Designed for guitar and bass players, the 440 is known for its vowel-like sounds, crying out with slow-filter sweeps that react to pick attack.
DigiTech/DOD announces the eagerly anticipated relaunch of the DOD Envelope Filter 440 effects pedal. Suitable for guitar and bass players, the 440 is known for its vowel-like sounds, crying out with slow-filter sweeps that react to pick attack. The new 440 is a faithful recreation of the vintage pedal, with the helpful addition of an up/down toggle that allows players to control which part of the sweep is emphasized. Whether players are doing funky chordal work, simulated wahs, or trippy drawn-out filter sweeps, the 440 delivers with a versatile range of expressive, dynamic tones.
The update of the Envelope Filter 440 aims to stay faithful to the original while giving today’s guitarists more utility and improved tone preservation. It all starts with a Level knob that allows players to control the sensitivity of the envelope based on pick attack and playing styles. Range Control adjusts the frequency range of movement of the envelope’s sweep, allowing emphasis of low, mid, or high frequencies to match the instrument plugged in. DOD now takes the versatility a step further, adding the up/down voice switch that enables users to emphasize either the rise or fall of the sweep. The up setting provides the classic 440 wah-style effects. Flick the switch down for a subterranean dive that adds body to bass tones or gives the guitar synth-like attack.
Overall, DOD’s warm and funky analog circuit design is based on the original, but like the brand’s other updates, it’s now wired for true bypass. It accepts a standard 9V DC adapter or battery. The chassis is now a lightweight aluminum and has a new crisp blue LED status indicator so it can be easily seen on stage. Both the input and output are a quarter inch, with a 1M Ohm input impedance.
440 Envelope Filter
With every “quack, squee, squonk, chicka, mwomp, and weeeooow”, the DOD Envelope Filter 440 effects pedal stays true to the classic while offering new features that make it more user- and pedalboard-friendly. MSRP is $181, MAP is $129.99
For more information, please visit digitech.com.
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Peterson StroboStomp Mini Pedal Tuner
| The StroboStomp Mini delivers the unmatched 0.1 cent tuning accuracy of all authentic Peterson Strobe Tuners in a mini pedal tuner format. We designed StroboStomp Mini around the most requested features from our customers: a mini form factor, and top mounted jacks. |
But by gosh, if delay—and its sister effect, reverb—haven’t always been perfect for the music I like to write and play. Which brings us to the Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay. The EchoBack, along with the standard delay controls of level, time, and repeats—as well as a tap tempo—has a toggle to alternate between analog, tape, and digital-delay voices.
I hooked up my Washburn Bella Tono Elegante to my Blues Junior to give the EchoBack a test run. We love a medium delay—my usual preference for delay settings is to have both level and repeats at 1 o’clock, and time at 11 o’clock. With the analog voice switched on, I heard some pillowy warmth in the processed signal, as well as a familiar degradation with each repeat—until their wake gave way to a gentle, distant, crinkly ticking. Staying on analog and adjusting delay time down to 8 o’clock and repeats to about 11:30, some cozy slapback enveloped my rendition of Johnny Marr’s part to “Back to the Old House,” conjuring up thoughts of Elvis trapped in a small chamber, but in a good way. It sounded indubitably authentic. The one drawback of analog delay for me, generally, is that its roundness can feel a bit under water at times.
Switching over to tape, that pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top. With the settings at the medium-length mode listed above, I could see the empty, glass hall the pedal sent my sound bouncing down. I heard several pronounced pings of repeats before the signal fully faded out. On slapback settings (time at 8 o’clock, repeats at 11:30), rather than Elvis, I heard something more along the lines of a honky-tonk mic in a glass bottle. Still relatively crystalline, which actually was not my favorite. I like a bit more crinkle—so maybe analog is my bag....“That pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear, pristine replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top.”
Next up, digital. Here we have the brightest voice, and as expected, the most faithful repeats. They ping just a few times before shifting to a smooth, single undulating wave. When putting its slapback hat on, I found that the effect was a bit less alluring than I’d observed for the analog and tape voices. This is where the digital delay felt a little too sterile, with the cleanly preserved signal feeling a bit unnatural.
All in all, I dig the EchoBack for its replications of analog and tape voices, and ultimately, lean towards tape. While it’s nice having the digital delay there as an option, it feels a bit too clean when meddling with time of any given length. Nonetheless, this is surely a handy stomp for any acoustic player looking to venture into the land of live effects, or for those who are already there.
