UltraTap

110
GUITARIST SUMMER 2021
IMAGES TO BE SHOT
W
e’ve taken a look at a couple
of Eventide pedals that offer
a dedicated version of the
company’s signature effects. Now it’s the
turn of the UltraTap, which follows the
MicroPitch (reviewed in issue 473). This
series has now been given a name – the
dot9 – presumably as they can be found all
together in the Eventide H9 pedal.
However, the roots of the UltraTap go
back 40 years to Eventide’s Digiplex and
MultiTap Delay algorithms for the SP2016
Effects Processor. The effect – a multi-tap
delay based on the idea of a multi-head
tape echo – evolved to be a staple of the
rackmount H3000 and can be currently
found as a plug-in, as well as in the H9 and
this new pedal, which the company says
further builds on the effect.
The UltraTap lets you add as many
virtual tape heads as you want alongside
the ability to expressively control head
position and output level. The pedal
supports 127 presets, five accessed from
holding down the Tap footswitch and the
rest available via MIDI or directly loaded
via a USB connection to the computer-
based Eventide Device Manager (EDM)
software. Input can be mono or stereo and
you can have a mono output or use both
outputs for panned taps.
IN USE
The UltraTap has the same double
footswitch configuration as previous
dot9 pedals and has six knobs controlling
a dozen parameters, the six secondary
parameters being accessed by pressing a
small toggle button. The basic delay sound
is set by choosing the number of taps (up
to 64) and then using the Length knob for
the total time over which they are spaced
(up to four seconds). Typically, setting
three taps over, say, a length of 400ms
would give you a starting point like a tape
echo with three heads.
In the middle of the pedal, a Spread
knob has a central position where the taps
are evenly spaced, but it can spread them
out so that either earlier or later taps are
bunched together. We found this useful to
help emulate some of the head spacings
found on vintage tape echoes.
Feedback and Mix knobs do what you’d
expect, but then you have a Taper knob,
with a central position offering taps at
an equal level, which you can adjust
How many taps? This is multi-tap delay taken to extremes!
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Olly Curtis
PEDALBOARD
UltraTap
CONTACT
SOURCE DISTRIBUTION 020 8962 5080
WWW.EVENTIDEAUDIO.COM
MODEL
ULTRATAP
PRICE
£279
MANUFACTURER
EVENTIDE
EV ENTIDE
GIT475.peds_eventide.indd 110GIT475.peds_eventide.indd 110 08/07/2021 07:1708/07/2021 07:17