Hi,
From my point of view, there´s a lot of hype surrounding everything Strymon produces. This hype made me go with the Timeline some time ago, even though YouTube comparisons between both pedals seemed very even. One day I picked up a second-hand Timefactor and immediately felt more comfortable with it than with the Timeline. In no way I mean the Timeline is a bad product, it’s AWESOME, but since it was produced in order to kill the Timefactor, I consider they should’ve done a little better. This is a summary of my humble experience with both products
Timeline pros:
1) More presets: 200 vs 100 on the Timefactor
2) Three unique algorythms: Swell (almost a reverb), Tremolo, and Ice (the latter being a copy of Eventide’s Crystals effect, included in the Pitchfactor but not in the Timefactor)
3) +/- 3dB selectable for EACH PRESET: This is the only Timeline’s feature I actually miss
4) Tails on/off selectable for EACH PRESET: In the Timefactor, you can only set tails on/off for ALL PRESETS TOGHETHER
5) Overall more deep controls like Smear and Repeat Dynamics. The effect of these controls is way subtle, but I can’t avoid mentioning them as an advantage, since the TF has nothing like those
6) Grit knob might help, depending on how deep you want to edit your Tape delays
7) Better sample rate: 96kHz vs 48kHZ on the TF
8) Bank up/down footswitches available all the time: Timefactor has no “bank down” footswitch. Despite this you can downsize a bank with the encoder knob, with MIDI and with an external footswitch. Personally this is no issue for me because I always save my presets on the setlist order, that way I only need the bank up footwsitch.
Timefactor pros:
1) “Spill” function: selectable time to go from one effect to another. If you’re playing preset 1:1 with spill time asigned at 1 second, then suddenly engage preset 1:2 without turning off preset 1:1, the pedal will take 1 second to smoothly glide the wet between presets. GREAT for live songs that require more than one preset. In the Timeline there’s no “spill” and when you change presets, you hear the previous effect abruptly being cut until repeats on the new effect begin appearing
2) Two unique algorythms. Band delay: A nasty LFO phase-shifter-type applied to the repeats with all of the LFO parameters adjustable. Very, very psychdelic. ModDelay is a use-it-in-stereo algorythm where modulation on each channel is out of phase by 180°, creating unique dimension effects, such as a Roland Dimension D
3) “Catch up” function: editing a pre-saved preset, when you turn a knob, the pedal will not affect this parameter until you reach the point that knob was saved on the preset previously. Example: preset was saved with feedback at 25, but the knob is at 75. When you turn the knob, the effect feedback won’t change until you reach 25. At the same time, the screen will show where the knob is saved
4) Wider, brighter screen: with the Timeline I had problems seeing the screen once on a daylight gig
5) Perfect for parallel stereo delay on all modes
6) “Hold” function: both pedals have this function. When you engage Hold on the Timeline (holding the preset footswitch), the feedback goes to 100%, causing the pedal to self-oscilate (which might be good). On the other hand, the Timefactor locks the repeats already sounding and loops them. It’s an interesting kind of “hold” that you cannot achieve in the Strymon, and if you want to get 100% feedback on the Eventide just like on the Strymon, you can do it easily by assigning a footswitch to the feedback knob
7) Ducking delay has way faster-response on the Timefactor than on the Timeline
Similar algorythms (Timeline / Timefactor)
Digital / DigitalDelay
dTape / TapeEcho
Dual / Every mode on the Timefactor is dual
Pattern / MultiTap
Reverse / Reverse
Ice / – – –
Duck / DuckedDelay
Swell / – – –
Trem / – – –
Filter / FilterPong
Lo-Fi / VintageDelay
– – – / BandDelay
– – – / ModDelay
Matter of taste: this comes to the sound, some might like one, some might like the other one. Both sounded great to my ears. It was the Eventide’s handling characteristics that made it stay on my board. The stereo funcionalities also helped because I play with 2 amps. For recording guitars in mono maybe I would use the Timeline for its extra-deep controls, but for gigs it’s the Timefactor forever
