Electro-Harmonix Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator

At first glance, the Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator might appear to be something of a novelty pedal, recreating a psychedelic studio trick. Then, when you actually dig in, you realize that the EHX team designed a ton of practical ingenuity into this effect pedal. Yes, you can get a nice backwards delay effect – but you can also get way more, including one of the more unique fuzz sounds I’ve ever come across.

Based on the classic (and rare!) original Attack Decay pedal, this modern version is feature loaded: a button toggle that switches between mono and polyphonic processing, a mini knob to adjust sensitivity, three mini knobs that adjust the volume, tone and gain of the Harmonix fuzz circuit (more on that later), four big knobs that adjust level, blend, attack, and decay, two foot switches, your in/out jacks, extra jacks for send/return and an expression pedal input. It’s also got three buttons that let you save and recall presets (up to three, one for each button). As I mentioned at the top, feature loaded. The instruction manual reads 24 pages and includes a lot of detail that the discerning player will find useful and critical.

Basic operation of the reverse tape delay simulator effect is straightforward – the Attack knob controls the fade-in speed of the volume envelope. The Decay knob sets the fade out speed of the volume envelope. These two knobs essentially drive the reverse tape delay effect, from long swells to short staccato bursts. Toggling between mono and poly will change the nature of the effect – mono applies to the effect to a single strum, where poly

will apply the effect to each note you play, independent of any notes that have been played or are being sustained.

I had a blast experimenting with just these three parameters (mono/poly, attack and decay), getting into some very exotic sounds. When I applied the Harmonix fuzz circuit, things got really interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean good. Things got really good. First, the fuzz circuit is loud. Second, when combined with the attack and decay parameters, you get this lush, tubey fuzz – straight off of Paranoid. In fact, if you turn the attack all the way down and the decay all the way up, the Attack Decay acts as a unique fuzz pedal – which immediately pulls this pedal from the “novelty” category to “fulltime spot on the pedal board” category. The Attack Decay pedal is a surprisingly adaptable pedal that does much more than the name applies.