"There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet!" - Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, 'There Will Be Blood' (2007)
Time, like the ocean, ebbs and flows. One day you're making delays with a bulky box of tape reel, the next you're doing it with a drum of oil, the third you're not making delays at all. Before you know it, you're back making delay effects in the digital realm in the style of technology thoroughly cycled out of production. Who would've thought that we'd be back to analog-style effects formatted for the digital world after all this time?
In any case, it's nothing new that we've seen the sounds of analog effects reshaped into digital components. What's old is new, turns out. Today we're running down one of the modern effect world's premier digital wizards and their take on a classic modulated delay. Let's dive in.
This is the Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo Delay.
Where the Oil Flows
Introducing the Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo Delay
The world of audio effects wasn't always as figured out as it is today. Like anything else, there was once a time with no precedent for audio and recording effects. Concerning the question of delay effects, the effect was once exclusively the realm of tape reel. Tape reel echoes utilized the commonplace medium of tape in a time when people were still into that kind of thing. Despite the ubiquity of physical tape, there was eventually a call for innovation as tape reel echoes were big, bulky, heavy, expensive, and delicate.
Citizen's Guide to Oil Can DelaysEnter the Tel-Rey company at the tail end of the 1950s. Through a new design, the company sought to achieve a minimized, more accessible echo device. While a delay effect was harnessed, their "oil can" delay – a device utilizing a small, rotating drum of oil as dielectric material instead of tape – produced a unique version of the sound altogether. Tel-Rey's oil can delay differed from established tape reel echo effect tones with new, distinctly dark and modulated characteristics rising to the top.
Due to oil can delays like Tel-Rey's exhibiting finicky artifacts of their own, the Strymon Olivera is designed with a brand-new algorithm design. Authentically emulating the tones produced by oil can delays and their numerous, tone-affecting design variables proved such a new Strymon algorithm necessary. The Strymon Olivera is a dynamic, compact, and authentic digital oil can delay with all the compelling, modulating delay tones of original oil can delays. Classic Strymon playability and high-fidelity sound brings the oil can archetype thoroughly into the twenty-first century. Let's talk about it.
Viscosity Now
Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo Delay Delay
The Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo centers its design around a streamlined yet authentic delay. In the style of their EC-1 dTape Echo, this new Strymon creation minimizes the method while not compromising on sound or playability. The Olivera is an effect to deliver authentic oil can delay tones to endlessly shape or set-and-forget. With it, we have an intuitive set of controls.
- Mix – Like any great delay, we've got a Mix control. Easily harnessing the level of the effect to play subtly or take over the whole signal, Mix works simply. Left for less, right for more.
- Time – Kicking off our basic delay control, we have Time. Again, easily figured, Time shortens or lengthens the time intervals in between repeats. Left for shorter, right for longer.
- Regen – What we'd now usually refer to as "Feedback," original oil can echo devices commonly marked such a parameter as "Reverb." Regeneration controls the number of repeats the Olivera produces. Clockwise, we get longer repeat trails and shorter the inverse.
With our basic delay setup established, we can now get into some of those all-important oil can modulation tones.
- Rate – Here, we're getting into the speed of our modulation effect. Moving clockwise, the modulation on the delay trails gets faster and tighter. In the other direction, the modulation gets slower and wider.
- Intensity – With this control, we can shape the depth of the modulation. Moving up on Intensity, the modulation pitch effect gets deeper and more drastic as it cools out moving in the opposite direction.
- Repeat Tone – Tied to the Regeneration control, when holding down the footswitch, the Olivera can change the tone of the delay repeats. While holding the footswitch, turning the Regen dial clockwise will brighten the tone of the trails while turning it counterclockwise will darken them. You can use this control to hit on classic oil can delay effects or invent new ones. Play in ways closer to the shady and murky ways actual oil did or blaze your own trail.
- Heads Control – On vintage oil can delay echo units, devices utilized a single recording head and two playback heads. The three-way Heads Control switch simulates the ability to swap between original oil can's closer playback head, its farther playback head, or both at once. On "Short," the Olivera will simulate the shorter delay times of the closer playback head - "Long" for longer delay times. "Both" creates a lopsided pair of delay trails to get into more complex repeat patterns.
The Olivera brings all of these controls together to produce exceptionally effective oil can delays. Rolling through its many different configurations, the Olivera can run the gamut from a sweet, subtle, and shallow modulated delay effect to dip your signal in a tidepool of murky delays to a wildly mobile, wobbling, delay to drum up a harsh tidal wave of modulation to rock your boat. The Olivera delivers both authentically vintage oil can delay tones to replicate your favorite analog-style sounds and new-age and exciting oil can delay tones to create dynamic, ambient-friendly washes of sound. It's through a pedal like the Olivera can you get a grasp of the inventive capacity of a hi-fi oil can delay. This pony's got more than one trick, if you catch our drift.
Dark Fountains
Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo Delay Further Functions
As we fire up the Olivera and we're dealing with its incredible digital effect engine, we're also treated to Strymon's classic high-tech playability, connections, and operation. Let's go over a couple of these all-important functions.
- Connections – At the heart of the Olivera is a pair of stereo TRS connections for input and output. The Olivera features a Class A JFET preamp that processes incoming signals with an incredibly optimized, ultra-low noise floor and flat frequency response. What's more, selectable routing for mono-to-mono, mono-to-stereo, and full stereo enables a vast spectrum of signal flows and easy integration into a variety of setups.
- Switching – Like many other Strymon creations, the Olivera drops in with a responsive footswitch. With the Olivera, you're treated with an option to go with electromechanical relay-switched true bypass switching or premium buffered bypass switching. Whichever switching style usually suits your fancy, Strymon has you covered for an untouched signal or signal preservation. No wrong answers here!
- Control – In classic high-tech Strymon fashion, we get a couple of ways to remotely control the Olivera. The first is an onboard ¼" expression connection where you can plug in the expression pedal of your choosing and get to work. The second is Strymon's full MIDI implementation. Strymon's full MIDI functionality can be harnessed by either the ¼" expression jack or by the USB-C connection. In addition, Strymon's MIDI implementation allows access to a bank of three hundred onboard presets for your own personal oil-drenched library of tones. Don't worry about the binding though. It's wet, but it's fine. Weird, right?
Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo Final Thoughts
In seamless Strymon style, the Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo fits into their existing catalog of effects and delivers on every level. For oil can delay effects, the Olivera rises to the top as it achieves the authentic analog effect in the digital realm. Strymon truly busts open the doors for an oil can delay that inspires in both vintage-style emulations and inventive, innovative sounds. With Strymon's Olivera, the oil will never stop flowing. Call it classic effect reinvention in motion, call it an oil rush. Whatever it is, you gotta join in.
