Echo Fix EF-X3 - Five Synth Sketches with Tape

video upload by Jay Hosking

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Five song sketches featuring the EF-X3 tape delay, chorus, and reverb.

00:00 - Ambient, with Take 5
02:57 - Drums, with LXR-02
05:47 - Brooding, with SH-101
07:20 - Acid, with TT-303
09:41 - Ambient, with MS-20

Fair warning: MAS Distribution sent over the EF-X3 for me, not quite for free (I had to pay some significant customs/duty/taxes from the border) but for far less than the full retail price.

Here, I explore the Echo Fix EF-X3, a real tape delay with analog chorus and spring reverb. My favourite feature of the EF-X3 is that it has discrete outputs for each of the four tape heads plus another output for chorus/reverb, which means you can get some incredibly stereo tape delay mixes with it. Here, I usually panned two heads full left/right, and two heads 50% left/right, with the dry out and chorus output slightly panned and near centre. Ages ago, I had an Akai Headrush and I always loved having such a ludicrous amount of outputs; it's exactly the same delight here.

But I have to say, using a real tape delay is unlike any digital emulation I've tried. It's less behaved and has more texture than I had expected. And while it shouldn't matter, seeing the tape running is a thrill. It's an incredible physical presence on the table, super solid and with beautiful wood on the sides.

No one needs a real tape delay, of course, just like no one needs an analog synth and no one needs hardware. But for someone who has loved those records with long, cascading tape delays, for someone who loves the physicality of hardware, I've felt incredibly lucky to have the EF-X3 up on the table.

Thanks for listening.

Recorded to a DAW as a multi-track (dry channel, chorus/reverb channel, and channels for each of the heads) and mixed afterward. No external effects on the sound. EQ, compression, and limiting on the master.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com"