suphuckers said:
I think digitech now owns the lexicon stuff don't they? and a lot of those effects are based off of (and improved on) some of those original effects tho right? new/improved.
Huh!!! digitech taking over Lexicon was the end of an era! No they are not "new/improved"!!! You have a GSP1101, I can't even believe you would say that, LTFOL.
Yes, processors are better now without a question. The problem is there are no programmers to write the algorithms. There is no money in it for the companies to use better analog components like some of the old racks. All you have are cheaper ways to try and copy the old sounds.
Lexicon and Eventide had teams of scientists analyzing concert halls and studio spaces and going into immense detail to recreate those sounds using limited technology. There is no company that would even think about this kind of research now.
I could go on but what's the point? The huge rack days are over and will never happen again because of corporate greed...
suphuckers said:
MarcoR said:
I like the Strymon stuff too but they made the decisions for you (albeit good ones) as far as what can be tweaked. Their midi implementation is not as good as would have liked and that's keep them out of my rig.
What exactly don't you like?
I was considering a Timeline at one point and what I was reading on the forums indicated the midi implementation was "half baked". The other issue was it wasn't truly line level and people had clipping issues with hotter loops.
suphuckers said:
I love the effects I get out of the Empress stuff, but the almost total lack of midi made it impossible to use those effects in a live rig. I'll be keeping those boxes for sure though.
I just got the Empress Tremolo 2, I like it! They make great sounding boxes and the Super Delay demos sound fantastic. Their midi implementation is a bit weird as you have to use the Empress Midibox connected to the control port. The Empress Midibox converts midi CC messages to control voltage signals. Mine's on my pedal board and I have no need for midi control of its parameters.
Jaded Faith said:
I actually used to roll with MIDI until around five years ago. I found I was no longer able to be as spontaneous as I liked. I enjoy having a spark, reaching down to a knob or two and staying inspired. Diving into menus, deep editing and constantly having to program stuff became a major buzz kill. It nearly paralyzed my creativity. I forced a change and made myself do more with less. It was the right decision for me.
I'll never dispute the convenience or richness of features. I just crave spontaneity as a player.
I got out of midi for the same reason, I just had a midi controller and a rack with presets; convenient but lacked spontaneous creativity. I went back to a pedal board only, that grew, and grew, and grew and became noisy with miles of cable and really not fun live when I was lead singer and lead guitarist. I remember holding a vocal note looking in the eyes of a lovely female, while my foot is furiously trying to find all the switches for my lead sound, peek down at the neck of my guitar to make sure I'm on the right fret to start my solo... Not over yet... Still have to hit five pedals to get back to the clean sound with the tremolo and phaser for the bridge and...oh ****! what were the lyrics???
Now, I have the best of both worlds with my analog pedals in front of me, ready to be twisted, and the digital effects in a rack but having all the parameters I would need access to available from my controller via expression pedals or switches that can step through values. But most importantly, my sounds are click away... wait, what were the lyrics???
suphuckers said:
I looked at the Eventide pedals but I personally think they sound like junk. I didn't know about Strymon when I bought my Empress stuff.
Well, its subjective so I can't fault you for not liking Eventide but what did you try? Okay, the Modfactor is the yuck but the Pitchfactor, Timefactor and Space are pretty amazing. BUT, they need to be after the preamp and preferably in Killdry. In front of the amp, yes "they sound like junk" but so do a lot of things.
suphuckers said:
My Empress Super Delay has 8 presets that do exactly what I want, save the dial positions, but it's a real pita if I simultaneously want to change from a dirty module to a clean module. It has NO midi. The same for my phaser. It's an awesome analog phaser. ...and the phaser has midi, but it only responds to CC msgs. I can't set a program/preset in it. It doesn't have any preset abilities. I can sit there and turn the dials and get a really awesome inspiring sound (like you were talking about Rob), but I have no way to save it. I'm left with pencil and paper to save my settings. That's just not going to cut it.
That's why I was asking you/Marco about the abilities of that LF pedal. Originally I was looking to find a pedal that I could program in the CC changes, and have it send them like a PC to the phaser. At the same time send the PC to the preamps and my looper etc.. I figure I could try to handle the pedal dance on the delay.
The Liquid Foot controller could do exactly what you want because you can save a preset that has a combination of commands. Multiple CC messages and program changes all with a click of a button and still have individual control via instant access switches. My latest thing has been having the colors of the screen change based on the state, more than just On/Off; on my looper for example, there is a switch that has five possible states but I can't see them because it's behind me in a rack. Now I can tell where it is just looking at the pedalboard.
8)
