MusicRadar Verdict
Not as organic sounding as its peers, the VM1 offers a good introduction to vintage delays at a reasonable price.
Pros
- +
Price. Features. Eccentric sonics.
Cons
- -
Slightly thin sounding echo. Large unit.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
At a glance, the aesthetics of Behringer's latest delay pedal - named the VM1 - resemble those of the classic Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe.
The true-bypass VM1 offers 550ms of analogue delay with chorus and vibrato modulation. Its familiar looking feature set includes output level, which controls original signal level and provides an overdriven boost, along with blend controls to mix wet and dry signals and feedback to control the amount of repeats. Right below that the two remaining control knobs offer delay time, chorus and vibrato; a toggle switch selects either modulation.
Its rugged, off-white enclosure comes in at 221mm wide and 203mm long. So, like the Memory Man Deluxe, it'll take up a fair amount of real estate on your pedalboard.
The Vintage Time Delay is powered courtesy of a nine-volt battery or equivalent centre negative power supply, so it is easier for most people to run in a chain, being that many pedals run off the same voltage.
Sounds
Hear the VM1 here in the following clips. Vibrato:
Chorus:
Slapback:
Extreme:
The VM1's Echo can achieve anything from old style slap-back, U2 ping-pong to experimental ambience. Whilst sounding a little thin and non-organic, it's a fair nod to a vintage-y delay.
Modulation - on wet signal only - offers some 'out-there' sounds, vibrato dishes up spooky chording effects and the chorus sounds particularly classic and sweet in the high-end. Most fun here is to be had with the feedback control with epic oscillations and wild squeals.
Bastl Instruments' Kastle 2 Wave Bard is a cute, patchable and experimental groovebox that fits in your pocket
“An additive chorus effect that plays well as an ‘always-on’ tonal thickener with a twist”: Don’t sleep on Catalinbread’s Wake if you’re looking for dream pop tones on your pedalboard
“If I’m going to write a song with an artist, I’m probably going to end up doing most of the work anyway, to be honest”: Super-songwriter Diane Warren on why she prefers to work alone, and can't understand it when "maybe an OK song" has "eight writers"
