LE PRISM (4 head stereo echo)

Four-Head Stereo Echo

From Cicognani - 

With this new product, we wanted to tell the history and sounds of the legendary old Italian Echo. Our experience of many years of work providing technical assistance to the “much loved vintage units”, has allowed us to acquire a unique background.

LE PRISM is equipped with the most complete functions, the most musical delay pads, and simple ease-of-use in a compact package that requires zero periodic maintenance.

The precious advice of Jonathan Wilson, Jon Carin, and Giampaolo Noto supported us to give our best, taking care of every single detail to create our best Italian Echo ever.

LE PRISM is our gift to you to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

LE PRISM is a “creative” machine designed for the recording studio as well as live performances.  It integrates the history of analog sounds of those old models of "Italian Echo" ranging from Model 1 up thru the PE603 stereo unit.   Le Prism Offers 4 delay times as well as 4 selectable feedbacks, all summable and adjustable as desired. The 4 delay times are synchronized exactly like the old vintage units with delays of: 78 - 156 - 234 – 312mS.

Using the "VARISPEED" control, the delay times can be extended up to 700mS, while maintaining the "heads" perfectly synchronized with limited signal distortions. This control has been evolved to select the delay times of the most historic Italian echoes including MODEL1, T7E, PE603, leaving a large adjustment space that allows you to be able to achieve the maximum delay characteristics of this unit. This major flexibility allows us to be able to use those fantastic sounds of the past in modern settings, satisfying the requests of the ever increasing demands of musicians and recording studios.

The 4 feedback settings (BACK) come from the delay times of the 4 single heads and thanks to the various combinations it's possible to obtain the ultimate psychedelic sounds along with a vast variety of different types of musical delay pads.

We have introduced a new concept of STEREO inspired by the past; It's designed with a new Mono to Stereo Analog Converter circuit in full 60s/70s style. LE PRISM is a mono unit which simulates not only the stereophony but makes it come "alive" thanks to the sensitivity of the "touch of your hand" or in combination with other devices following the dynamics of the signal. In this ingenious configuration, the two output channels are affected by an opposing phase shift of the signal which generates a unique musical effect; lively and really "simul-stereo". Going back to the history, musicians since the late 1960s explored various conditions to simulate the stereo sound in different ways.  Among the best known settings, in the early 70s, I remember the DG-style double stack, which provided a double mono signal sent to two amplifiers with the addition of one, or more, modulation effect devices on only one of the two signals (typically the left).

We of course couldn't forget the "MAGIC OF AGE" modulation control that is always featured on all of our Echo devices.  This control simulates the mechanical fluctuation often present in the old Italian Echo units. We created a data archive by testing and measuring a variety of Echoes and subsequently calibrated our unit on the average of the detected fluctuations. This has generated a particular and unique modulation effect.  Furthermore, the LE PRISM backlights the tube in green and these LED"s light in synchronicity with the degree of modulation.

The "SELECTOR" control allow you to select from three different performance modes: ECHO (single repetition), REP. (multiple repetitions) and SWELL (4 delay times in parallel + 4 feedback know has slapback delay).