STRYMON VOLANTE

[Teflon]

Yes there is the "Blue Nebula"

An excellent bit of kit for not a lot of money, with terrific support from the makers StanleyFX

Cliff

[Somerset]

Since I started playing the music of The Shadows about a year ago I have been using, initially, a Baby Blue then a Blue Nebula for my echos. Both of these pedals are excellent but I recently thought I'd have a go at creating my own echo effects so I bought a Strymon Volante.

I am happy to admit that I knew nothing about echo machines so learning about heads, playback, feedback etc. has been an interesting exercise. So far I have been able to re-create some of the presets in the Blue Nebula (using a single muted note) with acceptable results.

However, I wouldn't know where to begin in creating an echo effect simply by listening to the recorded tune. So, please can anyone give me any advice on this subject or point me to a description of the echo machine settings used on various tunes so that I can try to emulate them on the Volante?

All suggestions will be gratefully received. Thank you.

[Garystrat]

Hi Richard,

Dave Robinson has posted settings on the first page of this thread, this should be enough to get you going!

There is follow up information too in these threads. I suggest read the through them, below is a link to YT manual:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFEvBP-hrYE

It's a really well built unit with an impressive specification, the Binson style head arrangement/drum settings should produce more than acceptable patterns for the Hank Echo. There is unique secondary control over the head spacing, which I feel helps in providing more detailed echoes for Shadows fans, to quote Strymon:

“Variable Head Spacing - On some vintage multi-head tape echo machines, the heads were not evenly spaced, which created interesting sonic interactions when multiple heads were set to repeat. Volante gives you a SPACING control that is adjustable between Even, Triplet, Golden Ratio (for dense, non-overlapping echoes) and Silver Ratio (for non-overlapping repeats biased toward the quarter note). The spacing between the heads is continuously variable for the entire travel of the SPACING knob, morphing between the available settings.”

I freely admit that I’ve become far more pragmatic in favour of the character and tonal qualities rather than trying to achieve every nuance of the recorded sound, which was certainly influenced by Abbey Road Studio. To me the Volante sounds really good in an authentic way that is normally more associated with those early tube echoes, there is a basic analogue feel, saturation (it has an initial analogue path), slight grit with the right controls to replicate the “constructive” quirks and flaws of the original vintage units, without the hassle factor.

The Volante can store 8 on-board presets by over writing the factory ones which are pre assigned to the head/feedback buttons using the favourites foot switch. In a gigging environment this may not be quite so convenient as say a rack unit, but for studio and home use it should be fine.

Whilst I haven’t explored it, Strymon state that a total of 300 presets can be stored via MIDI and it’s been suggested elsewhere that they are soon to release editing software, which could make it much easier of create and change patches if connected to a computer.

http://www.strymon.net/faq/saving-and-r ... n-volante/

The Volante is also firmware updatable via USB, anyone who has one of the earlier units may wish to check this out (as one would expect the new unit supplied to me had the latest update).

Regards

Gary

[Somerset]

Hi Richard,

Dave Robinson has posted settings on the first page of this thread, this should be enough to get you going!

There is follow up information too in these threads. I suggest read the through them, below is a link to YT manual:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFEvBP-hrYE

It's a really well built unit with an impressive specification, the Binson style head arrangement/drum settings should produce more than acceptable patterns for the Hank Echo. There is unique secondary control over the head spacing, which I feel helps in providing more detailed echoes for Shadows fans, to quote Strymon:

“Variable Head Spacing - On some vintage multi-head tape echo machines, the heads were not evenly spaced, which created interesting sonic interactions when multiple heads were set to repeat. Volante gives you a SPACING control that is adjustable between Even, Triplet, Golden Ratio (for dense, non-overlapping echoes) and Silver Ratio (for non-overlapping repeats biased toward the quarter note). The spacing between the heads is continuously variable for the entire travel of the SPACING knob, morphing between the available settings.”

I freely admit that I’ve become far more pragmatic in favour of the character and tonal qualities rather than trying to achieve every nuance of the recorded sound, which was certainly influenced by Abbey Road Studio. To me the Volante sounds really good in an authentic way that is normally more associated with those early tube echoes, there is a basic analogue feel, saturation (it has an initial analogue path), slight grit with the right controls to replicate the “constructive” quirks and flaws of the original vintage units, without the hassle factor.

The Volante can store 8 on-board presets by over writing the factory ones which are pre assigned to the head/feedback buttons using the favourites foot switch. In a gigging environment this may not be quite so convenient as say a rack unit, but for studio and home use it should be fine.

Whilst I haven’t explored it, Strymon state that a total of 300 presets can be stored via MIDI and it’s been suggested elsewhere that they are soon to release editing software, which could make it much easier of create and change patches if connected to a computer.

http://www.strymon.net/faq/saving-and-r ... n-volante/

The Volante is also firmware updatable via USB, anyone who has one of the earlier units may wish to check this out (as one would expect the new unit supplied to me had the latest update).

