Binson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Binson was an early manufacturer of echo machines. Unlike most other analog echo machines, they used an analog magnetic drum recorder instead of a tape loop. Their most famous product was the Binson Echorec.

Two of the most famous users of Binson units were Pink Floyd's original frontman Syd Barrett and guitarist David Gilmour. The classic Binson delay effect can be heard on songs such as "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine". Binson echo units were also used by Hawkwind, and more recently by Tarantula Hawk. Jon Courtney of British Nu-Prog band Pure Reason Revolution is also a frequent user of the Binson units.

In Pink Floyd's 23-minute long song "Echoes", Roger Waters used a Binson Echorec to create the eerie underwater wind noise heard during the first interlude (10:40-15:02 on studio recordings, underneath the screaming whale song produced by Gilmour); he vibrated the strings of his bass guitar with a steel slide and fed the sound through the Echorec. Waters reproduced this sound during live performances.

[edit] See also

• Roland Space Echo
• Watkins Copicat
• Echoplex
• Meazzi Echomatic
• Klemt Echolette

[edit] External links

• http://www.binson.com
• http://www.echomatic.co.uk
• http://www.esemusic.com
• http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=74
• http://www.toneheaven.ndirect.co.uk/British%20Echos.htm
• http://www.penumbra.co.nz/allthegear.html (see half-way down this lengthy page for text about, and pictures of, Binson devices)
• http://www.hendrixguitars.com/Ef022.htm (picture gallery of Binson echo machines)