Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo | N Stuff Music Product Review

The Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo, has tape echo sounds so authentic you&swear there was tape inside the pedal! Inspired by the Maestro Echoplex, EP-3 model, perhaps the most famous tape delay ever, the Belle Epoch features everything we love about the EP-3 in a small, maintenance free pedal format. We felt that a "tape echo" pedal was much more than just a standard digital delay with some "filtering" on the repeats. There are a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle traits of the Echoplex that needed to be implemented in order to be authentic. The preamp, the self-oscillation character, the ability to play the pedal as an instrument unto itself, the ability to control the "record level" of the signal hitting "tape", the wow and flutter, the way the repeats decay, the way the circuit interfaces with the amp and other pedals - all these things were important to get right. Control Surface The MIX control replicates the functionality of the Echo Volume control on the EP-3 and uses the same basic passive mixer circuit. Set at minimum to get dry only. Set at maximum to get wet only. The TONE / REC LEV control sets how hard the "tape" or delay line is hit. It does not affect your dry signal and only affects the initial first repeat. Turning the knob while repeats are playing will not affect them. In practice, you&want to use this control in conjunction with the Mix control to set your balance The SWAY / MOD control sets the amount of random tape wow and flutter effects in the...