Recording - July 2016 - 46

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

Strymon DIG and Flint
Strymon is probably most famous for
its BlueSky and BigSky reverbs (reviewed
May 2015) and TimeLine delay/looper,
but there are over a dozen different
effects in the Strymon line, offering finely
nuanced emulations of vintage gear with
a variety of modern twists. These pedals
share a common technological base: the
powerful SHARC processor by Analog
Devices, perhaps best known as the DSP
muscle inside the Universal Audio interfaces and processors.
When all that power is packed into a
stompbox, it's not unreasonable to
expect some pretty remarkable results,
and Strymon never fails to deliver. In this
review, we'll take a look and listen to
the newest Strymon pedal, the DIG dual
delay, and a favorite among discerning
guitarists, the Flint tremolo/reverb.
In common
Strymon does make a few programmable flagship pedals like the BigSky,
TimeLine, and Mobius modulation pedal,
but most of the line, including the DIG
and Flint, is built into a smaller form factor, with two footswitches. Both the DIG
and Flint sport five knobs and two toggles on the front panel, but they pack a
lot of capability into those simple controls. We'll start by focusing on the features that are common to both models.
With 24-bit/96 kHz conversion and
32-bit floating-point processing, audio is
kept immaculately clean and clear.
Strymon pedals can handle input signal
levels up to +8 dBu, making them suitable
not only for guitar inputs but also for linelevel signals. Yes, that means you can
patch them into the sends and returns of
your console or interface if you want;
with a -115 dBu noise floor, they won't
add any crud to your audio.
Since most folks will want to use these
guitar stomp boxes as mono in/out or
mono-in/stereo-out effects, there's a 1/4"
jack for a single input and two more for
Left and Right outputs. However, that single input is actually a TRS jack, so with a
Y-cable you can feed the pedal stereo signals for full stereo I/O operation. (You
have to change an internal jumper to do
this-an easy task.) For these reviews,
46

RECORDING JULY 2016

Powerful digital pedals deliver incredibly tasty tones

while I did a few tests with mono input, I
quickly changed both pedals to true
stereo operation for maximum flexibility.
Because these pedals are all based on a
digital engine, there's A/D and D/A conversion inherent in their operation. For
effects like the Flint's tremolo, the entire signal is converted and processed. When an
effect offers wet/dry mix (like the DIG, or
the reverb side of the Flint), the dry portion
of the signal is kept in the analog domain.
The user has the choice between true
bypass (dry signal straight through the
pedal) and an analog buffered bypass
with 1 MΩ input impedance and 100Ω
output impedance. While some tone
purists will argue that anything but a true
bypass will have an effect on a guitar's
tone, the buffered bypass allows echoes
and reverb trails to ring out rather than
cutting off abruptly when the effect's
bypassed... what I call "Trails mode".
Aside from the 9VDC power connection, the last jack on the rear panel is for
an external pedal with a 1/4" TRS plug.
The Strymon website lists several models
that work well, and from my own studio
sessions I can add that my Zoom FPseries pedal works like a charm.
Depending on how you power up the
pedal, you can set the external input to
work with a tap tempo footswitch, an
expression pedal to control a single
parameter, or Strymon's Favorite

switch-which lets you store and recall
one favorite preset instantly.
DIG
DIG is a dual digital delay pedal whose
delays can operate either independently
of one another (Free mode) or synchronized in musically meaningful ways (Sync
mode, the default). In Sync mode, Delay
2's time is set to a specific subdivision of
Delay 1's time, which can range from 20
milliseconds up to 1.6 seconds. Available
subdivisions are eighth-note triplet, eighth
note, dotted eighth note, dotted quarter
note, and the Golden Ratio, a special subdivision that causes repeats to avoid piling
up on one another for a rich yet unmuddied sound. You can look up the math on
Wikipedia, or just enjoy how it sounds!
Other primary controls include
Repeats (feedback), and wet/dry Mix
for both delays. The footswitches allow
tempo tap and effect bypass; holding
down the Tap switch turns on Circular
Repeats, looping the current echo indefinitely until you release the switch.
Two toggle switches select Modulation
(off/light/deep) and Type (the specific
delay algorithm). The three Types are
24/96, an ultramodern crystal-clear
echo; ADM, an adaptive delta modulation (1-bit) process popular in some
1980s rack effects; and 12 bit, harking
back to 1970s studio digital delay lines.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2016