It's always good to see five items on Ebay, all listed as 'rare'. The RE-201 space echo isn't rare. They sell for £250-£300, but at the moment there are two on Ebay UK, both under £150 - this one has only a day to go. I've wanted one for as long as I can remember, probably because they always seem to pop up in the background wherever there are cool people. The Clash probably used them a lot. And Lee Scratch Perry must have half a dozen. (But remember: They can't make everyone look cool.) They look especially good balanced on top of a guitar amp. It's not really the sound - my PodXT can do that - it's the look of the battered green box and the assumption that it will make brilliant noises. I know if I bought one, I'd use it once, then it would sit under the desk, mocking me for believing an old Japanese box could make me cool like The Clash. Anyway, there's always one thing cooler, and in this case, it's the Korg SE-500 - the tape echo which matches your MS-20 synth and SQ-10 sequencer.
So, yes, Messe is all over. Last year I was there, this year I was so busy and so generally uninspired with what I saw, that I'm only posting now. This is the Roland RE-20 Space Echo Pedal. I love the look (reminiscent of the Fender vs Boss mashups from Namm), although it's a shame they couldn't squeeze a VU meter in there (unlike this monster which my friend Neil just bought). Somehow, if Roland wants to pillage their past, this feels like the right way to do it. (UPDATE: They're now on sale)
Matrix Synth featured this great story about FiveG, the expensive but goodie-packed Harajuku synth shop (previously linked here). The flickr set from the shop includes this picture of a weird-looking science-lab tape echo machine, making the normally cool Roland Space Echo above it look distinctly mundane. Their price list calls it a Philips Tape Echo (and it's ¥148,000 - £670) Anyone know anything about this unit? If you've got one to sell, I'm sure Goldfrapp want five of them for their next video...
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Why, why, why? You could buy whole stack of old Space Echoes for the £1,800 price of the new Blue Coconut Echo Verb - a modernised tape echo which, rather pointlessly, tries to eradicate the noise and wobbly-ness of vintage gear. For less cash (although still more than vintage) you can buy the $559 HiWatt custom tape echo, which is small, modern and kind of cool looking. If you're willing to put up with digital, the $249 Boss RE-20 pedal looks fantastic... (via Ben and SoS)
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The new Roland gear is up on their site...
1) Condoleezza Rice presented with a tiny 10-string guitar in Bolivia. The green inlay is coca leaf - apparently it never made it onto the plane home. here. (Thanks, everyone who sent this in)
This Flickr set from tpaddock reveals the excellent taste of the Muppet band: They use a Roland Space Echo and a Arp Odyssey. (Thanks Dr Ben)
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Roland US have announced that they're allowing three famous and ace effects boxes to be turned into plug-ins for the UAD-1 card. They're recreating the Boss CE-1 analog chorus pedal, the ultra-minimal Dimension D chorus box and, inevitably, the RE-201 Space Echo. Sounds good, and I've only heard good things about the UAD-1 card, although this irritable thread discusses the pros and cons of spending £350 on what is apparently a very aged video card with a bit of extra software.
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I just spent ages looking through EM411's studio reviews section, where people post pictures of their home studio and other people comment on them. The most beautiful is probably this one (above left), in a huge room in a cabin in the woods near Woodstock, but there are plenty of more realistic setups (sample quote: "A lot of gear in my studio is the cheapest kind of musical equipment out there"). The only shame is that the pics are so teeny. Some people post bigger, annotated pictures, and they're really interesting, like this one (above right) - a beautiful view over the sea, a Sonic Youth box set, an empty can of beer, a cup from Subway and loads of nice gear (I wonder if he wants to give me that Roland Space Echo?).
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