Strymon Deco

Strymon introduces the Deco pedal, a tape emulator with Tape Saturation and Doubletracker effects.

Strymon Deco

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This new pedal is designed to bring back the tape sound of reel-to-reel tape machines used in recording studios in the ’50s and ’60s – in pedalboard-friendly stompbox form.

This two-in-one pedal utilizes vintage tape emulation to produce different shades of compression and modulation effects. The Tape Saturation section compresses your signal up to the point of soft tape-driven overdrive, while the Doubletracker section produces vintage modulation and tape-echo sonuds.

According to Strymon, Deco is a “Detailed recreation of the mechanics and technology of two vintage studio reel-to-reel tape decks and their interactions.

Engaging the Tape Saturation section of the pedal will add the warmth and smoothness of analog tape tones to your signal. It will also increase the sensitivity and dynamics of your instrument. Lower settings allow for transparent and subtle tape compression while increasing the saturation knob will give you subtle overdrive.

Regarding Tape Saturation, Strymon adds: “Deco is perfectly suited for a last-in-chain, “always on” sweetening effect. Everything sounds better on tape. Want to push the limits of tape beyond what was originally possible? Use Deco as a tape-style transparent overdrive—crank the Saturation all the way up to “peg the meters” and gently overload the machine’s input.”

The Doubletracker section mimics how engineers of the past utilized tape machines to create various effects. Just like how vintage tape machines were considered as among the first instance of effects on recording, doubletracking introduced flanging, chorus and echo to the music world. There are also three different blend types available, Sum, Invert and Bounce.

This how Strymon describes the Doubletracker, “Turn the Lag Time to obtain classic slapback tape echo, spacious doubletrack chorusing, and mind-bending tape flanging. Add random modulation with the Wobble control and go from very subtle movement to more extreme undulations—just like having a recording engineer vary the speed of the machine..

Check out the official video demo:

The Lag Time knob allows for tape echo to slapback, tape flanging to chorus and compression to saturation. Other controls include Saturation and Level Control for the Tape Saturation section, along with Blend and Wobble knobs for the Doubletracker segment. Finally, five hidden knobs are available for further tone shaping, including controls for High Trim, Low Trim, Auto-Flange Time, Wide Stereo Mode, +/- 3dB Boost/Cut.

The release date schedule and price tag will soon be announced. Head over to Strymon for further details.

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