NUX NDD-7 Tape Echo: Is this budget take on Roland’s iconic Space Echo delay any good? Review & Demo

This is the NUX NDD-7 Tape Echo delay pedal! Based on the legendary Roland Space Echo delay unit, the Tape Echo is NUX’s homage to one of the most iconic and well-used delay effects of all time.

Get the NUX Tape Echo here: https://bit.ly/NUXTapeEcho

The year 2022 seems to be the year of the Space Echo… it’s 50 years since Roland/Boss released their first tape echo machine – the legendary RE-201 Space Echo – and 15 since the more compact (and digital) RE-20 came along. And this year, Boss is going one step further and releasing the RE-2, an even more compact take on this iconic delay. So it’s really no surprise that NIX have joined the party with the Tape Echo.

The Tape Echo has everything you’d expect from a Space Echo type delay, starting with the three delay heads you can use on their own or in combination to provide the Space Echo’s signature rhythmic repeats. These are chosen via the Select knob, and your choices always visible via the pedal’s display screen.

You also have controls to tweak the delay time (which you can also do with your foot using the tap tempo switch), the number of repeats, and the volume of the repeats, as well as bass and treble controls to tweak the tone of the delay, and a reverb knob. The reverb goes from a hefty spring to a more ambient spring/hall/plate combination, at least to my ears.

There’s also a few secondary features you can access, in the form of wow and flutter (basically, the age and condition of the tape – more wow and flutter gives you more modulation and warble) and tape saturation, as well as kill dry and self-oscillation options – and the pedal has a built-in looper too. The secondary functions are accessed either by pressing down the Select knob, or by connecting the pedal via USB-C to your PC or Mac and using the free Edit Software.

You can get the NUX Edit Software here: https://bit.ly/NUXTapeEchoSoftwareRWM

So, with all that said, how does the Tape Echo actually sound? Does it give us those lush Space Echo soundscapes we all know and love from bands like Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Tame Impala (and many, many others!)? Let’s find out! In the playing part of the video, I try and get as many different sounds out of the Tape Echo as I can, and then I play a short ambient loop which I use to really test the extremes this pedal will go to.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:22 Introduction to Space Echo delays
01:57 Specs and features
05:17 Today’s rig and plan

06:00 First tones and the seven tape head rhythms
06:57 Clean pop, indie and rock sounds
11:16 Reverb knob test
11:57 More clean sounds
14:25 Hard rock rhythm and lead test
14:56 Post rock sounds

15:50 Ambient loop testing all pedal settings

19:32 My thoughts
20:09 What I like: the sounds and versatility
21:36 Build quality
21:59 MIDI control and leads in the box!
22:24 The software editor for PC/Mac
23:17 Ambient reverb sounds
23:34 What I don’t like: spring reverb
24:41 The built-in looper
25:41 Reliance on the software editor
26:42 What other tape delay/Space Echo pedals are out there?
27:42 Final conclusions on the Tape Echo
28:53 Thanks and goodbye


My setup was as follows: I ran the Tape Echo into the FX Loop of my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head on the Clean and Lead channels. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head: https://bit.ly/HKBS200rwm
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!): https://bit.ly/Scarlett414RWM
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#NUX # NUXPedals #NUXTapeEcho #SpaceEcho


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‪@nuxaudio‬