Ibanez DM-1100 Delay

I'm using it in an outboard effects loop from/ back to my m-audio delta 1010, with which I record using Sonar.

Very easy to use-- all knobs are right in front of you, chart glued to top displaying how to the modulation effects this box can give. All typical delay controls are represented: "tone" (basically a lpf on the input); input gain; 8-position knob and delay time knob to give you all delay times up to 3.6 sec; feedback; wet-to-dry mix. I haven't tried much of the mod effects, because I typically don't like modulation sounds.

No manual, but almost everything is simple enough to figure out. No patch storage, but who cares? This isn't a stupid rack unit with an LCD on which you have to scroll through menus and whatnot to get the sound you want. Just dial it in with the knobs.

Can fit on/ in a rack but no dogears :(

As the reviews below state, the old chips in the brains of these thigns are incredible. No, it doesn't have an analog sound. Sounds like a good digital.

What I really like about this unit is, as with many older/ not top-quality digital delays, you can catch a loop and then pitch shift using the delay time knob. I love that. The tone control is really nice to have. Reverbs are okay, but that's not what I use it for.

It is somewhat noisy (-1 for that).

YES. Built very rugged.

Too old.

So utterly worth every penny. I really like delays on which you can get effects other than the intended echo/ reverb. I recorded a guitar line through my friend's boss reverb/ delay pedal with him playing the line and me twiddling the speed button and the delay catches only little bits of the line here and there and it sounded awesome. The pitch shift on this thing sounds GREAT, and the regular delays are nice as well. I wouldn't think about using this for mod effects though. But that's a matter of taste.

There are some annoying things: inputs are not balanced; it's mono; kinda noisy; no dogears. Mainly, I just wish it was stereo.

lovely 8 bit sound

built like a tank

Well I think I've tried and owned every delay unit on the planet at one time or another. Roland SDE-1000 (heavy, cold and digital sounding,great modulation but everything else sucks), Chandler(cool for guitarists maybe but strictly a guitar piece-also noisy) Digitech RDS 1900 (crap- got if for 15 bucks in the bargain bin so couldn't resist), Digitech 7.1 Time Machine (cool but crapped out the other day), MXR Time Delay (primative and very noisy), Delta Lab Effectron (cool but it could go wrong at any second) Roland RE201 Space Echo (cool but awkward to take around, doesn't fit in a rack, unreliable-tape transport issues etc), TC Electronics D-Two (nice but too clean- defintiely not what I'm looking for)

Contrary to some-After all that I have found that I love these old cheap Ibanez units the best- yes even over my more expensive units. I'll take my $75 Ibanez over your modern $2000 TC Electronic one any day. Sure my RE201 is weirder sounding but who the hell wants to gig with that old beast and worry about the tape sticking? With this thing I just don't worry about it. I love the Ibanez. I am a keyboard player and have tried every delay out there with my Minimoog and Rhodes and I can say that I love this one the best. It is great for that lo-fi dub reggae delay sound and the 70s rock sound. The delay really degrades with each repeat just like a tape delay but different sounding but in a weird digital way that is not cold but actually pleasing to the ear-hard to describe. It's silly to compare this to a tape delay. I read so many reviews that like to pit a crusty old $75 delay like this up to a Roland RE201 or TC2290 or PCM41 and they really shouldn't be compared because even though they are delays, they both do different things. Sure I might use other effects other than my Ibanez for recording but for gigging and jamming with bands live this thing is my favorite and most road worthy. It has the sound you're looking for. It is an old friend- one of the few with character that I can rely on not breaking. Definitely if you want a Lo-Fi sound or want a sound like the 70s this does a good job. If pristine, hyped up, cold, sterile 24/96 sound is what you're after, look elsewhere. There's this funky music store in my town and I am famous for going in there and buying all their old "crap" for a song. Once bought a Oberheim OBXA for $100- they said it sucked cause it had "no MIDI" I'm like whatever fool- I'll take that thanks. They get dozens of funky old delays in there and I buy up them all- I'm addicted to delays. I'll tell you with effects, buy these old units. A famous guitarist once told me- Old units have these slow chips and processors in them-that's what you want. New units are all fast and hyped up and their chips are the fast and edgy-harsh. Slow and funky is much more musical than hyped up. You want your sound to flow and be all stoney not all speed freak meth labbed up like all the fast sterile cold and harsh gear of today. Dude the Lexicon PCM-41 and TC 2290 are old digital machines- kinda like the Ibanez in the way that they have old, slow chips and processors. After trying everything from tape delay to the latest greatest, I think the sweet spot for digital and analog delays is the old digital stuff like the Ibanez, the TC2290 and PCM41. It's got character, is musical sounding, and is reliable- what more do you want??

so easy to use. just plug & play. no scrolling, no screen, no bullshit. just knobs. I have two of them.

