Thanks again to everyone who's contributed advice on the Vortex. After having spent a couple of evenings putzing with the programs in a clinical headphone environment, and about five hour's worth of live ensemble playing this afternoon with the Vortex in a stereo guitar rig, I can safely say that this is one of the *wierdest* boxes I've ever run across.

It's almost like the bastard child of an Eventide Ultra-Harmonizer and a Delta-Lab Effectron II. There's a certain analogish funkiness to the sound and its responsiveness remeniscent of the latter (at certain settings you can even hear the pitch-mods hissing in the absence of a singal), while the morphing options and delays place it in a more modern context. Very odd. No wonder Guitar Center has to practically give them away.

I must say that the presets don't even hint at the possibilities of the unit. Using the presets as a jumping-off point, I was able to come up with some extremely bizarre (and highly effective) patches that elicited no shortage of raised eyebrows from the other musicians I tested it with today; the factory presets may be designed for subtle studio orientation, but there are some obscenely blatant and eye-popping possibilities for live performance, particularly in a stereo rig with wide separation.

One thing that surprised me was the way you can *play* the box in a very musical way. I spent much time in rehearsal today setting up a loop and then tweaking the Vortex for a minute or two. Some of the tones that came out of the amp were not only hair-raising, but more importantly, they were dynamic and animated -- they made the loops sound less like loops and more like a constantly evolving texture. I may be something of an anomaly among loopists in that I tend to like loops that don't just replay the exact sound over and over, but which constantly mutate in unpredictable ways. I've been wanting a processor that would do that for a while now, and the Vortex fits the bill perfectly.

One other thing that I was taken aback by is how "familiar" some of the sounds in there are. Feeding one ambient loop through a chorus-and-delay patch, I suddenly found myself thinking, "God, this sounds *exactly* like _A Blessing Of Tears_!" Other patches bore a strong resemblance to _Polytown_-era Torn. This (along with other considerations) has raised some odd philosophical issues for me, but that's another post altogether.

At the current Guitar Center rate of $150, it's an absolute steal -- for about what you'd pay for an average stompbox you get an utterly bizarre thing that seems pathologically incapable of functioning in any predictable way. (And yes, Olivier, I'll send you the phone number and address for Guitar Center very soon.)

Glad to hear you've seen the light with Vortex. I've been slow in responding, but it seems that there's a bunch of people on this list who actually "got" the box. If a single dealer had people working for them who got it, the box might have sold. Vortex was a major black eye for Lexicon, because it was so badly misunderstood. My favorite experience was the day I walked into a dealer in Nashville (I didn't tell them who I was) and asked for a demo of Vortex. I knew they had been trained less than 2 weeks prior, so I figured that it might be interesting. I asked what it was, I had seen some ads, but couldn't quite get a handle on it, etc. The response was: "it's a trick reverb". (There are no reverb algorithms in the box. Just delays.)

> There's a certain analogish funkiness to the sound and its responsiveness remeniscent of the latter (at certain settings you can even hear the pitch-mods hissing in the absence of a singal), while the morphing options and delays place it in a more modern context.

This was *exactly* the intent of the box. Some of the effects were modeled after analog effects--tape delays, vintage tremolo, etc. But then we weirded them out. While the presets were being developed, the project manager kept calling me downstairs to hear some new bizzarre sound and say, can you do something with this? (which invariably I could, though nobody would want to hear it!!!). In the end, though, we settled mostly on generally useful sounds (choir, atmosphere, orbits) with a coupla weird ones to freak people out (bleen, fractal).

Some critical pieces of the equation:
1:The Expression Pedal is the key to unlocking this box. (We always used the Roland EV-5) Once you start working with it, it opens up all kinds of things. For example, you can do simple, useful things like swelling in echoes after a phrase, or even bringing the whole effect in from a pedal. Or you can morph in real time. Which brings up point

2: Morphing can occur between ANY two effects, so you're not limited to morphing between the preset A/B pairs. Try setting up a register pair of Fractal and Bleen and assigning the pedal to morph. Hold down a note (e-bow is great for this) and morph. It's whippin cool.

3: When using a pedal to morph, you can stop anywhere along the way. I happen to know that Torn's primary Vortex sounds are in between points from a couple of tweezed effects. He watches til he gets to the magic 41 (or whatever it is) and that's his sound.

4: There's so much to do in editing, you never have to feel restricted by the presets. Every one can be as weird or normal as you want. And you can do both, and morph between them as you need.

Andre, since I know some of your work, I can say with assuredness that you're going to have tons o'fun with this box. I'm glad there are others on the list who agree...

Here's something for all you loopologists out there.

(By the way, the Vortex loops in STEREO, short though those loops may be! Think on that and be dismayed!) ...

Here's an excerpt from the Vortex Manual Addendum:

Vortex...it's a looping sampler!

Deja Vu B is a looping effect. In the present, the envelope is used to create an overdub looper. Here's how to create a loop sampler that can be controlled with the A/B switch.

Save a copy of Deja Vu B in both the A and B locations of any register pair. For this example, we will use Register 3A and 3B. Select the preset Deja Vu B. Push and hold the Store button. Turn the Preset Knob until the display reads 03. While still holding the store button, push the A/B button so the display LED is on A. Now release the store button.

Since you are storing the same effect in both locations, you can simply push and hold the Store button and push the A/B button to select B. Deja Vu B is now stored in both Register 3A and 3B.

