Published 13/3/08
Blast from the past... ast... ast...
Leading audio hardware distributors Unity Audio have teamed up with UK manufacturers Blue Coconut, and released a completely new product, a six-head tape echo called the Echoverb.
We heard rumours of the product at last year's Frankfurt Musikmesse, but now the product is in production, costing £1880 including VAT.
Designed by Watkins/WEM veteran Terry MacDonald, the Echoverb is not a copy of an old product, but a unit that has been purpose-built for today's studios from the ground up. According to Unity Audio, exclusive distributors of the product, the aim of the Echoverb was to "eliminate the problems associated with early tape echo machines".
Therefore, up-to-date techniques have been employed to ensure the unit outputs very low noise levels and is compatible with the typical modern studio environments. What's more, wow and flutter (which add to the character of the sound of a beaten-up old tape echo) have been almost eliminated, thanks to a precision-engineered fly-wheel, and the entire unit is sturdy enough to be taken out on the road by a performing musician.
Staying on the gigging theme, the Echoverb's front-panel input can be switched for either high- or low-impedance operation, and insert and return sockets allow for the implementation of the unit into an instrumentalist's effect loop. Usefully, there's also a socket for a footswitch, which allows the user to engage and disengage the echo on-stage without fumbling around on the front panel.
Of course, the Echoverb will be just as useful in the studio as it is on stage, and its front panel has controls for input gain, echo level, variable speed, sustain, and output level, alongside a two-position tone switch. Each of the six replay heads can be independently routed to the output, and neat button-mounted LEDs notify the user of each head's status. The Echoverb has a transformer-balanced line-level XLR input and output, as well as a jack output for connection to a guitar or keyboard amplifier.
As a finishing touch to the Echoverb, an aluminium and perspex lid is available, to protect the open-spooled tape loop, and you can even buy a rackmountable sliding drawer kit, which keeps the Echoverb out of harms way, and has storage space for things like tape and head cleaner.
Unity Audio +44 (0)1440 785843
www.unityaudio.co.uk
We heard rumours of the product at last year's Frankfurt Musikmesse, but now the product is in production, costing £1880 including VAT.
Designed by Watkins/WEM veteran Terry MacDonald, the Echoverb is not a copy of an old product, but a unit that has been purpose-built for today's studios from the ground up. According to Unity Audio, exclusive distributors of the product, the aim of the Echoverb was to "eliminate the problems associated with early tape echo machines".
Therefore, up-to-date techniques have been employed to ensure the unit outputs very low noise levels and is compatible with the typical modern studio environments. What's more, wow and flutter (which add to the character of the sound of a beaten-up old tape echo) have been almost eliminated, thanks to a precision-engineered fly-wheel, and the entire unit is sturdy enough to be taken out on the road by a performing musician.
Staying on the gigging theme, the Echoverb's front-panel input can be switched for either high- or low-impedance operation, and insert and return sockets allow for the implementation of the unit into an instrumentalist's effect loop. Usefully, there's also a socket for a footswitch, which allows the user to engage and disengage the echo on-stage without fumbling around on the front panel.
Of course, the Echoverb will be just as useful in the studio as it is on stage, and its front panel has controls for input gain, echo level, variable speed, sustain, and output level, alongside a two-position tone switch. Each of the six replay heads can be independently routed to the output, and neat button-mounted LEDs notify the user of each head's status. The Echoverb has a transformer-balanced line-level XLR input and output, as well as a jack output for connection to a guitar or keyboard amplifier.
As a finishing touch to the Echoverb, an aluminium and perspex lid is available, to protect the open-spooled tape loop, and you can even buy a rackmountable sliding drawer kit, which keeps the Echoverb out of harms way, and has storage space for things like tape and head cleaner.
Unity Audio +44 (0)1440 785843
www.unityaudio.co.uk
