Timefactor Tape Echo

[Gio Makyo]

Is it just me, or are other people finding the Timefactor Tape Echo to be too low-heavy?

My experience with other tape echo efx –including actual analogue tape echo — is that you get a somewhat saturated, degraded sound in the delay.

The Timefactor has a filter function for Tape Echo, but it seems to be a LPF where a BPF would probably have been better for the task. The last thing you want is tons of low end rumbling around in your reverbs or delay, but that is exactly what the Tape Echo does. When saturation is applied, it gets worse. The filter cuts the highs and mids extremely, while leaving the lows (or even boosting them) which is not what one wants in a delay, even a tape echo. With no tweaking, this sounds like just a normal clean delay, but when you start tweaking the various functions, it can result in HUGE low-end rumble, not something that you want or that is a defining characteristic of tape echo. I realise the attempt here is to sim running past a tape head, but I would strongly urge Eventide to replace the LPF with a BPF. As things stand, the Vintage Delay is much better for simulating tape-distressed sounds/ dirty dub delays IMO.

Don't mean to complain, but this doesn't strike me as a useful setting at the moment.

(This is true of the original and the new 2.4 Beta as well…)

Anyone else have an opinion? Is it just me, or…?

[Trazan]

Yeah, I agree. Too much low end in the tape echo. Others have also mentioned this before.

[beedoola]

I agree, I just posted a lengthy thread about a new TImefactor update, its still pending confirmation before being available on the forum.

[Scories]

I think they should use a hpf/lpf, like the one used for the ModDelay; as long as the filter has some analog warmth.

[caveman]

Spent a lot of time recently with the vintage and tape delays.. I found that if you set the mix 100% wet, and set one of the delay times to zero with no FB and mix the other delay off.. you can easily A/B the effect of the filters VS the dry sound by flipping the delay off and on while playing the same passage.

I learned a lot about how the Vintage Delays' filter works.  It has an effect even on zero, then starts trimming out body as you rotate it CW.. when you get to 90% it then starts trimming out highs with a lot of different resonant tones coming in.

On the tape delay, however, I didn't hear much going on.  At zero it sounded pretty much like the digital delayl, then it started dropping highs as you turn the filter up.  At the extreme end, it also seems to boost bass.  I noticed that the digital delay didn't sound that different from the tape delay, except that it seems to not have the additional bass boost at the end, and of course lacks the wow and flutter controls.  it seems that a lofi bandpass thing that more closely emulated tape might be more useful, as suggested already.

In the process I came to appreciate how smooth the digital delay sounds when rolling off the highs a bit.. very musical.

As always, YMMV.

[Gio Makyo]

"it seems that a lofi bandpass thing that more closely emulated tape might be more useful, as suggested already."

No kidding. Eventide? As it stands, this is a near pointless option to have on the box. I find it hard to believe the designers ever actually heard a real tape echo. Tape echo is such a cool effect, and really enjoying a revival these days, I wish Eventide had come up with a better model. 

The digital delay, as you say, is super-smooth. 

[billcburgess]

There is for sure way more low end than is usable; it would be better voiced higher.

[beedoola]

My TF has the most recent update. While the Vintage and Tape mode updates are a little better, the Tape mode still blows pretty hard. The Vintage is better but still meh. The bit reduction feature is executed poorly IMO – not subtle enough to be musical/useful. The Tape needs a lot of improvement. I love my TF but these need to be better.

[juandascanio]

10 years have gone by and there’s still no answer to this issue … it’s a pity

[llemtt]

+1

a new delay algorithm with plenty of eq control in delay, feedback and dry path would be very welcomed

[tfbrown7]

God yes this is desperately needed. As a user of a couple of Roland tape delays I can confirm that even without using the high/low boost, tape echoes remove a proportion of the lowest and highest frequencies and gradually middle-out.

This algorithm is crying out for a little update, it just needs a band pass filter, and will not only sound 10 times closer to an actual tape delay, it’ll just sound 10 times better.

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