Since we started this little Pedal of the Day excursion, we’ve had an excellent relationship with Colt and the crew from Walrus Audio. Their latest creation might just be their best one yet, as it encompasses everything we all love about delay pedals, featuring a ton of options to play with, and amazing sounds to create. The D1 is the first pedal in Walrus’ Mako Series, and is a Hi-Fidelity Stereo Delay. There’s a lot going on in this pedalboard-friendly unit – let’s dive right in!
The D1 is a multi-function delay, boasting FIVE studio grade, custom tuned delay programs. Digital gives you a clean, clear delay sound; Mod applies some tasty modulation to your repeats; Vintage uses complex filtering to conjure up analog delay sounds of decades past; Dual employs 2 delays in parallel, for wide-reaching stereo soundscapes; and Reverse reads the delay memory backwards, creating the reverse delay effect. As you’d expect, there are Time, Repeats and Mix control knobs for each program, but that’s just the tip of the echo iceberg…
The Tweak section allows each program to be customized depending on different playing styles that may arise. Choose from Mod, Tone and Age modes, which can be enhanced or dialed back via the Tweak knob. An Attack knob softens the attack of the echoes, but can also create dreamy and ethereal soundscapes when turned up, in conjunction with higher Repeats settings as well. A Subdivision switch opens the doors to even more possibilities, letting you select from quarter, eighth and dotted eighth note tap tempo divisions.
You can also access 9 Presets on the D1 itself, but if you’re MIDI-savvy, you have access to a whopping 128 presets to choose from – why you’d need that many is a mystery, but the option to have them is fantastic. Speaking of MIDI, there are MIDI in and Out jacks located at the top of the pedal, for quick and easy connectivity. Holding down the Bypass knob instantly ramps up the Repeats, for on-the-fly exploration. There are even three different Bypass modes, for you to do with what you will – True Bypass, DSP + True Bypass (trails) and DSP Bypass.
If you love delay, this is a pedal for you. If you have a stereo setup AND love delay, this is most definitely a pedal for you. So many sounds and textures pour out of the D1 Stereo Delay, it’s hard to attempt and capture them all. But, we gave it a shot. Our demo below is a long one, but it’s well worth it – plus, we didn’t want to do the D1 an injustice by not showing off what it can do, and sometimes that takes a little while with a pedal this full of features and sounds. So, sit back, grab your coffee (or a beer, it’s noon somewhere) and immerse yourself in all things delay for 20 minutes or so. Cheers to Walrus Audio on an excellent start to the Mako Series – we can’t wait to see and hear what they come up with next!
Use this link to purchase this pedal on Amazon and support us: Walrus Audio MAKO Series D1 High-Fidelity Stereo Delay Pedal (900-1051)
GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES, CONTEST INFO, SEE OUR LATEST DEMO VIDEOS AND MORE:
