Eventide releases its second pedal of 2021 with the UltraTap delay

If the Eventide MicroPitch saw an iconic algorithm channelled into an effects pedal (to great success as our review noted), the next delay pedal in the company's dot9 series seems to hone in on the detail of your repeats. 

Like the MicroPitch and Blackhole reverb it's still drawing on past popular algorithms – and when you've set the standards Eventide has it would be crazy not to. Like the MicroPitch, UltraTap featured on the legendary H3000; one of the greatest multi-effects units of all time. 

Eventide

(Image credit: Eventide)

The UltraTap algorithm previously appeared on the Eventide H9 multi-effects pedal and as a standalone plugin, but here it makes perfect sense in a standalone pedal. Because like the MicroPitch delay, it offers a lot of potential via 12 editable parameters. 

This is for the chasers of otherworldly sounds. It's a tweaker's dream when it comes to control over your ambient soundscapes, sometimes verging on synth sounds from what we've heard.  

Create simple repeats or space your delays with chorus and reverb, or experiment with the spacing of repeats in the beginning, middle an end of your delays. 

The Taper control then alters the level of subsequent taps by either fading them up, down or constant over time. The new Slurm control can "smear or slur taps together to produce unique reverbs and choruses" and that's where it sounds like nothing else we've heard. 

Elsewhere the Chop and Speed/Rise/Release controls work together to "allow unusual and expressive amplitude modulation of taps to chop a sound source into stuttered rhythms."

Like the two dot9 pedals before, five presets can be accessed directly from the pedal using the Active and Tap footswitches, with up to 127 in total accessible via MIDI or the Eventide Device Manager application (EDM). These footswitches also allow control of Active (momentary or latching), Tap Tempo and Preset selection and loading.

Eventide

(Image credit: Eventide)

Connections include mono/stereo ins and outs, a multi-function Exp jack allows for using with an expression pedal, external  Aux switch or a triple Aux switch for easy preset changing (up/down/load) as well as MIDI over TRS capabilities. 

There's multiple bypass options are available with Buffered, Relay, DSP+FX or Kill Dry, with the Guitar/Line Level switch allowing level-matching with guitars, synths, FX loops or DAW interfaces. 

The UltraTap pedal is available now for $279 / £279. For more info visit Eventide

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.