Carl Martin Red Repeat Guitar Pedal
Ah the misunderstood delay/echo…. rather than go into thetechnical description of this effect, let’s keep It’simple. The Red Repeat 2016Edition is designed to take your guitar signal and repeat it after a givenamount of time. The simplest description comes from the Echoplexes and SpaceEchoes of years ago. If you envision a tape recorder with the recording headand the playback head in line with each other, and the tape (usually a loop ofsome sort) running…. you play a note on your guitar which is recorded onto thetape by the recording head and is then played back by the playback headimmediately after. The delay time is determined by how far apart the recordingand playback heads are, and by simply adding more playback heads, that originalnote is played back as often (or repeated) as you have playback heads. Ok, thatis oversimplifying the whole thing, but you get the idea.
The Red Repeat 2016 Edition takes this old technology andbrings it up to modern standards. The Echo control basically determines theamount of this effect, from barely noticeable, to sounding like two guitarsplaying at once (slap-back). The Tone control changes the presence (EQ) of theechoed signal, leaving your original signal EQ the way you set it up. The Timecontrol adjusts the space between your original signal and the echoed signalfrom 0 to 600 milliseconds, and finally, the Repeat control determines how manyechoes there are from each signal. So again, for guitar-players who need itsuper-simple…. the Echo and Time controls tell you how much echo and how muchspace between echoes….and the Tone and Repeat controls determine the actualpresence of the echo and how many echoes there are.
The Red Repeat 2016 Edition can be used to fatten up yoursound, as an alternative to reverb, to give a very percussive flavor to yourplaying, all the way to the longest delays which you can play over top of, likea short loop. This type of effect has been used since the 50’s, and has helpedshape the signature sounds of Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Gene Vincent, BrianSetzer, David Gilmour and countless others, and once you understand the effect,is usually pretty easy to spot in recordings. Remember, Delays can come beforeor after your distortion pedals, but usually after amplitude (volume) effects.
For the new improved Red Repeat 2016 Edition, Carl has addeda couple features that various player have asked about. To begin with, we haveadded a Tap Tempo function. For those familiar with delay pedals, the Tap Tempoallows the player to tap in the tempo he chooses to use with his playing.Simply flip the switch that says Manual Time toward the name Red Repeat andwith your toe, tap the footswitch marked Tap Tempo to the beat of the song.This allows your echoes to be spaced precisely with the tempo of the song,faster or slower, depending on your style. When The Manual Time switch isflipped away from the Red Repeat 2016 Edition decal, the pedal goes back tosetting the space between echoes with the Time knob. The second special featureis the Modulation switch. By engaging this switch, and adjusting the blackmini-pots marked Depth and Speed…. you can modulate the echoes of your notes sothat they mimick the ‘wow and flutter’ of a vintage tape echo! This subtleeffect can bring a whole new dimension to your solo’s, especially if you wantthem to sound ‘old’.
