Dynacord Echocord Mini

Very easy to use. 6 knobs for the sound (tone, volume, duration and so on), one knob for power on, one knob for motor on. A sliding bar which sets the delay time. In other words: not very complicated.

As mentioned several times before, one disadvantage of this unit (the only one I can come up with really) is that it uses DIN-connections. I had the luck of finding a Echocord Mini which had been modified with 6.3 mm (1/4") connections.

I use it as an outboard effect when mixing songs, connected to an aux send of my mixing board.

There is some noise, but not much. Not more than you can expect from an old, analog unit like this.

It sounds just like a tape echo should do! Works great with a phaser or a spring reverb!

I have dropped it only once or twice, I can imagine it has been dropped quite a few times during 25 years (or so) by previous owners. Still works perfect.

Before I bought it was repaired by a tape echo-expert and he did a god job on it.

Never dealt with Dynacords customer support.

Overall it is a great sounding tape echo, heavily built and reliable.

its as easy to use as any other tape echo. knobs to control the volume and the tone and stuff for the echo itself. this unit has an advantage that is the fact that you can move the recording head along the tape to produce the repetitions not like others that base their repetitions in the speed of the tape.

i use it along a bass setup: american jazzbass or a framus hollowbody, fender blackface amp with two ampeg cabinets and a long pedal board wich contains a russian big muff, american big muff, 2 fuzz faces, a boss dd3 and dd7, ibanez pm7, a mutron biphase, danelectro psycho flanger, danelectro free speech talk box and 2 fish and chips.
it has not noisy troubles because of the constant cleaning that i do to it. Its sound is fantastic, different from the rest of tape echos that i have tried or that i already have.

I depend on it as my heart of blood. I use it along with some other pedals to create atmospheres through the songs or in interludes. I also use it in such momentos to make echo sound for my bass. Tape echos have always be part of my gear and the reason of using this one is the height and its mesures that are far away from my roland space echo. I also have recorded with it in at least 6 songs due to the sound it has... even the price is much shorter than a rolnad one its sound is for some things better than a more spensive one.

Never dealt with them. For every reparation (i mean cleanings or head changes) i??ve done it on my own.

I??ve been playing around 15 years almost every single music style. Now I??m into a psychodelic based post-hardcore and as I said before its main use is to create ambiental parts and for me its compulsory to use eho tapes. I own around 10 different echo machines and i don??t like the digital or semi analogic based ones so i do preffer these big machines.
If it were stolen there weren??t be much loss because I own another one like this, but i would buy another like this even if stolen or just for my collection of music stuff. I know that some people feels lost when they find that it works with din conectors but there??s no mystery to change them into "normal" jack conectors or finding any solution for them (at least here in Europe).
I totally encourage to anyone that loves echo sound to try this kind of machine because it is the real sound of an echo.

The controls are: (from left to right)
Volume - Tone original - Echo Volume - 2 push knobs - Echo duration - Tone echo - Volume
The playback head is on a sliding bar (about 12cm (5") long), so that continuously different time delays can all be produced by the same tape speed and same frequency response. (This is not the case with Roland units where delay time is changed by varying the tape speed and consequently, varying the quality of tape reproduction.)
The two knobs are Motor - On
It works on 110,130,220 and 240V. And it is grounded.

Problems:
1.It uses the german DIN-connection (can easy be solved)
2.Tapes are hard to get and if you find them expensive.

My setup is a Am. Strat with JB humbucker and a (Silverface) Twin Reverb. My main effect is the Zvex Fuzz Factory, but i often use a (older) Electro-Harmonix Bigg Muff and sometimes a Sansamp-Classic for distortion/fuzz.
I also use the EH PolyChorus for some analog flangers/chorus. I really love this one! And for the crazy stuff a Whammy. I also play piano, on a Yamaha Stage Piano (P-80), connected to my Roland Vs-880 Ex home-studio for internal effects. And my main delay is this wonderfull 'piece' of tape echo. As you can imagine, this unit is the best in that vintage warm and vibrating echo/delay sound. It should be because it is vintage;-) If there is anything that i don't like, then it's the noise of the motor. Other noises are to be expected from such analog equipment between the age of 24 and 38, but are still very acceptable. I record with this baby, and as far as it is away from any mike it doe s a great job. I also gig with it, but carry a Line 6 Echo Pro with me for some other delay sounds. (It's got a amazing echoplatter) The Echo Pro has got great tape echo simulations, but can' t beat the original. Except for longer delay times witch are impossible with this echo. Sure it is more quiet for recording but if you take a bit more time (and the Echocord) you can do wonders!
I use this also on my piano, and it sounds great together with some (Proppelerhead) Reason soft synths(with MIDI). Real wacko stuff!! Btw Kraftwerk has also used an EchocordMini!! I'm sure they did even more wacko stuff with it.

