Yamaha E1010 Analog Delay
Last Update 05-12-2019
The E1010 is a good sounding analog delay with a maximum delay to
300ms. This is my least favorite analog delay unit for sound quality,
but I keep it around for a few reasons. First, it has a panel full of
knobs. No menus to monkey with, turn any knob and you get immediate
change. The unit is very easy to operate
with its large knobs and is ideal for real time tweaking - unlike
digital delays, analog delays do not interrupt the audio signal when
the delay time is changed. There are five latching buttons for
selecting the delay range: 10, 75, 150, 225, and 300ms. The DELAY
control scales the selected range between 0.25X and 1X. As to be
expected with an analog BBD delay, the upper frequency range degrades
with longer delays (natural echo does the same thing). On my
unit, if I use any mix level between all direct or all effect, the tone
of the original suffers terribly, the output level drops. I can get
around this by using the direct out and all effect on the mix for
live/studio mixing, but guitarists should be forewarned this is *not* a
good unit for inline effects like stompboxes. As the E1010 is a BBD
based delay unit, the fidelity isn't perfect (it is a 1970s design).
This can be a fault or a feature depending on your perspective -
natural echos aren't perfect either! I'm also not impressed with the
fidelity of the original signal in the mid delay ranges (30ms, 75ms),
but not sure if that's a malfunction in my particular unit. One fault
of the E1010 design is that it does not cover the time domain between
10ms and 18.75ms - which is the range for chorus/flange effects! I
never liked modulated delay effects like flanging because of the LFO -
it's a sine waveform and the modulation is not smooth. You can hear the
sweep slow down between the extremes of the waveform. While it has a
certain effect at fast LFO rates, triangle waveform is much better for
modulated chorus or flange effects. It has been in our musical
family for a long time; the
first gigging band I played in had bought it in the early 1980s for the
PA, then my brother used it for his guitar, then when he borrowed my
wireless unit and lost it in luggage during air travel the E1010 became
mine as compensation.
The effects out of this box are limited. It's a good machine for
echo, slap, and haas processing but modulated effects such as chorus
and flanging do not sound good. Part of this is due to the
crucial missing gap in the delay range, and also due to the
insufficient implementation of the LFO sweep control law (translated:
the modulation is sinusoidal which isn't optimal for slow modulated
delay effects). This is not the highest fidelity delay unit in my
arsenal, but imperfections can be a good thing as I find it useful for
slightly distorting the delayed signal when using it for stereo haas
processing.
The E1010 - and its little brother the E1005 - are the only BBD delay
units
I have seen that uses a chain of multiple BBD ICs. Yamaha chose
the MN3004 512 stage BBD for the 10ms range, while a quad of chained
MN3005 4096 stage BBDs handles the other ranges. The 75ms range
uses a single MN3005, the 150ms delay range adds another MN3005, etc
etc. Anyone who has experimented with BBD devices knows that
chaining multiple BBDs quickly increases the noise, as BBDs are hardly
quiet and the noise accumulates from BBD to BBD by an order of a
magnitude. Yamaha remedied
this in three ways: the delay time pushbuttons switch in different
passive low pass filters, (-)24dB/oct active filters between the BBDs,
and a NE570 compander compresses the audio before the delay system,
then expands it by the same ratio at the end of the chain. The
expansion action increases high level signals while decreasing low
level signals - namely the noise - so as to improve the signal-to-noise
ratio to an acceptable level (note this does not ELIMINATE the
noise). The low pass filters decrease the high frequency response
with increasing delay time - at 300ms the upper frequency limit is
2Khz. Even at the shortest delay time range the upper frequency
limit is 8Khz. And that's in ADDITION to the (-)24dB/oct active
low pass filters at the outputs of each MN3005! This is typical
of all analog BBD devices. However thanks to the compandor amd
the filters, the E1010 has better S/N ratio than most analog BBD delays.
Basic controls for MIX, FEEDBACK, FREQUENCY, and DEPTH should be
familiar to delay enthusiasts. Separate BASS (70hz +/-12dB) and
TREBLE (7Khz +/-12dB) controls alter the tone of the direct signal
before it enters the BBD chain, which is a useful tone modifier not
seen on many BBD delays. The INPUT control has enough gain range
to handle miniscule guitar signals to hefty pro audio (+)4dBu
levels. The E1010 has front and rear panel jacks for input and
output, while an optional direct output is available on the rear panel
only. The direct output proves useful for stereo haas processing,
a typical set up routing unprocessed direct signal panned to extreme
left with delayed signal (MIX fully 100% wet) panned to extreme right.
What is it good for? Simple slap delay or Haas effects for simple
stereo enhancement. Knobs rule in my studio and I want to minimize
menus wherever possible. I've been tempted to sell the E1010 on more
than one occasion, and decided that there is no such thing as too many
delays. It is my go-to box for imparting a subtle stereo image (Haas
effect) on guitars. That's pretty much it... no negative feedback
(would had been ideal for
extreme flange effects), no other modulation waveform, mono delay not
stereo (modulated effects such as chorus really should be
stereo). This is a rudimentary delay unit - don't expect complex
delay effects.
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