The unique Roland Area Echo was a factor of sonic magnificence, utilized by everybody from Brian Setzer to Bob Marley and Radiohead. Common Audio has ported that vibe into the UAFX Galaxy ’74 Tape Echo & Reverb.

The Galaxy is as easy or complicated as you need. As a straight-up stompbox, there are intuitive controls like Echo Price (time), Suggestions, and Echo Vol (mix), like most delays. However there’s additionally a toggle that switches between digital tape heads for various delay instances (dotted eighth and sixteenth notes, quarter notes). The underside controls embrace Enter Quantity and instruments like Dwell (drive into the reverb) and Reverb Quantity; one other toggle accesses secondary features like Tape Age, Bass, and Treble. The footwitches allow you to flip the echo/reverb on and off, in addition to Faucet tempo and Maintain for gnarly, real-time results.
Plugged in, the Galaxy provides all the pieces from traditional echo and rockabilly slapback to silky repeats that evoke otherworldly chime for shoegazers. The pedals sounds nice in mono, however stereo outputs take it to a different stage, and there are additional controls you’ll be able to tweak by way of the UAFX smartphone app. It additionally has a USB-C port for firmware updates by way of the UA Join app.

Whereas on the dear aspect, the Galaxy ’74 is eminently hip – and prepared for deep sonic explorations.

This text initially appeared in VG’s October 2023 difficulty. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.