Yep. I couldn't hold myself and got myself a Strymon Volante... Ever since its release about a year ago(?), I just knew I will have to check it out eventually, as it seems to provide virtually everything I am looking for in delay sound. I am a huge fan of vintage tape and drum (Binson Echorec 2) echo sounds from the 60s and 70s and a long time owner of a Catalinbread Echorec pedal for that reason.
The main two reasons it took me about a year to get that thing were its price, but more importantly, the fact that it didn't seem like a simple pedal to use. I try to stay away from complex devices when it comes to music, because they tend to get in the way when it's time to be creative and reduce productivity in general. That to me is just missing the whole point.
I am not going to talk about all the features the Volante offers here, simply because many have already done it very well before me (my favorites below). I am however going to talk about who that pedal is for and why, why I got it after all despite its complexity, how it compares to my Echorec and how I use it.
Who is the Volante for?
As you can see in the many demos available on YouTube, the Volante is a very versatile tape delay pedal. It packs tons of features into one not so small box (but very light by the way) and covers a lot of tape delay territory, more than any other tape delay pedal I have ever encountered. And of course, like all Strymon products, it is super high quality and sounds just fantastic. However, the Volante is only worth your money and pedalboard real estate if you really love the sound of a tape delay for all its colors. It's not a general purpose delay device. If you are looking for a wide range of delay characters, and digital or just crystal clear delays are something you use often, get a Strymon Timeline (or comparable) pedal and you'll be happier.
A Word About the Sound on Sound Looper
The Sound on Sound looper feature of the Volante is very cool and useful for sound exploration, or just muse feeding. But it's not a replacement for a standalone looper pedal, at least not in my opinion. Comparing to a standalone looper, the built in looper operation is a bit cumbersome for real time looping, since it requires operating at least two buttons, has no undo function and involves pressing and holding foot switches for trivial operations such as making a loop infinite (it degrades over time by default). That's not a bad thing of course, it's just a feature that has been designed for another purpose and a good one!
Why I Got the Volante?
As I mentioned earlier in this post and in other posts, for anything that is music related, I always prefer simple devices. I would always prefer one knob per function and as few of them as possible, even if it means less features. The Volante is the exact opposite of that. It has three multi-function foot switches, nine multi-function knobs, two three-position mini toggle switches and eight multi-function buttons for selecting delay heads and changing the function of other controls on the pedal. That is just insane by my standards and requires an explanation. So, yes the Volante is not a trivial beast to operate in real time, but only if you want to cover a lot of territory in a one live session. You could easily set the Volante to a generic delay sound that doesn't require digging into secondary knob functions live and enjoy the extra features only in the studio. Another handy feature that definitely helps is the eight user presets that are relatively easy (but requires both of your hands) to recall and optionally tweak once loaded, in order to fine tune to your session.
In any case, I use and enjoy all these goodies, but for me the Volante is a studio tool and inspiration driver and I leave it off my board for now. My board is still hosting the Catalinbread Echorec, which still covers my needs for live sessions, saves me space and is simple to use.
Few things are more annoying than waiting for someone to set up his or her rig during a live session...
Volante vs. Catalinbread Echorec?
The Volante solves my frustration with the Echorec preamp dry signal coloration, that still annoys me. It keeps the dry signal pristine! But comparing these two pedals is not fair. The Echorec is, whether you like what it does or not, just a digital recreation of the Binson Echorec 2. The Volante may be inspired by an Echorec (judging by its color), but it gives you a lot more options and I mean a LOT. I will list some of the most obvious and immediately usable ones here.
Delay Tone Control
Unlike the Echorec, the Volante does not have a straightforward tone control, which is something I would appreciate. Instead you get a Low Cut and a Wear knob you can use to shape the delayed signal. The low cut is a low cut filter obviously and the wear control emulates tape wear, which translates to loss of high end.
Rhythmic Pattern Control
Technically, you should be able to get close to any Echorec setting with the Volante, because you have full control over head combinations. But the Volante also gives you control over head spacing and individual head volume, which opens up a ton of options you can't get from the Echorec.
Delay Type
While the Echorec is faithful to the original Binson Echorec 2 and emulates the sound of a drum type echo, the Volante has three delay types; drum, tape and studio. The studio type is still tape, but is cleaner and more hi-fi compared to the tape and obviously the drum.
Full Stereo Operation
Another difference is that in addition to mono operation, the Volante supports stereo inputs and outputs. It can be fed with a mono signal and output stereo signal, or fed with a stereo signal and out stereo signal.
Spring Reverb
One of the really great features of the Volante, that you don't have on the Echorec and is hardly mentioned, is the spring reverb. It sounds absolutely sweet and realistic and it can add so much character to the delay sound. It is just a great complementary feature. But you can also use the reverb without the delay if you want to, which might help justifying the size it takes on a pedal board.
Line/Instrument Signal Support
The Volante allows you to select between instrument and line level signal to better match different sources. That makes the Volante a very versatile studio delay device as well. It is more than just a guitar pedal.
Volante Facts
The delayed sound never gets in your way, even when it self oscillate
Your dry signal remains crystal clear
Very versatile delay tone options. Studio type can get you close to digital delay tones and you can get all the way to extremely nasty drum delay tones
The reverb is huge. It's not just a bonus feature. It makes the Volante a fully featured ambience machine.
It's not just a guitar pedal, it accepts line input signals as well and can operate in full stereo mode.
Can be set to buffered mode and serve as an output buffer for your board (very transparent and clean)
Words and demos cannot explain what the Volante is to a player.
Many more in the manual...
Overall
I haven't said it until now, so I will. The Strymon Volante is a masterpiece. It really is. It is joy to play, joy to listen to and an inspiration machine. It's one of those pieces of gear you can play with for hours drooling all over yourself from joy. It has all the features you will ever need from a tape echo and for that, I think it is fairly priced, at least for those who appreciate all that goodness. Whether it was made for you or not is a question for you to answer. I know it was certainly made for me.
That’s it. Don't forget to check out the demo videos below. And if you like this post, like and share to show some love.
Cheers! ch... cheers... ch.. chee... ch. che... c... c.
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