The Electro Harmonix Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai is a stereo looper/delay pedal bursting with exciting features – in fact “Hazarai” is a Yiddish word that roughly translates as ‘everything but the kitchen sink’.
To put into perspective just how much you’re getting for you’re money, the Electro Harmonix stereo memory man is divided up into 8 separate modes which are categorised into 3 sections: Multi-Tap, Echo and Déjà vu.
Multi-Tap: This mode offers 3 kinds of multi-tap delays, and it allows you to choose precisely how many repeats you want to hear, it takes a bit of getting used to get full potential out of it, but when you get it you can tailor the effect to almost any delay you want. Within the multi-tap settings, you get a few little surprises; while a chord or note is being played, by pressing the “tap” footswitch you can “capture” and save it in reverse delay, which is looped until you release the “tap” switch. Another pleasant surprise is the “fading in repeats” feature: to fade in, just turn the decay dial to the maximum setting and adjust the repeats to the number that works for you.
Echo: This setting offers 3 types of delay, ‘300mS’, ‘1 Second’ and ‘3 Second’ control. You can adjust the delay depending on what effect you want, to a hardly noticeable instant slap or delay chaos. On the third setting the modulation allows you to control depth of delay via the decay dial so you can alter it from shallow rippling to warping effect.
Déjà vu: This mode gives you features such as Reverse Echo which is pretty self explanatory and adds a spacious effect. It also gives you the looping functions, which allows up to 30 seconds of loop time and unlimited amount of overdubs – which you can speed up, slow down or play backwards. With the preset feature you are able to save your sounds and with eight slots available (1 per mode) you can be ready in advance.
It must be mentioned that this pedal has a fully stereo signal path that works perfectly fine in mono also, with an added ping-pong delay if you go mono in, stereo out.
In terms of build quality, it’s compact and solid, and for the amount of features you’re getting for its size and price it really is great value for money. We only had space to scratch the surface of what this little box is capable of, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see a lot more guitar players experimenting with the Electro Harmonix Memory Man with Hazarai to create new and exciting sounds. – Steven Williams
