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62-573: The Roland Space Echo is a line of tape delay units introduced by Roland Corporation in 1974. Whereas prior tape delay effects used tape reels , the Space Echo uses a free-running tape transport system. This reduces tape wear, noise, and wow and flutter , and made the units more reliable and easy to transport. Some units also feature spring reverb and chorus effects. Space Echo units have been used in genres such as reggae , dub , trip hop , post-punk and experimental rock . In 2007,

124-815: A "boyhood fantasy" when Chuck D of Public Enemy joined the band onstage at the "ATP I'll Be Your Mirror" festival curated by Portishead in Asbury Park, NJ in October 2011. He contributed his verse from the Public Enemy song " Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos " over Portishead's single "Machine Gun". Portishead then visited several cities in North America, including New York, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Seattle, Vancouver, and Denver during October. The Chicago Tribune hailed

186-458: A break from the spotlight and touring until their second album, Portishead , was released in 1997. The album's sound differed from Dummy , characterised as "grainy and harsher", with increased use of live instrumentation and less reliance on sampling. Three singles, " All Mine ", " Over " and " Only You " were released, the first one achieving a Top 10 placing in the UK. In 1997, the band performed

248-425: A convenient alternative to tape delays and leslie speakers but were eventually largely supplanted by digital delays. Digital delay systems function by sampling the input signal using an analog-to-digital converter . The resulting digital audio is passed through a memory buffer and recalled from the buffer a short time later. Through feedback of some of the delayed audio back into the buffer, multiple repeats of

310-484: A cover of ABBA 's song " SOS " for the soundtrack to the movie High-Rise which had a Gala screening at the London Film Festival on 9 October 2015. In 2016, the band won an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. On 22 June 2016, Portishead released a video for "SOS" that recontextualized the song in the wake of the then-recent murder of member of parliament Jo Cox and

372-401: A dense or ethereal quality to their singing or playing. Extremely long delays of 10 seconds or more are often used to create loops of a whole musical phrase. Robert Fripp used two Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders to achieve very long delay times for solo guitar performance. He dubbed this technology " Frippertronics ", and used it in a number of recordings. John Martyn was a pioneer of

434-560: A long delay capacity could be used to record a riff or chord progression and then play over it, they were challenging to work with. The Paradis Loop Delay, created in 1992, was the first unit with dedicated looping functions such as record, overdub, multiply, insert, and replace, which made it more intuitive and user-friendly. Gibson manufactured a slightly improved version as the Echoplex Digital Pro until 2006. A natural development from digital delay-processing hardware

496-493: A new project with a new angle, hinting that an album could arrive as soon as late 2010. Whilst the album had yet to materialise, on 9 December 2009, the band released the song " Chase the Tear " for Human Rights Day to raise money for Amnesty International UK. Additionally, on 3 December 2008, Universal Music Japan reissued the albums Dummy and Portishead in limited edition on SHM-CD. During Summer 2011, Portishead performed at

558-898: A number of festivals in Europe, including, Pohoda Festival , Exit Festival , Benicàssim Festival in Spain, Rock Werchter , Paleo Festival , Roskilde Festival , the Hurricane /Southside Festivals in Germany, and the Super Bock Super Rock music festival. The band also headlined and curated the line-up for two All Tomorrow's Parties music festivals entitled I'll Be Your Mirror , in London at Alexandra Palace on 23 and 24 July. The second took place in Asbury Park, New Jersey, from 30 September – 2 October. Barrow stated that he realised

620-594: A one-off show with strings at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City; primarily featuring recordings from the show, the live album, Roseland NYC Live , includes orchestral arrangements of the group's songs and was released in 1998. In 1999, Portishead recorded the song " Motherless Child " with Tom Jones for his album Reload . A DVD of Portishead's Roseland Ballroom performance, with substantial extra material including many early musical videos,

