Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe - The Misunderstood Delay
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- The Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe is well-known for being a faithful recreation of the classic Echoplex EP-3 tape delay unit, though replacing moving parts for a digital daughtercard module. If you don't crack the instruction manual, however, you might miss out on some of its greatest features... and that would be a shame. Let's find out what else this amazing pedal can do.
Chapters:
0:00 - Demo #1 - “Bugs on a Boat”
2:11 - Getting To Know a Pedal
2:58 - Inside the Belle Epoch Deluxe
4:55 - Mode 1 - Tape Echo
5:42 - Mode 2 - Analog Delay
6:33 - Mode 3 - Rotary
7:27 - Mode 4 - Resonant Filter
8:07 - Modes 5 and 6 - Memory Man Chorus and Vibrato
9:25 - Why We Care about a Preamp
12:32 - Expression Pedal Functionality
14:08 - Volume/Delay Switch & Oscillation Mode
14:43 - Demo #2 - “I’ve Got a Jar of Dirt”
16:43 - Knobs & Wrapup
It’s cool, but not as cool as an illuminated jellyfish box.
They’re grooving
Or the Halo !!
BED and Echorec are both masterpiece pedals from Catalinbread. Thank you for reminding me.
Another pleasant surprize. Keep up the good work....Thanks!
Fantastic breakdown of this. I love the pedal even more!
Ive been useing the small bell for years i never get tired of playing with it
It takes time to find all the sweet spots and yes read the little book it comes with i love this thing
Awesome video, good detailed explanations, thanks.
Thank you!
Appreciated this a lot. I am looking for a delay and a rotary pedal, and this is the girst review I’ve seen that discusses the rotary like mode. And those extended jams gave me enough time to appreciate how I might use the pedal. Ad my first delay I am dortbof “buying before I know exactly what I need” and demos like this help me set my expectations.
Great video. I've watched it twice...so far.
Love it. I had the single sized Belle Epoch a few years ago and loved it. It inspired me to buy a tape echo.
This helped me understand my Epoch Deluxe so much better - thanks!
That’s exactly what I love to hear. Glad you found it helpful!
Well i would say the Belle Epoch is simply the best delay ever, except for a real EP-3. It has all the good AND the not sooo good sides of an EP-3, its quirky, a little noisy etc. but its just beautiful sounding! I love it more than any other pedal!!
Btw, Awesome KING BUFFALO shirt!!!
Hahaha, agreed on all counts. It’s got character for days, and tape has emerged as my preferred delay style. Love King Buffalo, they played a tiny tiny tiny room here years ago and absolutely killed it. Been following them since.
I prefer the TI:ME delay from crazy tube circuits
Another quality video!! You're so right about diving into a pedal but then going back to read the manual and going "oh, so that's what that does!" 😉
Happens more often than I like to admit. But when it does, hey, it's like finding a whole new pedal!
Well done demo, clear explanation of each setting and tech details, without a lot of unnecessary dialogue. I actually had a real echoplex at one time (long since "disappeared"), but was wondering how close this came to the original tape loop version . . . sounds good.
Thank you, Charles
Thanks for lightening my bank account! I have been considering this pedal for a while and you pushed me over the edge. Had been wanting a tape echo simulator and this one has some fun added features.
Guess I'm starting a shoegaze band now!
Happy to help! Yeah, I think that's one of the best sounding delays out there. The ability to modulate the delay is really nice
Beautiful intro improvisation
Is this the best demo of this fine pedal ever? Quite possibly
Oh man, I doubt I’ve earned that distinction, but I certainly appreciate it!
Easily the best demo I've seen of this pedal. I want one even more than I did already.
As for my favourite delays, man that's a long list:
DOD Rubberneck, EHX Memory Boy Deluxe, Sinvertek Fluid Time Mk.ll, Death By Audio Echo Dream 2 + Ghost Delay, Line 6 Echo Park, Ibanez Echo Shifter 2, NUX NDD-7, Boss DD-8 + DSD-3 + PS-3, Red Panda Particle V2, and probably a bunch of others I'm forgetting.
Not surprised to see the Rubberneck up front :)
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the kind words and all your support
Cool Tracks. I love almost any delay-pedal.
You & Pete Thorn compose good demos. You’re always worth checking out.
Wow, thank you so much. Pete is a hero of mine, I love his style.
@@StompboxBreakdown Some guitar players can riff things that inform a vocal-line for me & that’s how I pick the good ones. I don’t care how fast someone is , I’m looking for songwriters.
All the technical stuff has already been done & it’s fun to watch on occasion, but we have to keep writing songs. ☮️
@@hailmaryrecordings8255 You nailed it! My favorite guitar players can do the fast stuff, but I'm always more impressed with their melodic writing and dynamics, so I'm always trying to base these videos on what's practical and useful information.
