"The glorious sound of genuine analogue tape echo is back"

Six heads are better than none

A new collaboration means that the glorious sound of genuine analogue tape echo is back – plus, it’s more useable and reliable than ever before…

With old and battered Space Echoes still commanding a high price on eBay, it’s no secret that everyone loves the sound of a genuine tape echo. Spotting this, Unity Audio have collaborated with UK-based fi rm Blue Coconut Ltd and developed the Echo Verb.

Commissioned for the job of designing a brand-spanking-new tape echo was Terry MacDonald, previously an electronics buff for the military and a former freelance consultant for the Watkins/WEM company (they built tape echo units back in the ’60s) Armed with Terry’s 38 years of echoing experience, we were very keen to see what this collaboration had achieved.

The unit is a six-headed monster with six possible delay times plus – rather interestingly – selectable tape reverb mode, which uses the tape heads in quick succession to emulate the decay of reverb. Spattered across the front panel are hi/lo instrument jack inputs, guitar effects, send and return jacks, plus an echo on/off jack footswitch. This array of features takes care of gigging musicians and guitarists while the rear of the unit looks after professional studio applications with line level transformer balanced XLR ins and outs. We quizzed Kevin Walker from Unity Audio about the unit and what they were trying to achieve…

Why make the Echo Verb?

“Well Terry MacDonald had made a small batch of tape echo units about fi ve years ago and had a lot of interest in the units. “Everyone we speak to seems to love tape echo and – as you’ll have noticed in your Future Music interviews – most people have tape echo units in their studios, many of which are a bit rough around the edges because there’s been few available as an alternative. Until now that is!”

Don’t you think there’s a worry that making the unit almost ‘too good’ will put people off who like the wobble of older tape echoes?

“It’s a good point, but our intention was to just make the best unit possible, so we had the heavy, custom-built fl ywheel and precision bearing fi tted so there’s no noticeable wow and fl utter.

“We’re not trying to compete with the second-hand tape echo market; this is a completely fresh unit, not a remake or a copy.”

We noticed the ‘lid’ is a purchase you have to pay for separately? Why is that?

“Because the unit is aimed at both studio musicians and for gigging musicians we decided to give people the option. Most of the studio bods we spoke to like to show off the mechanical tape part anyway.”

What’s the reliability like? Tape echoes of the past have had to be serviced regularly…

“This is true, but the Echo Verb has features to maintain reliability. The motor, for instance, can be switched off so that the tape heads don’t wear out so fast.

“We also searched for the correct tape to use with the unit for sound and reliability, the manual states the specific tape, which is a self-lubricating type of tape – again extending the life of the heads and so on. Obviously you can use any tape, you like but the set we chose is relatively cheap anyway, around £20 for ten tapes.”

Will the unit be serviceable through Unity Audio?

“Yes, and there’s a really decent warranty on the unit too; five years on the electrical parts and one year on the mechanical parts.”