Roland Space Echo

[reprznt]

I did a search of the forums and could not find the answer to my question... Is there a vst that emulates the Roland Space Echo?? and if not, how do i use the impulse responses which are available on the arcdev website? Are impulse responses for reverb only? or can u use them for delay effects? thanks

[arturmeinild]

Universal Audio is set to reproduce the Roland Space Echo for the UAD-1 platform at some point in the future.

[kritikon]

You can use convolution for delays, but I personally wouldn't - it's just not worth the effort or the CPU it would use to get a flexible enough one.

If you use a full impulse of something like a Space Echo, then at that sampling rate you are stuck with the tempo that is recorded. You can change the delay tempo by changing the sampling rate or timestretching the impulse - which of course changes the actual sound of it too. Which defeats the object of convolution mostly.

Or the other way you could do it is to chop the delay impulse response into individual delay hits, then use each different filtered hit in its own convolution plugin instance with a time delay set onto it. Which would use a huge amount of CPU. Although this at least would allow you to have the delay tempo synced.

As mentioned - if you want a really good emulation, I'd hang on until they release the UAD plugin.

As for Native - there are quite a few filtered delays, although none are particularly close emulations of a Space Echo. For general tape delay type things I use RetroDelay (e-phonic), Classic Delay (Kjaerhus) and even Ohmboyz (Ohm Force) although Ohmboyz is much more of a digital-sounding delay. I wouldn't say any of them are a Space Echo though. Karlette has its place, I suppose, although I don't much like it myself.

[Stupid American Pig]

steinberg had a freeware one but I never found it to be all that authentic. doesnt concrete fx also make a freebie called tape delay?

[reprznt]

what is so unique about the space echo? I notice that it is a somewhat desirable piece of hardware.

[bobby yarrow]

I think that's right. There are some very nice delay plugins, but no great Space Echo that I'm aware of. It's not a huge limitation -- I have and really like a 301, use the delay, chorus, and reverb a lot while tracking, but find that I'm just as likely to go to PSP delay or even the delay in the voxengo analog suite once I'm done tracking.

[Stupid American Pig]

The cool thing about the Space echo is that some of them(re-501 and I think the 301) had a built in spring reverb AND chorus unit along with the tape delay. They really are great sounding units, and loads of fun to play with. you can make some absolutely enthralling noises with them.

[reprznt]

is it worth is to purchase a hardware unit? I wonder how much these cost? I just always hear about various producers using these Space Echo units... and they speak of these units like they are a holy grail or something... similiar to the way i hear people speak about Distressors or things like that.

[aMUSEd]

Theres a Reaktor ensemble that is an emulation of the Space Echo - no idea how close it is though as I haven't heard the original.

[Kriminal]

I did a search of the forums and could not find the answer to my question... Is there a vst that emulates the Roland Space Echo??

no, nothing even close, some good stuff that does similar, but not as evil as that unit.

[Kriminal]

is it worth it to purchase a hardware unit?

Yes, if you want that effect, but if you can settle for 'similar/close' then have a look around at the vst stuff....

[sinkmusic]

You talked about arcdev : didin't you try his Dubbox ?
it has the gui of a space echo, and, imo, the closest freebie plugin sound from the original, as far as i know.
There is plenty of "analog tape" delay on the web, some are good, some aren't, ,and some are very good, but not close at all from a roland space echo !!
the very good point of arcdev dubbox is that it is quite as unpredictable as the hardware thing, and has all of its features, and you can also specify the tape quality, etc.

The steinberg thing was called Karlette, it was a multihead tape delay emulation, i downloaded it but never kept it on my HD.
Most of the plugin are not "multihead", or are, but do not sound like the hardware stuff at all...

[Mr Arkadin]

i ended up getting an RE-501 because nothing sounds like a Space Echo. The best software echo device i have heard and that is comparable to the Space Echoes (but is quite different in many respects) is Echo34, which is unfortunately (for you) only available on the SCOPE platform. It's bloody good though.

[sinkmusic]

That is right that many vst do not sound as close as the hardware it tries to emulate.
The best to achieve the "real" sound are IR. but you can not tweak your own parameters.

I tried (i think) every freebie trying to sound like space echo, multihead tape delays, spring reverbs, etc. But none of them were really convincing. I like PS-1 tape delay if you can find it, it is worth the try, but is is not an emulation of roland stuff.

If you want the original sound, try the orignal harware stuff : you'llget everything. But you need much money. If you can find one cheap, just go ahead, it worths it, else... well it is up to you !

[Stupid American Pig]

I am always looking for a space echo, but they are still alittle more expensive than I want to pay for them, especially since I dont ahve much hardware that I could use with them.