Few effect categories offer as many distinct sonic worlds as delays. Analog (BBD), tape, digital, modulated, tap, granular, spectral… If analog vibes, endlessly saturated delays, and slapback echoes are your thing, then the best tape delay pedal is probably what you’re looking for. Check out this list for 2027!
Our picks:Mooer Reecho: Best Budget Tape DelayNobels DEL-mini DelayJHS Pedals 3 Series Tape Delay – Best Tape Delay for Budget-Conscious Space Echo FansUniversal Audio UAFX Orion Tape EchoBoss RE-2 Space Echo Delay/ReverbStrymon El Capistan V2
Best Tape Delay: What’s the Difference to Other Delay Types?
You could argue that tape delay (outside or actual natural echoes) is the oldest type of delay in the studio world. Originating in the fifties and sixties, crafty studio engineers found a way to record bits of an incoming signal to a tape machine and delay its output by a set number of milliseconds.
Said signal would then be fed back into the machine (hence the term feedback), creating a slowly fading echo. This is where the distinct saturated character of tape delays comes from.
You’ll probably have heard it on a million dub and reggae tracks. This effect quickly became a staple in studios, and a few companies created some of the most influential tape effects of all time.
Maestro’s Echoplex EP-3 and Roland’s RE-201 Space Echo are both seen as the holy grails of tape delay.
So, if it’s this old, analog, heavily saturated delay sound of the seventies you’re after, you’ll want to make sure that the pedal you’re looking at is modeled after at least one of them.
As always, this list about the best tape delay pedal is strictly ranked by price.
Mooer Reecho: Best Budget Tape Delay
“Analog, RealEcho, TapeEcho” – it says right there on top of the very tiny pedal that it features a tape delay mode. The Reecho has all the necessary controls, too.
Mooer Reecho · Source: Mooer
There is Feedback to control how loud the echoes are, Time to set the rate, and E.Level to set the effect’s volume. Mono in, mono out, off you go.
The pedal features delay times between 5 ms and 780 ms, so you can get anything between funky slap echoes and epic, drown-out delays. The Reecho is also true-bypass, so no accidental signal-dampening is happening. It’s also available at Thomann* and it’s the best tape delay pedal to get you started in this wonderful world of wobbliness.
Mooer at Gearnews
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Mooer Reecho
Customer rating: (137)
$65.00 / £58.00 / 69.00€ at
Nobels DEL-mini Delay
The DEL-mini Delay is one of the most recent entries the best tape delay pedal if you have a full board. It’s super small, like the Reecho, and offers three delay modes, like the Reecho. That’s where the similarities of these two end.
Nobels seem to have put a lot of thought into this pedal. You get a tap function to sync the delay to a song’s tempo (by holding the footswitch for two seconds), mono AND stereo signal flow, and even the option to switch between true and buffered bypass. That’s a lot of functionality for such a small pedal. It’s available at Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
Nobels at Gearnews
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Nobels DEL-mini Delay
Customer rating: (28)
$91.00 / £82.00 / 97.00€ at
Nobels DEL-mini
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JHS Pedals 3 Series Tape Delay – Best Tape Delay for Budget-Conscious Space Echo Fans
If you’re after the sound of a Space Echo, check out the 3 Series Tape Delay from JHS Pedals. It’s modeled after the RE-201, Roland’s magical delay from the seventies that can be heard on a million records. With its Flutter switch and the pitch-shifting effect the Tape Speed dial creates as you turn it, this pedal can also be your ultimate lo-fi delay.
It’s one of the newest pedals on our list, but it gets pretty close to the vintage sound of the Space Echo. You set the effect’s level with the mix knob, the delay’s rate (or speed) with the Tape Speed dial, and the feedback amount with the Repeats control.
Get it at Thomann* or Sweetwater*.
JHS at Gearnews
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JHS Pedals 3 Series Tape Delay
Customer rating: (2)
$107.00 / £95.00 / 114.00€ at
JHS Pedals 3 Series Tape Delay
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Universal Audio UAFX Orion Tape Echo
This Echoplex emulation offers quite a few ways and dials to make its delay effect sound “tape-y”. Choose between three virtual tape ages (the older the more broken it sounds), and with the Wonk control, you can add an increasing amount of tape machine noise.