In Register 3A, turn the Parameter knob to envelope and turn the value knob until the display shows 01. Turn the parameter knob to morph and turn the value knob until the display shows 64. Press store.

In register 3B, turn the Parameter knob to envelope and turn the value knob until the display shows 01. Turn the parameter knob to morph and turn the value knob until the display shows 64. Turn the parameter kob to feedback 1 and turn the value knob until the display shows 01. Turn the parameter knob to echo fx lvl and turn the value knob until the display shows 01. Press store.

You're all set to go! Use the A/B switch (front panel or footswitch) to turn the sampler's record function on and off. When A is selected, the sampler is recording - the input passes through to the output unchanged. When B is selected, the sampler plays an infinite loop of whatever was previously recorded. The size of the loop is determined by the tap. While the loop is playing, the input is passed through the Vortex so you can play on top of the loop.

Have fun!

Ever have one of those experiences where one of your loops takes on a life of its own and becomes this THING that sounds like it was put together by decisions you guided, but is now its own THING?!?!?

Saturday I started doing a loop based on single notes of a guitar arpeggio. Then I started adding the added notes an octave below the root. Then I added notes two octaves above the root just to add a smooth texture.

All of a sudden I had this very animated, interesting loop. I just kept listening and listening and was amazed. Sometime this happens, but not typically this amazing - I was like "this should be on an album or something.."

I put my instrument down and just sat and listened. For a long time.

I walked off into the next room and my wife was saying "I really like that ..." so we just left it going.

My wife and I had some errands to do, instead of shutting the Vortex off, I shut everything else off but the looper and came back about two hours or so later.

When we came back it was still going...I figured if it was still interesting that maybe it was worth recording.

I checked it out again to see if I still liked it and did. I figured it was time to really mess with it. I then plugged my cheazo swell flanger pedal into the effects loop of my 4-track's mixer, then added the Boss DD-3 pedal after that set to maxdelay (800ms) and about 90% regeneration and added to it and mixed it about 50-60% to the original signal.

I had the most amazing animated texture going......I was like "sheeeesh! I need to get this recorded before it goes away..." shoved a blank tape into the deck and started recording until the tape ran out, all the while neat little variations on the main loop were occurring at the molecular level no doubt.

I'll probably add some sparse synth or guitar bits to it, but it's amazing how this technology can take something as mundane as a simple chord and make it this eerie thing of beauty.

Now I'm really hooked on this loop thing. Let's just say the Vortex turns out to be the best $150 I ever spent in terms of "best inexpensive musical addition".. now I have to get some more stuff to make bigger loops.

Here's some more stuff from the Lexicon Applications Notes for Vortex.

I've also added these to my homepage and select [LOOP].

For the sick and twisted: Vortex also provides some very outside effects. Bleen B and Fractal B are completely outrageous. Bleen B is an echo diving into ring modulation. Play a melodic line and listen to how the effect takes it over.

Fractal B is a looping echo that devours itself. Play a melodic line through the effect, and as the echo continues, the notes stack up to form a chord. This pair also makes for an amazing morph.

Set the two effects up as a register pair. Hold down a chord or single note (E-Bows are great for this) and morph between the two! Also try experimenting with Deja Vu A and B for Techno looping effects.

One great trick is to use Deja Vu B as a looper. An expression pedal is very helpful here, though not necessary. Assign the expression pedal to adjust the envelope. Then, with the pedal in the Up position you can capture a phrase for infinite looping. By pushing the pedal all the way down, you can play over the top without adding to the loop. In the middle you can add music at different levels. This configuration can be saved in a register so that the pedal is assigned within the register.

Todd said:
> Ever have one of those experiences where one of your loops takes on a life of its own and becomes this THING that sounds like it was put together by decisions you guided, but is now its own THING?!?!?

[Todd's description of a cool loop from the ether]

Yes, I love that sort of thing! This used to happen to me sometimes at g-wiz while testing new soft versions in the echoplex. Usually meant the testing got delayed a bit while I enjoyed the loop!

A couple really stand out:

One time I looped a little sound made by scratching the sixth string of a Les Paul with my fingernail, then letting it ring a bit. I reversed it, and suddenly it was a completely beautiful, mesmerizing noise. Hard to describe it. Sort of a cross between the om sound for meditating and a digeridoo. People walking by my office were transfixed, stopping for a listen. I let it go for a couple of hours while I did other work. Amazing how something so simple could sound so perfect.

Another time I was testing midi sample triggering. I had a max patch set up which randomly triggered one of the nine loops in the echoplex at some defined interval, which was sort of a stress test to see if pops would appear or anything would go awry after lots of triggering. I played a note into each loop and started the patch off. Trouble was, I forgot to set the delay between triggers, so MAX was sending the triggers at its maximum rate! The mac totally locked up and I couldn't stop the damn thing. I think max clocks every millisecond, so that's probably how fast the triggers were going.

And then I noticed the sound.....

It sounded like some strangely harmonic storm, with wind blowing and rain on the roof. Always evolving, yet always in a similar sound space. Really extraordinary, yet totally unexpected and quite beautiful. I'd like to try that one again, but somehow I think it won't come out so well. Maybe its better as a memory....

In case you're wondering, the 'plex survived all this. When I finally stopped it, all the loops were fine, and nothing bad had happened. It probably switched loops several hundred thousand times....