Binson Echorec
The Binson Echorec is a delay time- oriented effects device in the Delay category , which was preferred in the rock music rig of the 1960s and 1970s, but is still found today in many recording studios around the world.
The manufacturer, the Italian company Binson, is known almost exclusively for the Echorec models, but also produced microphones, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, mixers and guitar amps that meet professional standards.
Working principle
The Binson Echorec works on the principle of analog sound recording. The audio signal of the respective connected musical instrument is recorded with the recording head (speaking head SK) on a magnetizable metal disc with a diameter of about 10 cm . By rotating the metal disc, the recorded signal reaches the playback head (HK earphone) with a time delay . The echo effect is created by mixing the delayed reproduced signal with the original signal.
use
Guitarist Hank Marvin made this effect popular with the Shadows in the early 1960s . Syd Barrett used this effects device in 1967 on the Pink Floyd LP The Piper at the Gates of Dawn a . a. at the piece Astronomy Domine . The Binson Echorec was also used in the Pink Floyd pieces Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun as well as One of These Days and Echoes . Here it is used by bassist Roger Waters and keyboardist Richard Wright . Pink Floyd last used the Echorec on the 1977 In The Flesh tour.
Acoustic guitars were also occasionally coupled with the Echorec , for example the adventurous folk guitarist John Martyn used this effect in 1971 in the piece Glistening Glyndebourne on the LP Bless The Weather . In the 1980s, analog echo was replaced by digital echo and reverb devices. In the wake of the vintage wave of old rock music instruments, the Binson Echorec is enjoying growing popularity again. For very well-preserved copies, collectors pay up to 1200 euros.
development
Binson improved and developed his Echorec over the years. The early series models Echorec Baby and Echorec B2 are almost identical and differ almost exclusively in the number of instrument inputs (Baby: one, B2: three). They were available in the early 1960s. A little later came the best-known and most popular member of the family, the Echorec 2 (as T5E and T7E ), which was used, for example, by David Gilmour between 1968 and 1977. The successor model PE 603 TU was available from 1972 in both a tube and transistor version. Stereo models with two discs were also built. The last Echorec sprout was the only transistorized EC 3 , which was manufactured until 1982. Although it can be used more universally than its predecessor, the EC 3 never really caught on.