Recording - July 2017 - 57

viscosity, especially as the units
would heat up. In short, there
is a practical reason they were
shortlived and rare! Catalinbread
has given us the choice of a clean,
tuned-up/oil-changed model, or a
gunky one. They have also added
longer delay times and head
balancing for off-kilter multitaps.
The Adineko's controls: Reverb
(delay repeats that smear over
time), Viscosity (oil type as above),
Timing (Delay time 80-1000 ms),
Blend (Mix), and Balance (changes
the mix of the two heads). This
pedal's only internal control is the
buffer/bypass setting.

Talisman

This is a plate reverb pedal modeled on a classic mono EMT
140. A plate reverb uses transducers to send sound to a large
suspended steel plate, and the sound is picked up by contact
mics/pickups. Most plate reverbs could be damped to control
their decay, and in the 1960s and 1970s the signal usually
went into a delay first to add predelay. In the Talisman, it's all
there, and the company are quick to remind us this pedal is
"479.99% smaller than the leading plate reverb."
Talisman controls are: High Pass (filters out the low bloom
and makes the plate brighter in nature), Time (reverb decay,
which can almost get infinite at full), Pre-Delay (up to 100 ms),
Mix, and Volume (level and density of the reverb). This pedal's
only internal control is the buffer/bypass setting.

In use: guitar

To test these pedals in their primary intended application (on
guitar, duh!), I had my friend, guitarist and music director Josh
Poore, play through them. Josh owns an original Echorec pedal
and I have recorded it often. Very much like the original, the
Catalinbread version sounds great and (in a word) trippy, but
Josh noted that like the other pedals, it doesn't have tap tempo,
a feature he misses having on the original as well.
We both liked the saturated
sound of the Belle Epoch. It really
captures the feel of tape well. Its
mod control is very sensitive and
goes from smooth chorus-like effects
to full-on burbly wobble with ease.
Of course this pedal is just made for
manually-oscillated delay bending
and manipulation.
The Adineko took the longest to
get used to, especially when going
beyond a simple slapback. It has a
very cool and instantly vintage lo-fi
sound, but Josh found it frustrating
to play in time to the extreme
syncopated and sloshy settings.

The surprise for us was the Talisman. On guitar it can be
tight and smooth or loose and clangy, and in both instances it
does a great job of creating its space without destroying the
notes and tone of the guitar.

In use: studio

Moving to the studio, I tried each pedal on my analog synths and
in a reamplified send/return setup in my DAW. On synths like my
Moog Voyager with very powerful outputs, these high-impedance
pedals clipped too easily, and the Lo-Z output induced too much
noise when boosted. That's not Catalinbread's fault; almost all guitar-impedance pedals react as such, and this is a good reminder
that these were designed for guitar and not as studio effects.
To solve this problem I used a pair of Little Labs Redeye units, one
as a reamplification box and the other as a direct box in front of my
Millennia Media HV-3D preamp. I also used a pair of 500 Series
Avedis MD7 units, reviewed elsewhere in this issue. Effectively this
is known as "pedal reamping" and it worked like a charm.
Once that was done, in a mixdown situation I could use the
Echorec to add cool animated rhythmic pulses to a percussive synth
sequence off my Moog Mother32. I also enjoyed the Echorec on
Fender Rhodes (think Pink Floyd again), and I was surprised at how
much I liked it on lead vocals, ducked just under the dry signal.
The Belle Epoch was a breeze to dial in, and I loved
manipulating it in real time in a mix. It has a nice rich sound
and analog saturation, and its tape sound is quite believable.
I love using The Belle Epoch to spread mono guitar signals out
into stereo, with the original panned to one side and the delay
slap on the other. I also mixed a folk album with fiddle, and it
was great for adding warm subtle trails to that as well.
With The Adineko, the sound designer in me took over. If you
are looking for an effect that is hard to pin down and has an
organic mind of its own, this is a great secret weapon that has
no plug-in counterpart.
Lastly, the Talisman may be my favorite of the bunch for day-to-day
studio work; in all seriousness, I am thinking of making this my
studio's plate sound. It has a very broad throw from thin, transparent,
bright slapback to big, rich, thick metal shimmer. It works on vocals,
snare drum, guitars, and percussion. For lack of a better description,
it just sounds right and seats itself well in the mix. Yes, I am that
impressed with this pedal... as I am with all of them, actually.

Final thoughts

Be aware in a studio setting that these are pedals, not plug-ins,
and they can be a bit noisier than you might be used to. However,
the noise you get is not out of line and easily masked in a mix.
It's always handy having some effects pedals in your
arsenal, not just for guitar duty but to add secret sauce to your
mixes. These are all excellent choices for both tasks, but I must
call out the Talisman as a really solid plate reverb that doesn't
require you to rip out a wall.

PRICES: Belle Epoch, $199.99; Echorec, $230;
Adineko, $199.99; Talisman, $209.99
MORE FROM: Catalinbread, www.catalinbread.com
RECORDING July 2017

http://www.catalinbread.com

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