@@StompboxBreakdown You’re doing a great job. Keep ‘em coming! 🤘🏻
I like the digital emulations of analog far better than the recent analog delays I've owned. I find my favorite flangers and even Univibes, I prefer my digital ones (MD-500, Electric Mistress Stereo).
I've had the Echorec and the Adineko (my favorite echo sound ever) and they both had the same strange background buzz. I guess this not being a true cousin of those, it likely won't have that? That's why I decided against the original small Belle Epoch. This seems like it's very own animal. And the extra stuff you're showing us is AWESOME!
Love that King Buffalo t-shirt!
Aren’t they amazing?!
@@StompboxBreakdown Definitely!
Nice video. Hit sub. I have the og belle and deluxe on the way. I love the original and I’ve been curious about this for a long time!
Eric Johnson has used the preamp of his Echoplex as an "always on" boost in the past. Maybe still does.
Always on preamp pedal. This, Flux Liquid Ambience Polyphonic, Neo Instruments Ventilator 2, Behringer EM600 Echo Machine. only pedals worth 350 dollars in 2022 money. Digitech Obscura, Caitlinbread ECHOREC pretty awesome too.
I’ve been looking at the Liquid
Ambience. It’s a core part of my friend’s sound, and I’ll never play like him, but it sounded amazing and he swears by it. Maybe I’ll have him do a demo with me.
I would exchange filter and rotary mode for stereo out capability and a saturation knob for a new version of the BED. It would be more to the point (Echoplex wasn't stereo but I don't care). I think Catalinbread makes the best tape style delay pedals ever thanks to their analogue preamps in combination with very good algorythms. If they would make their version of the Space Echo... with a true analogue preamp... it would be a big hit . An Echorec Deluxe with Expression pedal and stereo out... I love their preamps with delay so much.
Memory man jam reminds me of "spaced" by pumpkins at the end of Pisces Iscariot
Great video, thank you! Subscribed 👍🏻
Thank you so very much!
This video helped me with my Belle Epoch Deluxe. I was struggling to get more subtle delay sounds from it--that record level knob can quickly be overpowering, I find. I use your first analog-more example for most my delay sounds.
That means a lot to hear, thank you so much! Yeah, the first time I started playing through mine, all I got was overpowering self-oscillation. Looking at it in the frame of an actual tape delay helped me understand why it was getting so loud so fast.
I have one as well as the Belle EpochBoost preamplifier/buffer-it is still a major tone & Volume suck. Big time. I need to figure this problem out. I spent quite a bit of money on these 2 pedals and am not happy.
Also really dig your drum tracks. Would be a great Patreon item to include them as downloads with bass. Seriously, would be happy to pay for some of them.
That's a cool idea. Actually, for this and most of my videos up until a few months ago, I'm just using the drummers built in to Logic. There's a lot of variety in there, and lots of ways to adjust their timing and intensity to fit the groove. Lately, I've been using EZDrummer, which is a lot more robust, but not quite as plug-n-play.
Making the backing tracks available is interesting, I might have to think about that. I'm not sure if that's permissible under the license of EZDrummer, but also, I'm trying to turn some of the mini-songs into full length songs as an original music project. We'll see, I like what you're thinking of, though.
Here's an inexpensive and underrated delay pedal you should present sometime: the Xvive W3 Memory. It's designed by Howard Davis, the creator of the original Deluxe Memory Man.
Actually, Boris was the brains behind it.
Torn between this and the empress super modified , as the possible last component to my pedalboard.
I have the regular Empress Tape delay. I'd say both sound fantastic, but I might give the edge to the Empress just because it has presets
Peavey wolf for the win !!! I'm subbing for that alone
Hahaha, thank you! You have one too? They definitely are unique guitars, I've had it for 12 years and it still surprises me from time to time. Super comfortable and balanced.
@@StompboxBreakdown I have several, my gloss black like yours I got back in highschool in 99 and I've had it ever since. My Amber flame is probably my #1
This is the most beautiful sounding demo of the BED, are you using anything else in your signal chain or post processing, any reverb? .
Thank you! I just went back and checked my project files and every guitar has some EQ and compression added to it, and the lead guitar parts have a very light dusting of reverb added in from SSL Native FlexVerb (a software plugin). Not enough to sound like an effect, just to add a bit of space/room noise, since I'm recording everything direct.
@@StompboxBreakdown thank you for your detailed reply. Lovely production values
I’ve had the Belle Epoch Deluxe for 3-4 years now, and this review nails everything all the other reviews miss. I’m big on mode #2 (analog emulation), especially if you crank the pre-delay gain a bit to muddy up the repeats a bit more. Everyone talks about this unit’s tape emulation, but the other modes are underrated.
