DLS Chorus~Vib

There are 4 control knobs for this device; blend, delay, chorus depth, chorus rate (aka vibrato). There is also a button that turns the effect on or off. When on a green light strobes the vibrato rate. It has one 1/4 inch input, two 1/4 inch outputs (one which is brighter than the other); outputs used in tandem produce a stereo output effect. The unit comes with a DC adaptor plug.

How do you operate the knobs? go here for the best explanation, the main datasheet explains how the knobs work:

http://dlseffects.com/files/cv/Chorus%7EVib_Datasheet.pdf

Unfortunately the best way of getting the sound YOU want is by experimenting with the knobs. There are some sample settings that come with the unit to help get you started but in the end you'll have to adjust the knobs to get the sound you want. The sample settings can be found here:

http://dlseffects.com/files/cv/Chorus%7EVib_Settings.pdf

Although it is easy to use it will take some time before you find the exact combination of knob settings that you want for your application. There also aren't any presets that you can store so if the knobs move around on you during transportation you're back to tweaking the unit to get it right.

My use of the pedal is a little unique. I have a hammond B3 clone that produces good hammond tone but a lousy Hammond Chorus/Vibrato effect. I was contemplating selling the clone because of the crappy effect. I came across this pedal and wrote to the company explaining the effect I was trying to achieve. The engineer believed that this pedal could accurately reproduce the hammond "vibrato scanner" effect. I decided to take a chance on spending money on the pedal rather than money on a new keyboard simply to upgrade the vibrato/scanner effect. I was able to emulate the classic "C3" vibrato scanner effect with this pedal by setting it up side by side with my real Hammond B3. I took about 30 minutes A-Bing the real hammond with my clone connected to this pedal. I fooled around with all the dials until the chorus/vibrato effect from this pedal sounded as close as I could get it to my Hammond B3. Now my clone (with this pedal) sounds much closer to a real hammond, so much so that I have concluded that I will not replace the clone.

When the unit is moved from by-pass to active there is no loss of gain nor hiss introduced to the line. It produces no extraneous noise.

This pedal's enclosure uses metal construction. They also powder coat the enclosure rather than paint it. The pots and jacks are steel, not plastic. The unit is rather big and a bit heavy but solid as a rock. It does sound quite "warm", not digital.

I purchased mine used however you would never know. It didn't have a scratch on it (probably due to its powder-coated finish). It looks and operates as if it were brand new. It still doesn't have one scratch on it and i could resell it in "mint condition".

when I was inquiring about my unique use of the pedal I wrote the company and received an answer the next business day.

For my application it works great. The alternative would have been to spend about $1700 for a new keyboard that has the latest hammond "vibrato scanner" effect. This pedal gets me there and is much closer to the vibrato-scanner effect on my keyboard (which i now just bypass).

It's always nice to hear what the unit might sound like, especially if you are not close by a dealer to actually demo the pedal. To get an idea of what this pedal might sound like go here:

http://dlseffects.com/sounds.php

Easy to get a good sound out of this box. 4 controls. Though there's a lot of variation this pedal can get from tweeking these dials

Very nice sounding unit. it's a combo of analog/digital circuitry and maybe that's why it sounds this good. have owned/tried many chorus' and I think this is probably the best. Boss CH1, CE-2, DC-3, Fulltone Choralflange, Analogman Clone Chorus, Ibanez Cs-9. It really is capable of subtle to very thick warm sounds and anything between. there is a bit of noise when it's switched on, but it's worth it. you can have little bits of delay or lots, even some sounds that approach a Leslie, and definitely vibrato too. only goofy thing is placement of in and out jacks are reversed. doesn't rob tone and has great freq response - true by-pass, etc. The mix control on this is really valuable!

I hope so. It looks/feels really built. It's been good for the few months I've had it.

never had to deal with them

i play jazz, funk, rock, avant-garde, noise, whatever. have been for many many years. though I kind of OD'd on chorus sound in my earlier days, it is nice to have a versatile really good quality chorus at my feet in case I want to kick it in for a tune or too. really has a nice creamy sound. if it were stolen, I'd probably buy another (expensive though!). in addition, I tried a Carl Martin, and have heard the TC Electronic model, but I thought they were too sterile (metalic) sounding. The HomeBrew Chorus was pretty cool too, but the DLS seemed to take the cake.

Anytime a piece of gear has some new knobs on it, it can be a bit daunting, and the delay and blend knobs on this pedal are a bit different than the average chorus. But there are several things that make this an easy-to-use pedal. First, the pedal sounds good right out of the box with everything set to 12 o'clock. Second, it is difficult to impossible to get an unusable sound from this unit (some are obviously not appropriate for certain songs, but everything sounds good no matter where you put the dials). And finally, the manual provides some great settings to start with. I'm docking one point because the company says their engineers are also musicians, and they put the input and output jacks on the top of the pedal, not on the side.

