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Looper's Delight
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Hi Pahedebk: Thanks for the informative post, but we would caution you to have your Echoplex checked out. "Overheating," does not suggest a good clean bill of health on your unit. You shouldn't have to air condition. We have one of the early echoplexes which actually run hotter from what we understand (Kim correct us if we are wrong) and even rack mounted and running alongside other boxes the thing is good for interminable looping. Also, on our humble opinion, the real genius of the 'Plex software comes out in live situations...and we know the floor switcher is not ideal for live (but man is it an improvement over the original jammen pedals!), nevertheless the floorboard with a little practice is very workable. Try it without shoes. Best, Roctologists ---------- >From: Phaedebk@aol.com >To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com >Subject: The new Echoplex and you... >Date: Wed, May 31, 2000, 9:05 AM > > Dear all, > > Well, got my Echoplex and footswitch from Alto Music a few weeks ago >and > everything worked great straight out of their boxes. I now understand >the > complaints about the manual and definitely see some room for improvement > therein. Several taped multi-coloured plastic tabs helped out with this >one. > Will get into a few ideas for updates later on... Anywho, gave it a >shot > with a David King headless fretless 6 string bass, fretted Steinberger > 5-string bass, a doubleneck Carvin, Polycarb Stick, and finally a Roland > JV-90 just to see what I could get out of this beastie. First thing is >that > I have 50.3 seconds of memory when this beastie ships, and man I now > understand just how little this can be, quick! Especially with the >multiply > feature, trying to get activated... Succeeded a few times with rather > positive results for tiny loops. > > Had a blast with it just playing back what I had done, and then >doing a > little overdubbing, and finally sussed out how to get this thing to >record > separate loops and then play them sequentially, repeating loop a then >b... > Couldn't quite suss out the fade out feature, and could only >"accidentally" > get the reverse feature to happen for me. > Another thing which popped up from time to time was that the beastie >was > overheating on me and shutting itself down, with all of the lights, but >that > over the Record and the two decimal places on the LCD screen going off. > Cranked up the Air Conditioning and this problem disappeared rather >quickly, > gave it a dedicated fan and it didn't occur for the few hours I toyed >with > it... > > Now then, the good news, I know that some of the problems are user >error > and learning curve. Sound quality is really happening, and was very >happy > with how the Echoplex handles the basses and my Stick being run in mono. > Really felt the love there! Also liked that you can record lots of > different, un-overdubbed loops on this thing. Did I mention that the >sound > quality is really happening? > > Some things which I'd really like to see in a "new" echoplex is a 2nd > rack space, this way many of the controls can be taken off of the hold >and > release buttons and switched over to pots, or dial switches and a set of >fans > can be put into this beastie for better respiration... > Man, getting this beastie to go into reverse mode is a bit of a >chore, > and then I have a quick question, can you change the speed of the play >back, > as you could with a tape echoplex, if so, what menu do you begin with and > then where do you go? > > Now, off-list, I've been asked a few times to do a comparison between > both the Echoplex and the Boomerang. This is again, just a statement of > opinion and only that! > I'd find myself working with the Boomerang more in a live context >than I > would with the Echoplex. Mostly because, I find that single buttons are >a > bit easier to work around in a live setting than menus. I also like the >idea > of running the Boomerang with both inputs, and now that I've started in >with > a Chapman Stick, this is VERY necessary to do things with two channel >input. > Also, I really enjoy the fact that I've got 2 minutes of time and as many > overdubs as I want. > > Flip side, there is just so much more which can be done with an >Echoplex, > and it is a matter of sussing out the menus and tap and holds of the >control > surfaces. The sound quality is much better in my Echoplex than my >Boomerang, > also find that the Echoplex sounds better with the lower end instruments >than > the Boomerang, also found that a bouzouki in and Echoplex is VERY crisp > sounding, whereas it was a little muddy in the Boomerang. > > The echoplex is not as noisy, and due to the heat problems mine >tends to > suffer, a studio environment seems more conducive. Sorry no snails man >pitch > on this one, I like them both and will probably continue to like them >both, > even as I become more familiar with the Echoplex. > > Oh, by the by, for the attackless drones, a sneaky way I've found of > doing it, is to activate the note you want to drone, run it through a >volume > pedal and then some form of digital delay on a slow setting and then just > after you get the sound you're looking for, timbre or rumbles then start > recording with either unit, and found that they both (Boomerang and >Echoplex) > handle this quite nicely. Typically, I like to swell it a little more >about > halfway through the loop to be. > > Now, I have to snag a copy of the updated BIOS for the Boomerang. > > Tap on, loop extended, gliss out, > > > LeeohkinoWired. > > > > > >