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“[Music] so in the world of music recording audio hardware and i' say especially among synthesizer and pedal junkies the analog tape delay unit is highly coveted not just for its sound but definitely for its pose value the Roland re21 is probably the most famous of these units univox also made the echo chamber ada8 and cor's very own SC300 stage Echo name a few of the time but guys I actually have a confession I really hate vintage Hardware yes I know I've said this many times throughout my years but I've owned a vintage since like gx3 PS Juno 106s a sequential month track plus more and every single one brought more headaches than creative inspiration thus they were eventually all sold recently though I had a moment of extreme weakness a moment of pure impulse I relapsed there was this one vintage piece that I always wanted that effect that was used on countless hit records coveted by many owned by few and maybe for good reason while while browsing Craigslist the other day I came across a post in re150 space Echo and worst of all the seller was only 5 minutes drive from my house the ad said 500 but I said I'll do 400 cash it could be the steal of a lifetime but there's a catch it's noisy some delay modes have additional hum the connection on some of the Jacks is hit or miss the attenuation slider is nonexistent and the volume knob is out of whack best of all when I reached out to a well-known analog repair company in Los Angeles they said they just don't fix space echos anymore they're just too unreliable even after repair but let's go back there's some history behind this little box I've talked about this guy before but it all began with utara Kakashi and this design the a tone ec1 Echo chamber in the late 1960s with the ec10 and ec20 to follow in 1973 utar Kaka Hashi had ceased operation under the brand name aone and began producing new models of tape Echo machines under the new company the rolling Corporation the very first space Echo machine produced was the re 100 space Echo and like earlier a t te machines the re 100 featured multiple playback heads but also had Basse and troubl tone controls this allowed the user to shape the tone of the repeats and these features along put the re 100 ahead of the rest of the market I'm sure you've all seen it before but the most famous fam space echo of all time is likely the venerable re201 which featured circuit upgrades that improve the overall tone of the machine the truly ahead of its time feature was the tape transport mechanism the re21 tape transport mechanism used only a single cap stand for transport and left the quarter-inch tape freely floating within the tape chamber this design not only improved the tonal Fidelity of the repeats but it also provided a much greater reliability than the machines before it the re21 was the only tape machine of the time that could handle the rigors of the road thus the re21 was a hit and remained in production until 1990 following the re21 was the re31 and it was distinguished by adding two new features the first was a lush analog course effect that was able to be concurrently used or independently from the delay effect Additionally you had sound on sound mode on the 301 which allowed users to Loop phrases essentially it was a looping pedal or well it was a looping box big box the model I have is the Roland re150 which was marketed as a value price alternative to the re201 although it looked very similar to the re101 and contained many of the same circuitry and mechanisms the re150 different is that it only had two playback heads so that was one less than the 2011 limiting the number of mode variations available to the user but like the road re 101 it lacked Reverb interestingly the re150 had a unique feature where you could only have the direct dry signal or you could have the direct wet signal and I personally love this this really lets me use this perfectly as a hardware insert in my Daw finally the roll in re501 and s555 they proved to be the last tape based design that Roland ever created and that was around 1982 which was 40 years ago while I love that I bought a space Echo after all these years honestly it's a big heavy box that makes noise and doesn't always perform at its best it's truly the epitome of ghost in the machine when it's doing things the right way there's nothing like it but the frustration of its function or nonfunction will kill your creative flow for sure expensive alternatives are accessible but I use that word extremely lightly as these can be upwards of $22,000 from company maybe like Echo fix so take it from me I'd personally say my alternative if you want to dive into the analog but don't want to dive into the problems that something like a vintage space Echo is almost surely going to give you is a way huge super pus I've had mine for years and it can go from very clean repeats to crunchy repeats it very much gives you the vibe of the space Echo if you use the depth you can get those tape flutter type effects [Music] so I kind of said all this just to ask myself a question if I could go back in time would I buy another 40-year-old vintage roll in space Echo and the answer is no it's way more fun to look at than it is to practically use anyways like subscribe Instagram and Twitter check out my album Mom it's me on band camp Spotify I'm out [Music] l [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] la [Music] la [Music] [Music] d [Music]”