Strymon Deco Tape Saturation & Doubletracker Effects Pedal

The introduction of reel-to-reel tape machines and the creative engineers that used them brought on some of the fattest sounds imaginable. These early machines really were the first effect pedals—they just wouldn’t have fit on your pedalboard! From the inherent warmth and luscious tape saturation—to the forgotten art of how these machines were manipulated—they are capable of creating a huge range of beautiful, distinctive, and enveloping sounds. The Strymon Deco brings this original inspiration back, giving you these vintage tape effects from the earliest recording studios, right on your pedalboard. Deco’s Tape Saturation smooths out your sound with familiar and delicious tape compression and saturation while fattening it with subtle tape-driven transparent overdrive. The Doubletracker provides the power to shift your sound in many ways, easily allowing you to achieve syrupy slapback tape echoes, psychedelic tape flanging, and gorgeous tape chorusing sounds.

Two Effects in One

TAPE SATURATION - THE "ALWAYS ON" EFFECT

Give your sound the smooth and warm qualities of analog tape, along with the enhanced touch sensitivity and playing dynamics that are intrinsic to the inner workings of tape machines. Achieve incredible transparency at low levels, with reduced high frequency spikes and a harmonically rich low end. Turn up the Saturation to increase the amount of tape drive, dynamic compression and distortion.

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.

DOUBLETRACKER - FATTEN YOUR SOUND WITH TAPE

Go back to the early days of recording studios, where a few creative audio engineers discovered a new world of augmented sound by pushing the limits of studio tape machines. By inventing automatic doubletracking, they introduced echo, flanging, and chorus to the world of recorded music.

Intensify and widen your sound with Deco’s Doubletracker controls. 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.

Auto-Flange

Press and hold the Doubletracker Bypass footswitch to achieve a recording studio-inspired through-zero flange effect. This engages a “virtual audio engineer” manning the faders and tape reels to create a smooth and predictable through-zero flange experience on the fly. After releasing the footswitch, the controls are smoothly returned to their previous settings.

Wide Stereo Mode

Deco gives you the option for extremely wide stereo imaging to broaden and intensify the sound of your stereo rig. Wide Stereo Mode sends the mono input (summed if using a stereo input) to the Left channel through the ‘Reference Deck’, and to the right channel via the delayed ‘Lag Deck’ to create an adjustable stereo spread. The Blend control acts like a Pan control by adjusting the relative levels of the two tape decks.

Expression Pedal Control

Input allows for the connection of either an expression pedal, external tap, or Favorite switch. Plug in an expression pedal and control any one knob with your foot. Plug in an external tap to tap in your Lag Time. Plug in a Favorite switch to save and recall a favorite preset.

Individual Bypass

Separate bypass footswitches allow you to bypass the Tape Saturation and Doubletracker individually. Your Deco gives you two individual effects in one pedal.

TRS Stereo Input

Strymon have added the option of running the input of your Deco in stereo. Flip a jumper inside your pedal, use a TRS splitter cable, and now you’ve got yourself a stereo input.

Studio Mode

Your Deco is just at home on top of a mixing console as it is on your pedalboard. Add the dynamics and warmth of tape saturation to your recorded tracks. Expand the sound of your synths, drums, and even vocals with the Doubletracker. The optional Studio Mode feature tailors the Saturation range to be best suited for hotter input signals. Use with DAWs, mixer inserts, line-level synths, or hot effects loops in guitar rigs.

FEATURES:

• Detailed recreation of the mechanics and technology of two vintage studio reel-to-reel tape decks and their interactions
• Nuanced sonic delivery of the classic saturation effects of the tape record/playback process
• Simple and intuitive Lag Time knob allows for slapback delays, tape echoes, tape flanging, tape chorusing
• Two Tape Saturation adjustment and tone shaping knobs: Saturation, Level
• Three Doubletracker adjustment and tone shaping knobs: Lag Time, Blend, Wobble
• Three Doubletracker blend types to tailor doubletracked sound: Sum, Invert, Bounce
• Five “hidden” knobs for deep tone tweaking: High Trim, Low Trim, Auto-Flange Time, Wide Stereo Mode, ±3 dB Boost/Cut
• Press and hold studio-inspired Auto-Flange effect