Digitech RDS 3.6-second rack delay

ikkyu2 · #1 05.09.04, 6:36 PM

Well I finally found this old thing - Mom had it buried under the Christmas ornaments. It will do flange, chorus, echo, or straight 3.6 second delay with loop. The loop is quite straightforward, you can't do all that much else than loop it and speed it up or slow it down. It is all digital but has a 10kHz frequency ceiling which gives it a sort of weird lo-fi effect. I am looking forward to sticking it in the loop of the truly beautiful disaster; I used to have a lot of fun with it in the old days.

Anyone ever use one of these beasties?

fiveways · #2 05.09.04, 7:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ikkyu2
Well I finally found this old thing - Mom had it buried under the Christmas ornaments. It will do flange, chorus, echo, or straight 3.6 second delay with loop. The loop is quite straightforward, you can't do all that much else than loop it and speed it up or slow it down. It is all digital but has a 10kHz frequency ceiling which gives it a sort of weird lo-fi effect. I am looking forward to sticking it in the loop of the truly beautiful disaster; I used to have a lot of fun with it in the old days.

Anyone ever use one of these beasties?

Have you thought about tweaking it?

It is a great piece of gear. You will notice the RDS/PDS delays are getting really popular around these parts with the weirdos.

If you ever want to dump/trade it, PM me. I would love to have it.

ExpAnonColin · #3 05.09.04, 7:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ikkyu2
It is all digital but has a 10kHz frequency ceiling which gives it a sort of weird lo-fi effect.

That shouldn't influence the sound THAT much-not nearly as much as say, an analog delay. Perhaps the frequency reponse curve is just bent...

-Colin

zepolant · #4 05.09.04, 8:38 PM

I "almost" one won one off of eBay the other day, but apparently the seller didn't like the fact that it was going to go for less than $20.

He put it up later with a "reserve". What an ass. Here's a hot tip if you don't want to sell it for cheap put a RESERVE from the get go! Ok I feel better now.

Yeah if you ever want to part ways PM me to, although fiveways offically has dibs on it now it seems.

mrnico · #5 05.10.04, 5:13 AM

Fiveways, what's generally considered to be better, the RDS-7.6 or the RDS-8000?

I love my 8000.

fiveways · #6 05.10.04, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mrnico
Fiveways, what's generally considered to be better, the RDS-7.6 or the RDS-8000?

I love my 8000.

To me, they are both awesome. I'd me happy with either.

ikkyu2 · #7 05.11.04, 9:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fiveways
Have you thought about tweaking it?

It is a great piece of gear. You will notice the RDS/PDS delays are getting really popular around these parts with the weirdos.

If you ever want to dump/trade it, PM me. I would love to have it.

Whoa, that's a great tweak - thanks. I will probably do this. I used to enjoy tweaking the width live to make weird noises, although my band hated it when I did that.

I never sell my gear - I still have my triangle and woodblock from age 3. If the trend changes I will hit you up though.

ikkyu2 · #8 05.17.04, 9:00 PM

So I've been playing with this. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but this is one weird effect. It has a speed and width dial for the flange effect, but they work on the double setting too, so you can have your notes played slightly behind you, veering wildly out of tune. In the effect loop of the TBD it is just what it says - a major disaster. I amused myself for 2 hours fooling with this thing, mostly laying down loops.

I think if I can get this to do 8 or 9 seconds of loop I could start accompanying myself in very disturbing and outre ways. Huh, and here I was baffled by you 'loop' people, I'd completely forgotten playing with this thing when I was a kid.

doingtheunstuck · #9 05.17.04, 9:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ikkyu2
I was baffled by you 'loop' people, I'd completely forgotten playing with this thing when I was a kid.

with that toy, you will be assimilated, ikkyu. resistance is futile.

if/when you crank it, let me know how high you can get it. i've been wondering for a good while now.... so yeah, please

ikkyu2 · #10 05.22.04, 6:30 PM

Man, I love this thing.

