Sometimes, we come across a pedal that, at first glance, looks like it might be a bit complicated, and we’re gonna have to spend a good deal of time figuring out how it works. Today’s featured pedal, the Chrono Delay DLY-4 is one of these pedals, but it’s a real trickster, as its ease of use and ability to conjure up killer sounds quickly is one of its strengths as an effect, and one we were more than happy to explore. Let’s see what our friends at Providence have in store for you today, shall we?
Right off the bat, let’s get this out of the way: the Chrono Delay features delay time that go up to 2700ms…realistically, if you need more than that, there may be something wrong with you. All joking aside, that’s a hell of a lot of delay time, plenty for most of the delay nuts that blanket our planet. What’s also nice is that the giant, bright LED lets you know what your current delay time is at all times, whether you’re in mSec or BPM mode (yet another nice feature). Mix adjusts the blend of your dry signal and the delay effect, while Echo Hardness adjusts the mid and high frequencies of the delayed echoes, which help to simulate classic tape echo and analog delay sounds.
The Feedback knob adjust the amount of delay fed back into the Input, with longer series of repeats occurring as you turn it up, and some rad oscillation when maxed out. The Beat Split is another great addition to the Chrono Delay, as it lets you select from a variety of note lengths, including Quarter Note, Half Note, Half-Note Triplet, Dotted Eighth Note, Quarter-Note Triplet, Eighth-Note, Eighth-Note Triplet, and Sixteenth Note. These different divisions open up a vast galaxy of spaced-out tones and variations, perfect for the guitarist who loves to noodle and explore for hours and hours.
The A/B / Tap toggle switch is full of surprises, too: when in A/B mode, you can select between 2 user selectable delay presets, and when in Tap mode, you can manually tap in the tempo with your foot. There’s a twist here, though, as you can connect an External Tap switch to control that particular function, leaving the footswitch to be solely used to toggle back and forth between the 2 presets, opening up this pink beauty’s possibilities even further. Finally, the aforementioned mSec/BPM toggle allows you to select which of these modes you want to use for your delay time needs.
So, basically, this pedal is wicked-rad, not to mention it sounds about as analog as any digital delay we’ve ever encountered, utilizing the VITALIZER® technology harnessed inside, making it the best of both echo worlds. All this comes wrapped up in a nice-sized, pedalboard-friendly enclosure, something that is not usually attached to a pedal with the functionality and sonic prowess this baby is capable of. Thanks to the crew at Providence for sending this amazing piece of gear to us for a review – to hear a smidgen of the sounds it will produce, check out our demo below, then head to the Providence website or your nearest dealer to pick one up for yourself.
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