The Sound of Rock History's Most Coveted Tape Delay in a Compact Footprint
From Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen to Brian May and modern ambient guitarists, the solid-state Maestro Echoplex EP-III is celebrated as one of the most expressive time-based effects ever made. Musicians didn't just love it for its warm, fluid echo trails—the unit's built-in input preamp became famous for thickening up guitar tones and adding a distinctive punch even when the echo was turned off. The Universal Audio UAFX Orion Tape Echo captures that entire analog ecosystem and packs it into a pedalboard-friendly, single-footswitch chassis.
Built on Universal Audio’s high-power DSP architecture, the Orion models the real-world physical behavior of an analog tape transport mechanism. Adjusting the delay time smoothly varies the pitch of the echo trails, while pushing the feedback takes you into the glorious, unpredictable territory of musical self-oscillation. It's not an approximation; it’s a living recreation of vintage magnetic tape running across physical tape heads.
Product Description
Three Distinct Tape Eras and the Iconic "Wonk" Modulation Control:
The Orion features a dedicated 3-way Tape Age toggle switch that alters the baseline character, degradation, and compander circuitry of the emulated tape machine:
Mint: Recreates a pristine, "closet classic" NOS (New Old Stock) machine loaded with fresh magnetic tape. It features a snappy compander compression circuit on the record head, giving you clean, punchy, and highly articulate high-fidelity echoes.
Worn: Emulates a medium-use early '70s machine with no compander circuit. The repeats are warmer, darker, and carry a gentle tape saturation and soft compression that melts beautifully behind your dry guitar playing.
Old: Captures a heavily traveled, less-maintained mid-70s unit. This mode introduces prominent tape wear, subtle signal dropouts, distortion, and a highly characterful, gritty vintage saturation perfect for dark indie, lo-fi pop, or psychedelic rock.
To add movement, the proprietary Wonk control fine-tunes the depth of the wow, flutter, and mechanical tape splice imperfections. At lower settings, it adds a beautiful, subtle chorus-like modulation to the repeat tails. Cranked higher, it introduces eccentric pitch warbles and unstable, degraded textures that capture the soul of a vintage mechanical device.
Authentic EP-III Preamp Saturation and Dynamic Interactivity:
A standout feature of the Orion is its dedicated Rec Level and rear-panel Preamp switch network. The Rec Level knob controls how hard your input signal hits the virtual recording head—cranking it pushes the tape into a highly musical analog clip.
On the back of the pedal, a hardware switch lets you choose exactly how the legendary solid-state preamp affects your rig:
Preamp On: Engages the EP-III preamp coloration across your dry signal path. In Trails mode, this fat, boosted, mid-forward attitude remains active even when the pedal is bypassed, acting as an excellent always-on tone enhancer.
Preamp Off: Deactivates the preamp circuit emulation on your dry signal, preserving your instrument's raw, uncolored tone while leaving the delay engine active.
Smart Bypass Configurations and Rugged Build:
The Orion features a hardware slider on the rear panel to toggle between True Bypass (for a completely clean, uncompromised signal chain when the pedal is off) and Buffered Trails Bypass (which allows your delay echoes to decay naturally and smoothly after you switch the pedal off). The multi-color LED on the face of the pedal shifts dynamically (Green, Purple, Orange, Red) to let you know your exact combination of Bypass and Preamp routing choices at a glance.
Key Features
AUTHENTIC EP-III TAPE ECHO MODELING: Component-level emulation of the classic 1970s Maestro Echoplex EP-III solid-state tape delay machine.
THREE SELECTABLE TAPE ERAS: Onboard toggle lets you select between Mint (Hi-Fi), Worn (Saturated), and Old (Lo-Fi/Gritty) tape machine conditions.
WONK MODULATION CONTROL: Easily dial in mechanical wow and flutter artifacts, pitch warble, and irregular tape splice textures.
FAITHFUL ANALOG PREAMP EMULATION: Recreates the punchy, boosted character of the original hardware's legendary discrete solid-state preamp.
RECORD LEVEL TAPE COLORATION: Adjust how hard you drive the virtual tape head to add natural tape compression and harmonic grit.
SWITCHABLE TRUE / TRAILS BYPASS: Choose between absolute true mechanical bypass or buffered trails bypass with smooth delay spillover.
PURE ANALOG DRY-THROUGH: Your dry signal remains entirely in the analog domain, ensuring zero latency and zero digital conversion artifacts.
ROBUST COMPACT CHASSIS: Heavy-duty, compact die-cast aluminum enclosure built to withstand heavy touring and studio deployment.
