So I’m gathering with this device, if you dont run your kick drum on a separate track, the saturation can destroy it quite a bit? Has anybody tried using the low gain hidden feature to compensate for this?
I have a Deco on order and don’t plan on running separate outs on my Machinedrum, so I’m wondering if my kicks will still sound good with subtle saturation. Thanks.
did you buy it directly from strymon? otherwise you could have return it to the shop and get a new one
Should be fine. But you’ll have to try it. Deco can do subtle.
Yeah I’m definitely excited to start using it on my Machinedrum. I wanted something for the past year to make it a little bit more warm. Should be nice to throw it on my Digitone and other gear as well.
It‘ll devour your hi-hats by default. I learned after selling it for that reason, that there is a way around. Think @JuanSOLO might have mentioned the workaround somewhere. Memories are foggy though
Just tried this and WOW. Should have done this long ago.
What did you, what happened? 
Haha. I wanted to mention how it dawned on me that I might be able to use the Deco on the inserts of my mixer into which my modular is going. So I went looking to see if this had been already mentioned and lo and behold you suggested it to me over 2 years ago lol.
Edit: Has anyone does this on two channels of inserts with Deco in stereo configuration? Did it work no problem? I would need a third Y-cable to make it work, no?
Edit2: Or would this work? https://www.amazon.com/SiYear-Connector-Speaker-Splitter-Adapter/dp/B073TBGG6Q/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3RCM9IE5BAL5Z&dchild=1&keywords=2+female+1%2F4+to+1+male+1%2F4&qid=1614360412&sprefix=2+female+1%2F4+%2Caps%2C302&sr=8-3
I also sold my Deco because it killed my hi hats. Now that I have an Analog Heat, I wonder how it would sound if I brought the highs back up again with the Heat, post-Deco.
Do you mean using it as an insert over 2 mono channels of your mixer?
If so then yes, just stick one of these in the input of your Deco and you’re good to go.
I don’t have my Deco any more and my mixer doesn’t have TRS inserts but I don’t see why this wouldn’t work.
@d_hansen are you sure the high cut filter was fully open? I think this caught me out at one point with my Deco as I’d completely forgotten about the filters on the secondary function!
Thanks for the confirmation!
Good move.
Yeah I remember checking the hi cut function and making sure it wasn’t affecting the signal, that was my first thought too.
According to an old gearslutz thread, a rep at Strymon said that due to the nature of the processing being done by the pedal’s architecture, there may be a delay of roughly 2 samples between the left and right channels when processing stereo signals (this is irrespective of the expected phase effects of the pedal itself). The person who posted about that on GS said that they compensated for this on one channel of the bus with a micro-delay plugin in their DAW and it brought back the clarity and high end of the signal by a major factor.
I emailed Strymon today to find out if maybe there was a possibility for a firmware update that would compensate for this delay internally, but I was told that the Deco wasn’t designed with updateable firmware like some of their other pedals. My comments were passed on to the engineering team, so who knows, maybe I can pray for a hardware revision.
I want an affordable stereo hardware tape simulator with a wow/flutter-like function (in the Deco’s case, “wobble”) and it’s basically the only thing on earth that fulfills that desire. It would be fantastic on the mix bus of a hardware setup, if not for this 2-sample offset.
Curious what you plan to use it for? In all honesty, I couldn’t never use the Deco as I wanted it. I never found the wobble to be random enough. It was far more of a saturated chorus to me. I’m liking the Shallow Water as an effect send, so although it’s not stereo, it sounds interesting on a FX return.
Ideally I’d use it on the mix bus of my hardware setup to give a nice gritty/tapey/warbly quality to everything, but it’s interesting what you mention about the Wobble function not being random enough. Given the actual concept of the Deco, that’s not surprising now that I think about it. I guess the perfect piece would be an El Cap with the ability to turn off the delay and keep the tape modeling/bias/wow/flutter aspects. Maybe if I were to set it to kill dry?
I have actually thought of using something like a Shallow Water or Snazzy Wow & Flutter but x2 on the stereo bus. A bit over-elaborate and costly for that usage though. I wish there was just some kind of hardware version of Softube Tape.
There are some really cool tools that do saturation well these days bx_saturator and SPL Twin Tube being notable, but like you said you also want that nonlinearity that tape has. In that case, why not just use tape?
Sorry for the shameless plug, but that’s the route I went with that release.
That’s really interesting, thanks for that.
I really liked the Deco, but there was something slightly unsatisfying about using it on the output of my mixer that I could never quite put my finger on.
Thanks for the explanation.
It did sound great on a mono synth though, but like you I ended up selling it (to a guitarist).
@d_hansen pricey too, but stereo :
https://www.handsomeaudio.com/
I’m on the fence for it, i may give it a try
I’ve only ever used it on guitar. For a while I used its tape saturation always-on last in the chain before hitting the amp. Over time my taste (and choice of amps) evolved and I’m a bit more selective when I use it now (tend to favor the epochboost preamp), but I still love it for cleaner tones that just need a little saturation and slight boost. I only use the double-tracker for through-zero flanging. I love the sound of that flanger though. Its more subtle and much warmer than other flangers I own (pyramids and camoflange).