682-573: A short 1/4" tape loop . In 1974, Roland released the first Space Echo units in two models: the RE-101 and the RE-201, which also included spring reverb . Instead of the tape reel used in previous tape echo units, the Space Echo uses a free-running tape transport system. The tape spools freely within a chamber, using a capstan drive protected by a plastic cover. This reduces tape wear, noise, and wow and flutter . The RE-101 and RE-201 were followed by

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744-402: A suspension of carbon particles. An AC signal to a conductive neoprene wiper transfers the charge to the high impedance disc. As the particles pass by the wiper, they act as thousands of tiny capacitors, holding a small part of the charge. A second wiper reads this representation of the signal, and sends it to a voltage amplifier that mixes it with the original source. To protect the charge held by

806-651: A tape loop through a device with a variety of mechanisms allowing modification of the effect's parameters. Popular models include Ray Butts' EchoSonic (1952), the Watkins Copicat (1958), the Echoplex (1959) and the Roland Space Echo (1974). In the Echoplex EP-2, the play head position was fixed, while a combination record and erase head was mounted on a slide, thus the delay time of

868-447: Is characteristic of vocals on 1950s rock-n-roll records. In July 1954, Sam Phillips produced the first of five 78s and 45s that Elvis Presley would release on Sun Records over the next year and a half, all of which featured a novel production technique that Phillips termed slapback echo . The effect was produced by re-feeding the output signal from the playback head tape recorder to its record head. The physical space between heads,

930-516: Is known as the precedence effect or Haas effect, after the German scientist Helmut Haas. In a ping-pong delay, the delayed signal alternates between the two channels of a stereo program. In a multi-tap delay, multiple taps (outputs) are taken from a delay buffer, each with independent times and levels, and summed with the original signal. Multi-tap delays can be used to create rhythmic patterns or dense, reverb -like effects. Doubling echo

992-461: Is often over-used, but it really did apply to the RE-201, in that the echoes were warm and didn't get in the way of the original sound". The Space Echo was a commercial success. The first units were more reliable and sturdy than previous tape echo devices, making them easy to travel and perform with. They were used by musicians in genres such as reggae , dub , trip hop , post-punk and experimental rock . The American guitarist Brian Setzer used

1054-419: Is produced by adding short delay to a recorded sound. Delays of thirty to fifty milliseconds are the most common; longer delay times become slapback echo . Mixing the original and delayed sounds creates an effect similar to doubletracking , or unison performance. Slapback echo uses a delay time of 60 to 250 milliseconds with little or no feedback. A slapback delay creates a thickening effect. The effect

1116-616: Is released. In 2013, the band headlined the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Music festival and embarked on a European tour. In summer 2014, they played several concerts around Europe. 2015 saw Portishead continue to perform live, playing festivals such as fib (Benicassim, Spain), Latitude (Southwold, Suffolk, UK), and the Montreux Jazz Festival (Montreux, Switzerland). Additionally, Portishead produced

1178-524: Is sometimes regarded as the fourth member. Portishead's debut album, Dummy (1994), fused hip-hop production with an atmospheric style reminiscent of spy film soundtracks and yearning vocals from Gibbons. It was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, becoming a landmark album in the emerging trip-hop genre. However, the band disliked being associated with the term. Their two other studio albums, Portishead (1997) and Third (2008), received similar acclaim. Portishead have also released

1240-683: Is the Echoplex which uses a tape loop. The length of delay is adjusted by changing the distance between the tape record and playback heads. Another is the Ace Tone EC-1 Echo Chamber. With the Roland RE-201 , introduced in 1973, Japanese engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi refined the tape delay to make it more reliable and robust, with reduced tape wear and noise, wow , and flutter , additional controls, and additional tape heads. Different effects could be created by enabling different combinations of playback heads. By adjusting

