Black Rooster Audio releases the TD-201 - Vintage Tape Echo

[jinotsuh]

Be happy you aren't paying whatever $99 comes to in your currency.
For me it's $52.81AUD, much better than $180AUD which it will be after intro.

[plexuss]

^Agree. Another one to consider is the Fulltone based on the Maestro EchoPlex. EchoPlex was my favourite tape echo in the day, I had 3 of them. Now I have an early Fulltone TTE, not the latest...

https://store.fulltone.com/collections/ ... 7645673497

It'll be interesting to see how tape cartridge availability pans out now that Fulltone is closing down. I believe it's relatively easy to add new tape to a cartridge.

Yes, its pretty easy. I made a jig to hold the reels to allow winding with a drill. Old school echoplex technique because largely cartridges were not available unless you found a store that carried the brand.

[Unaspected]

$29 or £33.23?

Current exchange rate should put it at around £25.52

They have clearly added VAT and the exchange rate used will usually be worse than the official market rate.
So taking that into account, the price seems about what I would expect.

Not considering previous prices or sales prices from other vendors. I expect this was a clerical error, taking the value from Pounds to Dollars rather than the other way around: Which would make it £32.77.

Based on PayPal's exchange rate from 3 days ago, $29 = £27.33.
Add VAT to that and you get £32.80.
As they are using FastSpring, they will have their own daily exchange rate and they will very likely add VAT, so this seems correct to me.

For example: Fuse Audio Labs' latest product is on intro price at $29 yet the price in Pounds is set to £25 - which is what I would expect, considering the value of the Pound is currently quite low.

Which probably means that they have manually set the price, rather than letting a payment company like FastSpring convert it using that day's rate.
$29/£25 is a rate of ~1.15 which is way more than the rate I had this week of 1.0611.
Lot's of companies do this, which makes them cheaper right now in £ as they are using an old rate.

It could well have been set on the day that the Pound reached almost parity with the Dollar - then after charges, indeed, one would expect the product to be more expensive here. As you say though, this is a dynamic value that shifts constantly. It just doesn't match up right now so I thought I'd point out what seems to be an error on behalf of those who intend to purchase.

I'm sure BRA will sort it out as I've never noticed them do this before or add VAT on top for the customer to pay after conversion - it's not something common with other sellers either. Usually VAT is deducted from the full price, not added. As in, it is included - making the product no more expensive or cheaper to the customer (unless they are a business and can claim back VAT). Whilst Fuse simply state that VAT is included, Audiority clearly show the price prior to the addition of VAT: Which brings the product to the current value of the direct exchange rate, prior to conversion charges - which the company also soak up.

In the case of Grindstein: The product is sold at 99 Euros - which is £85.52 according to Google right now. Audiority are charging £85.65 with VAT included and display the product price as £71.38 without VAT. This is expected. I've never made a purchase where this isn't the case.

[Agreed]

I like this enough to buy it. And not just to keep my Black Rooster street cred for having them all, nosir. It's because not only does it have good fundamental "to tape" delay tonality, with good adjustment for bandwidth, it also has individual head time adjustment for the read heads. My GSi 201 doesn't have that (though it does have a great chorus + sound on sound mode, and excellent control over each head's characteristics to-tape, but not placement of them). IK Space Delay doesn't have that, though it has a pretty good sound overall and is not one to overlook necessarily. Cherry Stardust definitely doesn't have that, being more of a modern / effecty take on the sound (but I like it, hey $9 was the cost). UAD's doesn't do it... Don't think Arturia does either.

Audiority has some similarly granular control over the specifics on a delay plugin or two, but those aren't aping the RE-201 tonality, they're... like... drum emulations and such.

Being able to move the read heads and control their levels and panning is awesome. Try it out, you can get way different "feels" to the delay rhythm, but with the sonic character that this has. It's powerful.

So yeah I'm picking it up, good release Black Rooster!

[BlackRooster]

Are there any plans to have individual installers so that we don't have to download everything just to install one plugin?

Yes, absolutely -- we are trying to tackle VST3, individual installers and a new licensing system in one strike. There is a lot of work involved - Make sure to register to our newsletter to receive the latest updates on the topic.

[BlackRooster]

I like this enough to buy it. And not just to keep my Black Rooster street cred for having them all, nosir. It's because not only does it have good fundamental "to tape" delay tonality, with good adjustment for bandwidth, it also has individual head time adjustment for the read heads. My GSi 201 doesn't have that (though it does have a great chorus + sound on sound mode, and excellent control over each head's characteristics to-tape, but not placement of them). IK Space Delay doesn't have that, though it has a pretty good sound overall and is not one to overlook necessarily. Cherry Stardust definitely doesn't have that, being more of a modern / effecty take on the sound (but I like it, hey $9 was the cost). UAD's doesn't do it... Don't think Arturia does either.

