Roland announces official RE-201 Space Echo plugin!!

[Agreed]

Sure, a real RE-201 is awesome, it's also big and inconvenient in a way that makes it challenging to own outside of an actual studio space (though devotees do manage). I cooouuuld just use plugins, I guess, but I like the format of a self-contained device with all I/O incorporated seamlessly into the design because it fits in very well with other pedals however you want to put a signal chain together. It's designed well to have similar functionality and range to the original, and while everyone is of course free to make up their own mind as to how suitable it is or isn't, I think they've done a very nice job with the sound personally. Of course if it were as easy as just deciding I'd rather track with a RE-201 at a given moment, why would I use a facsimile then, but I too do not want to get into the costs, care and feeding of the real thing, a good workalike is dynamite for my usage.

I wonder how related the DSP in the Boss pedal is to the DSP in the Roland Cloud plugin, though!

[Lotuz2019]

I wonder how related the DSP in the Boss pedal is to the DSP in the Roland Cloud plugin, though!

ToyBox at Gearspace said:

Brandon Ryan (Global Strategic Product Marketing Manager at Roland) in a comment on Roland Cloud's Facebook page says that "It's based on the RE-202 with extended parameters and some other tweaks."

[Lotuz2019]

Is the RE-202 not a model of the RE-201?

Introduced in 1974, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo stands among the most legendary and sought-after effect units ever produced. This tape-based classic remained in production for over 14 straight years, and its distinctive rhythmic echo sounds, warm character, and highly playable sonic quirks still inspire musicians, producers, and audio mixers over four decades on.

Backed by intensive R&D and our latest innovations, the RE-202 faithfully delivers the authentic sound and behavior of the Space Echo like never before. Built by the company that designed the original, this advanced pedal captures the RE-201’s magic in flawless detail, from the magnetic tape and motor properties to the vibrant spring reverb and colorful preamp circuit. And to take things even further, we’ve expanded the vintage Space Echo experience with lots of new features tuned for today’s music.

Standard Features

Authentically recreates the sound and behavior of the legendary Roland RE-201 Space Echo
Classic multi-head tape echo sound with expanded delay time
Original three-head configuration plus additional tape head for 12 unique echo combinations
Independent stereo reverb section with original spring reverb type plus hall, plate, room, and ambience
Saturation control for adding magnetic tape compression and preamp coloration
Wow & Flutter control for introducing varying levels of natural tape modulation
Choose between new and aged tape conditions
Selectable input modes for optimum performance with instruments and line-level gear
Warp and Twist effects with footswitch control
Select between the unprocessed analog dry signal or the modeled sound of the original Space Echo preamp
Four onboard memories plus the current panel settings
Save and select 127 memories via external MIDI program change
Tap tempo and carryover functions
True stereo input and output
Expandable control via external footswitches, an expression pedal, or MIDI

https://www.boss.info/au/products/re-202/

Roland has re-used the code for their RE-201 plugin. Therefore I don't consider this an emulation of an emulation like Arturia's Rotary CLS-222 for example.

[mothra]

If you can spring for a vintage RE-201, I'd think the cost of the Reamp boxes would be a drop in the bucket. A real RE-201 is way cooler than the RE-202 anyway. Might as well just use plugins at that point. The real deal will be unique. But I wouldn't want the upfront or maintenance costs of an original if I'm being honest.

My bad, I meant RE-20, the pedal, the predecessor to the RE-202. If I had a real Space Echo, I wouldn't be even remotely concerned with Boss's stomp boxes hahaha.

The original is literally just a stomp box, made for instrument levels.. The new one has an instrument/line switch on it (I guess they realized a lot of folks were hooking them up to mixers?)

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

If you can spring for a vintage RE-201, I'd think the cost of the Reamp boxes would be a drop in the bucket. A real RE-201 is way cooler than the RE-202 anyway. Might as well just use plugins at that point. The real deal will be unique. But I wouldn't want the upfront or maintenance costs of an original if I'm being honest.

My bad, I meant RE-20, the pedal, the predecessor to the RE-202. If I had a real Space Echo, I wouldn't be even remotely concerned with Boss's stomp boxes hahaha.

The original is literally just a stomp box, made for instrument levels.. The new one has an instrument/line switch on it (I guess they realized a lot of folks were hooking them up to mixers?)

Ah...gotcha! Makes sense now!

I was cheap and got the Nux Tape Echo pedal last year over the new Boss one. I gotta say: I don't mind it at all outside of the tiny text on the display.

[Agreed]

Obviously any digital alternative to a RE-201 is a budget alternative, and a convenience alternative; if it were trivial in terms of expense or the amount of care and maintenance it requires not to mention having the space to keep it and integrate it into your recordings, such things would not be commonplace and everyone would just use RE-201s.

It is very weird to me to say that the DSP code that Roland/Boss have developed is somehow insufficient because they are using it in both a pedal (which is processing it on an ARM processor) and as a plugin (which will either be processing it on an x86/x64 CPU or an ARM too in the case of Apple Silicon). It seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what is actually going on behind the scenes here to try to portray Roland as "modeling" their "inferior" pedal when no literally code doesn't work like that, it is the same program executed here or there, nobody is boot-licking here.

If you feel their emulation is lacking that's your business, but it is not an inherent hierarchy of "code on computer better than code on pedal," you're just getting Roland's current emulation technology two different ways. And as they note, they've added things to the plugin version that allow you to tweak and parameterize it even further than the RE-202 pedal does, which itself is an expanded "fully featured" RE-201 emulation in contrast to their smaller RE-2 pedal (which is also ARM-powered, with the same delay algorithms, but tweaked for the smaller format and with a different tone adjustment mechanism and a set preamp gain rather than tweakable, no presets, only one out of three reverb types on the RE-202). So the plugin is a premium version, if that matters to you, but it's all their current generation technology, fruits of their labor on the topic at this time - where's the beef?

[ghettosynth]

What a fascinating conversation.