1302-752: The Brexit vote. On 2 May 2022, Portishead performed for the first time in seven years at O2 Academy Bristol . Organized by War Child UK , the concert benefited refugees and children affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Lead singer Beth Gibbons would also appear on rapper Kendrick Lamar 's song "Mother I Sober" from the album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers , released on 13 May. In 2023, Portishead reissued Roseland NYC Live. The new tracklist includes previously omitted songs and restores other tracks which had been replaced with alternate versions on

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1364-489: The Mercury Music Prize in 1995. The success of the album saw the band nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 1995 Brit Awards . Dummy was ranked number 419 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . The album is often considered one of the greatest trip hop albums to date and is a milestone in the definition of the genre. After their initial success, Portishead took

1426-479: The bass and treble levels on the output sound, the number of echo repeats, the length of each echo, and the ratio of the echo and reverb sounds. The Space Echo has two microphone inputs, one instrument input, and one input for a mixer or PA . The character of the delay sound changes as the tape wears with use. Michael Dregni of Vintage Guitar described the Space Echo sound as "warm, rich and organic". In Sound on Sound , Paul White wrote that "the term 'musical'

1488-629: The 1970s; digital effects pedals in 1984; and audio plug-in software in the 2000s. The first delay effects were achieved using tape loops improvised on reel-to-reel audio tape recording systems. By shortening or lengthening the loop of tape and adjusting the read-and-write heads , the nature of the delayed echo could be controlled. This technique was most common among early composers of musique concrète such as Pierre Schaeffer , and composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen , who had sometimes devised elaborate systems involving long tapes and multiple recorders and playback systems, collectively processing

1550-639: The RE-150, which had two playback heads and different controls. In 1977, Roland released the RE-301 Chorus Echo, which features a chorus effect , followed in 1980 by the rackmount RE-501 and RE-555 units. The digital RE-3 and RE-5 units were released in 1988. The RE-201 Space Echo remained in production until 1990. In 2007, the Roland subsidiary Boss released the RE-20 pedal, with digital modelling of

1612-612: The Roland subsidiary Boss began producing Space Echo pedals that recreate the sounds of the original units. In 1960, the Japanese engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi founded Ace Electronic Industries . He began selling tape delay devices, such as the Ace Tone EC-1 Echo Chamber, in the late 1960s. In 1972, Kakehashi founded Roland Corporation . In 1973, Roland released the RE-100 and RE-200 tape delay units, which used

1674-512: The Space Echo remained popular for the way the tape compresses and distorts, "creating the impression that the echoes are receding rather than just getting quieter". Tape delay (audio effect) Delay effects range from a subtle echo effect to a pronounced blending of previous sounds with new sounds. Delay effects can be created using tape loops , an approach developed in the 1940s and 1950s and used by artists including Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly . Analog effects units were introduced in

1736-615: The Space Echo to recreate the slapback sound distinctive to rockabilly music, and the Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley used it to create "deep, throbbing" echoes. The Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry used it extensively in the 1970s. The English alternative rock bands Radiohead and Portishead used the Space Echo's tape speed controls to create pitch-shifting effects. In later years, solid-state delay effects became popular for their reliability and more faithful reproduction of sound. However, tape delay effects such as

1798-454: The acoustic sound from the stage. The delayed signal uses approximately 1 millisecond of straight delay per foot of air or 3 milliseconds per meter. Because of the Haas effect , this technique allows audio engineers to use additional speaker systems placed away from the stage and still give the illusion that all sound originates from the stage. The purpose is to deliver sufficient sound volume to

1860-909: The arrival of digital recording . Before the invention of audio delay technology, music employing an echo had to be recorded in a naturally reverberant space, often an inconvenience for musicians and engineers. The demand for an easy-to-use real-time echo effect led to the production of systems offering an all-in-one effects unit that could be adjusted to produce echoes of any interval or amplitude. The presence of multiple taps ( playback heads ) made it possible to have delays at varying rhythmic intervals; this allowed musicians an additional means of expression over natural periodic echoes. Early experiments such as send tape echo echo delay (STEED) at Abbey Road Studios used standard and modified reel-to-reel tape recorders to produce delay. Delay processors based on analog tape recording use magnetic tape as their recording and playback medium. Electric motors guide

