The Flower Pedals Dahlia Dual Analog BBD Full Stereo Delay has landed, and it's everything I hoped it would be
The Flower Pedals Dahlia was originally announced towards the end of November last year, and I’ve been intending to get it in ever since - ideally somewhat opportunistically - while certain prevailing priorities always seem to have gotten in the way. It would have been good if I had made use of a Labour Day discount - but I had other priorities on at that time, so in the end I paid the full wedge - plus all those exorbitant import fees! My recent 10 Pedal Challenge was the main pressure this time around - so the timing from that perspective was good - while the finances of the pedal were somewhat more dubious. I really do try to get some kind of discount in place particularly on the higher ticket value pedals - but time-sensitivity often derails that!
I obviously still have my Boss DM-101 active in the chain - which has an even more extended feature set in some ways, but lacks the full stereo in option. The DM-101 stays in the rotation for now alongside the Dahlia, while longer-term I might lean more into the Dahlia as my first choice, and possibly bring the EchoSystem back in on the big Delay slot again!
My first impressions of the Dalia are overwhelmingly favourable. Some of the Secondary function malarkey can be a little annoying - but it all works really well. Part of me still feels that those pedals should rather use dual concentric knobs than constantly having to dial the primary setting back in once you’ve adjusted the secondary. I also prefer the Kinotone approach with a sort of dedicated button for secondary functions - so you can flip that on, adjust all the secondary functions / params, and then flip it back to primary. In place of having to constantly press and hold down the On Footswitch. While it’s actually not too much bother really - and generally works rather well - I just have a preference for approach there!
The only complexity with this pedal for me was in the Time Lock category - just figuring out the meaning of those settings really - everything else was very straight forwards for me. The control topology and feature set on this pedal is truly superb - with all the parameters I would want to have had my disposal. Dialling preferred settings was a breeze, but it turned out not to be entirely necessarily as the Pink Factory Preset is already perfect for what I want from this pedal as my main core setting!
Beyond getting my head around the Time Lock segment - everything else here was effortless for me, and I picked it up incredibly quickly - the pedal is really straightforward and intuitive to deploy. While I’m unlikely to make use of its MIDI In and Thru ports, and won’t really be using the Expression port much either - everything I need is right on the surface of this pedal! Tap Tempo is my preferred means of controlling the timing - and you have the Ramping there also - so I really have no need for an expression pedal!
Controls - MIX [Ramp Speed], TIME 60ms > 820ms [Ramp to Time : x2 / 1/2], FEEDBACK [Ramp to Feedback], MODE : Series / Stereo / Parallel [Mod Shape : Triangle / Sine / Random], CONTROL : CH1 / CH1 + CH2 / CH2 [Time Lock : Stereo Width / Independent / Division], TONE [Gain], DIVISION : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth / Triplet Eighths / Sixteenths [Time Lock : Stereo Width / Independent / Division], MODULATION DEPTH [Modulation Speed], TAP TEMPO FOOTSWITCH [Hold for Ramping], ON/HOLD FOOTSWITCH [Hold for Secondary Options].
Core Delay Controls - Mix, Time 60ms > 820ms, Feedback, Tone, Division, Tap Tempo Footswitch.
Master Controls - Mode : Series / Stereo / Parallel, Control : CH1 / CH1 + CH2 / CH2, Time Lock : Stereo Width / Independent / Division. Dual Press on Footswitches to scroll through : Panel / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5.
Modulation - Modulation Depth, Modulation Speed, Wave Shape : Triangle / Sine / Random.
Ramping - Ramp Speed [mix], Ramp To [time], Ramp To [feedback], Ramp Footswitch (Hold Tap).
Presets - Dual Press Footswitches to scroll through Presets 1-5 [Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink], Dual-Press-Hold to save Preset, Pink and Green Presets are perfect for my own needs, and Yellow is an interesting Wobbly Vibrato, all the presets are pretty handy actually!
* NOTE - the one thing this pedal is not able to do is Double Tracking / Doubling - which happens at 30ms. Minimum range is 60ms which is rather more into slapback territory!
Would be cool if the pedals' range was extended downwards at some stage to cover that - but understandably it's been the upper value that has been the focus of attention - and that went up from 770ms to 820ms - which likely shifted the lower range too! The minimum 60ms is perfect for slapback / short delays and modulation, while slapback is typically centred around 100ms!
