Crazy Tube Circuits (TI:ME) TIME Delay Pedal *Authorized Dealer*

Delay pedals often suffer from the Goldilocks syndrome: Too sterile or artificially fuzzy and wobbly. The TIME (TI:ME) delay uses dual analog and digital paths to create the right blend of digital precision and analog warmth. The TI:ME certainly qualifies as fully featured but it's also easy to use and with a little study of the manual is quickly mastered. 

The controls on the TI:ME that are common to most pedals are Mix, Feed, and m/sec. Mix of course is the wet/dry mix, Feed is synonymous with the number of repeats, and m/sec is the length of delay, up to 720 m/sec. There is also a setting for subdivisions as either quarter, eighth or triplets. And there is the tap tempo feature, and the current delay time will follow whichever is adjusted last, tap or m/sec. Holding down the tap button will hold the repeats to the point of oscillation, and will bounce back to normal when released. 

Two knobs which help control the character, nature and "age" of the delay are Tone and Mod:

Tone - This affects the brightness or darkness of the repeats. We leaned towards a darker tone which sounded more organic and natural, while the brighter tones gave a more modern and clinical feel to the repeats. 

Mode - This is the "age/analog" control, and when fully counter clockwise is essentially off and the TI:ME is acting in its most digital nature. As the mod control is increased the effect is a light flutter to simulate motor variation and tape age that varies depending on the rate of delay time. But the "age" effect is never exaggerated or over the top. It's actually quite subtle and only gently massages the character of the repeats. 

While the TI:ME pedal is capable of long and spacy ambient vibes, our thing is finding a good slapback or quick delay for both chicken pickin and slower ballads. Here the Tone, Mod and Mix controls were key in creating a  slapback that was precise but natural sounding, and augmented the dry mix without upstaging it. This is something we could not really achieve with our true bucket brigade analog delay.

Is the Ti:ME missing anything? A couple presets would be on our wish list, as delay settings are not one-song-fits-all. But other than that, the TI:ME hits the mark as both easy to use and impressively musical.


In the words of Crazy Tube Circuits.....

Inspired by the first digital delay rack units introduced at the beginning of the “digital audio revolution” in the mid-late 70's. These units had lower bit resolution and bandwidth compared to today's digital delay standards.

TI:ME is not your typical sterile and ultra clean digital delay. With separate analog and digital paths to get best of both worlds, this retro inspired echo effect will warm up your tone. An all analog signal path featuring a high quality opamp is used for the best reproduction of your dry signal. Two digital recording devices, along with carefully tuned filtering, placed in parallel with the dry path give you the most ambient delay unit you have ever heard. Think of a Model 113™ rack unit; the repeats are really musical, reminiscent of worn tape echoes.

Each TI:ME unit is hand lacquered and one of a kind with unique copper elements!

Controls:

m/sec: adjust the delay time from 130ms to 720ms. The delayed signal gets degraded at higher delay times.

mix: set the amount of the wet (delayed) signal.

feed: adjust the number of repeats. Maxed up the pedal will oscillate.

tone: brighten or darken the delay repeats.

mod: set the rate/intensity of delay trails modulation.

• fully counter-clockwise the effect is off. As you turn the knob clockwise the modulation simulates the warble of a motor in lower settings and becomes faster and more intense like a smooth vibrato on higher settings.

• mod rate and intensity depend on delay time (m/sec) settings, minimum delay time settings have less modulation

bypass footswitch: bypass or engage the effect.

• an internal switch lets you choose between true bypass (relay) or buffered bypass with delay trails. Unscrew bottom plate and locate the small slide switch near the output jack. Use a small screwdriver to set in T position for true bypass or B position for buffer bypass with delay trails.

• when in buffer bypass mode make sure not to max out feed knob as the oscillation will continue in bypass.

tap/hold footswitch: set the time between the repeats according to the tapped tempo. The last two taps will be stored to give the desired tempo. Tap tempo ranges from 130ms to 1 full second.

• use the divisions toggle switch to choose the function of the tapped tempo between quarter, dotted eighths and triplets. If the tap time is out of limits on each setting of the division toggle switch the previous tap will be stored.

• hold down the tap footswitch constantly to maximize feedback and cause delay oscillation. Release the footswitch for normal operation.