| Bought an RE-20 Space Echo...
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... and I'm still deciding whether or not to keep it.
I've never played with a real RE-201 so I can't do a direct comparison, but I can certainly get darn close to RE-201 sounds that I have heard on recordings.
There is a certain sweet spot on the INTENSITY (feedback) knob that can be a bit tough to hit. At lower settings, you get standard analog delay style repeats. At high settings, you get the classic RE-201 self oscillation. It sounds really cool at first, but then you realize it sounds like that no matter what you are playing into it. At just the right setting, you get this really cool drone that still has clear origins in your own playing, but also has this organic evolving quality, with bits of random, almost through-zero flanging thrown in.
My biggest complaint is with the controls. While most reviewers describe them as very straight forward, I find them rather quirky. The original RE-201, according to the literature, could do up to 3 seconds of delay. The RE-20 can do that as well, and can also do up to 6 seconds in a separate "long" mode. The problem is that the REPEAT RATE (tape speed) knob doesn't cover that whole range. You can only get to the longer delay times by using the Tap Tempo feature.
Where this becomes a "problem": varying the delay time with the knob makes cool effects. Not only do you get pitch-shift with a change in delay time, but the delay/pitch actually ramps up or down to the new setting as the "tape motor" speeds up or slows down. Varying delay time with tap-tempo, however, does not react the same way. Not only do you not get any pitch shift, but any delays that were repeating before you tapped the new tempo continue at their original repeat rate. It is only new notes played that start to repeat at the new rate. Then, if you do tap out a repeat rate that is outside the range of the knob, adjusting the knob causes a sudden jump back to whatever setting you had last left the knob at.
Another nit-pick: the expression pedal can be assigned to one of four parameters, REPEAT RATE, INTENSITY, "TWIST" (varying intensity and repeat rate together) and ECHO INPUT VOLUME, the last of which is not a variable accessible from the front panel. The "problem" with this - when you reassign the pedal from one variable to another, the unit remembers the last pedal setting of the previous variable so that the unit and its controls now don't operate as they did when you first got it. This is especially a problem with ECHO INPUT VOLUME, which is only adjustable via expression pedal.
So overall - this thing does a good match of the RE-201 as far as I can tell, although I'm not sure the digital emulations of the controls are quite as useful/expressive/creative as the real thing. If I was doing more live dub of whole bands including horns, guitars drums etc., I'm pretty sure the value is there when compared to owning and maintaining a real RE-201. As to whether or not it is useful enough in my bass rig to justify the $250 one-trick-pony price, the jury is still out on that one.
No, I don't have any clips yet. Maybe later this week or next weekend.
-- T. G. -- | 
