Woo! Got my first tape echo!

[Travis]

motterpaul wrote

I m not even sure how a tape delay without sound on sound would work- it seems like you would lose half of your repeats, which is no big deal if you can turn up the speed enough, but then you are going to chew through tape and whatever holds the tape in place (foam?) very quickly.

I should also probably clear this up so that Paul's post doesn't confuse anybody that may be looking for one of these. This is not how these things work..

Sound on sound mode on the full featured echoplex models simply disengages the erase head and allows the user to record a loop using the full reel of tape. The time of the loop is determined by the length of the tape in the cartrige. So you don't punch in or punch out like you do with a digital looper, you just wait for the beginning of the tape to come back around and play over the top of it and record as many overdubs as you want.

Of course the delay still works as normal on my sireko unit without the sound on sound. You can't do the sound on sound looping obviously, but the echo is just a regular single-head tape echo with as many repeats as you want, with the ability to crank up the feedback and get runaway oscillation if you want

Also, there is no adjustment of the motor speed on this or just about any tape echo that you'll find. That would result in a limited range of delay time and sound quality.

Rather, the delay time is altered by sliding the record head closer or further from the play head. When the record head is right next to the play head you will have a short delay time. When the heads are further apart, it takes longer for the tape to get from the record head to the play head and you have a longer delay time. The fidelity is the same with long or short delay times because the tape speed is constant.


Regarding fidelity, that depends on the condition of the tape and condition of the heads and other components. A properly working tape echo will have a noticably clearer, more hi fidelity sound to the repeats than an analog BBD delay. I already have several analog BBD delays as well as digital delays to compare.

Also, it's important to note that this isn't a hi fi recording unit. As others have stated, this is a guitar effect where the imperfections of the tape have a very "musical" and pleasing sound to my ears at least, and obviously many others

[Freppo]

@tabbycay Interesting article. I agree that when you reach a certain point there is not much to gain from higher resolution.
However, to me a 128mb MP3 is almost unlistenable because of the ugly and very obvious compression artifacts.

Anyway... This is what I scored today :)


Not exactly cheap (350€), but great condition and working fine according to the previous owner (a friend of mine), but it needs a new tape cartridge. I have just ordered one from ebay. Can't wait to try it out.

[Travis]

Epic score :0   Congrats!!

Please post more info if you get a chance once you get that tape cartridge

[tabbycat]

@freppo.

was talking about rough and ready mp3 quality for my sansa clip on the train. artificial noise floor being the train rumble and people yapping. agreed they can sound 'gritty' and 'dirty' if overcompressed (each on its own merits) but sometimes, for train and street level listening, something like 'new rose' by the damned appreciates with little a pinch to concentrate its purpose.
i know meek compressed his singles to within an inch of their lives so they would leap screaming out of transitor radios and juke boxes like a bat out of hell. but even after he achieved considerable success by doing so he still had to regularly fight his corner (probably literally) with timid cutters to get them to accept stuff. i bet they dreaded his arrival. blood on the tracks.

congrats on your deal. the space echo looks superb. pretty, useful and looks uncommonly clean too.

have you tried the boss stompbox re20 space echo? i liked the idea for ages, mostly because the 201 is a god and the boss is supposed to get close-ish, and also because i know gemma from the savages keeps one on her board for her lush wailing atmospherics. the girl has great tone. but lately i'm not feeling so convinced re the boss in general. just something suspect about it. do you use one at all?

[Travis]

I've never met a Boss delay that I didn't like. The only one that I've tried that was iffy on guitar was the PS-2 because the repeats get progressively brighter but it was amazing on the Moog synth

I've seen that boss space echo on many many pedalboards and it sounds lush and dreamy. I don't have one of those myself though. Boss really excels at delays

[Freppo]

@tabbycat
I understand what you mean, but I'm talking about the mp3 data compression, not to be confused with actual dynamic compression like Meek used on his mixes. I like to use alot of compression on a mix to shape the transients, and then limiter on the master to make it louder and more in your face. It can be done totally in the analog domain, and it's still uncompressed data until I make a mp3. It's that mp3 data compression that introduces the ugly artifacts i'm talking about. But that said, whatever sounds good to your ears. I imagine those artifacts will drown in the outside noise if listening in a loud sourroundings anyway. I don't want to get into a discussion about dynamic range (the "loudness wars").. :)

Damned, New Rose - awesome song! Awesome band! I think you and I have very similar taste in music :)

I love the Boss RE20 Stompbox. It sounds awesome, sounds very organic. Even just as noisy as an analog delay (don't know if that's a good thing...). I have used it alot, even used it doing livesound on vocals patched into the mixer on an aux channel. :)