Vintage pedals always seem to have an indescribable “Cool” factor going for them. Maybe it’s the chipped paint, missing knobs or ripped-off back label, but you can instantly see they’ve been through the ringer, and have still survived. This shows you that they are A: Built to last, and B: Good enough for folks to have used them over and over again throughout the years. Today’s vintage find is an odd little pedal from our friends at Boss: the DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay.
Now in this particular pedals’ case, the word “Sampler” is a bit of a stretch. While it will do some sampling, the max length you can record is 0.8 seconds. No, not EIGHT seconds, ZERO-POINT-EIGHT seconds, which is almost nothing. The trickiest part of using the sampling feature of this pedal is trying to figure out what note you can play that will sound good repeated that quickly, and let me tell you, it’s not the easiest task in the world. I got it to where I could use it for short, one-note bass lines, and mixing it with a phaser produced some kinda cool results, but overall, this should NOT be your go-to recording pedal if you’re a one-man (or woman) band.
The Delay side, however, is classic 80’s Boss. Maxed out at 800ms, there are 2 options to choose from: Short and Long, both having different delay lengths, respectively. I love the repeats on the old Boss delays, and this one sounds really nice for being digital. Effects Level and Feedback controls do what they should, and you can Record your sample on one setting, then have the option to play just that recording back using the Play Only setting. There’s even an external trigger option, where you can tap in your recorded phrase via an external footswitch (or, you can just use the on/off switch on the pedal, either way).
As a straight sampler, the DSD-2 was not my favorite pedal. As a straight delay, I loved it. No frills, no fuss, just a laid-back digital delay hanging around from yesteryear. While there’s nothing too flashy about this guy, it’s nice to know there is a plethora of vintage delay options still floating around for all of us to seek out and enjoy.
Specs:
Controls: E.Level, F.Back, Delay Time, 4-way Mode switch
Connectors: Input, Trig. In, Output, AC Adaptor
Current Draw: 55 mA (DC 9V)
Delay Time: 50 to 200ms in S Mode, 200 to 800ms in L mode
PCM System: 12-bit plus analog logarithm compression
Sampling mode:
Frequency Response: Sample/Delay 40Hz to 7kHz (+1/-3 dB), Direct 10Hz to 60kHz (+1/-3 dB)
Recommended AC Adaptor: PSA Series
Submitted by Mike B, Website
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December 14, 2015
you missed a very important feature of the dsd2 in this review. which to me is THE reason why this pedal is a gem: the trig. in input works with any audio input pattern fed there. so you can use, say, a syncopated drum machine pattern to trigger short sampling bursts, which can produce extra cool rhytmical sampling extravaganzas… try it out!
November 8, 2016
Alessandro is so correct! This aspect is exactly how and why a DSD2 was used to create the Jungle/Drum and Bass in 1990/91. Full info and early recordings: http://urbansunrise.co.uk/profile.html
January 15, 2017
What we want to know is,
is the sampler memory volatile?
Can you leave a great kick drum sound in there between gigs?
November 12, 2017
It was not volatile. I owned two of these, I’d load a snare in one, kick in the other, triggered by two korg drum machines running in sync. A poor man’s SP-1200!