Tape echo effects were invented towards the end of the
fifties. Presumably the very first tape echo machine was
invented by Charlie Watkins of London England in 1958. It
was based on a small loop of 1/4 tape onto which audio was
recorded by a magnetic head and then read by three
separated heads. What was read from the tape was amplified
by the internal all-valve circuit and eventually recorded
back to the tape creating the feedback or sustaining
echo effect. The delay time of the unit was determined by
distance of the write head from the read heads in
conjunction with the speed of the tape. Many manufacturers
of this era produced their versions of echo machines
mostly based on the magnetic tape system. The famous Binson
Echorec was based on a circular drum head with a metallic
magnetic stripe. It was used by Pink Floyd at the time of
their album Echoes. Another famous tape echo machine was
the Maestro Echoplex heavily used by pianist Herbie
Hancock. Other notable units were the Selmer TruVoice Echo
the Dynacord Echocord along one of the most famous and
widely used from 1973 to present day the Roland RE-201.
This particular model has a tape loop about 4 meters long
which is recorded read and erased continuously. It
consists of one erase head one write head and three
pick-up heads which when combined with the variable speed
DC capstan motor allows many different delay
configurations. This machine also offers a reverberation
effect based on a spring reverb tank. The combination of
echo and reverb gives an ethereal ambience effect which
eventually inspired the engineers so to name it Space Echo.
Nowadays these machines are very sought after but quite
rare to find on the market and their evaluation increases
year after year. There are many aspects that make the tape
echo stand out from a modern digital delay. Here are a few
of the main features
1) the unpredictability. A capstan motor is never perfect
like a digital clock signal resulting in slight variations
of the delay times and pitched sound.
2) the frequency response and dynamic range. A magnetic
tape is not as clean and flat as a digital recording.
Especially a loop of tape which is cyclically erased and
re-recorded many times in a short time lapse.
3) noise hum distortion. Defects that a digital system
shouldnt have sometimes are wanted and can become
musically acceptable.

There is one way only to obtain all of this. To get the
real thing.
Actually theres a much affordable and easy alternative to
use an accurate digital simulation.

GS-201 is an accurate simulation of a japanese Tape Echo
machine of the early seventies featuring

* Distinctive dynamic range and frequency response
* Realistic response to the panel controls
* Motor wow and flutter
* Sound degradation and distortion at high feedback levels
* Very natural hum and background tape noise
* Three different kinds of magnetic tape models
* Ultra-low CPU usage