The blend of digital an analog technologies makes this a unique sounding pedal. It can't nail that 80s chorus sound with the same accuracy as my Arion SCH-1, but that pedal is on the fritz and needed to be replaced. However, it does get such a wide range of different chorus sounds that it would normally take multiple chorus pedals to emulate. Through my Johnson J Station, it sounds a bit brittle, but then again all modeling amps have their limitations. This thing really shines through my Fender Pro Junior, very rich sounding. Set it to one of the leslie settings, put a bit of gain on my Jekyll & Hyde before the pedal, and toss my strat to its neck pickup, and it NAILS that grinding, chewy leslie churn. Kudos.

My only beef is that the switch is so loud that the vibrations of turning it on and off get picked up by other mics. Not a huge deal, but again, for a company that is made of musicians, I would have expected more.

Built like a tank. No need for a backup pedal here.

Bought it used, so no idea.

I play primarily in my church praise band, so normal-but-versatile is a must (no need for a ring modulator here, but several different chorus sounds sure are nice). This pedal fits well with my needs. Also, the sound samples on the website are very achievable. If it were lost or stolen, I would replace it with the same. The only things I wish it had was a quieter switch and normal jack placement.

Easy to get a good sound right away - but there's more, much more. It can be a set and forget pedal, but I think there is much to appeal to tweakers. The delay and blend controls allow for a lot of variations and time is well spent in exploring the possibilities. Manual gives some good starting points for different settings. Vibrato type sounds are pretty darn good - can go from mild modulation to extreme warble.

DLS says that the Chorus-Vib is made with analog and digital technology. I'd say that it does sound like a hybrid. It's warm but clear in a way that's different than an all analog or all digital pedal. The bright output adds the right amount of sheen, and works well in series with my pedalboard - in fact, all of my pedals seem to interface very musically with the Chorus-Vib. There is no discernable noise added even when the blend control is maxed.

Once in a while the unit needs to be shut down and "rebooted" when the effected part of the signal mysteriously dissapears. Other than that occasional glitch, construction is very solid, and I'd gig without a backup.

Dave has responded to my inquiry about the glich and offered to look it over if continues to happen - that works for me.

This is only my third chorus pedal in almost 30 years. I used the Boss CE-2 in the late 70s and got so sick of "that sound" I didn't revisit it until recently. Prior to the DLS, I used the Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus which I liked it for extreme settings (mild thickening or fast leslie), but not for basic chorus sounds. With this pedal, chourus is good again. The blend control really makes it possible to dial in exactly what the music needs. The delay control provides very nice thickening possiblilites, plays well with others and it does a really good vibrato!

This unit comes with a "settings" sheet that is really quite useful, I really have not needed to stray from what is on the sheet. Plenty of settings for a variety of purposes. The few settings I came up with on my own were actually exact replicas of what was already on the settings sheet. Well done. No matter where the knobs are set the sound is always useful, a very forgiving unit, the bottom line is that it is a very musical piece!

The DLS chorus sits in the effects loop of a Genz Benz El'Diablo C60 tube combo. It sits between a Rocktron Shorttimer delay and a line 6 Verbzilla (reverb.) I have a host of other dirt boxes etc. that I run straight into the front of the amp. Guitar is a modified strat. With all that being said the DLS chorus is a fantastic sounding box. I have had many other chorus pedals in the past but this is the most refined and musical. Like one of the other reviewers had stated I was also a little put out with the price but after it was all hooked up in my rig and dialed in any buyers remorse dissapeared instantly. It is also dead quiet and does not color the tone when not in use.

Nice solid box, very well built. I use it only in my home studio so hopefully it will be around years and years from now.

No idea

I mostly play rock and experimental stuff. Been messing around with music for 40 years most all of it guitar. If my DLS chorus came up missing I would replace it with the same. It does exactally what it was built to do and it does it well. I do wish it had silent switching for recording purposes but most all my other pedals have the same type of switching system ...... just have to keep them away from sensitive condenser mic's when stomping around. All in all for my purposes this is all the chorus I need, a quality piece.

Comes with a chart for quick settings to get a range of chorus effect from mild to dripping wet. Otherwise, it's fun to explore the options using combinations of Rate, Depth, Blend, and Delay.

I'm using this pedal for acoustic and electric setups. My acoustic is a Lowden O25c with a Sunrise magnetic sound hole pickup either direct or with a Fender acoustic amp. The electric is a '99 AmStd Fender Strat thru a Deluxe Reverb.

In both cases, this pedal adds no noise to the signal and provides head-turning chorus. I don't like a lot of chorus so I really like the dial-in ability with this pedal to give me exactly what I want. I'm going with a 10 for sound quality because I'm that pleased with this pedal.

It's a pretty rugged unit. Steel chassis, steel switches, steel pots. I'm an electronics packaging engineer and design systems for satellites...I'd fly this if we needed to send a chorus pedal in orbit.

As for a backup, redundancy is one way to increase reliability, but in this case, you'd only move the 4th place decimal, so no. Another 10.

I have not had the need to contact Customer Support, but I bought this online at Steve's Music Center and very happy with the purchase.

