# Stereo Memory Man With Hazarai



## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

Electro Harmonix Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai:

I just picked on up this week and have not been able to sleep much since.
Don't walk, run and get one. Bring it home and try it for a few days. I did 
and now I can't imagine giving it up. Holy Crap! This thing is awesome.
New price at Long & McQuede is about $245.
Hot damn!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Kinda sets any misgivings you may have had about digital pedals aside, doesn't it?

BTW, about the word "hazerai". A lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication about the term. In Yiddish a "chazer" (or "hazer" for those who can't pronounce "chanukkah" or Loch Ness properly) is a pig. "Chazerai/hazerai" is more or less "pig stuff"; i.e., what you would throw together to feed a pig. 

The term is used in several different ways. One way is to refer to sub-par goods, as in "Yeah, I bought one of those battery-operated food processors they had in the Dollar Store. Pure chazerai." (as in pure crap, which I doubt Mike Matthews intended). The other usage leans more towards the hasty assemblage aspect of what one might have fed pigs in the days before factory farming, as in "So she turns her purse upside dopwn, and you shoulda seen all the chazerai that comes tumbling out! Pills, makeup, dry markers, batteries, thumb tacks, you name it, it was in there.". The "Hazerai" feature on the SMM is essentially being used to allude to that aspect: a hodge-podge of different features all accessible via one knob. In truth, they could have called it "Mode" and be done with it, but I think they decided to inject a little NYC humour. Seems to have caught on.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Seems to be only to reactions to this pedal: Absolutely love it (like you) or "Runaway! Runaway!" 








Nothing in the middle. Weird.


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## Guest (Apr 21, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> Nothing in the middle. Weird.


I was ho hum about it. Didn't blow me away. Didn't totally put me off. It's a functional delay. Sounds a little strange and the controls respond in odd ways. Presets are mostly useless because you can only save one per mode, so if you don't use reverse delay you can't use that preset location for another save of another kind. And I suck at tapping in anything other than even sub-divisions of the tempo so I missed having a dotted quarter setting. Looper was nice.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

[Deleted -- don't want to upset anyone]


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## Guest (Apr 21, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> There's always one isn't there ;-)


Was that supposed to be funny?


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

iaresee said:


> Was that supposed to be funny?


Yes. Sorry, wasn't it? I'm going through a Python retrospective. I'll delete it if it offends...


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## Guest (Apr 21, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> Yes. Sorry, wasn't it? I'm going through a Python retrospective. I'll delete it if it offends...


No. Just wanted to make sure. I'm all business today. :food-smiley-004:


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

iaresee said:


> No. Just wanted to make sure. I'm all business today. :food-smiley-004:


:food-smiley-004:

Anyway - so is this a good looper for that Bill Frisell/Robert Fripp kinda thing? 
I've been thinking a bit about that, and a lot of folks seem to like the DL4, but I have an inherent distrust of that kind of technology applied to music. How does the EHX match up? ANyone A/B'ed the two? or the Boss DD-20? 
Does it digitize your whole signal or just the delays?


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> Anyway - so is this a good looper for that Bill Frisell/Robert Fripp kinda thing?


I should clarify my looper statement: it had a cool lo-fi sound to it. Grainy. I dug that. It was a royal PIA to create a loop because the start was delayed by 2 secs. You had to stomp on the start switch 2 secs before you wanted the recording to start. That's hard. If it was 1 beat. Or 2 beats. No problem. But what's "2 seconds" to someone live looping? It took a lot of practice to get it right and get the loops lining nice without gaps. I would have preferred an "instant start" to the record feature. But it sounded great. Very, very organic sounding looper.



> I've been thinking a bit about that, and a lot of folks seem to like the DL4, but I have an inherent distrust of that kind of technology applied to music. How does the EHX match up? ANyone A/B'ed the two? or the Boss DD-20?


They're both digital so it's all the same technology under that hood. In the medium price digital delay field right now the DL4 is king and for good reason: it's pretty sweet. Lots of great sounds. Great looper. Absolutely lame ass annoying 4 dial interface. :smile:

The DD-20 is my old friend. I went back to it after trying the two others. It's sterile sounding. But it's really easy to use live. I understand it completely. Try as I did I couldn't understand the DL4 or SMMw/H completely. Their features eluded me. Their interfaces confounded me.

If you've never used any digital delay before I'd start with the DL4, only because it's king and if you can get around its interface it rocks. If you like quirky things to happen when you turn knobs go with the SMMw/H. If you want "find sound, play" type speed and ease of operation go with the DD-20.

If you can shell out a little more cash and can wait until mid-May there's something better coming than the lot of them. :wink:



> Does it digitize your whole signal or just the delays?


