Hello everyone, I am the developer of Echo Pad for iOS. Jason and I have been chatting a bit and he notified me of this thread so I thought I'd come chime in.
It makes me happy to see the enthusiasm for Echo Pad, and hopefully the next update will make Echo Pad one of the best choices for re-creating "THAT SOUND".
I want to say thanks to Jason for introducing me to The Shadows music, I wasn't very familiar with them until Jason contacted me. I've been listening to some of their songs on Spotify and they're great! Really cool guitar playing and of course tone. Also, Roger's sound demos in this thread are wonderful, I'm hoping he will allow me to share them on the Holderness Media Facebook and Twitter pages.
I've been exchanging emails with Jason and he has given me several suggestions which I have already implemented for the next update, just working on the finishing touches and beta testing. This includes an additional pair of delay taps, allowing for up to 6 total "playback heads". Also new in the upcoming version are controls for "tape tone" and "tape hiss", in addition to the parameters already there for wow and flutter and echo repeats filters. All these combined should hopefully be able to get you very close to the sounds you're looking for. Here's a hopefully half-decent explanation of how the controls will work in the next version. As soon as I have time I'll be posting a proper tutorial video that goes over the controls in greater detail.
This is how the delay system works in the upcoming version of Echo Pad (v1.4.8):
- The delay taps are setup in 3 pairs: The main stereo delay buffers (left and right channels), plus "Multi-tap 1+2" and "Multi-tap 3+4". Each pair can be activated/deactivated at any time. The main delay buffers delay time are linked by default, so their time is the same until you enable "Stereo Delay", which offsets the right channel. The additional taps 1-4 have volume controls so you can adjust their balance, or simply mute them if you want to use odd combinations of taps.
- The Left channel is the "Master" delay and sets the master delay time, all other taps' time are offset from this master value, so that you can set each tap's time individually, then change the master delay time and all other taps will follow and keep their relative offset.
- Enabling "Stereo Delay" creates an offset in the main right channel, so you can then adjust this offset to control it's delay time independently. Combining this with the additional multi-taps allows for interesting rhythmic echoes.
- The extra taps 1-4 each have individual time (offset from the Master Delay Time) and volume controls, located in the delay control panel.
I also wanted to note that Echo Pad is a universal app, and is nearly identical on either iPads or iPhone/iPod Touch. I don't recommend running it on older devices however, as they just aren't quite powerful enough. I recommend an iPad 2/iPad Mini or higher for iPad users, and iPhone 4s/iPod 5th gen or higher for handheld devices.
For audio interfaces, most USB audio interfaces should work, though I personally recommend the Apogee Jam as I am a big fan of Apogee's products.
I own an Apogee Jam, GIO, and the new Apogee ONE for iOS/Mac, and Echo Pad works great with all of them. The IK Multimedia iRig and iRig HD interfaces work good as well, and I have also tested with a few Focusrite USB interfaces that worked, although they need to be connected through a powered USB hub using the Camera Connection Kit for iPad. If anyone has an audio interface like this that they need advice on how to get working/setup, feel free to message me here.
In addition to everything mentioned above, I'll be improving the preset system in Echo Pad either in this upcoming update or the following, so that many more presets can be stored and recalled.
Best,
Christopher Rice
Holderness Mediahttp://www.holdernessmedia.com