1922-486: The associated audio must be delayed to match the visual content. Portishead (band) Portishead ( / ˌ p ɔːr t ɪ s ˈ h ɛ d / PORT -iss- HED ) are an English rock band formed in 1991 in Bristol . The band comprises Beth Gibbons (vocals), Geoff Barrow (multiple instruments, production), and Adrian Utley (guitar). Dave McDonald, an audio engineer who helped produce their first two albums,

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1984-476: The audio are created. The delayed ( wet ) output may be mixed with the unmodified ( dry ) signal after, or before, it is sent to a digital-to-analog converter for output. Digital delay effects were initially available as expensive rack-mounted units intended for use in television and audio production studios. One of the first was the Eventide DDL 1745 from 1971. Another popular rack-mount digital delay

2046-444: The audio quality. In later years, tape delay effects remained popular for the way the tape compresses and distorts, "creating the impression that the echoes are receding rather than just getting quieter". An alternative echo system was the so-called oil-can delay method, which uses electrostatic rather than electromagnetic recording. Invented by Ray Lubow , the oil-can method uses a rotating disc of anodized aluminium coated with

2108-401: The back of the venue without resorting to excessive sound volumes near the front. Straight delay is also used in audio to video synchronization to align sound with visual media (e.g., on TV or web broadcasting), if the visual source is delayed. Visual media can become delayed by a number of mechanisms or reasons such as time base correction , video scaling and framebuffers , in which case

2170-546: The band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States (where it sold more than 150,000 copies even before the band toured there). Dummy was positively described by the Melody Maker as "musique noire for a movie not yet made". Rolling Stone praised its music as " Gothic hip-hop". Dummy spawned three singles: " Numb ", " Sour Times ", and " Glory Box ", and won

2232-457: The concert and noted: "horror-movie accents—Gothic organ, guitar lines thick with menacing reverb, spooky theremin—ensured a certain darkness". They finished their tour with a jaunt to Australia and New Zealand. Barrow stated in a Rolling Stone interview that he would begin work on his portion of the album in January 2012, jokingly pointing out that it could be another decade before a new album

2294-517: The controls and tape speed, musicians could create pitch-shifting and oscillated effects. The RE-201 was used by acts including Brian Setzer , Bob Marley , Portishead , and Radiohead . In the 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers used delay effects extensively; Lee Scratch Perry created "lo-fi sci-fi" effects by using delay and reverb on a mixing console test tone and dub techno producers such as Basic Channel introduced delay to electronic music . Digital delay effects were developed with

2356-513: The delayed audio back into the delay mechanism, multiple repeats of the audio are heard. At low feedback settings, each repeat fades in volume. High levels of feedback can cause the level of the output to rapidly increase, becoming louder and louder; this may be managed using a limiter . Short delays (50 ms or less) create a sense of broadening the sound without creating a perceptible echo and can be used to add stereo width or simulate double-tracking (layering two performances). The effect

2418-744: The early sixties with the Ad-n-echo, and eventually producing the Echo-ver-brato, the Electrostatic Delay Line, and many others into the eighties. The bucket-brigade devices (BBD) was developed at Philips in 1969. Delay effects utilizing this technology eventually became available. Notable examples include the Memory Man from Electro-Harmonix, released in 1976 and the Boss DM-2 released in 1981. BBD-based devices offered

2480-498: The echo was adjusted by changing the distance between the record and play heads. The Space Echo uses a free-running tape transport system to reduce tape wear, noise, and wow and flutter , and made the units more reliable and easy to transport. It was more reliable and sturdy than previous tape echo devices, making it easy to travel and perform with. It has been used by musicians in genres such as reggae , dub , trip hop , post-punk and experimental rock . Thin magnetic tape

