Review: Vivlex Time Maker – A Stereo Multi-Variation Delay Effect Pedal

Overview

The Vivlex Time-Maker, also available under the manufacturer name Rowin, is an economical Chinese made stereo multi-variation delay effect pedal, equally useful on guitars and keyboards, including synthesizers. Please note however, that I tested this guitar effect pedal on a keyboard. If you try this out with an electric guitar, your sound impressions and usability will most likely be different from mine.

Main Features

11 Delay Variations (Pure, Analog, Tape, Modulation, LOFI, Reverse, Reverse Tape, Pitch, Tremolo, Tube, and PingPong).
Stereo input and output connectors.
Standard Time and Feedback controls.
Dry/Wet Mix Control.
Delay type independent special control “FX” adjustment knob.
Audio data capture / transfer via USB Micro cable into for example a DAW
True bypass footswitch
- Left footswitch supports loading and saving of a patch of knob parameters.
Tap tempo footswitch
- Right footswitch support looper recording function, as well as playback, and clearing of recorded sound.

Knob Adjustment Details

As you can see in the picture, the pedal has five knobs and two push foot switches. Knobs are;

Type – Use this to select the delay type, see detailed description below.
Time – Use this to adjust time until the first delay is audible, from 100ms to 4 seconds, except for the two reverse delay types, in which case minimum is 50ms and maximum is 2 seconds. Note you can also adjust the delay time by using the “TAP” footswitch.
FB – Feedback is used to adjust how long the echo effect will go on, all the way up to more than two minutes!
Mix – Adjusts the balance between the dry and the wet signal. Note however that this adjustment is not a true dry signal, as any delay type that can be frequency adjusted also alters the dry signal! A huge design flaw!
FX – This knob offers further adjustment according to which delay type you select. For details about what parameter, it can adjust for a specific delay type, see below. Also note, another huge design flaw with this pedal, is that when this knob acts as a tone control (effect types 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7), it also affects the dry signal!

Testing

Note even though I own more than 40 synthesizers, I tested this with a simple Yamaha PSR-36 keyboard that does not have any internal effect processing. Furthermore, I did not add any external effects or processing. For simplicity and to prevent the review video from being to long, I only tested the following sounds; Bass, Electric Piano, Strings, and Bells.

Video

To hear how this Vivlex Time-Maker effect pedal sounds, check out my YouTube video here; https://youtu.be/X-5JgWA8b1

Effect variation details;

PURE – Clean digital delay effect. Sounds pretty good, with one being nearly able to emulate a reverb effect, with low “Time” and “Feedback” settings. As previously mentioned, the “FX” knob here works as a flawed tone control.
ANALOG – This delay effect is apparently designed to emulate one made with analog components. It does this by cutting high frequencies however, and unfortunately it also cuts high frequencies on the dry signal! Also as previously mentioned, the “FX” knob here works as a flawed tone control. Besides that, it sounds decent.
TAPE – This delay effect is apparently designed to emulate a tape delay. It appears it does this with slight amounts of modulation, and seemingly slight trimming of very high frequencies, unfortunately also of the dry signal! also as previously mentioned, the “FX” knob here works as a flawed tone control.
MODULATION – A Delay type with heavy modulation! One of my least favorites on this pedal! I found the best results with “MIX” knob set to only a small amount of wet signal, plus the “FX” knob which regulates the modulation speed, set either very slow or very fast!
LOFI – With this delay effect type, the wet signal is distorted, supposedly by decreasing the sample rate, adjusted by the “FX” knob, from the non-documented normal (guessing anywhere from 48KHz to192KHz), and down to a non-documented rate. Either way I find this delay type most useful in moderation, and only one some instruments or sounds such as; Piano, organ, and guitar.
REVERSE – This effect type, reverses the delayed signal. I find this useful on a keyboard mostly on certain instruments or sounds, and mostly to make occasionally used sound effects. As previously mentioned, the “FX” knob here works as a flawed tone control.
REVERSE TAPE – Slightly modulated version of the previous “REVERSE” delay effect, which I find more useful, sounding more pleasant on a wider range of instruments or sounds. As previously mentioned, the “FX” knob here works as a flawed tone control.
PITCH – Quirky delay type that changes the pitch of the delayed signal, from the original pitch, to what you specify via the “FX” knob, middle being original pitch. Note however that the delayed pitch changes in steps, instead of instantly! So by setting the “FX” knob to exactly the middle, you get a regular digital delay, but by slightly detuning from that position, you can get something similar sounding to a chorus or ensemble effect.
TREMOLO – This effect modulates the volume of the delayed signal, with the “FX” knob setting the modulation speed. I find this most useful either at low speeds, or at higher speeds with less wet signal mixed in.
TUBE – On this type, the delayed signal can be “overdriven” from slight to almost completely washed out, low in volume! The “FX” knob sets the amount of distortion. I find it to be useful for certain instruments or sounds, such as piano, organ, and guitar.
PINGPONG – This type pans the delayed signal between left and right outputs. The “FX” knobs adjust the panning speed, but I find the adjustment to be somewhat limited, not being able to go to very low or very high speeds. Still with a true stereo source, it sounds pretty good. Note however, if your left and right input signals are the exact same, there will be no ping-pong effect! For that to be audible, the two signals must be different, the more different, the more noticeable! Actually, I found it very effective to insert another effect pedal to one of the input signals, for a very nice ping-pong stereo effect.

