Although we’ve never had the pleasure of testing out an old Binson Echorec, Roland Space Echo or Maestro Echoplex, we sure love a good tape delay sound. Those machines, while classic and heard on thousands of incredible recordings, are now decades and decades old. This leads to a ton of maintenance, know-how and upkeep, and that’s if you actually KNOW what you’re doing. They can fail at any moment, usually requiring a fully functional backup unit, just in case. Today’s pedal takes all the sounds we love about the old echoes and brings them into modern times. The Mile End Effects MTHRFCKR=RPTR Tape Delay gives you the goods, without any of the hassle…
The sounds the MTHRFCKR=RPTR produces, just like its name, are bold, powerful and in your face. The list of options and tools available is fairly extensive, so here’s what we know:
D. LVL – Mixes the amount of effected signal verses dry signal. (Clockwise more, counter-clockwise less)
TIME – Sets the speed of the echo (Clockwise fast, counter-clockwise slow)
RPTS – Sets the number of echo repeats aka the feedback (clockwise more, counter-clockwise less)
LFO DPTH – sets the amount of random, non-cyclical LFO modulation (clockwise more, counter-clockwise less)
LFO SPEED – Sets the speed of the LFO modulation (clockwise slow, counter-clockwise fast)
Volume – Overall output volume of the PreAmp
Gain – How hard you wish to distort the PreAmp. The higher your input signal, the more this PreAmp will blow out into a fizzy, saturated mess. Highly recommended to put your favourite fuzz pedal or boost in front of it and see what kinds of noise you can make. It also sounds especially good with a fat bass synth.
WET – Removes your dry, unaffected signal from the delay line. This can be especially useful with the repeats turned off to send master tracks through as a recording technique, adding a very lo-fi quality to any recording (Sometimes its nice to record in protools and then send your master tracks to a cassette tape, trust me!) OR put the wet signal on a bus track to mix in and out of for live sound applications.
WAVE – Choose between random, non-cyclical square wave or sine wave LFO modulation
– The Sine wave setting adds a subtle seasick quality to the delay. Almost as if you had left a vinyl record in the sun on a hot day or have a tape machine whose DC motor is unhealthy, creating very subtle changes in the tape speed.
– The Square wave setting at fast speeds can flutter like a poorly tracked VHS tape or wrinkled audio tape and at slower speeds will mimic the sound of a tape machine in need of a good cleaning. As tape passes over dirty mechanics in the machine, it will sometimes get stuck very briefly and as the motor struggles to pull the tape back to speed, you will hear a whiplashing effect as the tape frees itself from the filthy hands of its captor (or capstan!).
+dB – engages the Cassette Tape PreAmp
Momentary Switch – allows the delay repeats to self oscillate or ‘warp’
While this may seem like a lot of controls to deal with, the MTHRFCKR=RPTR is actually extremely user-friendly, letting you coax out some beautiful sounds in mere seconds. Truly. In our demo below, we run through all of the controls, as well as some of our favorite settings (and even toss in a little Pink Floyd if anyone’s interested). This is a big pedal, no doubt, but small in comparison to the vintage echo machines, and their laundry lists of hassles. Cheers to the Mile End Effects gang on building a remarkable, unique-but-authentic recreation (and, in many ways, improvement) on some classics. Check out our demo, and their website, and get lost in the sonic mist….
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