2542-491: The echoplex. Perhaps the earliest indication of his use can be heard on the songs "Would You Believe Me" and "The Ocean" on the album Stormbringer! released in February 1970. Delay effects add a time delay to an audio signal . Blending the delayed audio with the original audio creates an echo -like effect, whereby the original audio is heard followed by the delayed audio. The delayed signal may be treated separately from

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2604-509: The electronics grew smaller, they became available in the form of foot pedals. The first digital delay offered in a pedal was the Boss DD-2 in 1984. Rack-mounted delay units evolved into digital reverb units and on to digital multi-effects units capable of more sophisticated effects than pure delay, such as reverb and audio time stretching and pitch scaling effects. Digital delays present an extensive array of options, including control over

2666-461: The first song Barrow and Gibbons had recorded, and began to exchange ideas on music. The resulting first album by Portishead, Dummy , was released in 1994. The cover features a still from the band's own short film To Kill a Dead Man . At this time, Portishead was a duo of Barrow and Gibbons. Adrian Utley (who co-produced the album, performed on nine of the songs, and co-wrote eight) became an official band member shortly after its release. Despite

2728-421: The input audio - for example, with an equalizer . Most delay effects allow users to set the delay time, or the amount of time between each audio playback. The may be synchronized to a BPM , allowing users to set time values as beat divisions . Delay is used to create other effects, including reverb, chorus , and flanging . Delay effects typically allow users to add and adjust feedback . By feeding some of

2790-483: The input of a live performer or ensemble. American producer Sam Phillips created a slapback echo effect with two Ampex 350 tape recorders in 1954. The effect was used by artists including Elvis Presley (such as on his track " Blue Moon of Kentucky ") and Buddy Holly , and became one of Phillips' signatures. Guitarist and instrument designer Les Paul was an early pioneer in delay devices. According to Sound on Sound , "The character and depth of sound that

2852-573: The live album Roseland NYC Live (1998). Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons formed the band after meeting during a coffee break at an Enterprise Allowance course in Bristol in February 1991. Taking their name from the nearby town of Portishead , they soon recorded "It Could Be Sweet", their first song for their debut album. They then met Adrian Utley while they were recording at the Coach House Studios in Bristol, and Utley heard

2914-488: The new album: "Silence", "Hunter", " The Rip ", "We Carry On", and " Machine Gun ". On 21 January 2008, a European tour to support the album was announced, together with a headline spot at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 26 April 2008, their only U.S. date on the tour. Third was made available on Last.fm the week before release, attracting 327,000 listeners in just under 24 hours. It

2976-469: The original Space Echo sound. It includes a "twist" feature that increases the feedback and speed of the delay, creating a "swirling cacophony" effect. In 2023, Boss released an updated pedal, the RE-202, alongside the smaller RE-2. The original Space Echo units contain a single recording head and three playback heads . The combination of tape heads is controlled with a rotary knob . Users may adjust

3038-410: The particles and to lubricate the entire assembly, the disc runs inside a sealed can with enough of a special insulating oil to assure that an even coating is applied as it spins. The effect resembles an echo, but the whimsical nature of the storage medium causes variations in the sound that can be heard as a vibrato effect. Some early models featured control circuitry designed to feed the output of

3100-714: The read wiper to the write wiper, causing a reverberant effect as well. Many different companies marketed these devices under various names. Fender sold the Dimension IV, the Variable Delay, the Echo-Reverb I, II, and III, and included an oil can in their Special Effects box. Gibson sold the GA-4RE from 1965–67. Ray Lubow himself sold many different versions under the Tel-Ray/Morley brand, starting out in

3162-671: The same time, Portishead covered Serge Gainsbourg 's "Un Jour Comme un Autre (Requiem for Anna)" on the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited . On 2 October 2007, Portishead stated that the new album Third had been mixed and was nearly complete, and was due for release in early April 2008. The release was later pushed to 28 April. On 8 and 9 December 2007, the band curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead , England. The festival featured their first full live sets in nearly 10 years. They premiered five tracks from

