Reverbs and “delays” or “echo” are both a [strong]type [/strong]of delay, but they are different. Some modern delays include BOTH a reverb and delay effect but historically, especially before digital effects, reverb and delay were two separate effects. The first reverbs were made using springs. The first delays were made using magnetic tape or magnetic drums.

The main difference in sound is that the echos in reverbs are [strong]indistinct[/strong]. They all overlap and get blended together and blurred out. You can’t hear individual echos because they are all smeared together. The echos in a delay, as opposed to a reverb, are [strong]distinct[/strong].

The Memory Toy is an [strong]analog[/strong] delay. All of the echos will be distinct. When you use very short delay times with a high feedback to try and emulate a reverb, you end up with something called a comb filter. That’s the “metallic” or “robot” sound that you’re hearing. It’s an interesting effect, but it’s not a reverb. The best way to substitute a delay for a reverb is to have a short delay, but not the shortest, turn down the feedback so that you don’t have too many echos – maybe two or three, then adjust the blend so that the echos are much quieter than the original signal. This is still not a true reverb, but it kind of works like one.

Electro~Harmonix’ true reverb pedal is the Small Stone. This is a true reverb with indistinct echos. The Small Stone is a [strong]digital[/strong] effect. It is possible to make an analog reverb, but it’s very difficult and expensive because you basically need a lot of analog delays feeding into each other and back into themselves to “smear” the echos so that you can’t hear them individually. DOD and Arion both made an analog reverb based on the same expensive chip (DOD FX45 and Arion SRV-1), but they didn’t sell them for long because the Small Stone sounds so much better.

The Electro~Harmonix Canyon Delay & Looper has multiple delay types AND a reverb.