Review Keeley 30ms Double Tracker Wvintage Chamber Reverb & True Stereo Chorus

Abbey Road. The Beatles. Pink Floyd. Elvis Presley. Sun Studio. Johnny Greenbacks. Double tracking. The Beach Boys. Smells Similar Teen Spirit. Are you feeling suitably warm and airheaded from what those words conjure up within you? Proficient, because Keeley Electronics has three DSP-brained stompboxes at the ready to sate those desires.

The 30ms Double Tracker, Abbey Chamber Verb and Memphis Sun Lo-Fi Reverb pedals finer capture the sound and feel of the globe's most famous studios and identify them at our feet. To say they've sent ripples through the pedal earth is an understatement, already shifting 1,000 30ms units since the pedal was appear at Summer NAMM in Nashville.

While the likes of Strymon and TC Electronic succeed at cramming numerous effects into a single enclosure, what Keeley is borer into – and rather successfully here – is the fact that many players also savor single-pedal units that produce ane or two perfectly realised tones. Having said that, 2016 holds some very exciting news, which Robert Keeley shares with Thou&B in the interview with the effects guru which you tin check out here.

On amp duties for this review, M&B has enlisted the help of a Fender '68 Princeton Custom and a Supro Thunderbolt, with a Custom Shop '56 Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul Standard, along with a Fender Rumble V3 500 and a Gibson SG Bass for those depression-downward sonic expeditions!

30ms Double Tracker

The 30ms, referring to thirty milliseconds of double-tracked effect, has been specially pop with Keeley, which is valiantly trying to keep up with demand. Let'due south start with what double tracking actually is. In the most simplistic form, it is the doubling upwards of your point (guitar, bass, vocals or keys), creating a lush, wide and `doubled up' sound as if ii of you were playing in perfect unison, admitting with a very slight delay.

You lot take three switchable modes: Dimension, producing two voices that can be detuned and delayed by, you've guessed it, 30ms; Abbey style, which reproduces the double-tracking effect from those famous studios in London, with added modulation simulating the manual effort of slowing a tape machine; and, finally, Slapback, which unlocks the delay time bachelor from 30ms to 120ms with two doubled-upward voices.

But that's not all! Forth with those modes is the added bonus of a Pro way (with dip switches inside the pedal), which changes the command layout, dropping the reverb option in favour of consummate control over the double-tracked sounds (using the tune knob to dial in whatever flat/sharp tones you lot desire). Let'due south not forget that yous can use a standard mono cable or a TRS cable, feeding the dry signal to one amp and the double-tracked signal to some other.

We should also mention that Keeley has shoe-horned in a little of that Studio Ii magic with a glorious Abbey Road-style reverb, too!

In use

With all knobs at 12 o'clock and the Abbey fashion selected, it's difficult not to rip into a few Beatles licks and Pinkish Floyd numbers with a huge grin on your face. You'd peradventure be forgiven for thinking that this is a glorified chorus pedal, but the reality is information technology's much more than that. Information technology brings your rig and guitar sound to life without sounding artificial. Though subtle in its purest form, what you have at your feet is the flavour of a legendary recording studio in a pedal enclosure.

For the gigging musician already enjoying a stereo rig, or the player experimenting with using ii amps,a 30ms on your pedalboard is a seriously tempting addition. Hooking the Princeton and Supro upward together, G&B used the internal dip switches to send the dry unaffected signal to the Supro for that tight controlled tone that the Thunderbolt does so well and the full moisture double-tracked sound to the Princeton, which is pure audible ecstasy.

We've written a lot near the various functions on offering, which may seem complicated, but worry not, as to have this level of control and sound in a live rig straight out of the box is exactly what unmarried-switch pedals should be all about. Should you lot wish to unlock Pandora's Box you tin can, but you can as well have the elementary approach.

We cannot retrieve of any genre of music the 30ms would fail to add together something positive to. We also demoed the pedal with a Gibson SG Bass into an already huge-sounding Fender Rumble 500 and the 30ms delivered a noticeable treble lift, plenty to brand united states want to run 2 Rumbles!

Using a Keeley 1962 British-style overdrive pedal with the 30ms slightly detuned in Dimension style and a dirty-sounding Princeton opens up a huge palette of easily recognisable classic rock and fifty-fifty metal tones (Metallic's Enter Sandman sounding particularly tasty). And permit's not forget the Slapback manner for those well-baked land-manner runs upwards and down the neck. All in all, the 30ms is a versatile and joyful pedal to use, which players from all over the musical spectrum will get something from, and information technology puts a big silly grin on your face.

Refreshingly, the marketing blurb stands up to the weight of expectation, and we would have to hold that the 30ms is the ™ultimate double tracking experience∫ in stompbox form.

Abbey Chamber Verb

Staying with the Abbey Road theme,we accept the Abbey Bedchamber Verb, recreating the repeat chambers found within those famous walls. An echo chamber is an isolated berth inside a recording studio designed to capture natural reverb sounds from a signal piped into it. Information technology gets a picayune more complicated after that, every bit the men in white coats adult an array of electronic filters and switchable frequency levels (ii.seven kHz, three.5 kHz, or 10 kHz) all thankfully replicated hither in pedal format (wearing a white coat whist using the Abbey Chamber Verb is optional).

In use

The Sleeping room Verb is designed to evangelize warm analogue-sounding reverb tones aplenty, so if you're in the market for a reverb that creates incredibly long decays and space-like reverberations you should look elsewhere. Looking for a pocket-sized room sound with a soft short reverb? No problem. Perhaps a large hall reverb sound that is bright and reflective? Yeah, does that as well.

