G2 Looping/Bug (was:lexicon MPX G2 review)

[Dpcoffin@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/26/99 12:38:59 PM, edwin@indra.com writes:

>>the new (april) "guitar player" has a review of the lexicon mpx g2 what
>i
>>found interesting was the fact that this box has a 20 sec. jam-man in
>it, at
>>least that is how i understood the article.......michael

I don't know about the original JamMan, but I've been exploring a G2 for
several weeks, using a MIDI pedal (Roland FC-200) and focusing mostly on 
its
delay functions. The new JamMan is a 0-20 sec. mono delay line with 
feedback
control and several on/off toggle switches that aren't typical, or 
available
in the other G2 delay algorithms: Delay Clear, Layer, Replace, Delay (turns
looper into a mono delay...but without retaining the length set when 
looping
(!?)), and Mute, which is a Stop/Restart-from-beginning function. You can
assign any attached pedals or switches to these functions; works well with 
my
FC-200. To start a loop you hit whatever you've set for your tap switch, 
and
the display shows a shortening horizontal bar to indicate remaining delay
time. Hit Tap again to stop recording and play loop. The manual also shows
that you can place other fx modules inside the feedback loop of the JamMan,
but this is a misprint.
However, you can set up the other delay algorithms (which will let you 
insert
other fx) to loop also, by placing a volume module in front of the delay 
after
splitting the signal to place the delay on a parallel path to the 
non-delayed
signal. I assigned one external foot switch to control input to the delay 
by
toggling this volume on/off (could have been a foot pedal, for shaping the
envelope of the input volume), and another switch to toggle feedback from
0-100 (also could be a pedal). This way you can choose either mono or 
stereo
delay, giving (ideally) 10 sec. stereo loops. UNFORTUNATELY, there is a 
bug in
the system that switches, above 5.6 secs of delay time, the stereo delay 
to an
interesting (if choosable!) variation in which one side of the delay uses 
the
preset or tapped time, and the other uses half of it, so you get a nice 
long
ping-pong effect...but no more true stereo delay. I pointed this out to 
Greg
Hogan at Lexicon, who came back a day or so later to say in effect: "Hmmm,
yes, this is what happens on the in-house G2s also; it's a bug...and I 
guess
we'll fix it, but don't hold your breath!"
Nevertheless, this setup is quite nice. I was able to place an auto wah on 
the
non-delayed routing, and a step filter on the delay line without exhausting
the DSP resources--lost stereo imaging, tho. The JamMan and the Stereo 
delay
line use 23-25 out of a possible 190 units of DSP power. The Gain block and
the reverb block can always be used...but in my opinion, there's not much
you'd want to do with the gain functions besides clean tones, at least for
emulating amps--get a POD (a very interesting device--nice slow-gear 
effect,
and over 3 sec. of delay, besides extremely cool amp tones). G2's reverb is
great, of course. A very capable machine; will be more so when they get 
that
bug fixed!
David Coffin