Hi Ian,
I started re-thinking all this about 8 years ago when I decided to get a Catlinbread Echorec, it was quite different from the plug and play patch solutions and didn’t have the notionally recording correct head timings, but I really didn’t find this to be an issue and the satisfaction level was there.
Whilst Ivan is primarily demo’ing a Vox AC15 C1 he is using a Catlinbread Echorec, which sounds ……. well I’ll let you judge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auF1tRazxu0The Volante is an extremely versatile unit that can cover all sorts of magnetic echo types in a very authentic way, I find the modelling facilities provide features and functionality that gives the sense of using a real world magnetic unit without all the hassle and maintenance. Based on Dave’s reviews and sound files, I researched the unit in greater depth and found that this is a really well thought out design from the pre-amp being an analogue J-FET design to the introduction point of the powerful digital modelling, then you also have stereo input/output and MIDI connection.
Since purchasing my Volante a few months ago I have not looked in the rear view mirror at all, the initial move away move away from the plug and play patch type solutions to the Catlinbread Echorec was quite liberating and in the process I discovered that tone/character were the elusive factors that I had been seeking for long time, but the Volante very much takes this to the next level and is certainly not “a one trick pony”!
I now tend to take a less is more approach and now use this with Helix Native 3.6 (HN) for the amp emulation on a DAW based setup with SoundToys SuperPlate for the the Abbey Road reverb effect:
https://www.soundtoys.com/product/superplate/If you are interested this video will give you a very good introduction as to the units potential:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2My3speigI8 Hope you will find this of help.
Regards
Gary