The Delay control sets the speed, Feedback controls how quickly the delays fade out, Mix sets the amount of delay signal, and Rec Level determines the overall volume of the tape delay.
In addition, you get two switches. One activates the internal preamp, which is closely modeled after the Echoplex EP-3’s legendary preamp. The other changes the pedal’s bypass behavior. In Trails mode, the delays are not cut off instantly once you hit the footswitch. It’s available at Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
Source: Universal Audio
The other, more expensive tape delay pedal from UAFX is very well worth mentioning. Because with the Starlight Echo Station*, you get a mighty stereo delay with three delay modes, one of which is a very good-sounding tape delay.
UAFX at Gearnews
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Universal Audio UAFX Orion Tape Echo
Customer rating: (52)
$159.00 / £143.00 / 169.00€ at
Universal Audio UAFX Starlight Echo Station
Customer rating: (34)
$364.00 / £329.00 / 387.00€ at
Universal Audio UAFX Orion
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Boss RE-2 Space Echo Delay/Reverb
You can’t really do a list of the best tape delay pedals without at least one from one of the inventors. So I chose two: the smaller, more affordable, pedal-friendly RE-2 and the mighty RE-202, both from Boss. The former offers 11 delay modes, based on the original three-head configuration of the RE-201.
The pedal also includes stereo signal flow, a wow & flutter control for introducing varying levels of natural tape modulation, tap tempo, and even the option (similar to the Orion) to boost the signal through the emulated preamp.
Get it from Thomann* or Sweetwater*.
And if you want to get as close to the Space Echo as possible, sonically speaking, the mighty RE-202* is worth a look (and listen!). You get 12 delay modes, an additional spring reverb (modeled after the original spring reverb from the RE-201), 127 preset slots, and pretty much the gold standard when it comes to Space Echo emulations.
Boss at Gearnews
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Boss RE-2 Space Echo Delay/Reverb
Customer rating: (47)
$195.00 / £177.00 / 209.00€ at
Boss RE-202 Space Echo Delay/Reverb
Customer rating: (44)
$319.00 / £288.00 / 339.00€ at
Boss RE-2
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Strymon El Capistan V2
If you ask around, look at polls, forum discussions, and boards from touring musicians, few tape delays are as highly regarded as the El Capistan. For many, it simply is the best tape delay on the market.
It features three tape delay modes: Fixed, Multi, and Single. And each mode has three additional operating modes. You also get 300 preset slots, mono or stereo signal flow, and THAT sound.
V2 added a spring reverb, and you also get controls for time, wow & flutter, tape age, repeats (feedback), and mix. El Capistan also includes a dedicated tap delay footswitch to set the tempo. The pedal is available from Thomann* or Sweetwater*.
Strymon at Gearnews
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Strymon El Capistan V2
Customer rating: (30)
$389.00 / £349.00 / 419.00€ at
Strymon El Capistan V2
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Conclusion on the Best Tape Delay Pedal
Just to sum it all up, here is a short summary of which pedal is best for whom:
Best budget tape delay: Mooer ReEcho
Small pedal, huge sound: Nobels DEL-mini
Budget-conscious Space Echo: JHS 3 Series Tape Delay
Space Echo at home: Boss RE-2 or RE-202
The most recommended tape delay: Strymon El Capistan V2
FAQ
How is a tape delay different from a digital delay?
Assuming you don’t have actual tape machine-based delay unit, a tape delay emulates the saturation and pitch wobble in the echoes that these analog monsters were famous for. A digital delay just repeats and echoes out a signal very cleanly.
Do I need a tap tempo and a tape delay?
Depends on what you’re going for. If your sound is more about soundscapes and ambient washes or snappy slap delays, there really is no need to stay in time with the song.
*Disclaimer: This list of the best tape delay pedals contains affiliate links and/or widgets. When you buy a product via our affiliate partner, we receive a small commission that helps support what we do. Don’t worry, you pay the same price. Thanks for your support!
The post The Best Tape Delay Pedal of 2027: Get the Vibe of Echoplex and Space Echo on your Board! appeared first on gearnews.com.