Audiority has some similarly granular control over the specifics on a delay plugin or two, but those aren't aping the RE-201 tonality, they're... like... drum emulations and such.

Being able to move the read heads and control their levels and panning is awesome. Try it out, you can get way different "feels" to the delay rhythm, but with the sonic character that this has. It's powerful.

So yeah I'm picking it up, good release Black Rooster!

Thank you!

[audio/fault]

So....the Mac version of a new plugin doesn't support the current version of macOS let along the previous version?

Minimum System Requirements (MAC)
SSE2 compatible processor (Intel Core CPU recommended)
1GB of RAM
Mac OSX 10.9 or newer (Big Sur 11.x not yet supported)
VST, AU or AAX compatible host (64bit)
Display resolution of 1280x1024 pixels or higher

oh. TD-201 sounded really promising, but this... strange. i'm on big sur right now and upgrading to m1 with monterey soon. so i guess, i have to pass.

[rezoneight]

So....the Mac version of a new plugin doesn't support the current version of macOS let along the previous version?

Minimum System Requirements (MAC)
SSE2 compatible processor (Intel Core CPU recommended)
1GB of RAM
Mac OSX 10.9 or newer (Big Sur 11.x not yet supported)
VST, AU or AAX compatible host (64bit)
Display resolution of 1280x1024 pixels or higher

oh. TD-201 sounded really promising, but this... strange. i'm on big sur right now and upgrading to m1 with monterey soon. so i guess, i have to pass.

This appears to be a case of bad copy/paste. I got the trial and its running just fine on an M1 iMac in Ventura public beta. Also their FAQ says they are fully M1-compatible.

[midi_transmission]

Are there any plans to have individual installers so that we don't have to download everything just to install one plugin?

Yes, absolutely -- we are trying to tackle VST3, individual installers and a new licensing system in one strike. There is a lot of work involved - Make sure to register to our newsletter to receive the latest updates on the topic.

I like the current BRA licensing system a lot. Do we have to expect any online involvement with the new one?

I would appreciate it when you could be transparent as early as possible about the new system, because it affects the whole product experience. And without any explanation it feels more intimidating than promising to me.

[morelia]

I am interested but I just couldn't get anything much beyond a garble mess. I only had a short time with it. The tape effects noise, dropouts, flutter, motor seemed very subtle. Will give it another test and it might go on the future purchase list. Love BRA though so I have high hopes for figuring it out.

[Aiynzahev]

This is hands by far the most fun 201 I've used, but I am really annoyed by the GUI responsiveness on my system. It's not consistent, seems to start out slow/sluggish and then become normal after a minute or so MAC OSX 12 M1. Guess I should put in a ticket.

It such a good sound though that it's worth to deal with that to set up a few presets. I have the Arturia, IK, Modnetic audiothing and none of them sound like this when you push the input. The distorted delay sound on the black rooster is awesome. Will get it at this intro price for sure I just hope some updates can iron out the GUI and maybe include a preset system!

[Vortifex]

Edited

[Download SOphist]

you have to download the installer for all the plugins, and (i guess) have an account with them

[rezoneight]

I am interested but I just couldn't get anything much beyond a garble mess. I only had a short time with it. The tape effects noise, dropouts, flutter, motor seemed very subtle. Will give it another test and it might go on the future purchase list. Love BRA though so I have high hopes for figuring it out.

Same. Not a fan. Spent some time with it and just isn't for me. Easier to dial stuff in with the other options I have like Outer Space. And no presets or being able to save presets in the plugin?

[perpetual3]

Hmmm. I spent quite a few hours today comparing BRA and IK and I still think that the IK has the superior tone and breakup. The BRA is not bad, but for me the magic is in the head position parameter. I also am not feeling the reverb on the BRA. Still prefer Modnetic IRs for that. Arturia comes in last for tone, but the mids side functionality is fun.

This is hands by far the most fun 201 I've used, but I am really annoyed by the GUI responsiveness on my system. It's not consistent, seems to start out slow/sluggish and then become normal after a minute or so MAC OSX 12 M1. Guess I should put in a ticket.

It such a good sound though that it's worth to deal with that to set up a few presets. I have the Arturia, IK, Modnetic audiothing and none of them sound like this when you push the input. The distorted delay sound on the black rooster is awesome. Will get it at this intro price for sure I just hope some updates can iron out the GUI and maybe include a preset system!