The new Echoplex and you...

[Phaedebk@aol.com]

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.