When you're looking to surf a wave of digital oil, you're looking for something like the Strymon Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo delay. Punching in with Strymon's classic high-fidelity digital design and eye for playability and performance, the Olivera grabs hold of an authentic oil can delay experience primed for the players of today.
The oil can delay effect throws it all the way back to the late '50s. In the dawn of audio effect technology, the Californian Tel-Rey company introduced new technology that minimized the established form for delay effects – tape reel. Tel-Rey's oil can delay utilized small drums of conductive oil which would rotate, using the oil as the dielectric material rather than a tape reel. This development assisted in making echo delay effects more accessible in an era of bulky, delicate, and expensive tape reel delay devices, but also generated their own type of delay with particular modulation tones as prominent, common artifacts.
Today's Olivera oil can delay puts forth a striking, new digital algorithm specially designed for the pedal. In trying to capture the essence of the by-nature finicky and chaotic tones oil can delay devices are known for, Strymon broke new ground through extensive research, hitting a new level of effect realism.
The Olivera assembles with a familiar effect setup to users of past, small-scaled Strymon effects like the EC-1 dTape Echo. Traditional controls for delay time and repeats ("Regeneration") land with the Olivera to establish at the helm an intuitive delay experience. From there, more extensive functions enable users to take off in style with their own customized (yet fully authentic) oil can delay effects. Rate and Intensity controls easily shape the speed and depth of the oil can's modulation tones as they range from shallow and subtle to deep and drastic. Finally, a three-way switch, "Heads Control," emulates the physical distance of original oil can echo devices' playback head, which shortened or elongated delay times. With this switch, delay times can be pushed even further into true soundscaping territory.
Strymon's classic care for playability in the digital realm also rises to the top. The Olivera, for one, allows for the option of true or buffered bypass switching, thus accommodating for the rest of your rig. Strymon goes on when considering the rest of a setup with a Class A JFET input preamp that processes incoming signals with an incredibly optimized, ultra-low noise floor and flat frequency response. Routing takes that extra step forward with full stereo inputs and outputs that allow for mono input/output, mono input/stereo output, and full stereo operation. MIDI and expression control also play their part in making this Strymon creation dynamic and expressive.
For a fully-fledged dip in the digital dunk tank, Strymon pours over the legacy of oil can delays to deliver the most concise, friendly, and authentic representation possible.
Digital oil can delay with new Strymon algorithm
High-impedance, ultra-low noise discrete Class A JFET stereo input
Selectable three-way emulated playback heads control
Selectable mono/stereo input and output
TRS and USB-C MIDI connection for setting changes and 300-preset bank
Selectable true and buffered bypass footswitching
1/4" expression control out
Standard nine-volt DC center negative power operation