Two delay pedals, one layout, two outrageously different sounds; the Alexander Oblivion and Super Radical delays let you explore past eras or time-travel to futuristic soundscapes. The Oblivion is a vintage delay emulator, featuring four distinct delay engines, while the Super Radical is a single digital delay with four mind-bending ‘80s-inspired effects. With the addition of a unique Shift button on both pedals, you get double the functionality for a fully-loaded arsenal of delay.
The Alexander Oblivion gives you a multitude of choices with its decade-spanning mode options. Mode number one serves up the warm analog delay associated with classic bucket brigade units. Then there’s tape mode, which brings you back to the old-school magnetic tape machines and music’s earliest echo effects. Oilcan mode draws from the electrostatic delay line effects that became popular in the ‘60s, giving you dark, watery delay. Finally, multi mode mimics a multi-head delay, which lets players drum up a variety of combinations using the mode’s four playback heads.
Modulation in your delay can be tweaked using the Rate and Depth knobs. But with five simple controls, you might think the versatility of this pedal is limited. That’s where the Shift button comes in. Press that center button and the functionality of the knobs changes. Mix becomes a +/- 3dB boost, Time turns into an LFO wave shape selector, and Repeat transforms into a tone control. The addition of MIDI and expression pedal functionality just make the Oblivion the perfect delay to venture through time and space with as much control as a pedal can give you.
The Super Radical delay may have a similar layout as the Oblivion including the Shift button, but the sounds it produces are wildly contrasting. Retro ‘80s tone is the name of the game with the Super Radical, and its four modes live up to the promise of, well, radical digital delay.
The function of the Rate and Range controls changes as you swap out modes, offering up new parameters to control. Mod gives you a clean digital delay that can be changed up using the Range and Rate controls, allowing for vibrato or chorus tones to be dialed in as well as classic delay. With Glitch mode, you can take your delay all the way from pristine to gnarly bit-crushing. Bend mode offers pitch shifting ability based on early pitch shift technology. And last but not least, Flow offers a liquid filter effect, courtesy of the Super Radical’s digital four-pole resonant filter. Inact filter sweeping on Flow mode using the Range and Rate knobs.
Like the Oblivion, the Super Radical’s Shift button turns the Mix control into a boost and the Time knob into a wave selector. However, the Repeat control converts to an offset function, which sets the center of the modulation effect. And just like the Oblivion, MIDI and expression pedal functionality top of what’s already an incredibly effective delay.
Watch the video above to hear Joe demo both pedals for us and give us more insight into the handy controls offered up by both the Oblivion and the Super Radical. Click the banners below to shop for the Alexander Oblivion and Super Radical delays for yourself.
Alexander Pedals