Rocktron Cyborg Digital Destiny digital delay pedal

ROCKTRON'S CYBORG Digital Destiny is a bit of a paradox. On the one hand, this floor pedal delivers studio-quality tone, courtesy of its Motorola DSP engine, with eight instant-access presets. It has an intuitive tap tempo control, and individual knobs let you refine the presets by adjusting delay time, repeats and wet/dry mix. The unit runs on an included power supply, so there's no fussing with batteries, and it sports Rocktron's HUSH noise reduction technology. Even the old-school LED display is efficient and easy to read.

On the other hand, you need a MIDI controller (such as Rocktron's MIDI Mate) to change presets by foot as well as to access all the pedal's 64 presets. But as Rocktron notes, the Cyborg is not a budget pedal, so a more professional-minded audience is obviously the target here.

FEATURES

EACH OF THE Digital Destiny's eight factory presets recalls a different delay mode. Presets one through five let you set delay time as a fraction of the current tempo: either an eighth note (maximum delay time 500ms), a triplet, a quarter note, a half note or a whole note (maximum delay time two seconds). I like this approach, because it lets you think it terms of patterns and musical expression and then use the tap switch to set the actual delay time.

The final three presets-hold delay, PHAZDLY (phase delay) and reverse-are less conventional. Hold delay may well be the Cyborg's outstanding feature: you can play along with the hold feature on before you actually start recording in the loop, making it easier to sync with the tempo and create a usable backing loop. PHAZDLY adds modulation to the sound, while reverse delivers, as you would expect, a backward tape-type sound.

THE BOTTOM LINE

THE CYBORG IS sturdily built, sounds incredible and is easy to use. It loses some points for requiring MIDI gear to gain full access to its features, but its calling card is superior tone that preserves the nuances of your instrument. The hold feature is outstanding too, a nice bonus for what would otherwise still be a strong workhorse delay.