The Meet Maude is an intuitive but deceptively simple pedal with straightforward controls for Volume, Time (length of the delay), Feed (repeats), Tone, and Mix. Maude also sports two switches: one to control compression for more even repeats, and another for random modulation to create a tape effect.

Remember when I mentioned tape delay? Back in the ‘50s, recording artists figured out that by repurposing a reel-to-reel machine to record their signal directly onto magnetic tape and play it back through an amp, they could achieve a dreamy, cavernous tone that slowly but beautifully degraded over time. Because lugging around technology from half a century ago is pretty inconvenient to most people, the wonderful minds behind many effect companies have created tape delay emulations that would make Les Paul weep.

The ADG-1 is the impressive result of that obsession with sound. Built with over 400(!) hand-selected components, the ADG-1 is an audiophile’s dream for some of the purest, richest delay you can get on your board or in your setup. Chief among those 400 components is a pair of Xvive MN3005 Reissue Bucket Brigade Devices (BBDs) which act as the beating analog heart of this pedal.

Quick history lesson: the MN3005 is a chip of legend that helped define the sound of analog delay. Used in countless pedals but most notably in the OG runs of the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and Boss DM-2 Delay, the MN3005 has attracted a cult following thanks to the chip’s inherently rich character. The Xvive reissues robustly live up to the reputation of their predecessors and deliver that same cavernous warmth in a ridiculously well-built package.

The Delay Llama XTREME is built around four presets: Vibrato, Tape, Random, and Pitch-Shift. The list seems short, but each mode offers carefully-selected, tweakable options in an intuitive layout with situational knobs that change function according to their mode. This means more time actually playing and no time lost in the wilderness of menu diving.

The Vibrato mode activates a sine-wave LFO with fine-tuned control over the vibrato’s depth and speed. The Tape mode kicks in a (you guessed it) tape emulation with a big dark sound and control over “frequency of deviation occurrences”, better known as flutter. The third mode, Random, randomly changes the repeat length in set time divisions for some really fun pitch and rhythm madness. The last mode, Pitch-Shift, is actually five different instances of pitch-shifting and playback patterns, the last of which deals you a super fun five-mode sequencer for even more lovely rhythmic and harmonic weirdness.

The Vongon Polyphrase takes the core concept of a stereo dual delay and outfits it with useful modulation options in a spiffy wooden enclosure. What’s really cool about this pedal is how you set and control your delay time: the Time knob to the right designates the max delay time in set increments up to a full 22 seconds, and the nifty sliders at the center control the individual delays and provide fractions of the max delay time from 1 (the set max delay) down to 0.05x. The delays can be synced, but the Polyphrase shines in all its stilted glory when different delay intervals are in play to create the polyrhythmic results that made the Prime Time such a cult figure.

Additionally, the Polyphrase two I/Os for true stereo, a modulation section with waveforms from Sine to Random, a Trigger switch with modes for either tap tempo or infinite feedback, and three modes: Dual Stereo, Ping Pong, and Mono w/ External Loop. This last one turns the right delay into an effects loop for the texture fiends out there. If you’re after beautiful, chimey soundscapes with room to experiment, the Polyphrase is a top candidate.

However, if you want easy-peasy tape delay, this is absolutely one of the best choices for you. The El Capistan gives you no-nonsense controls for Time, Repeats, and Mix as well as Tape Age, which emulates the natural decay of real tape, and Wow & Flutter, which emulates that acceleration/deceleration in actual tape playback we mentioned earlier. The Tape Head switch gives you a Fixed mode for a single fixed delay at a variable speed, a Multi mode for two fixed delays at variable speeds with separate time divisions, and a Single mode, which gives you a set speed and variable delay that results in lurching, time-bent wonder. The Single mode is also capable of sound on sound, which loops the recorded echo while you’re playing for lush, evolving soundscapes.

I should also mention that the El Capistan has a nifty secondary function that allows you to dab in some spring reverb, so this unassuming tank is really a twofer.

