Tape Delays?

[huggermugger]

I have several delay plugins, though only three that are formally presented as tape delays. Does Reason's "The Echo" cut it for tape delay or do you prefer a third party VST?

[Loque]

The Echo has a Wobble, Pitch Up/Down, Filter, Tube, Modulation, Diffusion, L/R Feedback Control, L/R Offset, Delay Offset and more...and finally a Break Out... Pretty good for a Delay, that can do quite a lot and for sure even tape delays... It just lacks some noise from tape and motors.

You can do chorus, reverb, flanger, phaser, overdrive and delay for sure...

[Steedus]

Yeah I'll be honest and say I rarely use The Echo, just because I have a bunch of VSTs which for tape, have a more immediate colouration. If you're into the dark warble sound, my favourite is PlexiTape by Audiority. You have to use it un-synced for this, but once you drag the vari-speed to lower settings the warble really sets in.

[crimsonwarlock]

I don't have it yet, but this one is on my wishlist:

[Popey]

I mostly just use the echo as it does the job well but occasionally echo cat. If I want a a bit more complicated taps or modulation I tend to use timeless3 or recirculate.

The echo is brilliant for bread and butter delay tasks and prefer it over things like arturia tape due to ducking.

[huggermugger]

I don't have it yet, but this one is on my wishlist:

oh, i didn't know about this one, thanks for the tip!

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... eecho-mk2/

[dvdrtldg]

I don't have it yet, but this one is on my wishlist:

Yep I'm waiting for that one to go on sale - don't really need it but the chorus alone is worth picking up, absolutely beautiful

Softube have a nice one, I picked it up for $19 a while back and it's great



And U-He Satin is still one of the very best



Chow Tape is an excellent freebie too - crazy tweakable

[MirrorEyEs]

There's better sounding tape delay plug-ins out there.

The breakout is the thing that elevates The Echo. I mean you can just insert Audiomatic in Gadget or VHS mode for interesting flavours of delay. You have got to be very careful with any increased gain, as the feedback loop gets out of hand fast and the feedback knob doesn't scale in a predictable way!

[dvdrtldg]

Oops... I just saw this thread was about tape delays and Chow Tape (above) isn't a delay. Still a great plugin though

[aeox]

Love the chowdsp plugin too!

[kezzah]

For me it just has to be the Modnetic by Surreal Machines...it doesn't look like a vintage tape delay but serously nothing else comes close !

Screenshot 2024-02-12 at 11.26.19.png

Then we have the most versatile of them all which is a pretty good tape delay ... Valhalla delay

Screenshot 2024-02-12 at 11.41.27.png

[huggermugger]

Love the chowdsp plugin too!

What's this one, it's not chowdsp.

[crimsonwarlock]

What's this one, it's not chowdsp.

It's Kong

[selig]

I like The Echo, I find it a great utility delay that can be configured for many types of effects. But for more realistic tape loop effects I like the two UA offerings. I also like the wobble from Arturia’s Mello-Fi and put it in front of other delays (or just on it’s own).

[Steedus]

I have Ekss TE TapeEcho, but it never really clicked for me, so I rarely use it. I don't really like it's modulation (Chorus) or the reverb for whatever reason.

BTW I was literally just reminded that Kong has it's own tape echo (presumably based on The Echo).

[aeox]

What's this one, it's not chowdsp.

It's Kong

Hidden gems inside Kong

[Lotuz2019]

My favourite tape delay plugins:

Audiority PlexiTape
AudioThing Outer Space
Wavesfactory Echo Cat

Great emulations of three classic tape delays.

[Lotuz2019]

Oops... I just saw this thread was about tape delays and Chow Tape (above) isn't a delay. Still a great plugin though

Do you know Tape Sculptor?

[dvdrtldg]

AudioThing Outer Space

Love that one

And there's also Wires which is like a lower-than-lo-fi tape delay and so good. Probably my favourite Audio Thing plugin

[dvdrtldg]

Oops... I just saw this thread was about tape delays and Chow Tape (above) isn't a delay. Still a great plugin though

Do you know Tape Sculptor?

Hadn't seen it until now - thanks for the tip, will check it out

[Steedus]

Oh actually I've had really good results from AudioThing's Reels using the delay function. But (the delay) is mono only.

[EdGrip]

For me it just has to be the Modnetic by Surreal Machines...it doesn't look like a vintage tape delay but serously nothing else comes close !Screenshot 2024-02-12 at 11.26.19.png
Then we have the most versatile of them all which is a pretty good tape delay ... Valhalla delayScreenshot 2024-02-12 at 11.41.27.png

Coincidentally these two are my joint favourites too!
The breakout in The Echo is handy, but you can (and usually would) do the same thing with sends - although if you’re limited to 8 sends, as in Reason, maybe you can’t afford one for delay feedback. So in a way The Echo’s breakout exists to sidestep an arbitrary Reason limitation.

[-008']

i will *echo* others here and say The Echo and it's breakouts are 1st class, for us Reasonheads.
Also a big fan of Softube Tape Echoes lately too. Like dvdrtldg said I grabbed it on the cheap, hard not to like!
I don't have the AudioThing OuterSpace but that update looks really nice as well.

Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace!...

[huggermugger]

The breakout in The Echo is handy, but you can (and usually would) do the same thing with sends - although if you’re limited to 8 sends, as in Reason, maybe you can’t afford one for delay feedback. So in a way The Echo’s breakout exists to sidestep an arbitrary Reason limitation.

How would you replicate the breakout with a send? The breakout inserts another effect into the feedback loop of the Echo.

[selig]

The breakout in The Echo is handy, but you can (and usually would) do the same thing with sends - although if you’re limited to 8 sends, as in Reason, maybe you can’t afford one for delay feedback. So in a way The Echo’s breakout exists to sidestep an arbitrary Reason limitation.

How would you replicate the breakout with a send? The breakout inserts another effect into the feedback loop of the Echo.

Here's the simplest way to do it, no need for sends - you'd have to deal with the batch delay as soon as you invoke a send into the equation here.
All you need is a Line Mixer, but I've put it in a Combinator to add custom controls.

Screen Shot 2024-02-19 at 2.53.17 PM.png

Setup: Line Mixer Aux Send set to PRE. Setup DONE!
Use Ch 1 level for the dry signal, Ch 2 level for Wet, and Send 2 for Feedback amount.
Be acutely aware that the level from any feedback processing affects the number of repeats. So stay ready to adjust the main volume knob of any filtering/saturating effect you might add, in order to keep the feedback consistent.

Another way of looking at it:

Screen Shot 2024-02-19 at 3.00.19 PM.png