The Joshua Ambient Echo by MXR is a well thought out, versatile digital delay pedal. I hate to use this phrase, but it truly is a “Swiss Army Knife” of a delay pedal. It has a ton of features but it’s not overwhelming to use, and it’s very easy to dial in a great sound.
You can go bonkers with it, or switch off all the extras and use it as a simple delay pedal. That range is the whole point.
The panel runs in two rows. Top row, left to right: Delay (time), Mod (modulation depth), Voice (octave blend). Bottom row: Regen (feedback), Division (tempo subdivision), Mix. Tap tempo lives on the bypass footswitch, and a secondary CTR jack accepts an off-board tap or freeze switch.
The Mod knob pulls double duty: at lower settings you get subtle, lush movement on the repeats; push it past noon and it thickens into full vibrato territory. Voice is the standout control. It dials in a custom blend of sub-octave and octave-up signals across the delay lines, which is where the organ-like, shimmer-adjacent character comes from. Division steps through five tempo subdivisions: quarter note, dotted eighth, eighth, eighth triplet, and double-delay dotted eighth. Echo 2 is a second delay line set to quarter note by default, and it turns the mono output into a stereo spread via the TRS jack.
In the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for the Mod, Voice, and Regen knobs, so you can hear exactly what each one does to the repeats.
The presets map the pedal from restrained to full-on atmospheric. Quarter Drunk keeps the Voice at zero and the Mod high (8) for wobbly, tape-like repeats. Dotted 8th Gallop brings in Voice at 7 for that organ harmonic character under a dotted-eighth rhythm. 8th Vibrato maxes the Mod at 10 and brings Voice to 2, leaning hard into the vibrato side of the Mod knob. Rumbling Triplets pushes Voice all the way to 10 over triplets for dense, organ-washed cascades. Dancing Dots runs both Mod and Voice at 5 in the double-delay mode for a spacious, shimmer-lite texture.
For me, the real magic happens when you tap the tempo to match the BPM of the song and set the two delay lines to different subdivisions. This creates a rhythmic pattern that adds movement and widens the stereo image at the same time. It sounds like MXR took inspiration from the POG octaver when designing the Voice control.
Both pedals target ambient textures and have octave-colored voices, but they go about it differently. The Walrus Audio Lore is a reverse soundscape generator: five programs that layer reverse delay, pitch reverb, and octave reverb into dense, ethereal fields. It’s designed for sound exploration where the exact result is pleasantly unpredictable. The Joshua is a delay pedal first. Its tap tempo, subdivision grid, and stereo Echo 2 stay in strict rhythmic relationship with what you’re playing. The Voice and Mod controls add shimmer and movement, but the underlying architecture is musical and ordered. If you want to disappear into ambient textures and don’t need to lock to a tempo, the Lore is the tool. If you need those textures to sit in time with a band or loop, the Joshua gives you control the Lore doesn’t prioritize.
Ambient, post-rock, and shoegaze players are the obvious audience, but the Joshua earns its place in a broader context. The subdivision grid and tap tempo make it a serious rhythmic tool. The stereo Echo 2 rewards anyone running a wet/dry or stereo rig. Volume-knob players get a lot out of it, since dialing back Mix lets the dry signal breathe while the echoes work in the background.
If your delay ideal is a clean, transparent single repeat with no extra features, this is more pedal than you need. For anyone who wants one box that can go from clean quarter-note slap to shimmering ambient wash without a settings deep-dive, the Joshua covers it.
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Get detailed specs on MXR's website
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