Strymon isn’t the only high-fidelity effects game in town. Universal Audio, renowned for their interfaces and plugins used in top studios around the world, decided in recent years to break out of their virtual box and start producing effect pedals built on their coveted UAD algorithms. Built around a dual-processor design with the UAFX engine doing the heavy lifting, the Starlight Echo Station serves up three delay favorites for even the most discerning effect connoisseurs.

The first, the Tape EP-III, serves up ‘60s-style tape echoes with options for different preamp and tape age settings. The second, the Analog DMM, takes inspiration from the early-era Boss BBD delays. The third, Precision, is a bit of a curveball: you’d expect to see another vintage analog emulation, but this mode is all about digital delay with long times and powerful modulation. Between these three modes, the Starlight Echo Station is a solid candidate for those after a do-it-all delay.

Clear your schedule: the Echosystem is here.

A sonic command station built around a dual engine system, the Echosystem boasts a dizzying 36 delay and reverb algorithms along with 12 editable parameters for each of those algorithms. You could literally play a single note on your guitar or synth and spend the rest of the day transforming it into an opus.

The list of effects runs the gamut from Analog and Tape to more exotic options like Ambience, Lo-Fi, and Reverse. There’s even a “Whisky” setting that takes two pitched delays and switches between the two when your input signal exceeds a specified threshold.

The Echosystem serves up just as much functionality to go along with all those algorithms. You have the option to route the dual engine in series, parallel, or L/R, implement global and local tap tempos with a buffet of subdivisions, and even a Cab Simulator for good measure. Praise be the Empress Echosystem.

Perhaps technically more of a multi-effects pedal (or an artifact of future alien technology), the Meris LVX is a beautiful exercise in stunning excess. The term “Modular” is in the name for good reason: this gleaming white box grants minute control of not only five powerful delay structures and three delay types, but command over the levels and ordering dynamics, preamp, filter, pitch, and modulation as you see fit.

This is the type of pedal that you could get lost in and emerge from your bedroom months later with a long beard and thousand-yard stare after seeing the enormity of the cosmos contained in the LVX. It’s such a powerful machine—so powerful that we wrote a dedicated article all about it. For our purposes here, though, if you want absolutely everything in a delay and the best sound possible, there are few that can rival what Meris did here.

Eventide’s Ultratap is an ultra-powerful multitap delay with features and design that could only come from a company with years of experience making studio-grade products. A quick note: when we say “multitap”, we mean that there are multiple delay signals generated by a single input signal. Think of it like playing into a splitter that sends your signal into different delay pedals that all have their own time and repeat setting.

Fun, right? Now imagine up to 64 delay pedals all crammed into a single pedal and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the Ultratap brings to the table. You get an impressive amount of control and sonic possibilities with only six knobs, allowing alterations from smearing, slurring, spreading, filtering, and stereo panning. The downside is that each knob is dual-function and switching between two parameters on the same knob can be confusing, but once you get the hang of it, a wealth of delay swells, filter sweeps, glitched-out reverbs and even chorus are on tap for you.

Rounding out our buying guide is a powerful little time wizard that wants to take you on an odyssey through harmony and space, the Red Panda Raster 2.

At its core, the Raster 2 is a digital delay with up to 1.6 seconds of delay time, but that barely scratches the surface of what this pedal can do. Five switches on the Raster 2 transform it from an unassuming digital delay into its final evolved Charizard form with chromatic or microtonal pitch-shifting up or down, control over the feedback in forward or reverse, and manipulate feedback division. Add in a hefty modulation section with seven waveforms and an available envelope and the Raster 2 can summon swells, glitches, and waves of lush delay, reverb, chorus, flange, and spatial effects spanning the full stereo spectrum.

Of course, Raster 2 is a quite deep effect—and to better understand its inner workings, be sure to check out our articles Weird FX: Pitch Shifted Delays and Weird FX: Frequency Shifters!