Gear In-depth & Longer Blogs — tech talk

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. I'd heard whispered rumours of a Dynacord echo that with a flat spinning disc instead of tape, but as my searches yielded no further information, I put it down to being just another vintage gear tall tale. That was until a year or two later, when I happened upon what appeared to be a very stylish sixties typewriter, housed in a modest two tone carry case. Where a typewriter would ordinarily have a set of keys, this elegant machine had but a handful of buttons and knobs. A symphony of understated sixties...

Some information on the how, and the why, of modifying vintage Echorecs with varispeed control. Binson Echorecs were all manufactured with a fixed speed motor and Binson founder, Dr Bonfiglio Bini, together with his principal engineer, Scarano Gaetano, created something very special with their considerations for the fixed head spacings of the Binson Echorec. The four playback heads on an Echorec 2 offer delay times of approximately 75ms, 150ms, 225ms, and 300ms. Dr Bini chose these spacings to create musically-related delay times: if the longest delay tap is a quarter note, then head three is a dotted eighth note, head...

Regeneration: Synths Beyond Sustainability by Tony Miln The recent climate change coverage in the media is a wake up call that we ignore at our peril (looking at you, President Trump). I've written about the importance of us educating and training new technicians to ensure the future of the classic instruments and gear that we all use and cherish, but is there also an environmental argument for doing so? Most modern synths, effects and amps are surely more energy efficient than their predecessors, but what is the cost of continuing to deplete precious resources by churning out an endless stream...

"Listen, we ALL love gear. Every person involved in this project can't get it out of their minds because of the nature of the unit. For gear heads and techs, this is just like going to Disneyland." - T-Rex Effects December 2017 Tony Miln's blog post today was going to be the first part in our forthcoming series on the Binson Echorec: buying, owning, using, maintaining - and tips, tricks and insights gained from a couple of decades spent wrangling these exotic Italian beasts. Here at Soundgas we receive almost daily requests for information/advice/parts for Binsons, so I intend to build...