I have it set up now so I plug straight into the unit. Dry out goes to the Maverick; 'phase out' which is more-or-less wet out, goes to the ADA Rocket/blueback. With the 'invert feedback' on, the amps really do crazy wack stuff with each other, and tweaking the channels and knobs creates an infinitude of very deep, rich tones. Just now I had the bass up on the 'dry' and the treble up on the effect, which was about .25s double, 4-5 repeats, and a medium-narrow slow sweep on the phase effect, and I had this totally cool **** Dale surf/vibrato thing going on.

Just before that, I laid down a crunchy rhythm riff with the PRS neck pickup and was soloing over it with the Strat - just because I could. Musta killed an hour that way.

Sadly, I've been busy as @$$! lately - this is only the second time I've played in 3 weeks - and the lack of practice shows. Argh! When will life ever be manageable again? Still haven't gotten in there to tweak that 'bias' knob - I really don't understand this; how can a digital sampler have its timescale affected by a trimpot?

Anyway, my rig is in a pretty cool place. With the looper/disaster thingy, I can obtain tones that are somewhere west of outrageous; I have a compressor, though I'm still looking for a use for it; and when I stick the phaser on the dry half of the loop it produces the spaciest sound ever. All the gain/drive comes from the tube amps, and it's all good.

fiveways · #11 05.22.04, 7:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ikkyu2
Man, I love this thing.

I have it set up now so I plug straight into the unit. Dry out goes to the Maverick; 'phase out' which is more-or-less wet out, goes to the ADA Rocket/blueback. With the 'invert feedback' on, the amps really do crazy wack stuff with each other, and tweaking the channels and knobs creates an infinitude of very deep, rich tones. Just now I had the bass up on the 'dry' and the treble up on the effect, which was about .25s double, 4-5 repeats, and a medium-narrow slow sweep on the phase effect, and I had this totally cool **** Dale surf/vibrato thing going on.

Just before that, I laid down a crunchy rhythm riff with the PRS neck pickup and was soloing over it with the Strat - just because I could. Musta killed an hour that way.

Sadly, I've been busy as @$$! lately - this is only the second time I've played in 3 weeks - and the lack of practice shows. Argh! When will life ever be manageable again? Still haven't gotten in there to tweak that 'bias' knob - I really don't understand this; how can a digital sampler have its timescale affected by a trimpot?

Anyway, my rig is in a pretty cool place. With the looper/disaster thingy, I can obtain tones that are somewhere west of outrageous; I have a compressor, though I'm still looking for a use for it; and when I stick the phaser on the dry half of the loop it produces the spaciest sound ever. All the gain/drive comes from the tube amps, and it's all good.

Funny info:

the difference between the 7.6 and the 3.6 is the position of the trim. They roll them back because they used chips that could acarry WAY more info then was needed, but sounded to ****ty for most at higher settings.....

Clayton38 · #12 05.22.04, 7:51 PM

I own one.... GREAT unit, other than the fact that it bleeds and is a tad noisy. I was going to tweak it, but my nanolooper 32 will be here shortly.

screamingdaisy · #13 05.22.04, 8:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ikkyu2
Huh, and here I was baffled by you 'loop' people,

I know how you feel. I spent two hours today fooling with the loop-matrix and feedback part of my Polychorus today.

I'd set it just below self-oscilation and play the same couple of notes while fiddling with the knobs and sticking other effects in front of it to see what they would make it do.

I don't think I'll ever get too much into the looping aspect, but it would make for an awesome noise breakdown in the middle of a song.

I was going to post my experiance in the Looping 'N Space forum, but here seems good enough as most of the boards notable loopers have already seen this thread apperantly

.

Man, do I ever need a delay.

Clayton38 · #14 05.22.04, 8:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by screamingdaisy

I don't think I'll ever get too much into the looping aspect.

See, I like this. Looping isnt for everyone... and I dont know why so many people are feeling they have to snag loopers you know? Bands are NOT dead!

ikkyu2 · #15 05.22.04, 8:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fiveways
Funny info:

the difference between the 7.6 and the 3.6 is the position of the trim. They roll them back because they used chips that could acarry WAY more info then was needed, but sounded to ****ty for most at higher settings.....

I'm a little concerned that the trimpot works on all 4 effects (flange/chorus/double/echo). I like the flange and wouldn't want it to become unusable (i.e. to become a chorus effect.)

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