I play acoustic fingerstyle and strum in a church worship band. Electric blues and all sorts at home. Have played for many years and have a pretty good pile of gear. This pedal is a perfect fit for me and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality product design with superb chorus features.

the first thing that i noticed about this pedal is that it sounds great no matter where the knobs are set. (the sign of a great unit). smokes the fulltone in sound but wish it had the controlles of the fulltone.

this unit is not perfect but i'm giving it a 10 because its this best sounding chorus unit i've ever heard ( no joke ). i'm a previous owner of many TC ,includeing the 1210 spatial expander, ibanaz , fulltone , boss , rocktron , ect. and this is by far the best i've heard. the controls are a bit extreme but thats ok. once you get use to the delay knob you'll find it to be very verstile. i've been playing for 35 years and my rig consist of a / custom audio od-50 - fulltone wah - george dennis volume pedal - fulltone 10 aniv. fulldrive 2 - trex delay (that i'm selling to get the DLS delay) - keeley compressor - and fulltone fat boost. all with zaolla cables. / i play many styles ( johnny cash to george benson ) but i'm a ford/carlton/ritenour/feiten steelydan fan

very well made with thick steel caseing. being new time will tell

i called the factory to do some research before buying and the guys there were great, very honest and helpful

i cant imagine anyone making a better sounding chorus maybe one more versitile like the fulltone so until then i'll never play anything else

This pedal's setup was intimidating at first. However, after ten minutes with it it was the back of my hand. The one-page dealy it comes with is unexpectedly helpful, and creates a cornerstone to build of of and get your own sound from.

I was still holding a grudge about the price of the pedal, but when I got it home and got it into my setup (Fender Tele, Mesa Boogie V1, Bad Horsie 2 wah pedal, and 65 Twin Reverb) I was suprised I didn't pay for it with a kidney. This thing is incredible. On any mode or setting you can dial up bright and lucid tones or lush, throbbing pulses. It's amazing! What I like the most about it is definately its versatility. You can make it do anything in its department you need. Right now I'm playing punk with it, and it sounds fucking PHENOMONAL. WHat better example is there?

It's this close to being a brick.

Never dealt. That's the beauty of it, right?

I play a lot of different stuff. I like to play punk and rock stuff, but a lot of the stuff I play out of the band (Viva Lennox Doom!) is more moody acoustics. It doesn't matter. Whatever I'm playing, this thing goes with me.

If you follow the 1page diagram it's a snap to get many Leslie and chorus sounds, the complaints about a learning curve baffle me... maybe people without the diagram?

Phenomanal!

Really a wonderfuling sounding chorus, I never post reviews (though I read them ALL the time) and actually would have not written this one had I not seen another post slamming the tone of this pedal. I couldn't disagree with the complaints below more. "a hiss factory" p-u-h-l-e-a-s-e! I don't know what that dude was talking about... many amps (7) and a few guitars (3... w/ buckers and single coils) and I don't get the 'hiss'

I love Jimi and thr Robin Trower Bridge of sighs thing and with this an a FT DejaVibe I can really, finally do it. It just NAILS the SRV chorus tone and can be a watery, clean, or warbely as you wish.

Can't imagine it breaking down, built as nice as I've ever seen a pedal built

Called twice when I first got it (I lost that 1page thingy twice) they were friendly and helpful and really enthusiastic

Great! among my favorite pedals ever, kicked my Choral Flange and AnalogMan Clone Chorus off the board. It's among the VERY FEW keepers that I've owned ---------------> and it workes wonders with acoustic too!

I hate to keep harping on this but if you read the one poor review the guy comes right out and says, "only chorus w/ a '10' well not anymore" Sounds like an agenda to me.

If stolen I'd replace it w/o thinking twice and at $100 less than the CF and CC I'd say this is the only game in town!

This thing takes a little getting used to. The delay knob is the most mysterious to me - I know there are some differences in the waveforms and delay times, but I'd like to know what they are from a technical standpoint. Also, it took me a little while to realize that anything past 10 o'clock on the speed knob could no longer qualify as chorus. Nonetheless, great unit. I give it an eight because of the slightly longer learning curve - it is very easy now to get good sounds. But its equally as easy to get weird and over-processed sounds. It's as if they gave you the whole chorus pallet and you get to learn the landscape before you find what you like and don't like.

Superb. The Chorus and Leslie sounds are lovely. You can really get nice lush or thin or chimey or whatever choruses you want. I'm not sure I buy the "vibrato" settings - they sound a little processed to me. But alas, I bought it for the chorus, and that is top notch. Much more range of sounds than the TC Electronic.

The leslie (rotation speaker) settings are fun, but it's easy to get a weird sound also. Tricky, but useful.

It also is very uncoloured in bypass mode. That is a nice bonus. And the blend knob is a real plus, the ability to vary the wetness of the signal is much missed in other choruses. So this is great.

As a side note, I read the previous review, and it does create some noise if your amp is very quiet. But turn the amp up, and you can't tell any difference in the noise level in bypass or in chorus. Not sure what this is, and it is curious.

Don't know, but it looks well made. Heavy gauge steel, nothing that appears to be able to fall off. The pot shafts are metal, and the bypass button is one of those heavy metal things. If this thing breaks, I'd predict it to be in a situation where nothing else survived either.

Don't know.

Excellent. Beautiful. Lush, spacious, thin, thick, whatever you want.