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3224-418: The sound of an acoustic space . Straight delay is used in sound reinforcement systems to compensate for the propagation of sound through the air. Unlike audio delay effects devices, straight delay is not mixed back in with the original signal. The delayed signal alone is sent to loudspeakers so that the speakers distant from the stage will reinforce the stage sound at the same time or slightly later than

3286-505: The sounds of the earlier analog units. Abundant main memory on modern personal computers offers ample delay time. In popular and electronic music, electric guitarists use delay to produce densely overlaid textures of notes with rhythms complementary to the music. U2 guitarist the Edge uses delay while he plays arpeggios on electric guitar, thus creating a sustained, synth pad-like background. Vocalists and instrumentalists use delay to add

3348-510: The speed of the tape, and the chosen volume being the main controlling factors. Analog and later digital delay machines also easily produced the effect. It is also sometimes used on instruments, particularly drums and percussion . Flanging , chorus and reverb are all delay-based sound effects. With flanging and chorus, the delay time is very short and usually modulated. With reverberation, there are multiple delays and feedback so that individual echoes are blurred together, recreating

3410-405: The time before playback of the delayed signal. Most also allow the user to select the overall level of the processed signal in relation to the unmodified one, or the level at which the delayed signal is fed back into the memory, to be repeated again. Some systems allow more exotic controls, such as the ability to add an audio filter and modulate the playback rate. While the early delay units with

3472-563: Was adjusted by varying head position or tape speed. The length or intensity of the echo effect was adjusted by changing the amount of echo signal was fed back into the signal recorded to tape. A landmark device was the EchoSonic made by American Ray Butts . It is a portable guitar amplifier with a built-in tape echo, which became used widely in country music ( Chet Atkins ) and especially in rock and roll ( Scotty Moore ). Dedicated machines for creating tape loops were introduced One example

3534-435: Was not entirely suited for continuous operation, however, so the tape loop has to be replaced from time to time to maintain the audio fidelity of the processed sounds. The Binson Echorec used a rotating magnetic drum or disc (not entirely unlike those used in modern hard-disk drives ) as its storage medium. This provided an advantage over tape, as the durable drums were able to last for many years with little deterioration in

3596-419: Was produced from tape echo on these old records is extremely lush, warm and wide." Tape echoes became commercially available in the 1950s. Tape echo machines contain loops of tape that pass over a record head and then a playback head. An echo machine is the early name for a sound processing device used with electronic instruments to repeat the sound and produce a simulated echo. The time between echo repeats

3658-560: Was released in 2002. For the next few years, the band members concentrated on solo projects and other pursuits. In February 2005, the band appeared live for the first time in seven years at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol. Around that time, Barrow revealed that the band was in the process of writing its third album. In August 2006, the band posted two new tracks on its MySpace page (called "Key Bored 299 03" and "Greek Jam"), described by Barrow as "doodles". Around

3720-458: Was the AMS DMX 15-80 of 1978. As digital memory became cheaper in the 1980s, units like Lexicon PCM42, Roland SDE-3000, TC Electronic 2290 offered more than three seconds of delay time, enough to create background loops, rhythms, and phrases. The 2290 was upgradeable to 32 seconds and Electro-Harmonix offered a 16-second delay and looping machine. Eventually, as costs came down further and

3782-433: Was the appearance of software -based delay systems. In large part, this coincided with the popularity of audio editing software. Software delays, in many cases, offer much greater flexibility than even the most recent digital hardware delays. Software implementations may offer shifting or random delay times, or the insertion of other audio effects in the feedback path. Many software plugins have added functionality to emulate

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3844-403: Was the first time Last.fm had made an album available before its official release date. The album was released on 29 April 2008 to coincide with the band's appearance at Coachella. On 18 May 2008, Barrow expressed Portishead's enthusiasm for recording new material on their website's blog, stating that he "can't wait to write some new tunes". On 28 September 2009, Barrow announced "big plans" for

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