My main complaints about the pedal are: 1) Lack of on-board tap tempo, and 2) The memory man modes are a bit too clean/pristine, almost to the point that I wonder if any analog emulation is happening on those modes, or if it’s just too focused on the memory man’s modulation. It would be rad if these two modes had muddier repeats like mode #2 IMO, but I’ve never actually owned a real memory man to compare to.
Anyway, awesome review man!
Thank you so much, and 100% agreed on all counts. I just recently grabbed a Geckoplex and I wish I could get the features of the Geckoplex with the sound of the Belle Epoch Deluxe. Both outstanding pedals, they just each hold a half of the puzzle.
@@StompboxBreakdown Oh nice. What's missing from the Geckoplex? The analog preamp mostly?
Thanks for your comment. My first delay that I had to have cause of the 60s/70s I’m gonna try setting 2 more often.
Last week Catlienbread had a bstock for $250Who cares about the tap tempo lol not me anyways.
If Catilnbread ever creates and releases a univibe clone it's going to be scary. I can only hope with crossed fingers. This pedal is insane.
they had a prototype at 2012 NAMM that Howard was demoing. you can see it in a couple videos if you dig deep. sadly it never got finished. but there is a prototype out there
@@coldacre
Thanks.. I'll search for the video
"Cool... I can't be bothered" Hahaha that's me!
Did you end up keeping this on your board? Is it in your top 3 delays of all time, or somewhere outside that? Thanks for this review.
I ended up using the Wampler Faux Tape Echo. I really think the Belle Epoch Deluxe is the best sounding delay around, and if it had presets, it'd be a perfect fit, but the Faux Tape Echo was an instant fit and it hasn't disappointed yet.
First jam sounds like if maroon five she will be loved was the first song on the set list but Adam lamevine was not showing up so they just made it a spicy crusade of tape echo sounds.
I hate how right you are 🤣
I kind of avoid guitar content ftmp, but this video is really great. Kinda thinking about swapping rubberneck for this. Think its more my jam than rubberneck.
Thank you so much, that means a lot. Just be aware of the lack of tap tempo on this one. It’s the best sounding delay I’ve used (other than maybe the Geckoplex) but the footswitch options can be a little limiting. Still, having DMM and rotary-esque options are pretty unique
The BED is a tape less EP3
Howard is a mad genius!
The worst thing Catalinbread ever did was screw Howard over and they did, very badly.
His designs are their greatest pedals they have.
Catalinbread killed them selves.
☠️
Yup. I have bought 2 Belle Epochs and a BED, but I’ll never buy anything from them ever again. That dude worked his ass off designing the BED, and now they get to reap the profits. Idk where Howard went, but I hope he is doing good.
@@zenlandziplineHe has his own line now called Kittycaster.
A quick question from a year in your fuuuture..
Is there any effect or level of control afforded by the expression pedal that isn't also readily available from the knobs & switches on the box itself?
I'm going to be using my BE on a desktop, so I'm wondering if I should build a control box that takes the place of the pedal?
(If you answer, don't forget to upvote this comment so I get notified. Thanks!)
The expression pedal input can control the volume of repeats, the rate of the rotary, and the sweep of the filter, those are things you can't do from the main knobs. It does kind of suck that you can't have an expression pedal *and* tap tempo, though. Full details in the instructions, check out the third column of the Echo Program Matrix table: cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0370/1873/0628/files/bed-manual-2018.pdf?v=1588317232
Nice on the cha cha music. No misunderstanding Gettin sleepy cool
Haha, the cha cha music. Definitely.
@@StompboxBreakdown 😜😯🤪🤩
Before or after OD in the signal chain? Or perhaps in the FX loop?
In my mind, the more you’re pushing your guitar’s preamp, the better delay sounds in the loop after it. Obviously, that’s not Al “always” statement, but my delays sounded too busy and were clobbering my sound until input them in my amps effects loop.
Couldn't decide between Echorec and Belle Epoch and seems like the answer is obvious - Echorec and Belle Epoch deluxe
You made the right choice
If this pedal was stereo I’d be all over it
Try to talk myself into that pedal. I'm using Volante, it's plenty good enough for tape delay. I have a Rubbernecker. And an Obscura. And a Carbon Copy. And an Adineko. And several others. It's hard to say no to echo.
To me, it’s a great pedal for getting *that* sound with that exact type of saturation. There are other pedals with more features but this is the best sounding tape delay I’ve used so far. Rubbernecker is great, and I also love the RE-20 (haven’t tried the RE-2 yet). Yeah… I can’t say no to echo either :)
The Volante is great. I stupidly got rid of it, but I picked up a Belle Epoch Deluxe and El Capsitan V2 to make up for it. The Adineko is low key awesome, such a great delay and it still flies under the radar, I don't think that will ever come off my board, so good for a ethereal sound scapes.