Connectors

Power: You have two options which to power this effect pedal.
- Standard negative center pole 9V female socket, minimum 165mA, however manual states a 500mA power supply is needed.
- USB-Micro female socket.
Input: 2 x ¼” (6.5mm) unbalanced female mono TS jack sockets
Output: 2 x ¼” (6.5mm) unbalanced female mono TS sockets
Data: USB-C power socket doubles as a data port

Build Quality: Case, Knobs, and Switches

The metal case seems very sturdy. Although the knobs are somewhat wobbly, there are however good distance between them, so it is easy to turn and adjust. Foot switches seems very solid and of good quality. The pedal has four small rubber grip feet in each bottom corner, preventing it from sliding much, if any.

Accessories

One three-foot USB-Micro male to USB-A male (Standard) cable

Documentation

One dual sided letter size paper, containing a four-page manual, provides decent information, although not entirely grammatically correct, and even some confusing terms such as “first gear” and “second gear” for the reset procedure instructions.
What is missing are detailed information on the workings of each delay type, which would have been very informative!

Size

Dimensions: 116mm wide x 90mm deep x 35mm tall
Weight: 522 grams with box

Pros:

Very affordable.
Stereo.
11 Delay variations
FB (feedback) adjustment – I was very happy to discover that at the highest setting, the delay repeats can be heard clearly for over two and a half minutes! Compare that to a delay pedal M-Vave made that only continued for 2 seconds!
Capture audio via USB-Micro cable to your computer or Android phone.
Solid metal case.
No audible noise that I was able to notice.

Cons:

FX Knob: Biggest problem with this pedal is when this knob acts as a tone control (for effect types 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7), it also affects the dry signal! That is a huge design flaw! The tone control on an effect unit should only affect the wet signal. Exception is if there are multiple tone controls for designated parts of the signal. It is such a shame, because had this tone control been processed correctly only on the wet signal, it would have been more useful and even possible to emulate some brand name pedals.
ANALOG type: This delay type cuts some high frequencies however, and unfortunately it also cuts high frequencies on the dry signal! One can clearly determine that, when setting the dry “MIX” knob set far left to dry only. That is another big design flaw! It should not cut frequencies on the dry signal!
Glitch Sound: Occasionally during testing where I adjusted the “TIME” knob, the sound became glitchy, that is contained “random” / garbage noise. Fortunately it is easy fixed by simply tweaking the “TIME” knob slightly.
Ping-pong speed: Would have like to see a greater range of adjustments possible, as in slower and faster.
Knobs in general: Not very sturdy, but somewhat wobbly!
Effect type knob: The text on the pedal for the different delay types, are poorly aligned, to the extent that even if one would pull off the knob, and reinsert at a different position, still not all would align correctly! It’s like the distance between text type positions are not all equal, which I think is a bit sloppy!
No detailed information on the different delay types, and how exactly they are processed.
USB-Micro port instead of more modern USB-C.

Advanced Usage

To overcome that the frequency alteration that occurs on a few delay types, and the tone control adjustment via the “FX” knob on some delay types, on this delay effect pedal also alters the dry signal, and really for advanced use with any effect unit, you can split the input signal before entering this effect pedal. You can then route one as usual into the effect pedal’s input, and the other, now completely dry, into a mixer along with the output from the delay pedal. As with many mixers, if it also offers frequency adjustment options, you now have full control of the frequency adjustment of not only dry but also the wet signal! I will demonstrate that in a future article and YouTube video.

Conclusion

11 Delay variations effects that are mostly all quite useful. Note off course here usability varies dependent on what music type of instrument you are using it with. In particular you may find a few more useful effect types than me as a keyboardist, if you’re going to use this on an electric guitar. Off course I wish the few delay types that alters the frequency slightly, and tone control via the “FX” knob on other delay types, would not alter the dry signal. But by splitting the signal before entering this, and for that matter any effect unit, and route dry and effect out into a mixer, you can have full control of the frequency adjustment. Sound quality is noise-free. The ability to import the output sound digitally and directly into a DAW track via USB is a nice bonus! Build quality is solid, although knobs are a bit wobbly. At the time I bought it, mid-November 2025, it was about $50 including shipping and tariff taxes, which I found it a pretty good deal. Yes, it’s a keeper!