New Music Gear Monday: Wavesfactory Echo Cat Tape Echo Plugin
There’s nothing like a good delay on most instruments and it’s even better when it sounds like old-fashioned tape. The very first portable echo delay unit was created in 1958 by Charlie Watkins and called the Copicat delay, and as you’d expect, it was an instant hit. Featured in countless albums from the 60s and 70s and used by great bands like The Shadows and Pink Floyd, the original Copicat was designed for guitar. As you’d also expect, it’s now one of the most sought-after pieces of gear around the world since it’s very rare and has a sound that’s difficult to reproduce. Thanks to Wavesfactory, you can now get that exact sound and more with their new Echo Cat plugin.
The thing that made the original Copicat (and all other portable tape delays, for that matter) so unique was its 3 head design. That gave you 3 separate echos at different times, and when blended together, sounded smooth and buttery and just folded into the mix.
The Echo Cat emulates those 3 heads and more. From the front panel you can select each head by itself, or in any combination, from the push buttons. There are also the standard Input, Sustain (feedback), Mix and Output controls, plus a vertical VU meter that reads both input and output.
Look under the hood to the first advanced panel and you’ll find the controls for each head. These include delay time, synch to track, volume, pan and high-pass and low-pass filters.
Go to the next page and you can really tweak Echo Cat for a variety of vintage sounds. There you can control Hiss, Wow, Flutter, Age (of tape), Signal Loss (due to tape aging) and Loop Gap depth. Go to yet another page and you can control the amount of Hum, Modulation, and Varispeed to really make it sound as old as you’d like.
A final page provides more modern controls like Ducking, Global Tone, and even MS processing.
The best part is that Echo Cat is now available for 50% off so it can be had for just $39. There’s also a demo version available if you want to try it first.
You can find out more and hear some samples on the Wavesfactory website, or check out the video below.
