Clones are nothing new in the stompbox-sphere, but it’s always a little surprising to stumble upon pedals that look and sound so similar to classic ones we are so familiar with. In the case of the Echoman, though, the story is more nuanced than you may expect…
The Xvive Echoman is a simplified – and mini – version of the company’s W3 Memory Delay, and it’s obviously inspired by a very successful line by Electro-Harmonics – the two pedals’ name and colors give that away, don’t they? But the Echoman is far from being a questionable imitation of an old classic, since its circuit features the engineering signature of Howard Davis, the man who designed the original Deluxe Memory Man for Electro Harmonix.
Inside this baby there are actually two Xvive proprietary BBD3005 chips, giving you up to 600 msec of delay time with no aliasing distortion.
The Echoman is a highly versatile delay with an extra modulation circuit (Chorus/Vibrato) that fills an empty (mini-)niche. Its price, solid engineering and reduced footprint make it worth of attention – we therefore added it to our list of Best Mini Delay Pedals and our article about the best analog delay pedals.
Check out the demos of the Xvive Echoman.
The Echoman, designed by guitar effects guru Howard Davis, is a simplified monaural version of the Memory Analog Delay. It is a state-of-the-art design based on Davis’s highly successful Deluxe Memory Man, acknowledged as among the best if not THE best analog delay pedal.
Up to 600 msec of delay time with no aliasing distortion. Buffered bypass with a 900K input impedance guarantees no tone sucking (loss of highs) due to pickup loading. Wide bandwidth – good high frequency response even at long delay settings. Feedback control allows self-oscillation if desired. Blend control allows adjusting the output from dry signal only to delayed signal only. High-tech filtering and noise reduction circuitry guarantee an excellent signal to noise ratio, even at long delay setting.
FOR CHORUS EFFECT
Set BLEND for equal levels of dry and delayed signal, DELAY very short,MODULATION DEPTH high. FEEDBACK can be added to enhance the effect.FOR VIBRATO
The delayed signal only is modulated. Set controls for the sound desired.FOR REVERB EFFECTS
Set DELAY short, MODULATION DEPTH all the way down or low, and BLEND for equal dry and delayed signal levels. Set the FEEDBACK high for multiple repeats that slowly die out. Feedback settings just before self-oscillation occurs will produce a “bathtub reverb” effect that can be varied with the delay and modulation settings.
