Artisanal Effects Magic Delay

The Artisanal Effects Magic Delay is a hand-built delay pedal released in 2024 as a clone of the Ibanez Soundtank EM5, a rare and somewhat obscure digital delay from the late '90s¹. Where the original used jfet switching that Pedal of the Day's reviewer described as unreliable, the Magic Delay substitutes a true bypass switch that sits outside the signal path and has no effect on the sound¹.

Despite being a digital delay, the pedal's character is what reviewers point to first. Pedal of the Day found the sounds "creamy, filtered, warm and very analog delay tones," produced by a Mitsubishi M65831AP digital karaoke chip¹.

What it does

The Magic Delay keeps things simple: just three knobs, which Pedal of the Day summed up as "great sounds and amazing tones just come pouring out here"¹. The controls cover the delay basics:

• Time: sets the delay length, up to approximately 1000ms at maximum¹
• Feedback: at maximum, the repeats get very close to, but never quite, self-oscillation¹
• Mix: balances the dry and delayed signal

At the lowest delay settings the pedal produces an almost spring reverb-like sound, a quirk of the circuit that gives it a second use as a pseudo-reverb¹.

The heart of the pedal is the Mitsubishi M65831AP, a digital karaoke chip that Pedal of the Day called "unique and original"¹. It is the same class of obscure part that makes the pedal a limited run: only a small number of these chips remain, and when they are gone, the Magic Delay will be no more¹.

How it relates to the Magic City Delay

The name invites comparison with the Swindle Effects Magic City Delay V2 and the earlier Swindler Effects Magic City Delay, but they are different pedals from different makers. The Magic City Delay, from Swindler Effects, is an analog-voiced delay with four controls: Repeats, Mix, Time, and a Filter knob that alters the overall tone of the repeats and filters in or out the tape-like artifacts produced at longer delay times²³. Swindler Effects describes its repeats as "luscious, dark repeats; analog voicing"².

Pedal of the Day reviewed the original Magic City Delay in 2016 and found that "this thing screams old school analog delay, with big, bold, luscious and dark repeats throughout," adding that the look and feel of the Functionalist Series pedals "make them true works of art"⁴. The Magic City also uses soft touch, true-bypass switching³, a feature the Magic Delay shares in its own true bypass design¹.

What reviewers said

Published coverage of the Magic Delay itself is limited to Pedal of the Day's 2024 review, which was positive on the pedal's core character¹:

Pedal of the Day's reviewer, 14 July 2024¹

The reviewer's overall take was that the pedal delivers warm, analog-sounding repeats from a digital chip, with a quality in the repeats the reviewer could not quite pin down but enjoyed¹. The same review noted the near-oscillation behavior at maximum feedback and the spring reverb-like character at short delay times as distinctive traits¹.

Videos

Click to load

Questions