Strymon Deco

I LOVE mine!
I put it on everything.

itā€™s grand, i just wish i could easily recall presets. iā€™m looking to replace mine with oto machinesā€™ boum when thatā€™s released next year.

I love mine. Very lush modulation sounds. The saturation is really nice as well, works great with the MD IMO. Bit of a three trick pony, but it does them all so nicely that it earns its space in my FX setup.

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I like mine a lot too. I think it works best when used with subtlety. Like a little dash of spice that really makes a dish. I donā€™t like the higher compression or modulation settingsā€¦or blending either ā€œdeckā€ all the way. Also making use of the secondary EQ really makes it shine.

Finally got it.
Itā€™s not only interesting add some subtle FX to the sound, itā€™s also very practical to send the whole drums in the stereo space.
Now I output the bass drums/kick of the MD in a separate output (sometimes the snare/clap as well), and send the rest through the Deco.
Love it !

I didnā€™t know there were so many options, Iā€™m impressed !
And the sound is beautiful !

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Yeah Iā€™m going to end up doing this myself. The saturation is great but it destroys the bottom end. Mix it to parallel. Delicious.

Speaking of bottom end through the Deco, is anyone else finding it sent too far left with doubletracking applied? Is this a consequence of the settings that Iā€™m just not familiar with? When I turn on doubletracking the bottom end is now overwhelming the left sideā€¦

Are you in Stereo mode ?
There are many hidden options as well, have you checked them out ?

  • Maybe there is some phase cancellation somehow, due to the configuration of your pedalā€¦

Looking for some tips on this pedal, thinking about picking one up in the near future but just wanna be sure that everything will work as intended!

I would like to mainly run my tr-09 through the deco except for the kick and probably snare. The 09 can put out its different channels panning it to the right and left so was thinking that i could split the signal and have one feeding into the deco and then into my octatrack with stereo and then route the kick into the input on my analog rytm and using its compressor.

What Iā€™m worried about is whether the kick will be in mono or panned to one side when entering my mixer through the rytm? (The mixer is full of other gear)

Also if it will be worth it moneywise? I want to make the 09 come to life a bit more, would love to have it go through a heat but already have one and canā€™t justify spending the money for another one.

Lots of questions about some different things but feels unnecessary to create a new topic, hopefully someone will have an idea of whether it will work or not :slight_smile:

I currently use an Aira Torcido unit on my drums - I have the MD kick going to a separate out, then the stereo pair into a TR-8, and the stereo output of the TR-8 (& therefore MD too) going into the Torcido. I can split the TR-8 kick out as well if I need to. But it works really well and adds a lot to the sound (it doesnā€™t do tape emulation but it simulates tube warmth), and at the moment you can pick up the Torcido for about Ā£149, half the price of the Deco. I can try and make a quick demo if youā€™re interested.

Re: panning, I think youā€™d need a splitter cable that takes the stereo mini jack output and splits it to two mini jacks so you can treat them as separate mono instruments.

Edit: this is a bit extreme (distortion nearly at max, 100% wet mix) but you get the idea:

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Ofc, i have the elektron splitter i can use, just founder a used one for a god price so probaby gonna pull the trigger and hope for the best :slight_smile:

Thx for the help!

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Would some lovely soul do a quick test for me? Could you send a kick into the Deco in stereo mode and see if, when in bounce, it doesnā€™t overwhelm the left channel? This is whatā€™s happening with mine and itā€™s awfully annoying. I mean I shouldnā€™t be running the kick through it anyway, but whateverā€¦

I notice bounce mode changing something between left and right, but I always just took it as thatā€™s the way it works. Sounds great to me, I put the Deco at the end of my master, LOVE IT.
I guess you could run the kick in mono mode?

It is. It sends it back and forth between the ā€œtwo decksā€ Itā€™s just annoying when the kick is so strong. Itā€™s fine is the lag is at 12oclock or further left. I just love chorus and delay in bounce. I just want to confirm it with others.

Need to get a mixer :angry:

Thanks!

So Iā€™ve put the Deco on my Aux send to run parallel with my mix. I guess as there is a reportedly 2ms processing delay it causes some very noticeable phasing. Has anyone else experienced this or found a work around? Thanks in advance.

Use it on an insert or a bus or subgroup or something. Anything else but doubling the original signal.

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Ok sure. But Iā€™d hoped to do it this way.

This happens because the signal from the Deco is so similar to the original? I mean people bring in aux sends all the time. It just canā€™t be too similar to the original? How does this not happen with for example delay pedals?

Sorry for the noob questions; just curious.

Distortion and similar harmonic processing will in general be problematic if used as sends since the ā€œoriginalā€ signal will be present as well. Small differences in signal phase will cause issues, and that can happen with both digital and analog effects.

So unless you can mute the pre-effect signal when sending to aux I would recommend against using such effects in that way.

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Thank you.

Again out of curiosity: what is something like the Heat doing differently with itā€™s Wet/Dry?

I guess mostly because itā€™s analog and reacts quicker than the Deco with itā€™s conversion and processing inbetween. But itā€™s an interesting question actually, Iā€™ve even had one or two analog units behave weirdly when mixing Wet/Dry.
Would be great to have some insight on this, maybe some guy from Elektron will drop a nugget of insight? Like with the Digitone once. :nerd_face:

Also could you also use the Deco in full delay mode? That way youā€™d get all the benefits of using aux sends but youā€™d sacrifice its part with the direct saturation.

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The Heat is probably just designed to keep both signals in perfect phase with each other as the wet/dry is built in internally on the unit so can be designed to do this, it doesnā€™t go through any extra external routing that could cause the phase offset.

Audio signals need to be aligned perfectly or unwanted (unless done intentionally) audio affects will happen.
image

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