Strymon Deco

Magic to tone

I was a bit sceptical getting this pedal but after using it for months I can say it is more versatile than it looks like to be. I use it in home studio setup linked to audio interface loop to get tape tones, I can plug it to effects loop or use it in front of the amp. It really can be overdrive pedal, modulation type of effect or just bring the tape tone.

Killer pedal & a great service!

Absolutely killer pedal and amazing customer service!

One sided

The left side gives a really fantastic saturation effect with a warm drive sound for some grit. However I found the right side modulation especially the flanger was just not suitable and I ended up selling it. A pity because Strymon pedals in general are amazing especially the Flint and El Cap.

Strymon has done it again!

I have plenty of Strymons and this one is very peculiar as I use it for recording exclusively. The saturator part makes everything come alive - vocals, keys, bass, acoustic and electric guitar. The doubletracking has so many interesting effects packed into it - slapback, chorusing, flanging and the 3-way toggle switch might give you some interesting ideas on how to pan/position the instrument in the mix. I consider it an invaluable asset in the studio.

Excellent Pedal

Very cool pedal, great sound, compact size, excellent gain staging.

It has many applications but so far I used it only with synths and drumcomputers. The size format, price point, color scheme, controls and overall feel makes this a very cool pedal to add to your rig. Like all the Strymons, reccomended!

Will I ever switch this pedal off?

It's often said that gear will never make you sound better than you are. It's all in the fingers. And this is true, the one and only exception I've ever come across being the Strymon Deco.

I mainly use the left side, adding saturation to edgy cleans, and it really does make me sound better than I am. The harmonic richness the pedal adds is subtle, but amazing. Switch it off, and you notice it's gone. Then your foot goes back down and switches it back on again, perhaps to never switch it off.

The way I'd put it is that a nicely dialed-in guitar without it probably gives me a thrill 90% of the time, but then I hear the odd chord or note where the tone sounds too bright, or too dull. Switch on the Strymon and the 90% that was already good sounds better and most of the 10% I didn't like is gone.

There's lots to play with on the right hand side as well, but to be honest, edge of breakup cleans are mostly what I want, so I sometimes use the right hand side as a chorus, which is nice in that it's a good chorus that saves me an extra pedal.

The chief con is the price. I would say it's worth it in terms of the value it adds, but it is expensive.

more versatile than expected

Bought the Deco innitialy to sensibly create a stereo image, switching to doubliing effect on the favorite in my guitarrig, as an always on effect,

I discovered the real power of the deco since I put it in an aux of the FoH mixingdesk (my "daytime" job), Try using a slightl woblng chorus-setting to your rev send ( pre-fader). mixing the deco-signal to taste.

I tend to keep the deco returnn at low levels, in favor of being able to ad delay through another unit. Does work also with longer time-settings, though the deco hets more audible. REMINDER: Switch the deco to studio-levels if using it in this way (page 9 / manual)

Une tuerie

Cette pédale a peu de limites dans son utilisation.

Jouant du rockab', je l'utilise personnellement pour son slapback, qui est fabuleux ! Et j'utilise le côté drive comme preamp/master volume. Je pousse mon Pro Junior presqu'à fond, et je baisse le volume sur le preamp pour garder mon son plutôt clean.

Le preamp rend le son un tout petit peu plus beau et précis (très légère compression venant du drive).

Le chorus est également splendide.

Je n'utilise pas vraiment de Flanger, donc ne peux pas vraiment juger.

Placée en bout de file, elle rajoute cette petite touche magique au son général (comme quand on passe dans un enregistreur à bande).

One of my favourite pedals. Very nice for Lofi stuff. A versatile pedal overall, also nice for slapback delay and for stereo widening (one of my favourite features). Also nice for tape saturation. A winner in my book.

Great effect for hardware synth

I bought the strymon deco to 'spice up' the sound of some of my hardware synth. It is a dual band emulator with separate controls over the volume, the saturation and the dual-band emulation. There are also some 'hidden' control for more fine tuning.

The fact that you can push up the gain with a separate control for the saturation, coupled with the dual-band emulation and the fact that the unit can work in stereo make the strymon deco a unit of choice for synth that are a bit harsh or digital or with inconsistent (or weak) output level.