Strymon Volante Review: Tape Echo, Magnetic Drum Delay, and Reverb in One Pedal

One of the most interesting delay units ever created was the Binson Echorec. The Echorec was invented in the mid-1950s by Dr. Bonfiglio and Scarano Gaetano in Milan, Italy. They set out to create a delay that was more reliable than tape.

The Echorec uses a magnetic drum recorder that didn’t use tape rather a rotating steel-alloy disk (drum) coated with magnetic material. Multiple playback heads were positioned around the drum’s circumference, which allowed for multiple delay times and rhythmic patterns.

The delay times were fixed, and the Echorec had a vacuum tube preamp that is something quite special. In fact, to this day, people underestimate the importance of the preamp in the sound of the Echorec.

For many years, the Binson Echorec was largely forgotten, which is surprising given its unique tone device. Hank Marvin used the Echorec in The Shadows, a British surf band. David Gilmore also used the Echorec prominently throughout his career, as well as on the early Pink Floyd records.

The Binson Echorec was a high-quality device. They were made to last, and their goal of manufacturing a delay unit more stable than tape was achieved.

Over the past decade, several companies have emulated the Echorec sounds. Some of these emulations were more implied than really nailing the tone. I’ve tried several and mostly haven’t been too impressed. There has just been something missing in the true flavor of the original. It’s not just about the multi-tap delays. In the same way, tape echo isn’t just about rolling high-frequencies off.

T Rex has come out with a new Echorec that is quite expensive. However, they failed to put in a vacuum tube preamp. I’m not going to pay $2100 for a non-authentic Echorec. As I mentioned earlier, the preamp plays a significant role in the magic of the original.

I would pay more for the T-Rex that has a real tube preamp in it. However, I’m not willing to pay that much for an approximation of the preamp. I’m not adverse to spending money on gear. But I do have high expectations.

There have been some other takes on the Ecorec, but none had that inspiring tone of the original. I decided to give the Strymon Volante a try. I have the Strymon El Capistan, and even years later, it still does a fantastic job considering all the little nuances that make a tape echo so special. It’s the only delay pedal I feel can substitute for my real tape echo.

Strymon would likely pay attention to the minutia of what makes an Echorec magical. And…they did!!

Multi-tap Love

One of my favorite ways to use the Strymon Volante is to generate reverb-like effects from delay. Reverb can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a pre-delay option. I have been in situations where I needed ambience, but a reverb was too dense and had longer-lasting effects than I needed.

The Volante gives you buttons for the playback and feedback of a head. Because they are independent, it gives us some options not available on other delays.

We can enable only the playback head for any of the four tape heads, which won't send it to the feedback.

You can set up the Volante to send each of its tape heads to the feedback knob only. This means we don’t hear the initial kick back from the delay line; we only hear it enter the feedback. This places the delay lines more in the background.

Having multiple taps feeding back creates the sound of a reverb in a room with little diffusion. But, depending on how long you set the feedback and mix knobs, it can sit quite well in a mix without overpowering your signal.

Each of the “heads” has a button to designate whether the delay line is just sent to the feedback or you want the initial kickback as well. This is fantastic because you can create variations on what delay lines stay in the background and which ones are in the foreground more.

This is not a new trick. David Gilmore from Pink Floyd used the Binson Echorec for reverb -like tones for many years. It was a forgotten sound for a period of time, however. It’s not that multi-tap delays ceased to exist since the Echorec. They didn’t operate like a Binson Echorec.

To say the Echorec sound is just about the multi-tap delay is missing a huge component of the sound of the unit. There is a lot of warm character to the Echorec. The Echorec was a fully analog tube device.

Depending on the age of the unit, there were wobbles and sounds of wear that became desirable. All of which Strymon has considered in their design.

Saturation Levels

I’m a big fan of saturation with delays. It’s why I love tape and analog delays so much. Well, the Echorec can saturate, and Strymon did not disregard this feature. The Rec Level knob adjusts the amount of signal being sent to the record heads. The higher the level the more saturated the delays will be.

Mechanics

The mechanics option brings some of the inconsistent magical errors that happen with analog gear. Analog gear needs to be maintained. A Echorec that is in need of servicing may show certain signs that, to some, are a desirable sound. The unexpected “failure” of the components introduces some unpredictability into the signal. This mechanical wear is especially exciting when recording, as you can end up capturing a magical moment of the mechanical “failure” in a specific part of the performance that really adds something special to the expression.

Wear

The best way to think of wear is as a high-frequency adjustment on the delays. I’m oversimplifying, but as you turn up the wear knob, the high frequencies become less prevalent in the signal.

You might be wondering why you would want to alter the high-frequency response on the repeats of a delay. Well, I’m glad you asked. The higher-end the repeats, the more they stand out. When you reduce the high end on the repeats, the repeats melt into the background more.

