Roland Space Echo

The tape delays are pretty special.

The RE-201 emulation is really, really great.

Um, and I have those hardware versions too.

I have a RE-201 and a RE-501 in my studio that get used quite a bit.

And, um, and then lastly, probably one of my favorite new pieces is the Soundgas spring reverb.

Um, I actually have two of these units now, and, uh, 'cause I use them so much and I want to be able to, like, maybe go stereo with them or, uh, have two monos on use on different sources at any, any time, and those things are absolutely incredible.

Then, of course, after the Black Ark, Scratch is involved in all kinds of other dub, mostly in collaboration with other people.

But, you know, again, what Scratch achieved at the Black Arc, very limited equipment, just the TEAC 4-track, a Mutron biphase, and a Roland Space Echo.

It's absolutely astounding.

It's interesting that Chris Blackwell gave him an 8-track and Scratch really didn't like using it.

The gear they managed to scrape together for this tiny room was minimal but functional.

The studio lineup consisted of a Soundcraft mixing board, a Tascam 80 eight-track tape recorder, a BEL Electronics noise reduction system, a Clark Technic DN50 spring reverb, and a Roland Space Echo.

For the synth-driven backbone of their new sound, they leaned on a Roland SH-101 synth, a borrowed Oberheim OB-X synth, and a prototype Movement MCS drum computer.

The conditions were far from glamorous.

That blend of mechanical unpredictability and rhythmic precision has influenced modern hybrid units that combine digital looping with analog tape emulation modules for musicians craving the warmth but needing instant recall.

Compared to the Roland Space Echo, which used a single magnetic head moving along a stationary tape spool, the Echoplex's movable red head provides finer time control and less wow.

The Space Echo tended to sound more reverberant due to its fixed head path.

In contrast, the Echoplex two-head design yields tighter repeats and cleaner transients.

Earlier albums like the 1978 LPs had hints, but this was their biggest foray.

The production technique included using the Roland Space Echo for those heavy reverb effects, and even a bit of tape delay on the sax solos in tracks like the Magnificent Seven.

And there's that funky horn section on side A, Janie, don't die, which brings a real disco feel into a punk context.

They didn't shy away from gospel either.

And you were pulling a lot of tricks from the heroes that you loved.

One of the tricks I remember was the Roland Space Echo tape echo that you pulled from John Clemmer.

Yeah.

That's not a story I want to get into.

I can either, they all individually hit the patch bay, but also the output of this mixer hits the patch bay.

So I could take the sum of these keyboards and run them all through the Space Echo into a Big Sky Or into this Maris Auto-Bit Junior, which does some crazy cool glitchy things.

Sure.

Or I could patch just the Juno into one of them.