Gtoledo3 Posted November 14, 2002 Posted November 14, 2002 A close friend of mine has terminal cancer and gave me a few peices of audio equipment tonight. He gave me this reverb unit which he really cherishes; it seems to be a high quality spring reverb unit. Anybody have any experiences with one of these? It also has electro voice written on it. I'll give a report on the thing after I hook it up tommorrow. The thing that looks promising is the level of eq adjustment available on the reverb. Want mix/tracking feedback? Checkout "The Fade"- www.grand-designs.cc/mmforum/index.php The soon-to-be home of the "12 Bar-Blues Project"
Tedster Posted November 14, 2002 Posted November 14, 2002 Man...that's too bad about your friend. I was all set for the usual gearhead thread, and I'm all bummed out now. My prayers and best wishes to your friend and his family. About your question, I remember Tapco stuff. It was marketed by EV...and I believe the company later went on to become Mackie. "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
DC Posted November 14, 2002 Posted November 14, 2002 Yes, Greg Mackie designed the Tapco mixers. I used to have one and it was really quiet although the pots got really stiff over time. I had no idea they made reverbs, please give us a review. Really sorry to hear about your friend's condition, GT3. -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse
fantasticsound Posted November 14, 2002 Posted November 14, 2002 As I understand it, Tapco was co-founded by Greg Mackie. He did design their mixer products, but sold his share to gain more control of future designs. The culmination of his journey is Mackie Designs. EV bought Tapco along the way, although I don't know if it was direct from Greg and his partners or through another owner. I didn't know they made Tapco reverbs, either, so this may have been a result of EV owning the name. Kinda like Oberheim. Last I checked, Gibson was selling multi-effects boxes under the Oberheim name but no synths. How strange is that? I, too, would love to hear a review of the Tapco in question. Sorry to hear about your friend. May he live and die with dignity. It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman Soundclick fntstcsnd
Tedster Posted November 14, 2002 Posted November 14, 2002 [quote]Originally posted by fantasticsound: [b] Sorry to hear about your friend. May he live and die with dignity.[/b][/quote]There's something very Native American about that statement...which is very cool. That's all any of us can ask...to live and die with dignity. "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
Gtoledo3 Posted November 14, 2002 Author Posted November 14, 2002 I appreciate all of the good will. It's a weird thing because my friend's decline has been so gradual over the past couple of years I've almost gotten numb to it. He's really one of the best friends I've ever had. I've had a lot of semi catastrophic shit happen in the past few months, so I've developed a zen-like resolve. Well, I just completed the initial run through on the TAPCO. It's a pretty cool box... All of my tests were done on vocals only, using a KSM 32, and a SM 57. The pre was a Grace 101. For starters it's a stereo spring reverb unit with 1/4 inch +4 line level jacks, but it will handle -10 fine. The unit is divided into 3 sections; drive level, reverberation equalizer, and the output control section. Each of these sections has seperate controls for channels one and two. The drive level section has out/in switches, solid vu meters, and -15/+15 db gain adjustment. Using the boost without patching in the reverb sounds pretty good- kind of thick sounding. It could definitely be a useful sound all on it's own. The reverberation equalizer section contains a 4 band parametric, which will eq only the reverb, not the dry signal. The bands are 80-240, 240-960, 960-3800, and 3800-12k. The ouput control section features a reverb percentage and output level controls, as well as a reverb/equalizer bypass that shuts down both channels together with just one switch, as oppossed to the dual mutes on the input section. In use, the unit is smooth as a baby's bottom. As I already stated, the input gain adjustment works well, w/ no significant noise that I can tell. The equalizer is probably the best part about this unit as oppossed to other spring reverbs w/ no equalization. The 80-240 band is probably the one that's going to get the biggest workout- it's great because springs have a tendency to not work well with low frequncy signals. Adjusting the reverb percentage to anything less than 100% brings in some hiss. That's about the only thing I've found bad on this unit so far. For me, it's not much of a problem as I'll be using it as a send return effect, and would just max out the percentage anyway. Using it on vocals, it totally evokes the California sound. I was singing Righteous Brothers and Beach Boys within 5 seconds of hooking the thing up. I had been working on a song with a boogie woogie/ early Paul McCartney solo vibe. The Tapco was great with some heavily reverbed vocal harmonies, and gave that classic "sproing" on handclap overdubs. I'd been going for a "vintage" sound, and the TAPCO pushed it over the top. Comparing this unit to other spring reverbs, I would describe the TAPCO as highly articulate, smooth, and versatile. As I stated earlier, most other units I've worked with tend towards muddiness, and more "sproing," which has made them pretty limited use. I'll make another post once I've used it on more than voice. Want mix/tracking feedback? Checkout "The Fade"- www.grand-designs.cc/mmforum/index.php The soon-to-be home of the "12 Bar-Blues Project"
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