DigiTech expanded upon it and made a
standalone pedal of the same name.
Let’s dig into the sounds. The biggest
selling point of the iStomp is possibly
that the reverb sounds come courtesy
of Lexicon. Yes. Exactly. You get the
classic Lexicon Hall reverb sound that
has been used on countless recordings.
And it sounds as great and expansive as
you remember. It sounds so good, that
I’ve been tempted to use the iStomp as
outboard gear and run vocals and drums
through it. I’ll be honest, a lot of what I
use the iStomp for is reverb. There’s a
fantastic spring reverb call Spring Tank
with controls for Mix, Tone, “Twang,”
and “Boing.” It might not sound quite
as perfect as some standalone reverb
pedals, but it’s pretty surf-tastic. I can
give equal praise for the Plate and the
Angelic Choir. The Plate is just a fantastic
studio sounding plate reverb, and the
Angelic Choir does “shimmer.”
I don’t shimmer often, but when I do,
it’s Angelic.
Since we’re talking about space-based
effects, we can move along to delays.
The iStomp offers five delays ranging
from tape simulations, to bucket brigade
analog, to all-digital. It’s worth noting
that all of the delays can be adjusted
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TONE TALK //
with tap tempo. Just hold down on the
foot switch until the LED starts flashing
and then tap in your tempo. Once done,
hold the switch down until the LED stops
flashing.
Getting back to sounds, my favorite of
the bunch is the Vintage Tape Delay.
It offers controls for Time, Repeats,
Sat[uration], and Level. It’s that Sat
control that makes this model shine.
It gives the effect of overdriving the
tape and creates repeats that are dirtier
and grainier than your dry signal. It’s
great for separating the base tone from
the repeats and is especially cool for
slapback effects. The Vanishing Point is a
great ‘80s style digital delay which allows
for modulation on your repeats. You’ll
love it for your next big power ballad.
I mentioned bucket-brigade didn’t I?
Well, there’s a model of a certain red,
three-knobbed analog delay available
in the iStomp. Sure, we could discuss
how it’s odd that DigiTech chose a
competitor’s analog delay rather than
one of the old DOD analog delays, but
we don’t have time for that. Instead,
just know that if you want a warm, dark,
washy analog delay that runs only from
30–310 milliseconds, the DM Delay has
you covered.
DigiTech iStomp: The Best $50 You’ll Ever Spend