Ibanez Layer Delayer: The Ultimate Shoegaze Delay?
Auto-panning, low-pass filtering, super delay!
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Here’s a nice addition to their annual NAMM drop: the Ibanez Layer Delayer is a versatile, epic-sounding delay effect that is set to cover just about everything. Three delay flavors, stereo signal flow, MIDI, eight auto-panning modes, and much more. This thing can do it all!
What makes the Ibanez Layer Delayer so special?
The look of the Ibanez Layer Delayer’s faceplate reminds me of some legendary rack effects from the 1980s, most notably the ART SGE Mach II. The videos and presets also seem to follow a similar typical 1980s synthwave aesthetic. In other words, dark, wobbly swirls are the Layer Delayer’s main course.
The basic idea: you can adjust the volumes of all four sixteenth notes of a quarter delay separately, plus two triplets. The result is epic clouds of sound, shimmering delay carpets, and rhythmic ping-pong stereo. This is something for all shoegaze and synthwave fans.
Which features of the Layer Delayer stand out?
The Ibanez Layer Delayer offers three distinct delay flavors: analog, digital, and tape. Depending on the tone control setting, different-sounding echoes emerge. What’s unique here is that switching between the three settings is stepless, allowing you to create delay sounds in between.
The Layer Delayer also comes with eight auto-panning modes. These are different ping-pong delay modes in which the echoes generated fly around your ears, sometimes alternating extremely quickly, sometimes meandering from right to left (or vice versa). You can use the pan speed control to determine how quickly the changes between right and left occur.
Does the pedal offer MIDI control options?
But that’s not all. The Ibanez Layer Delayer also features a low-pass filter that can be used to dampen the echoes. In addition, there are typical delay controls such as Mix, Time (for rate), Feedback, the aforementioned Tone control, six controls for the delay volumes, and three footswitches.
Start is the bypass footswitch, Bank/Preset lets you switch between presets, and Tap Tempo allows you to adjust the delay speed. In addition, as is becoming increasingly common with delays and reverbs, you can use Tail Decay to dial in how long the signal fades out after a preset change or bypass. And you can use a two-way switch above it to change the input level between line and instrument, making it perfect for synth heads as well.
Speaking of presets: a total of 50 can be stored on the Layer Delayer, and 20 come preloaded. These can be accessed and changed via MIDI. On the rear panel, there is a 5-pin MIDI In (plus a MIDI Thru) or, optionally, a USB-C input for MIDI connections. For signal flow, there are two connections each for input and output, as well as a mono FX loop for inserting additional effects into the feedback loop.
How much does the Ibanez Layer Delayer cost?
The Ibanez Layer Delayer costs €249.00 at Thomann*. It will be available in one to two weeks.
More on the new Pedal from Ibanez
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