I was interested in one but read some reviews of issues over at MuffWiggler. particularly some units emit a high pitched whining kinda noise, or something. one user said he exchanged his three times to get one without it. not sure if it’s been fixed or was a firmware issue or what. but beware of that…
I do have the Retroverb Lancet and like it a lot. pretty flexible unit actually. both the spring reverb and the filter sound quite good.
they are pretty different things though. probably worth owning both
Mine had that issue, depending on the speed of the delay at the time. I took the firmware upgrade and it seems to have helped.
I say “seems” because I have never upgraded firmware in the manner I did with this Erica box. Basically I downloaded a .wav file and then “played it” into the delay out of VLC on my laptop out through the headphone jack, into the Zen Delay.
So, it has occurred to me I could load that same firmware .wav as a sample into my digitakt. Maybe if I add Digitakt reverb & delay to it as I route it to the Zen Delay I can create my own firmware upgrades?
Yeah that’s how to upgrade Monotribe and Volca firmware too. It’s basically like old '80s computers that load games from cassettes, or old modems that make screechy noises down the phone line.
I had my unit up for sale and then found I had this issue. Spoke to supplier as I’d only had it for a month and they took it back. They had a pile of them going back to Erica!
Mine made this whining noise - this was with nothing attached to the unit just to make sure it was the Zen making the noise and not the synth attached if that makes sense (using the BP filter made it worse):
I had one for 2 weeks. I found that there was a frequency that would resonate in the filter. I contacted them and they said that it was how the hardware worked. They said that once the delays were engaged it would mask the sound. However, I wanted to use the filter on its own at times and I found this to be annoying. I also became sensitive to that sound and started to hear it (or imagine it) in much of the stuff I did with it. I sent it back in the end.
I’ll admit I didn’t notice it for a while. Maybe you’ll get away with it or maybe it’s better on some units than others. It was great fun and sounded really nice as a delay.
If you can return items easily (I’m in the UK and it’s not a problem generally), it might be worth a go? Bit pricey to have these issues though.
Took a chance on this delay a few weeks back after reading this thread about problems & really glad I did. Had been looking for a delay that could replace the Matriarch stereo delay … Bim, Tonal Recall RKM, Thermae, Collider, Nemesis, Meet Maude … I kept the 2 latter pedals but nothing quite brought that same level of mojo to the sound like the Matriarch.
But the Zen Delay has its own special mojo & if I had to choose between the Moog or the Zen, it’d be tough & probably situational.
You can hear it extensively here, which is just 2 tracks of Microvolt -> Zen Delay with some ambient street sounds going through the Microcosm. The Zen is as much of the track as the actual synth. There’s a little ITB reverb but nothing drastic.
Hi all,
here’s a demo video of the fantastic Zen Delay in combination with Minilogue XD. It’s more on the Ambient / Dub Techno side but I’ve also included some industrial drones. Maybe you find it useful.
Anyone had a chance too play with the Benidub Digital Echo? Very similar design and spec, and very much designed like an instrument rather than simply an effect. The filter is out of this fucking world and could have come off a 20,000 console. Features looping, (with analog speed modulation), beat quantize and two speed control knobs, one for tempo and one for note division. It’s pricy but it’s far and away the most ‘playable’ delay I’ve used. All of Benidub’s instruments are amazing and worth checking out— dub sirens, spring reveb, an insane filter module… the company is one guy in Spain but he does amazing work. I don’t see how anyone could spend 5 mins with the Benidub and not see how much Erica/et al borrowed from it.
Read about it after reading your post, got stoked on it, go to possibly purchase… no longer available! Sad but after checking their site it looks like a new version is in the works, will be keeping my eye on it. Thanks for the recommend.
