Strymon Volante magentic echo

[my bloody television]

Don’t get me wrong, the tape delay on the strymon sounds good, I just think the catalinbred sounds better. It’s also one of those things that I hear when splitting hairs but in the context of a band in a live setting the difference in tone is negligible. Having played an el Capistan a few times, the tape delay is very similar if not the same on the volante. Granted, I haven’t played the two side by side.

[BlueSparkle]

I liked my strymon pedals a LOT. But I am moving away from them.
I think I got caught up a little in the hype that surrounded them. No offence implied to anyone who owns a strymon pedal or to Damage Control.

There are a couple of things that I noticed after a while, and that is they are very much a feature packed setup.
I have to say, for years I could not have lived without my timeline or bigsky or mobius.

The last strymon pedal on my board is the mobius - simply because it is just SO versatile. It's not particularly awesome, but it's just fantastic.
Thing is, I have found there are certain vintage analog pedals that are better for me. They have a much richer texture and seem to offer just a little something else that the strymon units don't.

now, I can't afford an echorec. the last time I checked, they were about 8 grand for a fully overhauled unit. So I bought a Dawner Prince boonar, and have been astounded by it. Yet it is not noisy like the echorec. There is a tiny tradeoff, and a couple of huge ones. For starters, it's cheaper, way smaller and absolutely lighter, but it doesn't have the valve preamp of the echorec, and that is not something a digital pedal can faithfully recreate. I have to live with that if I want to save 8K.

The belle epoch deluxe does the maestro echoplex thing almost perfectly, and no way would I cart around a vintage tape echo to a gig.
In a studio or at home, absolutely! and the EP boost is a tiny little pedal that gives almost the same preamp colour that the echoplex has on it's bypass. So there are pedals that come close, and if all you need is close, and you are not wanting to exploit the rules of diminishing returns on effects pedal investment, then why bother with an echoplex or echorec.... unless it is absolutely your thing and there is no substitute. I have a friend with an EP3. It is a monster. It's fussy, noisy, and sounds bloody spectacular.

Back to the strymon.... I'm sure it's good. I also am old/wise enough to see all the usual hype and marketing is back with a vengeance. So I'll wait a couple of years and see if that hype is all it's cracked up to be. All you have to do is look how many timelines are for sale online, to know that the 'shine' has worn off and people have found other things they like more.
Right now though - I have a boonar, an RE-20, a carbon copy, a belle epoch deluxe and timeline. The timeline is off, on the reserve bench, the boonar and RE-20 are staying on the board and the belle epoch is first substitute. It might even enjoy time split into stereo wet in a separate loop.

If the pedal is something you can't live without - you should buy it. However - I'd also ask in the same sentence - How is it that you are only catching onto it now, when there have been other phenomenal effects available for less money, which do fantastic jobs of faithfully recreating the original analog units and those have been around almost seemingly forever?

It's a fair call - you should try before you buy AND you should also compare ease of use versus versatility versus size, and price.

drum echo is a very niche effect. like tape delay. These things are the icing on the pedalboard cake. They are addictive, you can spend hours a day looking to finesse a particular sound, even though you got 95% there within the first 3-5 minutes.

If you don't tweak, don't waste your money. You can get great pedals for a LOT less money that will deliver exactly what you want and even save you board space... but you won't know if you do not try them.