so good :slight_smile:

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anyone familiar with the Space Case tape echo?

He refurbishes and heavily modifies Marantz three-head tape recorders into what sound like amazing true tape delays, and there are some limited resources around about DIYing similar stuff. If anyone here has any tips about doing the same from experience, I’d like to hear 'em! :slight_smile:

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I posted this in the diy-thread (I think) but here it is again, a micro-cassette tape delay:

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I’ve owned one of these for a few months now. It’s really great. It has as much fidelity as you’d expect at lower speeds (not much, in a good way), but I find myself running basically everything through it. He’s also working on a CV-in mod right now.

Scott Campbell, the guy who did the Ondes Magnetique also makes some modified tape delays, but I think you have to reach out directly.

cool to hear that it is as good in real life as the demos!

I had read something about CV control, and that would certainly make it more appealing to me.

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The Space Case is $850, right? The price isn’t prominently displayed on the site, but there is this sentence.

you’ll be faced with all of these factors and find that 850 can be significantly more budget friendly than properly setting up a vintage Hi-Z unit, and faster to work with as well

At first I balked at the price, but on second thought that is pretty reasonable if it as nice and reliable as you say.

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I struggled with the same dilemma. It’s expensive, but it’s tiny compared to a Roland, which has a lot of value in my small apartment. It’s basically completely rebuilt by Jim and the Marantz deck is built like a tank to start with, so not as much upkeep as a RE can sometimes require.

If I recall, it’s $850 for the basic units, +$150 to add a transformer balanced I/O, +$225 for a breakout pedal. I sprung for the transformer upgrade, so it ran $1000.

Speaking of


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I am no engineer, but when I think about the possibilities the price seems reasonable.

I don’t own one (yet) but when you compare to the prices for Korg or especially Roland vintage tape delays (which often come with all of their vintage quirks) it seems totally fair. Still expensive for a lot of folks, but I don’t know of a true tape delay that is really a better value.

There are some other interesting options in the same ballpark, though: T-Rex Replicator - and this is also available as a Euro module, which is pretty amazing/crazy to me.

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Curious if anyone has any experience with the Vocu/Hiwatt tape delays?

They’re certainly aesthetically pleasing
 and pretty nimble in size!

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One alternative is to buy a Marantz deck from ebay and mod it yourself. The most basic tape delay can be realized without any mods, just the 3-head tape deck an an external mixer with a send.

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And in the digital /emulation side of things there is this coming out soon
http://www.bastl-instruments.com/instruments/thyme/

has anyone heard one- they have been at the trade fairs but dont ship until january-so it says.

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The fact that it uses regular cassette tapes is a big selling point for me. Relatively cheap and easy to find.

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Since we were just talking about the CV upgrade to the Space Case, this just showed up my inbox the other day


Overall looks like a pretty interesting opportunity to use the tap deck as more than just a delay.

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Holy cow, that is more CV control than I would have possibly expected!

Another example of a DIY tape delay:


(source)

Some day I’ll try doing something similar myself, i’m sure


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Echoing (:wink:) praise i saw above for the Catalinbread Belle Epoch. I’ve got an RE-150 but I was looking for something smaller/more reliable for gigging. I picked up the deluxe version today from a local shop, A/B’d against the the El Capistan.

I’ve yet to try it with my modular, but aside from the delay itself, one of the best things is how GOOD the preamp overdrive sounds on this. In the shop I was playing a Strat and a “Twin Reverb”-like amp and it was the best overdrive sound I’d heard in quite some time.

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The deluxe looks AMAZING. Can’t justify the upgrade at the moment. But if it takes after the little one it’ll be a fabulous pedal.

Edit to add: have also salivating over Mooer’s Ocean Machine

Price is below ÂŁ200 now. Seems like a bargain. 2xdelays, reverb and a looper. Reroutable however you want internally!

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space case te-2 is open for pre-orders. i really like the idea of 8 sets of 3 parameters that can be selected with either buttons or sequenced.

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