First, yes EHX knobs! Eh! The cheapness and smooth smallness for big fingers. And yes! Selector switches need to index with clicks! JHS lucky cat - lookin’ at you.
Fav delay, has to be JHS Lucky Cat for me. I have an old Ibanez AD 80 that’s fun, but mostly fantastic pink nostalgia, both new and old space echo pedals (the re-20 and re-202 [and for a few days the re-2, but gave it to a friend - it was fun, but the 202 just outshines it so hard], not the Roland suitcase of gorgeousness) and I love the space echo, but I couldn’t be without the Lucky Cat. It’s just so useful and easy to use for all the ways I like to play.
And yeah, what’s so different with delay pedals. I have loads of overdrive, distortion, phasers, reverbs, and others, but delays I feel an odd pickiness and devotion that I don’t really have with those other pedals. Kinda the same for 4 transistor fuzzes, flangers and chorus for me, but I rarely ever consider looking at other delays.
Loved the careful exploration, loved the jams, and especially that last jam! That jam was: Peter Frampton playing a small club, very late, and it’s the last song of the night, but no one wants to go home or have the performance end. That was some sweet, melancholy goodness. I don’t know know your name, so thanks for the awesome tunes, Mr. SB.
A comparison to Frampton!! I’ll take it. Once again, you got it! I’m Jeff, btw
@@StompboxBreakdownI also quite enjoyed your playing. Tasteful, elegant, and pretty...and pretty perfect to showcase a tape delay.😅
"Memory Man-esque", you meant to write in the caption at *07.
The captions are auto generated, but thanks. I’ll get in and fix that
Not a caption. It's one of your chapter titles. Def no way to alter auto-captions. Cheers!@@StompboxBreakdown
love the review. 'amateur' in the best and truest sense.
Sold mine because with the in line/same size row of buttons I was never sure what knob I needed to grab… and the low contrast of the lettering and body made it impossible to read….
why not put colors with markers?
cool but mono
I hear Steve Miller Zeppelin Queen and much more
This destroys my RE20.
I think the RE-20 is a lot easier to interact with in realtime, and it more likely to make someone happy right out of the box, but yeah... after spending the time to dial it in, the Epoch Deluxe is just beautiful.
@@StompboxBreakdown Yeah coming back to your vids it took way longer to fine tune than the RE20.
And the expression could be more like the Oceans 12 ( everything but two controls ) So I set one real subtle one crazy.
I'm running it into a carbon copy and it's weird its softer more vanhalenish...smoother.
But now I'm kinda set this Mxr Carbon Copy and Two delays on the EHX Oceans 12.
But I love it dirt country is just perfection with the Preamp!
It's taken Howards and your videos to really get used to it.
Thanks a lot Champ!
T he new ones are different than the Howard Gee ones, ...open them up they are different...Catalinbread should tell peeps this Fact
The only difference is the colour of the small digital board (silver in old ones, green in new).
@@hoover728sshh...You'll ruin the Internet rumours and gossip.
I will never understand why a pedal is more expensive than a guitar...
Yeah, I get that. Catalinbread really designed the Belle Epoch Deluxe to be the closest thing to an EP-3 without having any moving parts. It's my favorite sounding tape-style delay, though I kind of wonder how I'd fare in a blind test between it and several others. Fortunately, tape-style delays are available at all sorts of price points, and we have so much options available to us.
What guitars are you buying for $360?
So what makes this any better than the Dunlop MXR Echoplex?
they sound the same to me TBH
Did we watch the same demo? Five functions, the preamp, multiple parameter adjustments options, and the expression pedal options make this is a far superior delay to similar digital, echoplex approximations.
its a bummer it's not stereo...I just set up my stereo rig going from the RE201 into with two amp sims..a real bummer actually, I'd trade my RE201 and get this it's just better it sounds "old classic rock" the RE201 is great but expression is next to useless with so little control.
The deal breaker for me is the lack of tap tempo.
it can be connected externally with the current version！
Using an expression pedal to change delay time, while not as precise as TT, is a whole lot of fun.
Me too. When they do it . . . I will be 1st on line to purchase it.
@@michael_caz_nyc they did that on the new version i think
@@jerryyeaaah15 Yeah - it's a separate pedal though. Brett Kingman did a nice review on it. I currently have a DD-500 (that I love) and it gives me everything I could ever want. It would have to be on-board tap tempo, as my pedalboard is already Maxed-Out. Thanks for the info. oNe LoVe from NYC
it's still sterile sounding. Little or no or bad output analog filtering. That's what makes a great digital delay. No one who makes digital delays seems to get it.
Have you ever used a real tape delay?
@@michaelwoods9005 uh ya I owned an Echoplex