - hold to go to next preset.

This one came in very last minute - and in fact became my final pedal acquisition of the year - while it won't feature on the final pedalboard arrangement for the year, but I thought it should be in these end of year roundups - and it will be going on the board in January. I was in two minds until I saw the Andertons demo rather serendipitously - and was just in time to snag one of the few they had ordered in. The fact that one of the presets is based on an Icelandic Sound Sculpture - definitely helped swing the vote for me. I'm a huge fan of Reverbs, and this one seems really special - I love the concept of Reverb Spaces applied here - full review coming in January of course!

Controls - Time (Delay Time 30ms > 1000ms)[Wind all the way back for Chorus Voicing], Voice : 3205 / 3005 / Multi, Mix (Delay Mix, 50/50 @ 3 o’c, Filter (EQ Filtering + Noise + Bucket Loss Artefacts), Repeats (3 o’c for infinite repeats without runaway), Modulation (Speed + Intensity) [Creates beautiful chorus @ 3 o’c+ with Time fully CCW, and 3205 Mode selected].

I've generally loved the new Strymon Compact form factor released this year - but it's also been an exercise of somewhat diminishing returns. The original Cloudburst was a Phenom! - just brilliant really every which way - and something I snapped up pretty much immediately. This Strymon Brig dBucket Analog style digital delay is not nearly as impressive as the Cloudburst for me, and the 3rd in the series - the Ultraviolet Vintage Vibe was a little less impressive for me than the Brig. Of all of those the Cloudburst is the only must-have really. The Brig does sound decent though - no complaints there - it's just nowhere near as exciting as the Cloudburst!

Controls : Decay, (Strings) Ensemble : Off / Moderate (mezzo piano) / Strong (forte), Mix, Pre-Delay, Tone, Modulation.
 
Power Up Modes [Hold Footswitch on Power-Up and Tweak Controls simultaneously!] - Ensemble Off : True Bypass / Ensemble forte : Buffered Bypass, MIX : Expression / Favourite / Freeze / Infinite / MIDI, TONE : Digital Dry / Analog Dry / Dry Kill, MOD : Spillover On / Off.
 
Mono / Stereo : Mono / Mono > Stereo / Full Stereo.

A triumphant launch of a new compact Strymon Pedal Format - brilliantly punctuated by an ingenious expansion of the BigSky Cloud Algorithm with a tonne of cool extras thrown in. So it's kind of a 5-in-1 in some ways (see above visual) - albeit on a similar overall shimmery theme - just sounds superb every which way. I leapt on this release, and was most pleased that I did - while I think I found the ALABS Audio Cetus even more impressive - in that compact enclosure category. The Strymon Cloudburst is/was the perfect launch candidate for the format though - while the follow-ups - the Brig Delay and Ultraviolet Vintage Vibe weren't nearly quite so impressive.

CONTROLS - MODULATION : OSC. THESHOLD } Speed, Depth, Waveform : Sine / Random / Envelope / Trigger, Select : Delay / Pan / Dynamic, PAN-DYN } Pan Mod, Dyn Mod, Delay : Direct, Reverse, DELAY : TIME } Delay, Mod, Invert, Sub.Divisions : Off / Straight / Dotted / Triplets (Encoder = 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64), FEEDBACK } F.Back, Invert, Select : Level / High / Low, OUTPUT } Pan : Delay, Direct, PRESET 1-128 } Preset, Store, KEYBOARD } Rotary Encoder, FOOTSWITCHES } A, A+B Down, B, B+Learn Up, Learn / Tap Tempo.

INS & OUTS - IN } Mono, Stereo / Return, Stereo In/Out / Feedback Loop Switch, OUT } Mono, Stereo / Send, Expression, USB-C, 9V DC [-] mA, MIDI In, MIDI Out / Thru.

Fantastic return of the TC 2290 Rackmount Unit - beautifully rendered in pedal format - and very attractively priced. Known as much for being a multi-modulator as for its distinct and pristine delay tones. For many the definitive digital delay - the one thing that counts a little against it is its size - but everything else about it seems just right - including the fairly intuitive control interface! Definitely on the list of pedals to get - most likely to occur sometime next year!

Controls - Volume, Rec.1-Short / Rec.2-Long switch, Drum Speed, Rec Level, Playback Heads buttons - 1-4, Feedback, Repeat / Swell switch, Echo Tone, Bypass, Magic Eye Vacuum Tube Saturation Indicator.

The pedal that stole the show at this year's NAMM - a magnificent engineering achievement and it sounds impressively authentic. Pictured a little smaller that actual size - this pedal isn't as large as I thought it would be - but it's still far from being anywhere close to pedalboard-friendly. Strangle not seen or heard to much of this pedal - and no aware of how it's roll-out went. I presume a few studios have ordered one of these - but I've not seen any adventurous type trying to fit this anywhere near a pedalboard. Not sufficiently practical to get anywhere near my reference collection, while I love that this exists!

Controls - Feedback Left, Mix (Repeats Level), Feedback Right, Mod Depth (+Bypass is Mod Rate), Time : 80ms - 1200ms, Tone (Tilt EQ), Divisions Left : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth | Mod Shape (+Bypass) : Sine / Square / Random, Feedback Path : Parallel / Ping-Pong / Series, Mod//Time : Sync / Left / Right, Divisions Right : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth | Phase (+Bypass) : 0 / 90 / 180, Bypass Footswitch, Tap/Oscillation Footswitch, MIDI In, MIDI Out.

Very similar to the above Flower Pedals Dahlia - slightly bigger enclosure, but also with significantly longer delay time, It's also $100 dearer than the Dahlia. The Meraki though was the first Dual Analog Full Stereo Pedal - ahead of the Dahlia by a couple of days. I still hugely admire this Meraki and may check it out eventually at some stage, right now though I seem to prefer the Dahlia for a variety of reasons - including of course form factor and price.