Like they say from German stuff, it's build like a tank!! And sure you can't drop it, but what can you still drop these days?? Damn!!!
I depend on it to gig/record. The heads should be cleaned at regular basis if you want them to last, and the tape lives longer that way too.

Never dealt with them.

I've paid much for it, but i think it's wort the money. For my sort of experiments it's just something i can't live without. If it got stolen, i'd go on holiday to Germany and search and search until i find a nice replacement.

It's got a couple of pots which aren't labelled, but nothing special about it - volume, tone, echo mix, echo duration. I've got the manual, so it was no problem at all. One problem may be that it uses German DIN Connection (as mentioned above) for input, output and footswitch which are quite hard to get anymore even here in Europe. But you should be easily able to replace them with 6,3 mm connections, if you want to. There's some service to be done, like changing the tapes (about which I don't know yet how easy to get they are).

I use it with a Danelectro reissue guitar with 4 lipsticks and bigsby and a Marshall solid state Valvestate 8080 Combo. I was not very happy with the amp and was thinking about getting a nice, older Fender tube amp instead one day (if I only could afford one!), but when I listened to the minicord in front of it it was a complete difference ? as a preamp very warm sound and big overdrive, depending on the input volume (the minicord is transistorized, by the way) - I can now easily ?delay? the Fender investion. And then I added the tape delay ? wow. Using a bit of distortion and loads of reverb I instantly got a Neil-Youngesque sound, no problem. Using my George Dennis tremolo (which is great) stomp box before it I got some really spacy sounds, even MY improvising sounded good. Perfect! I wouldn?t be without it anymore. It?s not noisy at all, only in the higher input volume regions there's some background humming - it's analog, hey! - but less than my Marshall's preamp tube.

It?s not a Boss pedal, but it came to me by mail and there wasn?t any damage done to it. It stil looks like new, although it's about 25 years old ("thank you" to the former owners!). You aren?t supposed to drop it, though. I would of course gig with it, as the sound is unbeatable, I would maybe use some analog delay pedal as a backup if I once get hold of any.

I somewhere read that Dynacord would still send old manuals on request. I personally haven't dealt with them.

If it got lost I?ll always go back to tape delays ? maybe next time a tube driven one. Ibaney analog delays are nice but they go for about 3 or 4 times the price of this one and don?t sound as good in my opinion. Nothing compared to a tape echo.

I had a little problem to connect this old Tape-echo, because it use German DIN-connections. But after a while, I realize, that the pins was high and low input, and then the rest was a piece of cake.
There a two set of knobs, one set for input, and one set for the echo.
I have no manual, but the knobs are easy to use. Just turn the knobs, and listen to the sound while youre are tweeking.

I use Fender Am. Strat, Fender Blues Deluxe. The Echocord is an old Tape-Echo like Echoplex solidstate models. The analog echo-sound is wonderful, warm and clean, the real thing. Its like coming back in time, I have not heard any digital delay sound like this. Like other analog's you must accept a little noise.. but if you play strat, that is nothing to talk about. This box don't kill your tone, but enhance it with an old warm "Hank Marwin" sound. I give it 9, and leave the 10 to the tube-driven tape-echoes.

This is perhaps more than 25 years old, and sound still fanstastic, after I have blown a pound af old dust out of it. I will not use in on a gig.. here I use a DOD FX-96 analog delay... sound pretty close to the Echocord, but not a 20 pound shoe-box ! I will use the Echocord in the studio. When you own a tape-echo you have to do some service with cleaning heads and change tape. But that is only charming with this Baby !

Dynacord make today a lot of superior electronics... but I think they have forgotten all about this box. If it broke You have to find an old repairman who can his job.

After a couple of years I only play with analog boxes. Every time I have used A/D converters my tone was lost. Better a little noise than no tone. Of course it a matter of taste.. but in my ears digital stuff sound always the same, even though the manufacturer has praised it to heaven. Every year I go to the musicstore and hear the newest digital stuff... at then go home and kiss my old tape-echo, Ross compressor, Boss CE-1, Mutron III and TS808 ;-)