Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 16:38:04 -0400 From: "Caloroso, Michael E" To: "'[*AH]'" Subject: [AH] Korg SDD-3300 Review The SDD-3300 is a programmable triple digital delay with 64 memory slots and MIDI In, Thru, and Out. It has a 2x40 LCD screen, menu page buttons, and six sliders for editing the sounds. This is five better than one or none at all on most FX boxes and is much better than increment/decrement buttons, but sometimes I confuse the sliders as I move between menu items. You can name each patch. I see a lot of head scratching out there. Most people wouldn't immediately recognize the applications of three digital delays in one box. Hey, I didn't either when I saw one of these in a store five years ago. Wanna know a dirty little secret? The best stereo chorus and ensemble effects use a triple delay configuration. These include the coveted phaser/chorus/ensemble in the ARP/Solina String Ensemble/SE-IV, the Korg Trident, the ARP Omni/Omni II, and the original analog chorus pedal, the Boss CE-1. Well looky here, this little gem can do that. The delays can go from 0.5 to 500 milliseconds at 16Khz bandwidth and you can apply 12dB lowpass and/or highpass filtering to the feedback path. If you chain the three in series you can get 1.5 seconds of delay. The delay resolution varies depending on the range you're in; the longer the delay, the more coarse the resolution, so it's not as fine as the SDD-1200 or the SDD-2000. You can get up to 110% feedback for runaway loops. Each delay can be used as sampling units for playing over looped audio, and you can assign a MIDI note to trigger each unit. There's an input mixer and an output mixer for each delay unit, with levels for any of the three input busses, feedback busses, output busses, and effect busses. Not only that, you can invert *any* of the inputs off the busses. This allows you to configure the delay units in parallel, in series, or any combination, and you can cross feedback lines to your taste. The nicest plus is that you can tap any combination of effect lines to the outputs for the ultimate stereo processing. It's like having a programmable patchbay for three delay boxes. This is one *seriously* configurable box. There's a peak level LED above the three master input sliders and a four segment input level LED for *each* input and output mixer. The LEDs are also critical to make sure you're not clipping anywhere in the system, which is easy to do. Once you've normalized the levels and made them as even as possible, you'll get the best S/N ratio. Let me tell you it's a *gas* watching these things dance in a complex stereo effect. Each delay has *two* LFOs, and you can control the phase of each LFO relative to the LFO in the first delay or you can run them asynchronously. Why are phase control of LFOs significant? You use out-of-phase LFOs to get stereo processing that doesn't cancel in mono mode. Why two LFOs per delay unit? For awesome ensemble effects, like the ARP String Ensemble. On the rear panel we have input, direct output, mix output, hold/trig, and level control for each independent delay unit. At a glance it's sparse compared to the rear panel of the SDD-1200, but deep inside the SDD-3300 *does* has the I/O flexibility of the 1200, with the added bonus that it's programmable in software. But there's no access to the feedback path at the rear panel. Changing the delay time interupts the audio signal which is common for a digital delay, but it's about a one second wait before the audio comes back in. Likewise with the bypass function - when you enable it the effect does not come on immediately. This is not a box you'd use for live realtime tweaking. As experienced as I am with delay processing, it took a little time before I got comfortable with this system, it's easy to confuse the parameters in the input and output mixers. This is not a box for the novice, so if you're starting out you'll want a good reference on delay processing. Harmony Central has an excellent primer on delay processing techniques: http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/effects-explained.html So how does it sound? The cleanest clearest stereo chorus I have ever heard, excellent flange effects, good reflections (simple algorithms), and good tapped delay effects. The ultimate in going hog wild on outlandish effects and unconventional delay configurations not possible on any DSP box, especially when crossing feedback ann effect paths. I used to pump the Memorymoog through my old ART Multiverb and it would clip way too easily, and then I'd have to raise up the already noisy output of the ART to compensate. I don't have that problem with the SDD-3300. The delay effects I get on this thing just doesn't compare to a DSP box; if I want reverb I'll use DSP, but if I want basic delay processing I'll reach for this thing. The clarity is unreal. I can get awesome stereo ethereal sounds from the Memorymoog, and playing the Mini on one oscillator through a stereo imaging algorithm is heaven. I bought my unit used and I think it had the original presets in it. I think Korg originally marketed this to guitar players, but many of them give up trying to struggle with it. The presets are so-so, but I started having fun creating my own effects. This thing is made for the experimenter. There's a lot of magic in this box, if you see one and are not afraid to experiment, grab it you will not regret it. It will find use on vocals, guitars, and other instruments. I dialed up an awesome stereo imaging effect that uses phase-controlled LFOs, it is *wonderful* sounding. I also dialed up a great chorus effect that makes any sound move around the room in the stereo image :) The famous ARP/Solina String Ensemble/SE-IV, whose sweet stereo high strings have been heard on almost all the 70s records (and is still popular today), gets its sound from a triple delay processor with twin LFOs. That effect is nice enough that many SE owners have had the chorus board scavenged from the keyboard and mounted in a rack as an outboard effect. With a little research from http://www.midiwall.com/aharchives and info from the schematics, I was able to duplicate that effect with the SDD-3300. This baby can do it. Feed it a simple filtered ramp, and -presto- instant stereo strings, high notes are *sweet* just like the real thing. The kicker is even though it's 12-bit A/D at 88Khz, it sounds *good*. The manual tells you how to operate the unit, but it doesn't give you any basics of delay processing, IE parameters for chorus, flanging, doubling, etc. The manual *is* well written, nothing like most pathetic Roland manuals. It has a MIDI program mapper and you can load/save a single program or the whole kit-n-kaboodle. The block diagram on the top of the unit is reproduced in the manual. It even provides the MIDI Sysex codes for remote editing! MC --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opinions (and mistakes) expressed herein are my own and not those of my employer. If the contents of this message appear as one long sentence in your email reader, it is the product of Microsoft Exchange, which has no option to force word wrap :( Most email clients do have a word wrap option which may be disabled by default, try enabling it for better results.