CATALINBREAD ECHOREC - DESIGN PERSPECTIVES
The Echorec was so cool we wanted to bring it back. And we wanted to bring it back right.
We wanted to take all the goodness
of that huge Binson Echorec and squeeze it down into a standard sized stompbox without losing anything. In fact, not only did we
not want to lose any of its qualities that made it such a compelling musical device, we wanted to EXTEND its capabilities because
the original Binson hinted at possibilities that it couldn’t realize. We’re talking about variable delay time! We thought, “What if we
had the same four playback head concept but could stretch the delay time out beyond the 300ms limitation? Then the rhythmic
patterns suggested by the various combinations of those four playback heads could really come to life!” Since most of the Binson’s
settings were basically within the “slapback echo” delay time range, you couldn’t really play off of the syncopations suggested by
the head combinations. And it turns out the one example that we all know of that IS syncopated, namely the bass part on Pink
Floyd’s “One Of These Days” uses a single-tap setting - just head 4, which is 300ms, with a few repeats - so really, you could play
that part with any old delay pedal. We felt there was something lurking in the Binson concept that hadn’t been realized yet and
could be unlocked by allowing longer delay times while still maintaining the equidistance between the four playback heads. For
example, if we selected for playback, head 1,3,4 then the rhythm becomes: P 1 x 3 4, where P is your initial picking and x is head
2 turned off. The “x” becomes the rest note in the rhythm. This is hard to explain in writing but you hear it right away! So variable
delay time up to 1000ms for head 4 was our goal, with heads 1, 2, and 3 divided evenly within that. For example, if set to the maxi-
mum delay time, head 4 would be 1000ms, head 3 would be 750ms, head 2 500ms, and head 1 250ms.
And we wanted a more musically useful tone control so we came up with a “tilt” style tone control that centers around noon and
allows you to get warmer and deeper or brighter and thinner so you could either have the echos behind your playing with the
darker settings or on top of your playing with the brighter repeats that emphasize the pick attack.
And we also wanted to provide an audio path that was as musically compelling as the tube audio path in the Binson, because what
the Binson does for your overall guitar tone and response is as important as the fact that it is an echo device. We came up with a
preamp circuit that utilizes two silicon transistors specifically tuned for huge clean headroom and maximum touch sensitivity. We
didn’t want to go with the normal audio driver circuits commonly found in delay pedals. They get the job done but they literally
constrict your guitar signal and take away your playing dynamics; playing soft or playing hard results in the same response - flat.
Our circuit actually ENHANCES the touch sensitivity of your amp. You’ll find that you’ll be able to go from whisper soft to full-on
hard and loud attack just from varying your picking strength with the Catalinbread Echorec between your guitar and amp.
Summary of Contents for Echorec
Page 1: ......