All three convert the entire signal when in use. The mixing between the dry and wet is done in the digital domain before it's converted back to analog. The DL4 is, I believe, true bypass when disengaged. The other two have buffers, but nice ones.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> If you can shell out a little more cash and can wait until mid-May there's something better coming than the lot of them. :wink:


Oh really? What's that?

I had the DL4 for a while, and I liked it as a delay. Very nice sounding delay and the analog modelling had a believability that I liked a lot. 

As a looper, I only used it sparingly. It couldn't really record long enough and I found it hard to get the timing right for it to loop seamlessly.

If I were going to look at something like that again, I would go for the DD20.


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> Oh really? What's that?


http://www.empresseffects.com/superdelay.php



> If I were going to look at something like that again, I would go for the DD20.


Which reminds me: the DD-20 had a leg up over the other two in terms of delay length. It goes to 2.5 seconds of delay. Used in conjunction with the 100% wet reverse mode and you make some great crazy stuff.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

iaresee said:


> If you can shell out a little more cash and can wait until mid-May there's something better coming than the lot of them. :wink:


Intrigued by that...Not talking about the Empress Superdelay are you? I've heard some clips of that one...
Really, off in the other direction, I'm (supposed to be) saving up for the Fulltone solid-state follow up to the TTE that he's been promising for this year.


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> Intrigued by that...Not talking about the Empress Superdelay are you? I've heard some clips of that one...


I am.



> Really, off in the other direction, I'm (supposed to be) saving up for the Fulltone solid-state follow up to the TTE that he's been promising for this year.


Yea, I'm off Fulltone. I've tried a few times now and their stuff keeps falling short of my expectations. The GT-500 was a massive disappointment. And dealing with them wasn't any fun.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

iaresee said:


> I am.


Yes, that thing looks tasty--do you need a pilot's licence to fly it though?
I think Scott will have some soon over at axeandyoushallreceive.com
They're going for $500-ish?


iaresee said:


> Yea, I'm off Fulltone. I've tried a few times now and their stuff keeps falling short of my expectations. The GT-500 was a massive disappointment. And dealing with them wasn't any fun.


I have a few of his pedals, and quite like them. The 69 fuzz is great (but I'll see how it holds up to the D*A*M 1966 Ge fuzz I've got on order). The 70 is a good fuzzface, just not my thing. I've got a non-mosfet fulldrive that gets dug out from time to time - it does that tubescreamer thing well, but I'm mor inspired by other things. They're generally well built and reliable, and I've had mixed dealings with them - from very quick and helpful responses to questions, to nothing for weeks and the odd snarky reply from Mike himself (but then, I guess it was a kinda stupid question, so...). But I'd really like a TTE, or better still the EP3 clone he's been teasing us with for a year. 
There's nothing o nthe market that competes with the TTE at the moment - there are a few emulators and even one or two actual tape units (isn't there a hiwatt tape delay?? Anyone ever seen it?).
Fulltone aren't really boutique any more though - so that's going to have an effect on customer service/support and everything else. I kinda think of FT as the baseline against which everything else is measured- he's become the BOSS of the boutique world.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

devnulljp said:


> Yes, that thing looks tasty--do you need a pilot's licence to fly it though?
> I think Scott will have some soon over at axeandyoushallreceive.com
> They're going for $500-ish?


I had an offer to beta test it and unfortunately had to turn it down for time reasons. 

I may be wrong, but in speaking to the manufacturer - Steve Bragg - I thought he was aiming for a pricepoint somewhat lower than that. It may well offer more features than the Stereo Memory Man or DL-4, but not enough more to justify a price that high ($500-ish) in the mind of many a consumer. At that pricepoint we're well into TC Electronic and Lexicon rackmount stuff with oodles more capability. i couldn't imagine anyone competing with those products in a stompbox format.


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I had an offer to beta test it and unfortunately had to turn it down for time reasons.


:smilie_flagge17:



> I may be wrong, but in speaking to the manufacturer - Steve Bragg - I thought he was aiming for a pricepoint somewhat lower than that. It may well offer more features than the Stereo Memory Man or DL-4, but not enough more to justify a price that high ($500-ish) in the mind of many a consumer. At that pricepoint we're well into TC Electronic and Lexicon rackmount stuff with oodles more capability. i couldn't imagine anyone competing with those products in a stompbox format.


I can confirm this. Steve also told me it'll be much less than $500. It competes with the Nova Delay and TimeFactor so expect similar pricing. If you haven't seen the videos yet check 'em out: http://www.youtube.com/user/empresseffects -- they've put a lot of effort into making it sound really good and I think it's payed off.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I may be wrong, but in speaking to the manufacturer - Steve Bragg - I thought he was aiming for a pricepoint somewhat lower than that.


