U-He - Uhbik-D

Uhbik‑D is a multi‑tap delay unit with five separately controllable delay taps. The controls for each are identical and feature a duration that is set in 16th notes, up to a maximum delay time of one bar, plus a pan control and a volume control. Other controls help simulate the fluctuations inherent in old‑fashioned tape delay, so as well as the normal wet/dry mix and basic tone controls, there are feedback, soft clip and modulation controls, the last of which aim to simulate the wow and flutter of an old tape‑based unit.

The relationship between the delay taps and the feedback confused me at first. I set up the first tap with a delay time of 4/16ths and, as expected, I got a one‑beat delay. Next I wanted to add some feedback, so I turned up the feedback control but ended up getting an 8/16th time for the feedback. It took me a little while to realise that the feedback time is set by clicking on the feedback buttons at the bottom of each tap. If the light is illuminated, it means a feedback time as set by the delay time of that tap is activated. The mistake I had made was having the feedback of a different tap activated! Activating the feedback control on the correct tap soon solved the problem. The slightly unintuitive down side of this is compensated for by the fact that you can have multiple different feedback times but, sadly, each of these is applied to the entire wet output, rather than each tap having a dedicated feedback time.

The rest of the controls work as you would expect and do a good job of emulating the sometimes wobbly nature of tape delays. The one thing that I did notice was a slightly metallic tone to the delayed signal, unless there was some judicious use of the filters provided to slightly damp the delayed sound.