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Most delay pedals do one thing. A tape style pedal sounds like tape, an analog pedal sounds dark and warm, and a digital pedal sounds clean. The Strymon TimeLine tries to be all of them at once in a single enclosure. It is a stereo delay with twelve delay machines, deep editing, presets, MIDI and a looper, housed in a gunmetal gray aluminum box.
What it is
Strymon describes the TimeLine as a studio class stereo delay effects pedal. It runs on a powerful SHARC digital signal processor (DSP) and uses 32 bit floating point processing. The goal, according to Strymon, was to go beyond earlier delays in sound quality, flexibility, hardware design and processing power.
The twelve delay machines
The TimeLine's machines cover nearly every kind of delay you are likely to want:
- Digital: a clear digital delay that can be shaped with Filter, Grit, Smear, High Pass and modulation
- Dual: two independent delay lines in series or in parallel
- Pattern: multi tap patterns from rhythmic to ambient
- Reverse: repeats played backwards
- Ice: slices your playing and shifts the pieces from an octave down to two octaves up
- Duck: a ducking delay with adjustable sensitivity and release time
- Swell: volume swells matched to the delay time for ambient textures
- Trem: synchronized tremolo on the repeats
- Filter: a synchronized filter before or after the delay
- Lo-Fi: bit depth and sample rate reduction plus filters modeled on radios and telephones
- dTape: a recreation of sliding head tape echo machines with control over tape age, wow and flutter, crinkle and bias
- dBucket: a recreation of analog bucket brigade delays, with a Bucket Loss control
The last two let one digital pedal stand in for the tape and analog delays covered in our guide to analog vs digital delay.
Controls
The front panel has a display, a Value knob for deep editing and a Type knob to choose the machine. The main knobs are Time, Repeats, Mix, Filter, Grit, Mod Speed and Mod Depth. A few details from Strymon's manual stand out:
- Repeats at zero gives one echo, while 100 percent gives sustained infinite repeats that build into oscillation
- The Mix knob reaches a 50/50 balance at the 3 o'clock position, and the mix happens entirely in analog
- Filter and the Mod knobs change role by machine, so in dTape they control tape age, crinkle and wow and flutter
Three footswitches handle presets, tap tempo and the looper. Pressing and holding either preset switch gives infinite repeats, which is useful for building washes of sound.
Presets, MIDI and the looper
The TimeLine stores 200 presets. It has full Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) input and output, so a MIDI controller can recall sounds and the pedal can send its knob moves out. An expression pedal input lets you sweep any knob or combination of knobs. There is a 30 second stereo looper that can sit before or after the delay, and a feedback loop that lets you place another effect inside the delay's repeats.
Sound quality and bypass
Strymon lists 24 bit, 96 kilohertz converters and a typical signal to noise ratio of 115 decibels. Your dry signal runs on an analog path that is never converted to digital, so there is no latency on the notes you play. You can choose true bypass using relays, or a buffered bypass with trails so repeats ring out after you switch off. Each preset can also add a boost or cut of up to 3 decibels.
Power and build
The TimeLine needs 9 volts of direct current (DC), center negative, with at least 300 milliamps, and the supply is not included. The chassis is anodized aluminum in gunmetal gray, with laser etched artwork and black aluminum knobs. It measures 6.75 inches wide, 5.1 inches deep and 2.7 inches tall, and Strymon says it is designed and built in the United States. It has stereo inputs and outputs and can switch to mono out with the feedback loop.
Who it suits
The TimeLine suits players who want many delay sounds from one pedal, use stereo rigs or control their boards with MIDI. If you only want one classic echo, a simpler pedal will do. For a gentler starting point, see our list of the best guitar pedals for beginners. If you pair the TimeLine with the Strymon BigSky reverb (see the BigSky at Strymon), you have one of the most flexible time based setups around.
Where to buy
TimeLine at Strymon
Strymon TimeLine multidimensional delay
Strymon TimeLine stereo delay pedal
For more pedals and studio gear, browse our home studio hub.
