memory man VS boy VS toy

Benmurray85 · Post by **Benmurray85** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:44 pm

i really wanted to get myself a memroy man but at Â£160 upwards they are a bit out of my price range so i was looking at the memory boy.

ive checked out the demos on youtube and yes i can hear a difference in the "darkness of the repeats" but to my ears its close enough to warrant saving Â£100 on.

but now ive just found out theres a bloody memory toy at around 50-60 mark.

has anybody tried all three? any thoughts?

ideally id like the memory man but unless i find a 2nd hand one cheap on ebay theres no chance.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:01 pm

I've had the Man and the Boy (tee-hee) - I found the boost on the DMM annoying, but thought the Boy was cracking, and they crop up secondhand for very reasonable prices. The Toys seemed to have a lot of quality control issues, and for the money, I think it's worth going the extra mile for the Boy. And for gawd's sake, don't pay Â£50/Â£60 for the Toy...

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:21 pm

if budget is an issue you could always check out the behringer time machine

proroby · Post by **proroby** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:51 pm

I have owned or tried all of them. I didn't like any of them tbh, but they are all decent, as in not terrible. I love analog delay trails and I really don't think you can beat a Disaster Transport Jr. for the money. Fucking amazing.

Earthquaker Devices Transport JR.

vincel · Post by **vincel** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:21 pm

proroby wrote:I have owned or tried all of them. I didn't like any of them tbh, but they are all decent, as in not terrible. I love analog delay trails and I really don't think you can beat a Disaster Transport Jr. for the money. Fucking amazing.

I haven't tried the Disaster Transport Jr. but I have a high opinion of EarthQuaker Devices, I used to own one of their White Light overdrive pedals.

Since the Disaster Transport Jr. appears to be voiced like a tape echo, I was curious what you thought of the Boss RE-20 Space Echo? I bought one toward the end of last year and I really like it.

willlin · Post by **willlin** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:40 pm

Speaking of lovely analogue delays, has anybody tried the Strymon El Capistan? It sounda phenomenal on YouTube, loads of tweaking options, but Â£250 is a helluva lot for a pedal...

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:50 pm

Also it's not analogue, it's a (very nice sounding) DSP Emulation of the sound of a Tape Delay.

willlin · Post by **willlin** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:06 pm

Mike wrote:Also it's not analogue, it's a (very nice sounding) DSP Emulation of the sound of a Tape Delay.

Yeah fair point, I remember reading that somewhere. In that case is the price tag even less justifiable?

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:14 pm

Not really.

If you like the sound, it shouldn't matter whether it was analogue or DSP technology that made it to justify the price.
Personally I think Â£250 is mental for a pedal, but some people are happy enough paying it - but I don't think whether it's mojo chips or a really clever DSP algorithm or not should dictate whether Â£250 is acceptable.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:52 pm

I have the toy... I had 2 faulty ones from a bad batch but the third has been fine, I've had no issues.

I'm pretty happy with it. You may need to tweak the trimpot inside to make the modulation a little more usable.

I wanted that size pedal and wasn't keen on the carbon copy, and it was a lot cheaper. It's a good price for what you get.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:08 pm

Bassist in my band used a Memory Toy for ages and it sounded brilliant to my ears. A minor adjustment to the trimpots though and it's just completely stopped working, although according to him there's a slight treble boost with everything on full... so yeah, probably best to go for the Boy or Man.

riotshield · Post by **riotshield** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:12 pm

benecol wrote:I've had the Man and the Boy (tee-hee) - I found the boost on the DMM annoying, but thought the Boy was cracking, and they crop up secondhand for very reasonable prices. The Toys seemed to have a lot of quality control issues, and for the money, I think it's worth going the extra mile for the Boy. And for gawd's sake, don't pay Â£50/Â£60 for the Toy...

what boost are you referring to? the DMM has separate input control so you can adjust the volume when on, from whisper to thundar!

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:18 pm

Freddy V-C wrote:Bassist in my band used a Memory Toy for ages and it sounded brilliant to my ears. A minor adjustment to the trimpots though and it's just completely stopped working, although according to him there's a slight treble boost with everything on full... so yeah, probably best to go for the Boy or Man.

the memory toy I had definitely added a little trebley sparkle to my sound in a pleasant way

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:25 pm

lorez wrote:
Freddy V-C wrote:Bassist in my band used a Memory Toy for ages and it sounded brilliant to my ears. A minor adjustment to the trimpots though and it's just completely stopped working, although according to him there's a slight treble boost with everything on full... so yeah, probably best to go for the Boy or Man.
the memory toy I had definitely added a little trebley sparkle to my sound in a pleasant way

Oh yeah, nothing wrong with the treble boost, but the fact that the delay has stopped working isn't brilliant

MikeG · Post by **MikeG** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:06 pm

I bought a Memory Boy second hand a year ago, after deciding for reason that I desperately needed delay after selling my Echohead.

There seems to be some kind of volume boost, which is a bit jarring.

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:00 pm

I bought the toy around 6 months ago, and it's been fine for me

gives a nice, clear delay sound, and a little volume boost I think.

It has survived a beer being spilt on it, so now it's sticky but still works fine.

Jack

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:23 pm

had a boy, wasn't for me. the blend knob really pissed me off and the self-oscillation was on a hair trigger.

Post by **Doog** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:47 pm

My experience was of the Stereo Memory Man With Hazarai which I would've thought had the same Blende control as Toy and Boy, but given the "volume boost" being mentioned here, maybe it's not.

On the SMMWH, you get 100% of your original signal only if the Blend's turned all the way down, any other position that that is a trade off (60% original, 40% delay etc) so it's all too easy to drop in a live band mix once the pedal's on. Poorly thought-out design for reals.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:17 pm

Big ye olde Memory Man Deluxe is brilliant. I absolutely love mine, it sounds amazing.

avj · Post by **avj** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:24 pm

I have the Memory Toy and previously had a big-box (non-XO) Memory Man. I really dig the coloration of EHX's analog delays and prefer them to every other mass-produced analog delay. I've not had any quality issues with my Toy, and it's seen a thrice-weekly workout for the last few months. Earlier ones had issues with one of the smaller boards inside becoming disconnected, but I haven't seen it happen. As mentioned, there is also a trimpot inside to change the depth of the modulation on the repeats when the MOD switch is engaged.

I also have the Boss RE-20 Space Echo, and it's fucking phenomenal. I bought it as soon as it was released and have not regretted it for a second. It seems to have been lost in the sea of more affordable analog delay pedals, but its feature set isn't duplicated in any other pedal I've seen. It has expression pedal control for several parameters, tap tempo, seven seconds of delay when using the tap tempo in the proper mode, a shitty-cool reverb like the RE-201, bass and treble controls that allow you to EQ the sound of the repeats, and a switch on the back that makes the unit output only 100% wet signal (useful when using it as an effect on mixer inserts). I love it for what it's trying to replicate and nothing else comes close. It's my favorite pedal by far and I've used it on everything imaginable when recording. (Also, if it means anything to you, Radiohead's guitar tech stated several times in his blog that the RE-20 has replaced the RE-201 units they use on tour and everyone digs them.)

All the other pedals mentioned (besides the Carbon Copy) are digital, if that means anything to you. It doesn't to me (obviously), but some folks are weird about it -- so there.

Doog wrote:On the SMMWH, you get 100% of your original signal only if the Blend's turned all the way down, any other position that that is a trade off (60% original, 40% delay etc) so it's all too easy to drop in a live band mix once the pedal's on. Poorly thought-out design for reals.

Jesus, really? That's an absolutely terrible flaw, and one I've not yet heard about.