When Strymon’s delay/reverb/sampler/looper meets the modular craze, you know it’s going to be big news.
So, we turn to new CDM contributor Oliver Torr – just the kind of avowed Strymon fan you know will go crazy over this – to tell us exactly what to look forward to. -Ed.
Let’s welcome Strymon into the Eurorack modular world.
At the Winter NAMM two years ago, we got a glimpse of Strymon’s Eurorack delay unit – at the time a concept unit that at the time was named Generalissimo. Now, a real product is finally here – the Magneto.
The Magneto is a four-head digital tape echo in Eurorack format. The module is loaded with the dTape delay algorithm, the same one used in their stompboxes El Capistan and Timeline. Having used these two pedals, I can only add to the praise they’ve been receiving.
The thing I really love about Strymon is the play-ability of their products. Having used many of the pedals, especially their BigSky reverb, these machines really want to be fiddled with. As Pete Celi of Strymon puts it: “It was an important part of it to make it feel natural and hopefully respond in ways that you would expect, in ways that don’t take you out of the musical moment, but at the same time allowing enough possibilities that you happily get into areas that you might not have known about, but do so in a way that ultimately is part of the musical process.”
As you can see, we get a TON of features and connectivity. And there are some tasty modes, too: a phrase sampler, a sound-on-sound looper, and an echo. It can also function as a spring reverb unit, a clock multiplier, an oscillator (high feedback + short delay time), a sub oscillator … and the list goes on, look at that connectivity. If you’re looking for a workhorse modular delay unit that packs a punch, along with a ton of great features, this may be the one…
That sound… pure LUSH. Notice how play-ability is high on the priority list… More of these please!
Specs:
Tape-voiced delay machine with four playback heads and one record head
Processor-intense dTape algorithm delivers meticulously nuanced recreations of vintage tape echo systems
Three operational modes: Echo, Sound On Sound Looper, Phrase Sampler
Varispeed algorithm with dynamic machine mechanics, 8:1 speed range
Input record level for clean reproduction to warm, fat saturation
Self-oscillating for tone generation
Independent Spring Reverb
The Magneto is available for pre-order now, for US$599:
https://store.strymon.net/magneto
Ed.: For something totally different, I’m still looking forward to Bastl’s tape delay Thyme. But that’s just a demonstration of how different two delays can be: the Strymon makes sense once you get creative with patching, whereas the Thyme is more about grungy digital sound and a crazy workflow that’s set up in advance. Let’s hope we get our hands on both!
Oliver: And also looking forward to the new Verbos Electronics multi-delay!