Regards

Gary

Thank you for your comments Gary.

Having spent the past couple of weeks familiarising myself with the Volante I now know what all of the controls are and I have in deed read this entire thread including the suggestions from Dave Robinson. Those and other settings are very useful.

One of my issues, which I obviously didn't get across entirely, is where to start in setting the echo pattern for a song from scratch. Take for example Mountains of the Moon. Is there a knowledge base of the settings used for that, and other, tunes or is it a case of trial and error until I find something that I think sounds like the original recording?

[Garystrat]

Hi Richard,

I said in my post your are really going old school with the Volante based on a Binson 4 switched head/feedback arrangement, what I have found is that Dave’s information gave me a good starting point for the older style Shadows numbers and you find your own way to personalise/customise them from there, it doesn’t take too long before becoming reasonably familiar with it.

Things like YT demo videos can be a great help, try to find one with settings close to what your looking for and tweak it from there, for the more modern echos a tape setting might be more appropriate, with things like less wear and perhaps a little more saturation with a slight drop in echo level. It’s worth remembering the Spring reverb as well, this is one best digital one’s I’ve heard.

Regards

Gary

[dave robinson]

Having never bothered with Mountains Of The Moon I don't know what the echo patch should be, but at the time it was recorded, Hank used his Roland 501.
This means that he only had 3 heads on which to base his echo sound so it won't be anything complicated. The Volante offer four heads, much the same as a Binson Echorec, but with the bonus of being able to alter the speed and spacing patterns to get close to the Meazzi machines as well.
When I get a minute I'll have a look at the TVS3 and see what heads are being used and equate the settings to the Volante if possible.

[Somerset]

Having never bothered with Mountains Of The Moon I don't know what the echo patch should be, but at the time it was recorded, Hank used his Roland 501.
This means that he only had 3 heads on which to base his echo sound so it won't be anything complicated. The Volante offer four heads, much the same as a Binson Echorec, but with the bonus of being able to alter the speed and spacing patterns to get close to the Meazzi machines as well.
When I get a minute I'll have a look at the TVS3 and see what heads are being used and equate the settings to the Volante if possible.

Thank you for your comments Dave. In saying you will check TVS3 settings you are illustrating my point exactly. When the patches for the TVS3 were programmed, did the developers have access to the original echo settings for the songs (either documented or the man himself) or was it done “by ear”?

If the former then is that information publicly available? If the latter then I’d better put new batteries in my hearing aids!

[dave robinson]

When EFTP and other companies like Korelec who made the Atlantis and TVS sent their new machines out, their was always an accompanying leaflet with all the Shadows titles and corresponding patch numbers, then I think it was the 'eTap' people that published all the text regarding echo head spacing times and levels. I have my own little black book with much of this information, but my research was done from listening to the real machines and comparing the numbers which can vary from machine to machine, though the sounds are still within the 'ball park' by a good distance.Having listened carefully and compared them myself, in my opinion Paul Rossiter has the definitive most accurate readings and they are readily available for perusal on the TVS website under 'Hank's Echoes' and you have to scroll right down the list to see them - here.
https://www.tvsspecialtyproducts.com/ha ... units.html
Time to do your research.

[Somerset]

When EFTP and other companies like Korelec who made the Atlantis and TVS sent their new machines out, their was always an accompanying leaflet with all the Shadows titles and corresponding patch numbers, then I think it was the 'eTap' people that published all the text regarding echo head spacing times and levels. I have my own little black book with much of this information, but my research was done from listening to the real machines and comparing the numbers which can vary from machine to machine, though the sounds are still within the 'ball park' by a good distance.Having listened carefully and compared them myself, in my opinion Paul Rossiter has the definitive most accurate readings and they are readily available for perusal on the TVS website under 'Hank's Echoes' and you have to scroll right down the list to see them - here.
https://www.tvsspecialtyproducts.com/ha ... units.html
Time to do your research.

Thank you Dave. That’ll keep me out of mischief for a while!

[dave robinson]

I've just had a look at Mountains Of The Moon and the echo isn't anything remarkable.
I had a word with Paul Rossiter who builds the TVS3 and he confirmed it would have been the Space Echo on that recording and suggested patch 19 on the TVS3.
I tried it and sure enough it is a good representation. It's a single repeat at around 440ms with some feedback, about 40% echo level.
The Roland 301 (and the 101, 201, 501) had a vari-speed knob which allowed various echo lengths. Speed it up and the echoes were shorter and fast, but slowing it down allowed longer slower repeats, but it is only a single head and on the Roland it was very likely head 3.