Roland SDE-2000

From what I know this was Roland's first attempt on a digital delay. It's a 19" unit with knobs for Input Level, Delay Volume (vs. dry signal),Feedback (plus a one shot button with associated led) Modulation Speed and Range. The actual delay time must be set by pressing up/down buttons; if you press the one button first, keep it depressed while pressing the other the SDE-2000 changes values at high speed. There is also a button that doubles/halves the selected time- the selected repeat time shown by a seven segment led display. Since it has a built in modulation LFO it can be used as a Chorus or Vibrato effect as well.
There's loads of buttons/Leds all over the unit: a bypass switch + led; an input VU meter (leds); a -20 dB/ +4 dB switch (on the back); the afforementioned one shot switch with led; a phase invert switch with led; there is a led that says on/off (because there is an on/off footswitch socket on the back); there is a modulation on/off button with led and a Sine/Triangle selector switch; well... and there is the power switch.
Now if you turn the unit around a long line of 3,5' sockets stares at you. Let's see if I can recall them...
First, there's an Input jack with associated attenuator (see above); right next to it are the Mixed and Effect Only Output jacks. There are footswitch connections for Delay on/off, One Shot and Modulation on/off. There is a CV input that allows you to modulate the Chorus effect from external sources (how cool is that?); and I think there even is a Send/Return to insert something in the feedback loop.
A lot of access for a digital effect, as I would say.

It's not possible to store any settings, which is a bit of a shame; but since this unit had been built in 1981 when storing data was a rather expensive thing still one shouldn't complain really.

The sound is superb. It doesn't distort in that nice way tape delays and BBD delays do, but hey- after all this thing is digital! Since I am very much used and attached to these things analog delays do this was somewhat of a new experience for me. The repeats sound absolutely clear and clean until they dissapear.
The SDE-2000 covers a wide range of delay times, hence there's a big palette of delay sounds it can reproduce.
The Chorus sound is very nice, too. Here the fact that you have to enter the repeat time with buttons comes as a benefit because you can tweak your sounds much more accurately than an analog knob would allow. This Chorus option is really fantastic because A)it really sounds very good B)is extremely versatile `cause anything inbetween extreme and subtle is within it's range and C) you've got maximum control right under your hands: Feedback, Chorus Intensity (Volume), Speed and Modulation Intensity plus two waveforms; but most important of all: you can set the `Manual' very precisely.
Two further things should be mentioned: First,for some funny engineering reasons the Feedback knob allows feedback oscellation at extreme settings; this is cool and good with analog delays (think: Dub), yet with a digital delay it sounds horrible (and I mean: horrible); still I think it's cool to have it- I mean: it's allways a little boring if engineers keep us from using gear other than they intended it, right?
Secondly, if you set the repeat time to very, very small values and set modulation to higher levels aliasing noises will appear, again thanks to "un-safe" engingeering.

Yes, I love analog delays; and I do own a little array of tape delays and bucket brigade based units. I love their oarganicity, how you can play with nearby oscellation and all that. The SDE-2000 brings in a different flavour. That's great, `cause you'd start to hate even your favourite dish if you eat it every day.
Same is true as far as the chorus sound is concerned.
And contrary to most digital units this here offers a great deal of hands on control and accessibility. The most analog of all digital delays, so to speak.