I give this a 10, but really, who wants "pristine" sound in a guitar delay? Not me. I'm a guitarist and use this in my live & recording setup. I plug a reissue Jazzmaster through a BOSS volume pedal, an MXR distortion plus, a Guyatone phaser, then the Ibanez delay, which sits on top of my amp. My amp is a 1969 Marshall super lead 100 that is always dimed and goes through a THD hot plate, then finally into a reissue Marshall 412TV cab loaded with 75w celestions. The delay always sounds great. Rolling the tone off gets a nice warm sound.

I use it for medium-strength echos during solos as well as totally insane loop noise freakouts. It's awesome for both, and nothing I've found so far is better.

I think I messed my first one up by turning that trim pot inside, but after reading the first review, it sounds like I might be able to clean it up by rolling that back down. Cool! I also abused the christ out of the box by drilling special holes in it. But to this thing's credit, both units accepted a radical mod that I do.. I remote the delay speed knob out to an ernie ball volume pedal I converted to use the same value pot as in the delay. This gives me foot control over the speed & pitch of the echos - an extremely unique and extremely cool effect. I suspect you could do the same thing with some other delays, but I once tried it with some 90s digitech units and destroyed them. They just couldn't hack it. Plus they had a negative, coldass sound. No tone pot on those. Anyway, I think these Ibanez things are pretty sturdy. Best of all, they're still cheap.

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I play indie rock, I guess. check out http://www.richardbitch.com. I've been playing for decades. If my ibanez delays were stolen, I would just find more. I love that it takes my mod, and gives me a glorious and unique sound. It's fantastic.

This is an old school delay with 9 knobs along the front and two buttons. No memory for presets, no MIDI. It's a simple plug-n-play delay unit.

Dialing up a groovy delay on this is a piece of cake. The delay ranges from 0ms to over 3 and half seconds (unless you adjust the trimpot inside) and is selectable in small increments. This makes dialing in chorus, flange, doubling, and other time-based effects easier than on the similar Digitech units.

A few things this has the Digitechs do not: a tone knob for the input signal, mic/line input level selectable from the front panel, selectable phase for the delay's feedback (on the front panel as well), and some jacks on the front panel for easier patching.

Mine is wired into the effects loop of my keyboard rig. It's not noisy at all, which is a surprise being an 8-bit machine (as far as I can tell, at least).

The modulation effects, including the flange, chorus, trem, and other dizzying things, are very well done by this unit and sound great. I'll tell you why in a minute.

The delay line is very nice, especially for keyboards. It doesn't come back too overpowering yet has a nice presence. I think the tone knob helps greatly with this. The delay feedback seems to feedback into the beginning of the input path (yeah, that's what feedback is, sure), but the reason I mention this is because it does feedback differently than a Digitech unit: the DM 1100 feedback path registers on the input meter. I don't think the Digitechs do that. It sounds different. The selectable phase of the delay feedback also adds to the ambience this unit can create. In a stereo configuration the phasing is very noticable and sounds lush. There's also another reason why the delay sounds good...

LOOPERS TAKE NOTE: The DM 1100 has 3.6 seconds of delay, technically, but you can increase that to just over 5 seconds by adjusting a trimpot inside the unit. I found 5 seconds probably the max my particular unit can handle before it distorts too much for my tastes. You have a "hold" button on the front and a jack for a "hold" footswitch on the back. The hold function accepts a regular on/off type switch instead of a momentary switch like on the Digitechs. This unit makes a great looper with modulation. The modulation speeds aren't extreme like on Digitechs, and are very easy to set at octave intervals creating nice, musical effects on the loops.

GEAR SNOBS TAKE NOTE: these Ibanez rack delays are MADE BY MAXON. Don't believe me? Open it up and look at the bottom of the main circuit board. What's more, there are about a dozen original JRC4558D chips in there. These are the same pedigree as the coveted TS 808 and other early Ibanez pedals.

It's well built. The front panel is plastic, but the rest of the unit is metal. The insides are well designed and there's metal bracing running across the length of the unit in several places, which is something I rarely see inside any rack effect box.

Totally not applicable.

Yeah, this is a nice delay. It's very musical all the way around. The range you get out of the front panel knobs is such that no matter what you have set it's pretty musical and nice sounding. This is polite looping delay to be sure. I think loopers would really like this at the end of their loop/delay chain to add spice to their performances.

These things are a steal at their current Ebay prices, especially for an original early '80s MAXON with a whole bunch of JRC4558D chips inside.