The luminescence and pre-delay knobs on the Bedroom Verb are where the magic happens. Those men in white coats again developed a mode of refining what sort of naturally occurring reverb sounds were produced in the repeat chambers at Abbey Route, and past using the brilliance option yous can boost or cut the frequency response (+/-10dB) along with using the switchable 2.7kHz, 3.5kHz or 10kHz for added consequence. The pre-delay has a range of 30ms to 150ms, so with little try nosotros were able to dial in some realistic echo chamber reverb sounds.

What impressed us the nigh was the pairing of the 30ms Double Tracker with the Abbey Chamber Verb.

These pedals are designed to appeal to players who desire to reach studio-similar tones live without the demand for complicated DAW software or an engineering degree with some carpentry skills thrown in. And let's not discount the aesthetics either, as these pedals wait the business, as well ± and who doesn't like expert looking pedals on their boards?

Memphis Dominicus Reverb

The Memphis Sun Reverb continues with the studio-in-a box theme, but this time has both feet planted firmly in the 1950s. The legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee is a pocket-sized unassuming edifice but has played host to some of the biggest names in the industry. Elvis Presley recording That'south All Right, Jerry Lee'southward Smashing Balls Of Fire, and permit's not forget Johnny Cash singing about walking the line. All within the walls of Sun Studio, which proudly and confidently terms itself `The birthplace of rock and coil'.

So, then, what exactly is the Lord's day Studio audio represented here in pedal form? What you're getting is a unique small room reverb pedal (simulating the hallowed 33x18ft asbestos-tiled room) with added slapback, forth with ADT (auto double tracking). But this isn't a one-trick pony pedal, every bit like the 30ms Double Tracker and Abbey Chamber Verb at that place's a lot happening under the hood.

In apply

Similar to the 30ms Double Tracker, the Memphis Sunday has three switchable modes available: Echo 600 offering a lo-fi echo with a modest room reverb result, Sun mode with double tracking, modulated slapback echo with the pocket-sized room reverb and, finally, the Room setting, which offers upward the aforementioned reverb outcome merely with pre-delay and variable filtering.

What'due south instantly recognisable when playing is that the reverb is subtly compressed, which successfully emulates what happens to loud sounds in a small space. Information technology's that level of detail that makes playing with the Memphis Lord's day then much fun.

Most players, like u.s.a., will go direct to the Sun mode and attempt our all-time early on rock 'northward' curl licks, and possibly even a bit of chicken pickin' to actually immerse ourselves in the 1950s audio. Keeley has added ADT to the Sun style, which wasn't effectually in those days but certainly doesn't detract; in fact, it adds a lovely warm-sounding double-track issue and some other vintage-sounding flavour to the pedal's arsenal. In this mode, adjusting the delay time between xxx-180ms, we are firmly in slapback territory, and using the regen/mod knob to dial in some modulated `tape' screams Carl Perkins and Inferior Parker.

Echo 600 is the mode that puts an even bigger grinning on our faces. With a delay time from 30ms to 666ms (a nod to the devil's music, naturally) that is filtered, compressed and filtered again creates the illusion that you are playing in a pocket-sized studio infinite. All this filtering makes the indicate almost tape saturated with an edge of subtle distortion, which would brand contemporary retro stylists such equally Dan Auerbach and Jack White feel very much at dwelling.

Emulating the sound of legendary studios and cramming studio-similar effects into a standard pedal enclosure is an interesting and brave concept, but Keeley Electronics has delivered the appurtenances. These are high-quality gig-ready pedals that would happily remain on pedalboards (for guitar, bass, keyboards and even vocals) for years to come.

Key Features
Keeley 30ms Automatic Double Tracker
• Clarification Double-tracker, stereo result pedal, offers studio-mode doubling effects used for creating thicker, fuller-sounding instruments. Besides included in the effect pedal is a reverb that simulates the famous chamber in Studio Two
• Price £149
• Controls Three switchable modes with controls for pitch, delay time and output level, pro mode using internal dip switches
• Features Standard 9V DC centre negative (65mA+ describe), mono or stereo output with a TRS cable (not included)
• Dimensions 112x60x30mm
• Contact robertkeeley.com

Keeley Abbey Chamber Verb
• Description Emulation of the Abbey Road Studio repeat room bedchamber, including the corresponding high-pass filter and luminescence control for soft and warm vintage reverb
• Toll £149
• Controls Decay, pre-delay, brilliance, alloy & 3-way mini toggle switch for the brilliance control'due south frequency point
• Features Standard 9V DC heart negative (65mA+ draw)
• Dimensions 112x60x30mm
• Contact robertkeeley.com

Keeley Memphis Sun Lo-Fi Reverb
• Clarification Lo-Fi slapback echo, room reverb and automatic double tracker, a recreation of the classic Memphis studio room
• Price £149
• Controls Time, regen/mod, reverb & mix, three switchable modes ECHO 600 (echo for long delays & room reverb), Sun Thomann way (auto rails-doubling and slapback with brusk delays & room reverb), reverb (room reverb studio simulation)
• Features Standard 9V DC centre negative (65mA+ draw)
• Dimensions 112x60x30mm
• Contact robertkeeley.com

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Source: https://guitar.com/review/keeley-electronics-30ms-double-tracker-abbey-chamber-verb-memphis-sun-reverb/

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