dave robinson wrote:Martyn wrote:These units are getting rave reviews for creating the authentic vintage echo sound with all its programmable 'impurities'. Can't save settings into patches, though, unlike its more expensive sibling the Timeline so have to reset it to different echo when needed, but aside from that, anyone here tried one out to see if it can get close to the sounds we crave?
What are 'these units' Martyn?
Hi Dave,
I'd been trawling the net looking at various YouTube demos of all manner of units, more out of curiosity than anything purposeful, and stumbled across these echo boxes. Ignoring the hype and in quotes rave comments, I listened to several demos and after getting past some of the echoes that I thought had no real use or relevance to our music-specific tastes, I did think that with the ability to dial in varying levels of wow&flutter, tape 'crinkle' effect, darkening off of the echo trails as with worn tape etc this made quite impressive sounds. I don't
think it's possible to reproduce every precise echo` dedicated to itemised Shads tunes, as would be the case with EFTP patches and others, but there are various alterable multi-tap and single/double repeats that could get pretty close.Those demonstrating them in the videos were just showing all the variables they could within the scope of the demos but the sounds seemed quite good to my ears and several examples sounded close to some dedicated Shads ones I've used on the M/Stomp or Q2. I don't limit my playing to Shads material and more often than not use a relaxed multi-tap echo (U16) that suits all manner of other stuff, so in these instances I don't need to exactly emulate a specific echo, preferring this generic one instead. I suspect the Strymon unit will produce something similar but maybe with the added texture or character that the M/stomp can't.
Mansons in Exeter are my nearest stockist and I chatted with their techie today on the phone, outlining what I'd ideally like compared to what we probably have generally available and he thought the El Capistan and the Timeline possibly achieved the most authentic vintage tape echoes he'd experienced and said, given they're not the cheapest out there, they're walking out the shop at a surprisingly fast rate. He usually orders one or maybe two units, given their possible limited appeal and higher cost but now he's ordering six every time and it was interesting that the members of staff who are keen guitarists themselves had bought these units rather than others they have available - not that this proves anything from our point of view but it does indicate the units may have a good quality of sound. I explained my niche interest in specific Shads echoes and he said the cheaper of the two (El Capistan) would get me closest to the real valve driven echo sound I seek. As to the particular timings and patterns of the echoes - details are less clear as to how accurately they can or can't reproduce a specific Meazzi type echo. Think it's one to try in their shop when they restock soon and perhaps I can report back with an updated opinion afterwards but I was hoping someone here may already have tried one to save me having to do so for myself.
Cheers,
Martyn