Re: EH SMM w/ Hazari

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

After seeing Rainer's review I had to tru out the SMM

My finding was that while all the features Rainer describes are present, 
somehow the 
whole thing is a bit unsatisfying.
It may work for you though.

negatives

1) There's no problem to stop a loop, by hitting Bypass.
   ...then of course you also bypass the delays:-( 

2)Also as Rainer mentioned
   the dry/wet control treats both loop and the the delays as "wet", so no 
way
   to control them individually ( something that does feature in the DL4.)

3)The only way to erase a loop is to go into bypass and hold the tap 
button for 500mS
  ......that's not much use.

4)It's possible to vary the loop parameters only when in loop mode, so 
although you can
   have delays and loop at the same time you can't alter the loop settings 
in any way
    if you're using the delay. You can still record a loop and overdub 
though

5)to record a loop you have to hold the button down for the duration of 
the loop, and release
   at the end. This is ok, but not as nice as having tap to start and tap 
to end. With the clunky
   switch it's not so easy to get a well timed loop.

6)the instant reverse is good, but can only be used with multitap echo ( 
or no echo).
  
   (and not with the loop, but we knew that)

7)the reverse echo sets it's timing automatically, trying to follow your 
playing. At first it seems nice, then it gets boring.

8) the reverb is boring
 

positives
1) sonic degradation of the loop by using the time stretch feature.

2) the + - 2 octave thing is nice. Loop always records at normal speed, 
and can be octaved either way. It's easy to center the control again and 
bring pitch back to normal accurately.

3) the filter works great on the loop, not exactly the classic lo-pass 
sound but still very usable,
and theres also a high pass

4) some strangeness when varying the number of repeats in multi-tap mode. 


5) as long as you keep your foot on the tap button, you have a looper with 
variable feedback. 
Like the old delays with freeze but more like an un-freeze control.

6) the instant reverse really is good

Overall, this is a box with some sort of potential.
If you wanted to use either the delays, or the loop it's probably quite 
intuitive.
If you want to use them together, it's going to take some thought and 
application
to get it working for you ( the presets might help in this, ).


************

Would you be able to do a looping show with just this?

If you just wanted to make a loop and build up overdubs this does it.

recording the second loop is possible, if you could cover the gap somehow 
while
working the series of presses to erase the old loop. It's this that really 
makes the box
unwieldy.

After about 30mins of exploration I managed loop some guitar figures with 
rhythmically related echoes, overdubbed a rhythm, double speeded it and 
added some low notes to make a bassline when brought back to normal speed.
Having done that, I could make dubby echoes over the top of it.
...practically a looping composition :-)


Further investigation (Rainer??) might reveal if it's possible to have the 
delay time sync to the loop length, obviously it's possible to tap in  a 
loop that fits the delay.


andy butler


 








 


 
  
   




Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill wrote:
> First review here (that I'm aware of) of this new playa in the field of 
>looping stompboxes.
> (note: all prices in € and based on German street prices)
>