Boss unveils the “ultimate stereo analogue delay”, the DM-101
The new offering combines Bucket Brigade Device chips with modern smart CPU control for vintage sounds and a modern interface.
Credit: Boss
There’s plenty of delay pedals in the world, but generally, each model is tailored to a specific subset of guitar players. Boss, though, might have just launched the one delay pedal to rule them all, with its new DM-101 Delay Machine.
Driven by eight BBD (Bucket Brigade Device) chips – delays conjured from the DM-101 are purely analogue, but features including a smart CPU control, 12 modes, four onboard memories, stereo operation and MIDI give the pedal a modern feel and aesthetic.
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Quick history lesson: BBD microchips emerged in the ‘70s as a compact and cost-effective alternative to the standard tape delays of the era. Guitarists still often favour them to this day for their warm, saturated and highly musical delay sound.
As we mentioned before, the DM-101 features 12 modes, including a traditional analogue delay with up to 1,200ms of delay time, a tone inspired by the classic Boss DM-2 delay, and six-stereo settings for everything from “short reverb-like sounds and expansive modulated delays to pattern delays for intense rhythmic effects”.
The DM-101 flows effortlessly between gritty vintage echoes and modern analog delay tones with extended high-frequency clarity,” Boss says. “Multiple internal circuit elements are switched to define each of the 12 modes, including the number of active BBDs and their connection order, low-pass filter settings, and clocking rates.”
Elsewhere, a Variation knob cycles through parameters unique to each different mode, and users can drive the pedal into saturated self-oscillation by cranking the Intensity knob.
As to be expected, the pedal features controls to set modulation, in addition to tap tempo, and a handy switch to adjust note division.
There’s also a selectable carryover feature, which keeps delay trails ringing out when the pedal is bypassed, and the ability to hook up an external footswitch and expression pedal.
Pedal aficionados and historians will also recognise the aesthetic of the DM-101’s enclosure, which pays tribute to Boss’s first-ever analogue delay unit, the DM-1.
Price-wise the DM-101 will retail at $499 when it launches in July. For more info, head to Boss.