And The New Delay Pedal Is….
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After doing some research and some serious listening, my new delay pedal is the TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay. This thing sounds absolutely three dimensional. Each repeat of your sound is more of an added layer rather than just a simple repeat.
As a rule of thumb, I sonically run my gear choices by my wife before a purchase is made. If she says it’s good, it’s usually really good. If she says it’s bad, it usually stinks. My wife was not home at the time I was listening to various delay pedals at www.proguitarshop.com, but, my daughter happened to be in the kitchen so I asked her what she thought of the different delay sounds.
When, it came down to choosing between two delay pedals, my daughter picked the sound of the TC Electronic ND-1. When my wife came home, she also made the same pick. The biblical rule of “two or more witnesses” works again!
I gave the TC Electronic Nova Delay a good run yesterday at four Saddleback Worship services. It was incredible!
If you purchase this pedal, the most important thing to do when you first plug it in is to calibrate the input signal. The TC Electronic ND-1 automatically adjusts itself to your guitar signal so it will give you the best signal to noise ratio for your particular setup. I run my pedals through the effects loop of my Fender DeVille so an input calibration was definitely in order for me.
So I went from having ambient delay by the Danelectro Dan-Echo to a three dimensional reshaping of sound by the TC Electronic ND-1.
By the way, just a little warning. The display on the TC ND-1 is absolutely blinding so sunglasses may be necessary when using this pedal.
2 Comments
October 18th, 2011 at 12:51 am
How do you calibrate it? I’ve had one for a few months now and just heard about calibrating. What do you think?
October 18th, 2011 at 6:19 am
I had to calibrate the Nova Delay because I use it in my amp’s effects loop. The effects loop level is significantly louder than if I plugged my guitar straight into the pedal. I had to prepare the pedal to receive the hotter signal. Here are the calibration steps;
1. If you have booster pedals before the delay, turn them on.
2. Press & hold the MANUAL button until the 6 delay type LED’s are lit.
3. Play with your loudest sound for a few seconds and watch some of the 6 LED’s turn off one by one.
(This is most likely a clean sound as overdrive sounds per nature are compressed)
4. How many that are turned off, depend on the on the output of your guitar. When no further changes seem to appear, the pedal is calibrated.
5. Press any key to exit.
6. The pedal is now calibrated.
These instructions are also on page 13 of the Nova Delay manual.