Wavesfactory, a small developer with lots of creative ideas that doesn't get enough recognition, has entered the crowded tape delay plug-in field. Echo Cat is based on the WEM Copicat tape echo device from the late fifties. It incorporates all the notorious sonic elements and imperfections of tape-based delays and all the superb, characterful qualities they bring to music production. Have I got your attention yet?

What's Old Is New

Next to EQ, compression, and reverb, delays are the next most ubiquitous plug-ins we all need and use in most production styles. They generally come in one of two flavours: digital, clean, echo based plug-ins. And tape emulations typically incorporate some saturation and slow-moving LFOs to modulate the repeats to create slight pitch variations.

Real tape-based delays from decades past were the product of imperfect tape machines with inconsistencies in the motor speed, random imperfections on the tape surface, signal loss, and sonic gaps resulting from where the loops were joined by physical adhesive tape. All of these attributes contribute to the character of old tape machine based delays

For those of us old enough to remember them, we were glad when they were replaced with super clean digital delays in the late '80s and '90s — no more artifacts, tuning, speed, or consistency problems. But we soon grew tired of the sterile nature of clean delays. The rapid and dramatic developments in software plug-ins this millennium brought a return to modelling some of the old imperfections.

And that's where we are now. Our plug-in universe is populated with a plethora of delay plug-ins, some clean sounding, some dirty sounding, some based on tape emulations, some hybrids, and all usually with at least some appealing characteristics. So, where does Wavesfactory and Echo Cat fit into this?

Three Playback Heads

Echo Cat offers all the usual control we have come to expect but with a few exciting twists that I haven't seen in other tape-based delay plug-ins. There are three separate playback heads. This alone is a strong entry point to constructing exciting delays. Most delay plug-ins offer two engines (think Exponential Audio’s Excalibur) or multi-tap repeats with very little independent control.

The three tape heads each have independent sync buttons, rate controls, level, panning, and filtering. Often really tight delays (think 30ms - 150 ms range) create a nice thickening effect. Playing with Echo Cat, I was able to get a lovely wide thickening effect setting and panning two of the independent tape heads manually while syncing the third one to tempo for rhythmic repeats. I could easily control the level of the two "thickening" heads in relation to the synced head for the perfect balance. Fantastic!

Imperfections

While the old real-world tape-based delays had plenty of sonic problems to deal with, the problems don't seem quite as bad when you have control over them in a digital environment. Rather than hiring a technician to calibrate the motor and replace old tapes, Echo Cat allows up to turn down the amount of hiss and electrical hum added to the signal.

I am personally not a fan of tape hiss or 50 Hz/60Hz hums, but Echo Cat has it if you want it. In addition to level control, there is a useful auto-mute function which gates the noise when no input signal is present. You get the best of both worlds: characterful hiss and hum during the echoes and a clean sound during the spaces in between.

Another interesting artefact of imperfect tape machines is the warbling and pitch fluctuations from random motor speed changes. Echo Cat gives us the usual wow and flutter control we see on many modern delay plug-ins. But it also provides functions for deliberate varispeed style modulation of the pitch of the echoes.

The idea behind varispeed is that it deliberately changes the motor's speed, so the times of the head would vary. Echo Cat, we can adjust the varispeed amount or modulate it with an LFO. In practice, this provides way more interesting sonic variety and control than simple wow and flutter controls.

Tape loops were physically built around splicing segments of audio tape together. They were never perfectly smooth. The gap that often occurred at the juncture point created a momentary signal loss. Echo Cat has a Loop Gap control to emulate this type of signal loss on each of the three tape heads. Loop Gap is another subtle but brilliant feature to add a subtle random character to the repeats. Combine this with the Tape Age and Signal loss controls, and Echo Cat generates some very appealing sounding, yet controllable, imperfections.

Improvements

Like all useful modern delay plug-ins, Echo Cat not only models old behaviour, it offers improvements that were not present in the original physical devices. The ducking control in Echo Cat is genius. It feels like there is a built-in compressor with the input signal feeding a side chain input. Two simple knobs help contour the echoes perfectly around the input signal. Although this sort of ducking isn't exactly new, I've never seen it on tape-based delay plug-ins before. I think it is a valuable addition.

Echo Cat also has useful mid-side functionality. Again, not unique but unusual to find on a tape-based emulation. Mid-side delays might not be something I would use every day, but it is a fantastic creative tool that I am glad to have available for those special moments. And in addition to the usual mono and stereo controls, there is a useful "fake stereo: control which applies a 5 ms delay to the right channel, which results in the sensation of a more expansive sound.

In Use

I put this to work on several sources and enjoyed several of the features. Using the two heads for tight, thickening delays with the third set for tempo-synced repeats worked beautifully on both a Rhodes part and a female lead vocal. I found generous amounts of the Loop Gap feature fantastic for making the whole plug-in sounds less regular and digital. The ducking worked beautifully. I especially like that I didn't need to manually set up a compressor, route the side chain, and tweak the attack and release characteristics. It's purpose-built to fit perfectly with the input signal.

So, yes, this is "another delay plug-in." I particularly like that it combines the best elements of clean digital style delays with tape-based imperfections. I don't need to make a conscious choice in advance. It's all there. I can set it as cleanly or imperfectly as I want while adjusting it in context without having to switch between multiple plug-ins.

Pros

• I love that any of the three echos can be tempo-synced versus free running in cycles per second.

• Loop Gap, which adds random signal loss, is a brilliant feature that I've never seen in any other delay plug-in.

• Independent high/low pass filtering for each of the three echos.

• Intuitive well laid out interface.

Cons

• No dedicated saturation or drive controls

• It would be nice to have three independent sustain (feedback) controls for the three echos.