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Eventide Timefactor... Who has one.. Pros.. Cons..


ju5t1n20

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Eventide Time Factor... Who has one..

I am kicking around the idea of picking up a more versatile delay besides my El Cap. The El Cap is a great pedal and all, sounds super great on slower rock and clean passages, but I am wanting to get more of the 80's rock vibe, and some slapback for country. I have looked into this from a suggestion from one of the HCAF FB members. How is this pedal, and have you had any problems with it??

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Some Pro's:

 

 

Great interface

 

Dual delay for every delay type, each controllable for delay time & feedback with seperate dedicated dials

 

Does pristine digital delays well

 

Input level switch - instrument or line

 

Stereo i/p & o/p

 

12 second looper

 

9 delay types

 

Updatable with usb cable

 

Has expression pedal and external footswitch switch jacks & midi port

 

Currently has 50 banks with 2 presets per bank - you can assign names to every preset. Previous updates have expanded the number of banks from 10 originally to 50 now, so maybe more available in the future?

 

 

Some Con's:

 

 

Converts signal to digital (ADA) so many people percieve a digital 'sheen' to the original signal when the pedal is engaged

 

Many criticise the tape/vintage & mod delay as being weaker than other pedals (most notably strymon)

 

You need an external switch to enhance its controllabilty, mainly to scroll down through the banks (can't do this on the unit itself-you must cycle up through the banks until you arrive back at bank 1 after the last bank)

 

The power jack easily becomes weak, losing power if there is any pressure on the jack going into the unit. If the pedal is on a pedalboard and the jack isn't subject to any inadvertant pressure from moving this isn't an issue.

 

Will take a little time to study it - ie not a plug-in & play pedal

 

 

That's all I can think of for now

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i just got mine... still tinkering with it.

 

i've had the other "factors" and if it is capable of what they do for pitch and modulation effects... its a huge keeper. i've been thru a few other big delays lately trying to figure out which ones i'm gonna keep for a long time, now that i'm not playing a lot... and its better than a dd20 & dl4 hands down. my other keeper is the empress... just can't imagine missing it.

 

eventide made their name off "80's rock". all the delays in the factor are based off of rack units from that era.

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I'm a nOob at interfaces and external switchers... What would a good idea for a small foot switch?

 

 

I don't have one for mine. You can set the number of banks available from 1 to 50, so if you only use a few presets you can cycle up through them without taking the time as you would if you were determined to have all 50 available.

 

I see T1M (This1'sMine) footswiches on a lot of boards

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I don't have one for mine. You can set the number of banks available from 1 to 50, so if you only use a few presets you can cycle up through them without taking the time as you would if you were determined to have all 50 available.


I see T1M (This1'sMine) footswiches on a lot of boards

 

 

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. It may be a bit overkill to get it to use for a few delay sounds. I may get it, but might wind up with a g major II and start a rack setup. GAS is awful.

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I'm a nOob at interfaces and external switchers... What would a good idea for a small foot switch?

 

 

The factor series has midi input and output. If you have multiple time factors you can link them all together and control them with a single expression pedal. There are a lot of switchers out there. I would probably get the pedal by itself first and go from there... You can decrease the number of banks and therefor looping through is a lot less of a hassle, you have 2 presets per bank.

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It's really a great time to buy these, lots of folks are selling theirs because they got a timeline.

 

 

This is why I sold mine. I think if you get one on the used market, it could be a good bang for the buck pedal. I think the Timeline sounds better, and is easier to use as well FWIW.

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Don't have one, but the price tag should count as a con impo. A Boss DD-20 or even a Line6 DL-4 might not get you as much hipster cred, but they stand their ground as far as features/modes/gizmos go...Right?

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the tape and vintage modes are much better since the original release

huge pro is that they update and upgrade the pedal... super easy to do with usb

the only con is the loop length on he looper.

I love mine, i use an aux switch from

 

 

Indeed, the updates have improved those delay types.

 

My PF's power jack is funky, the TF isn't. However, on both; the switches aren't as responsive as they were in beginning, and there is a delay sometimes when engaging a preset.

 

Far for pros then cons IMO

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I had a cringe tape setting on my TF that is very similar as I remember to a crinkle setting I had on the El Cap.


El cap - 1 preset, TF - a million presets.

 

El cap - 1 preset, TL - a million presets.

 

... Even though we're both exaggerating. ;)

 

Just saying... If the OP already loves the sound of his El Cap, why not just get the MEGA big brother that has 100 presets and can sound exactly like the El Cap (except for the multi-head mode)? :confused:

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true, I honestly didn't want to get aboard the strymon TL train. Kind of got over trying to get the best pedal for the "best" sound. The El Cap is a great sounding delay and I'm sure the TL is good too, but I already have a TF and it does the job.

 

Als..heh, presets can be more of a hinderance then an advantage. I've trimmed my TF presets down to 11 banks but may lower that even more.

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Als..heh, presets can be more of a hinderance then an advantage.

 

 

With delays, I really do find this to be the case. I'm a total delay whore, but whenever I have pedals that do presets I always end up tweaking the presets all the time anyway. I guess it's just down to differences in volume or band mix or whatever, but when I store a preset it always seems to need tweaking a little each time I play with the band. Other than my SMMH (which I'm always tweaking presets!) I prefer to just have one pedal per sound, as it's just that much quicker and more instant to dial in.

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Got rid of mine:

 

Pros:

Sounds fantastic

Alot of options

Useful for recording because of MIDI

 

Cons:

Takes a painstakingly long amount of to learn how to use it.

 

I will buy another in the future, but for now I don't have the time to sit down with a pedal for even an hour to learn how to use it to its full potential. I much prefer my DD20/Carbon Copy combo. Sounds amazing, was cheaper and could dial in nice sounds after about 5 minutes.

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Got rid of mine:


Pros:

Sounds fantastic

Alot of options

Useful for recording because of MIDI


Cons:

Takes a painstakingly long amount of to learn how to use it.


I will buy another in the future, but for now I don't have the time to sit down with a pedal for even an hour to learn how to use it to its full potential. I much prefer my DD20/Carbon Copy combo. Sounds amazing, was cheaper and could dial in nice sounds after about 5 minutes.

 

 

I guess it's subjective but I didn't find it too difficult.

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I had one and wanted to love it but I sold it.

 

Sounds great when you're using it. Tape echo sound is really good.

 

Puts weird sheen on signal even in true bypass mode when it's not engaged. I tried not to let this bother me but it was a deal killer.

 

Worst thing is the way you switch effects. You have a bunch of banks that each hold 2 presets. If you're in bank 1 you can have the two effects and switch back and forth. If you want to go to bank 2 no prob, hit bank up and you're there. If you want to go BACK to bank 1 you either have to scroll through all the banks until it resets or hook up an extra footswitch to go down. If you want to go to bank 1 - bank 4 - bank 3 - bank 30 it's a nightmare.

 

No complaints about the effects, they're great. Navigation and the weird sheen killed it for me.

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