Strymon Timeline

With their exceptional build quality, incredible effects, and overall high quality gear, Strymon has elevated itself to the upper echelon of pedal companies. The Timeline is certainly a big part of that success. This incredible delay pedal is deep. Boasting endless sounds, almost infinite sonic textures, and immense customizabilty, this pedal can be an instrument all to itself. Prepare for an endless journey with one of the finest delay pedals out there.

External Control: MIDI/EXP
Cost: $$$

HornFX Review

Interface:  3/5
It is always a challenge to fit so much sonic capability in a single pedal housing and make it accessible and easily used. Being that the Timeline is so deep and expansive, Strymon has done a good job with its layout and interface. While using on the fly, the pedal can be challenging, but is certainly easier to manipulate than its brother the Mobius. Unfortunately, as with my other pedals in its class, the Timeline’s potential simply cannot be fully unlocked without external control. While it does have the ability to move from preset to preset and to do the basics with its effects on its own, the addition of expression and midi control truly unlocks this beast. To swiftly change from preset to preset, manipulate settings on the fly, and make this an agile workhorse, external control is likely neccessary.

Versatility: 5/5
There is virtually nothing that this pedal cannot do in the delay universe. From simplistic yet beautiful delays, to multilayered wild soundscapes, to looping, this pedal can do it all exceptionally well. Like the Timefactor and the Nemesis, this delay box is an entire universe of sound, waiting to be unlocked. Exploring this pedal is an almost endless yet joyous task. With such a wide expanse of sonic options, this pedal truly enables self expression. The deeper you go into this pedal, the more you will get out if it.

Tonal Reproduction: 4/5
As with all strymon pedals, the quality of the effects, and the reproduction tone is exceptional. This is not only the case because o its ability to accurate reproduce your tone, but because of the sonic and tonal tools it gives you. If you hear something in your head, this pedal can do it. If you have the time, the desire, and the patience, you can find incredible, unique sounds and build a sonic pallete completely tailored to the music you want to make. This wildly manipulable pedal truly sounds amazing.

Live application: 4/5
As with its brothers, the Mobius and the Big Sky, the Timeline is a mixed bag for live use. Of course, it sounds great, can do anything you want in the delay world, and is fun to show off with. However, it suffers from a few slight setbacks. It is large. These days, small pedals are so valuable because of the limitations travel presents. Space is at a premium and this pedal takes up a lot of it. Also, without an external controler of some kind, this pedal can be a real challenge on stage. It is hard to read in the dark, its preset switching system is good but not great, and it simply will not perform at peak levels without external control. Even with these limitations, the math is quite ease. If you can afford this extremely expensive pedal, get it. It sounds incredible. It is incredible.

Audio Clips

Below you will find a large selection of audio clips meant to display they wide ranging capabilities oif the Timeline. You will hear saxophone and trumpet playing through some of the factory presets that come on the Timeline. These sounds range from simplistic and conventional to otherworldly and vastly spacious.

Product Information

Inspiration Machine.

When we decided to create a studio-class stereo delay effects pedal, we knew we must go well beyond what has been done in the past—in sound quality, sonic flexibility, hardware design, and processing power. We spent months locked up in the Strymon sound design labs dreaming up the most spacious, lush, creative, and tweakable delay effects ever heard. It was a monumental task—a relentless study of delays and their nuances, and a continuous pursuit of innovative and musically inspirational sounds. Utilizing a ridiculously powerful SHARC DSP, every drop of processing power is harnessed.

Explore Your Creativity.

TimeLine provides you with twelve unique delay machines, each with extensive control over sonic character and feel. Go from crisp and clear, studio-quality digital delays all the way to the saturated and fluctuating sounds of tape delay machines. Get warm and fuzzy analog style repeats all the way to shimmery, sparkling, and crystalline ice delays.

Tweak to your hearts content and save up to 200 presets of your favorite sounds. Top it all off with full MIDI implementation and a routable, 30-second stereo looper and you’re on your way to delay bliss.

Sound Design

• Hand crafted, studio-class delay algorithms deliver meticulous, detailed and nuanced delay experiences

• Twelve delay machines to choose from: Digital, Dual, Pattern, Reverse, Ice, Duck, Swell, Trem, Filter, Lo-fi, dTape™, dBucket™.

• Seven front-panel tone shaping knobs: Time, Repeats, Mix, Filter, Grit, Mod Speed, Mod Depth

• Additional menu-driven parameters deliver extremely flexible tone shaping options and complete tweakability

• 200 easily accessible and nameable presets, save and recall at the press of a switch

Hardware

• Three rugged metal footswitches for preset selection, effect bypass, looper control, and Tap Tempo

• LED display for preset info, BPM/time readout, and extended parameter control

• Multi-color preset LEDs (green for active preset, amber for edited preset)

• Full MIDI implementation allows extended control for those with more complex rigs

• 30-second stereo Looper, routable pre- or post-delay, with MIDI capability.

• Sturdy and lightweight gunmetal gray anodized aluminum chassis, with laser-etched artwork

• Durable black anodized aluminum knobs

• Studio-grade audio input and output jacks

Ins & Outs

• Stereo input and output

• Expression pedal input with selectable control over knob or combination of knobs, saveable per preset (also configurable as external tap input)

• MIDI input and output

• Switchable I/O configuration: Stereo Out or Mono with Delay Feedback Loop Insert

• Included 9V center-negative power supply (300mA minimum required)

Audio Quality

• Ultra low noise, high performance 24-bit 96kHz A/D and D/A converters

• 115dB typical signal to noise

• Analog dry path for a zero latency dry signal that is never converted to digital

• Premium analog front end and output section

• Super high performance DSP in a compact form factor

• 32-bit floating point processing

More

• True Bypass (electromechanical relay switching)

• Selectable Trails mode with high quality, transparent Analog Buffered Bypass, saveable per preset

• +/- 3dB Boost/Cut, saveable per preset

• Selectable Tap Subdivision, saveable per preset

• Optional Kill Dry mode mutes dry signal, for use in parallel effects loops

• Optional Global Tap Tempo mode

• Dimensions: 6.75″ (171mm) wide, 5.1″ (130mm) deep

• Designed and Built in the USA

Product Information from the Strymon Website.