Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay: the 80s Are Back
The new Boss SDE-3 fuses vintage digital character and musical versatility into one classic pedal, offering the original sound and basic features of the old Roland SDE-3000, an iconic rack-mount delay from 1983 that formed part of many guitarists' gear, including Eddie Van Halen. In addition to reproducing the SDE-3000's famous monophonic sound, the SDE-3 includes an Offset function, allowing you to create new sound layers with two simultaneous delays. With one knob, you can instantly add a second delay to the primary delay to get multiple mono and stereo textures.
The effect in unconventional black lacquer with blue labels features a pair of simultaneous delay sections with a delay time of up to 1600 ms, a modulation circuit with Rate/Depth parameters and a Hi-Cut potentiometer acting as a low-pass filter. The developers have also included a mini-jack TRS MIDI In connector for clock synchronisation with other effects, a connector for connecting an external footswitch or expression pedal, and dual inputs and outputs allowing the use of mono, stereo, true stereo, wet/dry and dry mute modes.
The Offset function adds a second delay to the primary delay, which can be set to be 10 to 410 ms longer or 1 to 100 ms shorter than the basic delay. The Offset, linked to the tap tempo, also selects the rhythmic division (eighth-notes / dotted-eighth subdivision). In combination with the Time, Feedback and Modulation potentiometers, this allows you to create textures and effects that are not available with typical delay pedals. The maximum delay time is 800 ms in stereo mode, which doubles in mono mode.
There is a small Carryover slide switch on the rear panel of the chassis that controls the delayed signal action after the deactivation of the SDE-3. When Carryover is on, the echo fades out naturally after the buffered bypass effect is deactivated, which helps to create smooth transitions, linking parts of songs, etc.
The product can also function as a real-time controlled tremolo, where depth levels plus modulation speed are adjusted by the expression pedal. In addition, unlike a conventional tremolo, the resulting sound isn't affected by volume drops. The combination of longer delays with slow and wide tone bending produces an ethereal effect where the echoes of the delays change pitch, another of the many disciplines in which the SDE-3 excels.
The official price of the Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay, which, in addition to the time-tested analogue-coloured digital reverb, also handles registers close to tape echoes, suitable for creating ambient, chillout or lo-fi sound, is under 220 dollars on the US market.
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