It’s not just the mix knob that adjusts how prevalent the delay is in the sound. Eq can also change the delay repeats from appearing in the foreground or background.

Low Cut

Speaking of EQ, the Strymon Volante also gives us an option to cut low frequencies, which can come in handy when you’re creating delay feedback soundscapes. Low end can build up when the feedback starts oscillating. Cutting the low end keeps the sound more focused.

I much prefer the knob option for the low cut rather than an on/off switch as it gives me more control.

Head Spacing

The Volante has four options for spacing the four record heads apart from each other. There are options to space the heads evenly for 8th, 16th notes, and dotted notes. You can also change the spacing to get triplet effects.

Where the Volante veers from other delays in the Golden Ratio and Silver Ratio settings. The Golden ratio setting places the four heads a distance apart according to the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio setting has a quick buildup of density, which is great for reverb-like effects.

The Silver ratio places the heads according to the Silver ratio, which has the buildup, or as they call it in the manual, “bunch up”.

On the original Binson Echorec, the four playback heads were fixed. You couldn’t change the delay time, and the slowest delay was 300ms. Strymon has given us the ability to use the concept of the Echorec but add the option to move the playback heads to one of the four presets.

Thre Volante also allows us to adjust the time of the fourth playback head between 100ms and 4 seconds via the tempo knob. The Speed toggle switch enables you to toggle half, normal, and double speeds, corresponding to the media speeds.

The Time knobs adjusts the speed of the 4th playback head, and the Speed toggle adjusts the speed of all the playback heads. What a nice way to have more flexibility in generating unusual delay sounds.

Inputs and Outputs

The Strymon is designed to take an instrument-level signal or a line-level signal. You can use the Volante with a guitar, keyboard (it sounds incredible with a Mellotron), and as outboard gear in your studio.

The Volante is a true Stereo pedal with stereo ins and outs.

Midi

The Volante has a MIDI in and out. You can send Midi Program changes to recall up to 300 presets. You can also control all the of Volante parameters via CC Messages.

My favorite MIDI feature is the MIDI clock sync. This is very useful when you need to lock the tempo of the delay times to be in sync. I don’t always lock my delays to a tempo. Sometimes having a delay with the sync not locked leads to a better result as the delays pop out.

But, other times, if you’re relying on the delay to play groove-oriented parts where the timing must be locked to the tempo, a band, an arpeggiator, or a sequencer/DAW.

I use a Clock Step Multi from JMK Music to lock my clock across all devices. It’s been a fantastic tool for ensuring a tight MIDI clock. Midi Clock derived from a DAW is not very stable. You may not notice it as much with a delay, but if you’re locking arpeggiators, sequencers, and drum machines, it’s better to use the Clock Step Multi.

The Volante also has a USB-C port that allows you to control MIDI features from a computer.

Hold

The Volante, like the Strymon El Capistan, has a footswitch dedicated to holding the feedback for infinite feedback. With a real tape echo, I would often set it up within reach so I could “play” the feedback knob for swells and feedback drones.

It’s not always practical to take a real tape echo on a gig. Many delays were not a great substitute, as it was hard to play the feedback knob on the pedalboard. The hands-free operation using the hold button is a great feature.

Sound on Sound

The Volante has a feature called Sound on Sound, which is a type of looping. Soun on sound works by essentially bypassing the erase head. Whatever gets recorded into the delay keeps repeating. It records sound on top of sound. Even though you can set the sound to infinite in sound mode, it doesn’t necessarily mean infinite if you keep recording new ideas. Eventually, new ideas will overtake the old ones. So you can create an ever-evolving composition.

I love the sound-on-sound feature for creating Frippertronics-style compositions. The Frippertronics set up that Robert Fripp and Brian Eno developed was a fairly complicated setup.

Sound on Sound is a wonderful setting for slowly evolving minimalist improvisations or compositions.

The Volante gives us the option to reverse the SOS loop and pause the loop. But not just a regular pause. As the SOS loop pauses, it ramps down and ramps up when it’s started again. This emulates a mechanical device, slowing down or speeding up. I love this feature.

You can adjust the speed of the ramp too.

Spring Reverb

The spring reverbs on the Strymon El Capistan and Volante are my favorite digital spring emulations. I’m a big fan of analog spring reverb. But, there are times when it’s not practical to bring my Surfy Bear Metal.

I have purchased pedals that have been dedicated to emulating spring reverb, and have not been satisfied. It’s kinda funny that the best spring reverb emulation is on two delay pedals.

Conclusion

The Volante is a well-thought-out pedal. There are some pedals that you get the feeling it was not designed by players who regularly gig or do sessions. The Volante is creatively supportive.

The Strymon Volante works well as a creatively stimulating delay as well as a gig-ready delay. Often pedals seem to sit on one side or the other. The Volante manages to travel between the mindset of set it and forget it for gigs, or an evolving compositional tool.