1. Delay Time: While it doesn't sound that important and many often forget about it, it's important to make sure your delay pedal has a decent range of delay time. Delay time is the time in between the note you play and its repeated signal from the delay pedal. Most modern analog delays can reach up to 600ms, which is more than enough, and digital delays can get even farther, with delay times reaching up into the realm of seconds.
2. Amount of "Swirliness": There's probably a better name for this than "swirliness", but it's pretty much how much the echo produced by your delay unit blends with the original signal to create a "swirl" of sound and ambience rather than just a straight echo. For certain genres you want more of an organic ambience where others you would want a crisper sound. It's hard to find one pedal that does all of this, but rarely is it that one needs both rather than just one or the other.
3. Muddiness: Make sure that when you turn up the feedback and the mix or wet/dry controls the signal doesn't get too distorted. It's ok if it gets a little distorted from the layering, but if it really starts to muddy up at higher mix levels then you've got a problem. This is not to be confused with a feedback loop that occurs at higher feedback levels on analog delays. That's perfectly ok, and actually really cool.
Now for a history of the delay pedal in as short a form as I can squeeze it into-
Once upon a time, people who wanted "echo-ey" sounds had to record in a cave or other large space with a lot of natural echo (like a bathroom with all the tiles). Then came the fifties, and with it a new device called a tape delay, which recorded your signal to tape and played it back in an echo-ey fashion. People loved it, and so innovation played its part and along came "analog" bucket brigade solid state circuits. Then, soon enough, in the 80's, delays went digital, and wildly long delay times were achieved, with all this new stuff that was über digital. Now we're in the new millenium, and all three types of delay- tape, analog, and digital- are available for purchase new. All three are good for different purposes, which is why they're all still retailed new today. There's not one that stands above the other as being all-around "better".
That being said, here's a quick description of the three controls on a delay:
Time: This is how much time is between the signal you play and each of the repeats produced by the delay pedal. It's good to have a lot of "headroom" on this control, that being a lot of potential time between each of the repeats. Not that you'll necessarily be using second long delays, but it helps to have the option.
Feedback: How many times the signal is repeated. The signal will fade out eventually, so in other words this knob controls how quickly it fades out to silence. With analog delays, cool loops that sound like the screeching of a train's wheels coming to a stop, but that sound sustained so it never ends!
Mix or Wet/Dry: This is pretty self explanatory, it controls how loud your delay signal is in comparison to your normal or "dry" signal. Basically how loud the repeats produced by the delay pedal are.
Those are the basic controls, but doubtless you'll observe many others on the various delay pedals you find. For operational purposes, however, those three are the big ones.
While there are a lot of good delays on the market for purchase today, there are a few I've tried that really stand out from the others in terms of tone, repeat time, ease of use, and what you get for your money. Here's the best of those:
1. The Way Huge Aqua Puss- $150
I do really love Way Huge, even though they are reissue pedals. Dunlop has done a great job recreating the vintage tone and innovation that was associated with the name Way Huge, and it's one of my favorite brands to have on my personal board. That being said, this delay isn't great from a versatility standpoint. It has only 300 milleseconds of delay time, and is rather large to put on your pedal board. There's one thing that makes this one of the best delays on the market, and that's its sound. It makes super organic repeats, and when you play very legato it blends all the delays together into this sort of reverb-esque spacey sound. Plus, it does a great slapback delay, with the ability to fine tune the delay time very exactly with a knob that only has 300ms of range. The Way Hug Aqua-Puss Delay looks cool (while it is a bit big), it's easy to use, it's a tank, and it sounds great.
2. The Boss DD-3- $110
The Boss DD-3 is one of those pedals that's become a staple for many gigging musicians who want a delay pedal that will suit their needs and won't break down on them. The DD-3 does just that. It's built like a tank, and because of it's a digital delay, it's less prone to breaking just because one component becomes unsoldered. However, you do compromise a lot in tone for what you gain in clarity and convenience. The DD-3 is not necessarily the best sounding delay out there, primarily because it is a digital delay. Rather than providing the warm, darker repeats of an analog delay pedal, it plays your signal back in a very robotic and uncolored way, without really modifying it at all. Some people prefer this more sterile but cleaner sound, while others like the darkness and echoey-ness of analog delays. The Boss DD-3 is also priced right, however, and is a great place to start if you're just beginning to experiment with delay or if you want a pedal that's a workhorse.
3. The MXR Carbon Copy- $130
This is my personal favorite delay pedal, and resides in a nice spot next to a Proco RAT distortion on my board. With 600ms of delay time, you've got plenty of room for U2 ping pong repeats to slapback to spacey solos. The tone of this pedal is a very warm and dark but not too dark shimmeriness; almost like a very good hand hammered china cymbal. It's a very good boost for solos that fills out your sound under a fuzz pedal or a crunchy overdrive. The modulation switch is also very cool, and sounds almost like the natural tape warble of old tape delays like the Binson Echorec and the Echoplex. The only quarrel I have with this pedal is that there are two trimpots inside to adjust the modulation, but they are hard to access and adjust, so you can't play with the modulation sound too much unless you have a lot of time between sets to open up the pedal and adjust it. Overall though, a great alternative to the sterile feel of digital delays, but not so traditional analog that it can't handle longer repeat times.
4. The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man- $320
This is a great delay, with a lot of options for the sound of the delay. There's an optional chorus/vibrato knob paired with a depth knob that can create some of the old tape delay warbley sounds. Of course, the delay is analog, and it sounds very analog-like. Go try this one out because it's definitely worth playing. In terms of real estate, this thing is a very large hunk of metal, so you'll have to really love it and have some room on your board to use it. However, still a great sound, and worth the high price tag if you have the money to spend. If not, the other analog delays I talked about are great substitutes.
Normally I list other gear in the category I'm talking about that I like but am not going to go into detail on. It's different with delay pedals though, because I haven't really intensely tested many. That being said, a few that I've tried briefly or heard are very good are:
-The AnalogMan ARDX20
-The TC Electronic Flashback
-The Boss DD-20
-The Vintage Way Huge Aquapuss (Uh-mazing piece of metal)
-The Vintage MXR Green Box Delay that really doesn't have much of a name and isn't readily available
There's more, but I don't know whether or not they're good. Try out the ones I listed, and if they don't satisfy you, then by all means check out some other pedals, because there seems to be no limit to the amount of delay pedals that are out there.
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