Best Tape Delay Pedal: Get the Sounds of Echoplex and Space Echo on your Board!
Echos for everyone!
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Best Tape Delay Pedal: Get the Sounds of Echoplex and Space Echo on your Board! · Source: Boss / Roland
Few effect categories offer as many distinct sonic worlds as delays. Analog (BBD), tape, digital, modulated, tap – to name a few. If analog vibes, endlessly saturated delays, and slapback echos are your thing, then the best tape delay pedal is probably what you’re looking for. We’ve selected a couple of pedals, for just about any budget.
Tape Delays for Everyone!
Best Tape Delay: What’s the Difference to Other Delay Types?
It could be argued that tape delay (outside or actual natural echoes) is the oldest type of delay effect in the studio world. Originating in the fifties and sixties, crafty studio engineers had found a way to record bits of an incoming signal to a tape machine and delay its output signal by a set amount of milliseconds.
Said signal would also be fed back into the machine (hence the term feedback), creating a slowly fading echo. This is where the distinct, almost lo-fi, very saturated character of tape delay comes from. You’ll probably have heard it on a million dub and reggae tracks. This effect quickly became a staple in studios, and a few companies created some of the most influential tape effects of all time.
Maestro’s Echoplex EP-3 and Roland’s RE-201 Space Echo are both seen as the holy grails of tape delay. So, if it’s the old, analog, heavily saturated delay sound of the seventies, you’re after, you’ll want to make sure, that the pedal you’re looking at is modelled after at least one of these.
As always, this list of the best tape delay pedals is strictly ranked by price, not by any other metric.
Flamma FC03 Delay – Best Beginner Tape Delay
It’s super small, it’s blue, and it offers three different delay modes: analog, real echo, and tape echo. What’s not to love?! So, if you’re not only looking for the best tape delay pedal, but also your fist one, the FC03 might be the right pick.
It offers delay times between 5 and 600 milliseconds, controls for feedback amount, delay time, and level. Compared to bigger more complex pedals, this delay lacks tap function or MIDI input to sync it to a song’s tempo. Additionally, there is no stereo signal flow. But for an entry-level tape delay, the FC03 sounds like a much more expensive model. It’s also available at Thomann*.
Nobels DEL-mini Delay
The DEL-mini Delay is one of the most recent entries to our list of the best tape delay pedals. It’s super small, like the FC03, and offers three delay modes, like the FC03. And it’s blue, like the… You get it. That’s where the similarities of these two end.
Nobels seemt to have put a lof of thought and expertise into this pedal. You get a tap function to sync the delay to a song’s tempo (through holding the footswitch for two seconds), mono AND stereo signal flow, and even the option to change between true and buffered bypass. That’s a lot of functionality for such a small pedal. It’s available at Thomann*.
- Nobels at Gearnews
- Website (Scroll down)
JHS Pedals 3 Series Tape Delay – Best Entry-Level Space Echo Tape Delay
If you’re after the sound of Space Echo, take a look at the 3 Series Tape Delay from JHS Pedals. It’s modelled after the RE-201, Roland’s magical delay from the seventies that can be heard on a million records. With it’s Flutter switch and the pitching effect, the Tape Speed dial creates while turning it, this pedal can be the ultimate lo-fi delay.
It’s the newest pedal on our list, but it gets the vintage sound of the Space Echo perfectly. You set the effect’s level with the mix knob, the delay’s rate (or speed) with the Tape Speed dial, and the feedback amount with the Repeats control. If you engage the Flutter control, the pedal adds tiny amounts of random modulation to the Tape Speed. Which gets you wonderfully wobbling delays for days. Get it at Thomann*.
Universal Audio UAFX Orion Tape Echo
This Echoplex emulation offers quite a few ways and dials to make its delay effect sound “tape-y”. You get to choose between three virtual tape ages (the older the more broken it sounds) and with the Wonk control, you can add an increasing amount of tape machine noises.
The Delay control sets the speed, Feedback controls how quickly the delays fade out, mix sets the amount of delay signal, and Rec Level determines the overall volume of the tape delay. In addition, you get two switches. One activates the internal preamp, which is closely modelled after the Echoplex EP-3’s legendary preamp. The other changes the pedal’s bypass behavior. In Trails mode, the delay’s are not cutoff instantly once you hit the footswitch. It’s available at Thomann*.
The other, more expensive tape delay pedal from UAFX is very well worth mentioning. Because with the Starlight Echo Station*, you get a mighty stereo delay with three delay modes, one of which is a very good-sounding tape delay.
Boss RE-2 Space Echo Delay/Reverb
You can’t really do a list on the best tape delay pedals without at least one from one of the inventors. So, I choose two, either the smaller, more affordable, and pedal-friendly RE-2 or the mighty RE-202, both from Boss. The former offers a staggering 11 delay modes, based on the original three-head configuration of the Roland RE-201.
The pedal also includes stereo signal flow, a wow & Flutter control for introducing varying levels of natural tape modulation, tap tempo, and even the option (similar to the Orion) to boost the signal through the emulated preamp. Get it from Thomann*. And if you want to get as close to the Space Echo as possible, sonically speaking, the mighty RE-202* is worth a look (and listen!).
You get 12 delay modes, an additional spring reverb (modeled after the original spring reverb from the RE-201), 127 preset slots, and pretty much the gold standard when it comes to Space Echo emulations.
Strymon El Capistan V2
If you ask around, take look at polls, forum discussions, look at pedal boards from touring musicians, few tape delays are as highly regarded these days as El Capistan. For many, it is the best tape delay on the market. If offers three tape delay modes: Fixed, Multi, and Single. And each one has a further three operating modes. You also get 300 preset slots, mono or stereo signal flow, and THAT sound.
V2 added a spring reverb, and you also get controls for time, wow & flutter, tape age, repeats (feedback), and mix. El Capistain also includes a dedicated tap delay footswitch to set the tempo. In addition, it can also by synced through MIDI. The pedal is available from Thomann*.
*Disclaimer: This list of the best tape delay pedals contains affiliate links and/or widgets. When you buy a product via our affiliate partner, we receive a small commission that helps support what we do. Don’t worry, you pay the same price. Thanks for your support!
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T-Rex Replicator?