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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>So, these are a couple of my thoughts on the matter. These are just the conclusions I’ve come to and if you really just want or prefer the physical hardware, I’m certainly not going to argue with you. A little background, I turn 50 on Monday and am currently in the process of getting rid of almost all of my vintage outboard gear. Most of it I’ve owned 20+ years so I am very familiar with their pluses and minuses. I’m not anti-hardware either, it is a big stack of outboard and it has always been how I’ve worked. The SRE-555 is in that pile but my rationale is pretty much the same for all the outboard I’m getting rid of.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As cool as the hardware is and I do adore it, it's just worth too much money and I feel outweighs it's practical value for me. Is the delay unique? Sort of. Yes the actual hardware sounds different from the Strymon or the UA or others. But, how much different? In fact, I have had the priveledge of having so much vintage gear through the studio over the years, I am well aware that no 2 vintage units really are the same. If those vintage pieces don’t even sound the same, how do we compare modern equivalents? Kind of can’t. In that regard, I think the UA and the Strymon are more than good emulation and do capture the essential character of a tape delay (especially the Strymon stuff) and that character is more important to me than a specific exact tone of a particular piece of gear. I’m not a guitarist emulating someone’s setup for a particular exact tone – which is a fine exercise, this just isn’t something that matters to me. I’m more concerned with how it works in a song.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> In my case, I don't feel that when used on an actual song, in an actual mix, that I need an exact SRE-555. All the particularities of color and nonlinearities kind of disappear when positioned with other sounds. As long as the delay has that slightly warbled, lofi, off kilter feel, it’s achieved what I’m looking for. This would be true whether a plugin, pedal, or choosing between a SRE-555, or a 201, Echoplex, etc.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Secondly, maintenance. I service my own gear and have for years. Vintage gear is a pain in the ass. I have a spring reverb on the bench currently that has taken up about 2 months of my time trying to source parts which are nonexistent. I ultimately was able to find a pair of replacement pots that will work, but I now need to replace a good number of resistors and capacitors with different values to make it work. Pain in the ass. All that time I could have been making music.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Third, the audio quality on a lot of these units blows. My SRE-555 is not a particular offender in this regard but I spend a lot of time fighting hum and hiss on these old pieces. Often, the amount of EQ and gating need to make them usable in a digital recording is such that the audio quality can be shifted to where the plugin sounds better and more real than the physical hardware. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Money. As cool as this gear is, we are really blessed to live in a time where incredibly powerful gear is relatively cheap. You know what you can get for around $2k instead of the SRE-555 – something like the Fractal Audio Axe-FX III. I’m still using the Axe-FX II which is massively less powerful than the new generation but it hits the emulation of almost all this stuff so well. I’m considering selling my II and upgrading to the III just because I have come to rely on it and it does way, way much more for better than the SRE-555. I expect to get around $8,000 - $10,000 ultimately for what I’m selling. For around $3500 I can get everything in a UAD set of plugins and an AXE-FX III and have way more options and still have a pile of cash. All of this interfaces with my DAW digitally and will ultimately eliminate 2 of the 4 audio interfaces I’m currently using which gives me back substantial studio space, eliminates lots of points of failure, significantly simplifies my wiring needs, and make my song writing way more efficient which for me is what I care about.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>James<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Feb 7, 2021, at 1:27 PM, tom adam <<a href="mailto:tom.adam@thebigear.be" target="_blank">tom.adam@thebigear.be</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p>Nice, why would you sell it? </p><p>I have an UAD card in my PC now, but I hardly use it. Let's just keep it to the fact that I'm a hardware kind of guy who doesn't trust software ;-)</p><p>I must say that the demo's I've heard from Strymon are cool and they have an eurorack version of it too, tempting. But alas no tape passing by!</p><p>Tom</p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 7/02/2021 20:07, James Coplin wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>I have an SRE-555 and I love it but they have become so expensive, and there are such good emulations, I'm probably going to sell it.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>The UAD plugins are good and the Strymon pedals nail tape really well.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>James<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Feb 7, 2021, at 1:03 PM, tom adam <<a href="mailto:tom.adam@thebigear.be" target="_blank">tom.adam@thebigear.be</a>> wrote: <o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><pre>tape delay...</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>I just fixed an RE-501 and the owner just send me a mail that I can buy </pre><pre>it for a fair price. But a fair price is still, well impressive.</pre><pre>But the sound, the joy and the coolness of this thing is, well impressive!</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>So, it's not that I can't afford it, but it's like buying that Plymouth </pre><pre>of 1958, I will spend more time fixing it than driving it and I actually </pre><pre>don't have the time (and the skills) to fix a car... Unfortunately I do </pre><pre>have the skills to fix a tape delay so the comparison doesn't fly... but </pre><pre>you get the point I actually don't need a tape delay, but I so want one ;-)</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>Anyone knows how the emulations compare to the originals? The seller </pre><pre>switches over to a Strymon Volante and he claims they sound the same.</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>Cheers,</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>ToAd</pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre><img border=0 width=363 height=1 style='width:3.7847in;height:.0069in' id="Horizontal_x0020_Line_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.png@01D6FD80.2E0FFFD0"></pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>music-bar mailing list</pre><pre><a href="mailto:music-bar@lists.music-bar.org">music-bar@lists.music-bar.org</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre><a href="http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar">http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar</a></pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>Listen to Music-Bar Radio! <<a href="http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html">http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html</a>></pre></blockquote></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><pre>_______________________________________________</pre><pre>music-bar mailing list</pre><pre><a href="mailto:music-bar@lists.music-bar.org">music-bar@lists.music-bar.org</a></pre><pre><a href="http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar">http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar</a></pre><pre><o:p> </o:p></pre><pre>Listen to Music-Bar Radio! <a href="http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html"><http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html></a></pre></blockquote><pre><img border=0 width=466 height=1 style='width:4.8541in;height:.0069in' id="Horizontal_x0020_Line_x0020_2" src="cid:image004.png@01D6FD80.2E0FFFD0"></pre><pre style='margin-left:4.8pt'><br>music-bar mailing list<br>music-bar@lists.music-bar.org<br><a href="http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar">http://lists.music-bar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/music-bar</a><br><br>Listen to Music-Bar Radio! <<a href="http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html">http://www.music-bar.org/radio.html</a>></pre><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></blockquote></div></div></body></html>