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Re: AKAI delay pedal vs Jamman



At 1:27 AM -0800 1/29/99, PERILLE wrote:
>I wonder if the new AKAI delay pedal-E1 headrush can record in loops
>just as the Jamman does.

I played with it briefly at the show. It's simple, but pretty nice for what
it does. In loop mode, you tap the right button to start recording, and the
left button to stop. (I think it's more intuitive to use one button for
this, but anyway....)  To overdub, you tap the right (start) button again,
and the left (stop) button to stop overdub. It actually has a simple undo
function as well. After you have done some overdubs, you double tap the
right button and you go back to the original loop. You can't undo layers
like the echoplex, all the overdubs go away at once. But still, that's
pretty cool. The total time for the delay mode is about 23 seconds, but in
loop mode it is only around 11 seconds if you want to do overdubs. I'm
assuming it uses memory like the echoplex, where overdubs are done in new
memory space, with the old stuff preserved. So the headrush only gives you
half.....  And that's about it for the looping. Very basic, but it does it.

Feedback is not available in loop mode, although it is available in the
other modes. Kind of a bummer I guess, since feedback is such a useful
thing.

It has four outputs for the tape echo thing, which is pretty cool I guess.
I didn't play with this mode, so I can't comment on it. I assume it is a
simple tapped delay with a separate output for each tap. I don't really
care about the tape echo sound, so I didn't even try that.

>As it seems to be a 4-head tape echo simulator, may be it can also run
>four spinning loops once a delay is tapped with the footswitch.
>
>And if it is so, it could be a similar recording process to Jamman which
>I was told was patented by Lexicon.
>
>Infringement or not ?

I would say not. Check the IBM patent server,
http://www.patents.ibm.com/ibm.html. Lexicon has no such patent. Besides,
The Paradis LoopDelay did all of this and more a year before Jamman was
out. If they had such a patent, they wouldn't be able to enforce it on
account of prior art.

I also tried the Korg AX-1G(?) which is claimed by Korg as a looper pedal.
I couldn't get it to work. It actually only has around 1.8 seconds, which
they conveniently don't mention anywhere, so it's probably not that
interesting.  I discovered later that it is operated by pressing the
expression pedal all the way forward to engage a switch. This is apparently
designed for people more lead-footed than me, because I couldn't get it to
go. There's a thick bit of foam to stop the pedal, and apparently prevent
us light-weights from pressing the switch. :-)   If you do manage to make
it work, they claim you can do overdubs by using the expression pedal as a
sort of volume into the loop. The other effects on this pedal were really
bad (I never heard a parker fly sound so awful), so proceed with
caution.....

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com