In terms of basic setup - the easiest way to get a Stereo variation is to select a different Division on the CH2 second channel - so Main CH1 is set to Quarter, and the 2nd CH2 is set to Dotted Eighth for instance - that way you're most of the way towards an Andy Timmons style Halo Echo - while to be fully accurate you would need to adjust the Timing too! (Note that the Core Timmons Settings are CH1 Quarter Note @ 500ms, and CH2 Dotted Eighth @ 375ms with some modulation added etc.). [That kind of timing precision can only happen with MIDI control, as the Time knob sweep is rarely fully linear - ranging from 60ms to 820ms).
The first thing I did with this pedal was to set up a core fairly subtle Delay across the 1 + 2 / Stereo settings. I then set CH2 to Dotted Eighth Division. Next I played around with the Modulation settings to get that feeling right for me. Turns out I could have just gone straight to the Pink Factory Preset - as that is already set up perfectly for my preferences!
The final step for me was to set up the Ramping - Ramp Speed at 75%, Ramp To x2 Time, and Ramp To Feedback @ Max. That really covers most everything you need to know about this pedal bar the expression and MIDI side - which doesn't really interest me currently! As mentioned previously - everything I need is on the surface of this pedal already - I don't feel the need to MIDI Control the pedal, or user Expression to vary the Timing - I can just use Ramping for that kind of thing, and onboard Tap Tempo to control the timing!
Scrolling though the 5 Presets is pretty cool - where I particularly like the 3rd and 5th ones - Blue and Pink, there's a rather wobbly vibrato on Preset 4 Yellow which I dialled down a bit - while all the presets are really cool in showing you some of the key aspects of what is possible - going from simple short delay to adding taps, syncopation and modulation - actually all are really well chosen and where I like all of those pretty much!
You can Set the Pedal separately on CH1 and then CH2 vs both the same on 1 + 2 - and therefore update the main 8 controls separately for each. While using the Time Lock features is a handy way to quickly get to proper stereo separation. The Width is relatively subtle - for me it's easier just to set a different division on the other channel!
The Tone / Gain controls are neat textural elements also - which are worth exploring on their own. While for me those are mostly fine-tuning elements. I never really strayed to much into the noisier crunchier side of things that this pedal is capable of - that's for a later more experimental session!
There's all kinds of possibilities with this pedal - where so far I've mostly leant into the more elegant side of things - but you can do a lot of quirky things with this pedal too - and particularly at the extremes of range - especially for the modulation. For me I like my delays mostly relatively subtle - adding some degree of thickness and immersion to my core sound - while mostly staying a little out of the way of most of the playing - so that those delays complement and underpin my playing as an accompaniment - and mostly add neat textural touches to the sound - while slightly ping-ponging across the stereo spectrum!
I of course need to fully acclimatise to this pedal over time and work out all the kinks and possibilities here - so far so very good - everything works really well and intuitively - and it was very easy for me to dial in a variety of magnificent musical delay tones. Where the Factory Presets mostly have you covered already - it's funny how I spent most of my time dialling things in manually, and then found out that the Pink Preset was perfect for my needs!
The various quirks and tips and tricks will of course only be picked up over extended time spent with the device - while I'm wholly delighted to finally have one of these.
Obviously for us UK citizens - acquiring one of these is a fairly major undeteraking! It's not just that this is a relatively pricey pedal - the $499 ticket price is firstly expanded by shipping charges @ $44.85, and then further by UK Customs import charges - which amounted to £101.31 for me ($132.40). So the total damage for one of these Dahlias amounts to $676.25! (£517.45) - which is a fairly significant buy-in - but overall still well worth it for me and my preferences!
I thoroughly recommend you get one of these if it's within your budget - obviously some caveats for overseas buyers, while a relatively simple decision process for Americans - who need but conduct themselves to the Flower Pedals Webstore. I do concede that $500 may be a little much for some - but this is in my opinion the greatest of the Analog Delays currently out there - it's also less expensive and smaller than the Walrus Audio Meraki - which is also very decent and gives you a more expanded Time-range - 80ms to 1200ms (still not Double Tracking compatible @ 30ms). Overall I prefer everything about the Dahlia - and as you will note per my recent 10 Pedal Challenge articles - this is my favourite compact delay unit to date!
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