Could be - Scott's got them up for $449.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Some VERY interesting things in those youtube videos. The reverse provides some fascinating sound-sculpting. This is a deep pedal. From conversations with Steve, and considering what is in the tremolo, I was expecting that, but this is even deeper than expected. Take one of these and an EHX Flanger Hoax, and there is simply no end to what you'll be able to do.

It would also appear that he put some thinking into the visibility of the display LEDs. Kudos, and big score on the usability scale!


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Some VERY interesting things in those youtube videos. The reverse provides some fascinating sound-sculpting. This is a deep pedal. From conversations with Steve, and considering what is in the tremolo, I was expecting that, but this is even deeper than expected. Take one of these and an EHX Flanger Hoax, and there is simply no end to what you'll be able to do.
> 
> It would also appear that he put some thinking into the visibility of the display LEDs. Kudos, and big score on the usability scale!


Zoinks! I'll say! I'm gassing for one real bad now!


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

iaresee said:


> :smilie_flagge17:
> I can confirm this. Steve also told me it'll be much less than $500. It competes with the Nova Delay and TimeFactor so expect similar pricing. If you haven't seen the videos yet check 'em out: http://www.youtube.com/user/empresseffects -- they've put a lot of effort into making it sound really good and I think it's payed off.


Good news: You can pre-order now here
Good news: Release date looks like May 12th 
Bad news: $449 CDN


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## Guest (Apr 25, 2008)

devnulljp said:


> Good news: You can pre-order now here
> Good news: Release date looks like May 12th
> Bad news: $449 CDN


It's worth every penny of that price. :smile:


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## Studiocat (Apr 24, 2007)

This is a neat pedal. Very functional, and you can get plenty of regular or whacky sounds out of it. The built in reverb is neat and the reverse stuff is awesome. Try writing guitar parts with 100% wet reverse. It will turn your brain upside down and you'll come up with something original, I promise.
Tap tempo is great too.

My only complaint is that you can't adjust the delay in real time without getting those weird digital start-stop sounds, like you can with a boss digital delay. They should have worked that out, although I realize it was probably one of the drawbacks of having presets.
Also - When you're overdubbing, one of the knobs that controls the active delay sound also controls the mix of the old track with the overdub, so you don't have full control. Kind of annoying.

I want to try the eventide time factor. Apparently it blows everything away, for twice the price.

A


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Just to clarify, since the thread has meandered a bit, you are talking about the SMM, right?

Reverse is a weird beast. People try to use it because of the tonal quality it imparts, but the planning aspect is more labour intensive than they anticipate. It certainly can get in the way of improvising quite a bit, unless you are simply game for *anything* that comes out of it. On the reverse side of the coin, people have attempted to mimic reverse-tape sounds using various slow-attack pedals like the Boss Slow Gear, PAiA Gator, EHX Attack Delay, and others. Given that those work a note/event at a time, it is easier to plan out your phrasing in advance. Unfortunately, they do not deliver an authentic replication of what happens when tape is reversed (change in timbre, relocation of finger vibrato, etc). Moreover, they do not always handle legato phrases particularly well, since they ARE more single-note-focussed.

I have an Echo Park pedal, and I find a nice compromise is to put it on the "swell" setting, with the shortest possible delay, and set it for 100% wet. That gives me a very predictable slowed attack without having to plan out an entire phrase in advance so it sounds how I expect backwards.

As problematic as reverse-mode can be, it makes you think, and that's always a good thing.


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## Peter (Mar 25, 2008)

I am an utter noob when it comes to effects, so please bear with me.

It sounds like you can get some pretty reverb-ish sounding stuff out of the SMM pedal, correct?


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## Guest (May 4, 2008)

DeleriumTrigger said:


> I am an utter noob when it comes to effects, so please bear with me.
> 
> It sounds like you can get some pretty reverb-ish sounding stuff out of the SMM pedal, correct?


It's nice, but it's no dedicated reverb pedal. It has a mode where in reverb is applied to the repeats only. It's nice. Good for trippy, ambient stuff. With the SMMw/H it does delay best, and a few other things it does in a so-so manner. The 'verb thing is one of them.


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## Peter (Mar 25, 2008)

iaresee said:


> It's nice, but it's no dedicated reverb pedal. It has a mode where in reverb is applied to the repeats only. It's nice. Good for trippy, ambient stuff. With the SMMw/H it does delay best, and a few other things it does in a so-so manner. The 'verb thing is one of them.


Cool thanks for the info! :rockon:


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