Korg 301dl Dynamic Echo

This is an interesting take on delay pedals. It basically is a digital delay. There is a single input and output, which are both 1/4" instrument inputs. This pedal is not capable of being edited with a Computer. There are also no MIDI capabilities and there is no way to rack mount this pedal.

UTILIZATION

This is one of the trickier pedals I've had to try and use. I find that quite often when I'm reviewing some pedals, I remark at how much I like the ease of use, and how I find the manual unnecessary. I had the complete opposite experience when using this. First of all, the manual doesn't explain anything, which would be fine if the pedal weren't so strange. There are four knobs that I honestly cannot describe to you, as they are very poorly explained. The fact is, they each serve two seperate functions each, and changing the functionality of the knobs is dependent upon using the switch that comes on the pedal (the other switch, next to the bypass). There is also a switch that switches between Hi-fi and Lo-fi settings, which comes into play depending on whether or not you use humbuckers or single-coil pickups.

SOUND QUALITY

I don't really think this is my favorite delay. There are times when I love the tone that I get out of it (A nice, wet delay, not one that is marred by excessive echo, or one that sounds too huge). However, it seems as though the pedal robs me of volume as well as tone when I have it on. Beyond that, when I need to get loud, this thing is NOISY. I really can't have that as I tend to have enough noise problems as it is. Using a noise gate doesn't even seem to work well. Since I play rock music, and need distortion, I can't crank the noise gate up too much without robbing me of serious tone. However, that's exactly what I need to do in order to even remotely tame this thing. It's very frustrating. However, I will say that beyond the noise, this pedal has a unique and interesting sound.

OVERALL OPINION

I have found that I don't really need the sounds that I can get out of this thing anyway, which is why I ended up selling it back. I was surprised later to find that other people had reported having good experiences with this pedal. I would say that if you are interested, definitely try it with a power supply as opposed to a battery. I would also recommend buying a noise gate in tandem, so that you can tame the noise. Not every gate is going to work with this guy. This pedal is a risky purchase that probably shouldn't be anybody's first foray into delay pedals.