Guitar rig VI: overlooking the obvious

Now, in my on going quest for the ultimate guitar setup,I have tried and used a lot of gear.Many were new to me. However, I named this one over looking the obvious because I found that is exactly what I did and it cost me in tone/sound.

Boomerang I+

I love Boomerang phrase samplers. I was an early user of the first boomerangs when they came out. The boomerang phrase sampler is a pedalboard which allows you to record some of your playing and then plays it back and repeats. you can then add additional layers on top of it to create a symphony of guitar sounds.Now, the boomerang I was fairly simple, but limited to mono and quite noisy.

Boomerang III 

The boomerang III is the latest of the boomerang phrase samplers and it boasted noise free 48k stereo looping and 4 loops at one time. Well, I got one and it is fairly complicated.Well, hell, I was using it and noticed that  I was getting some extra noise even when not playing. I had the boomerang III in a Mackie  mixer with some other looping gear and f/x.Hell, "noise free my ass" I thought. I took down each fader until the noise was gone and to my dismay it was the boomerang III.It was giving out a kind of hiss and amp noise. I love the silent no noise effects and amps. I love plugging into my albion amp and getting this crystal clear sound with no noise.So, this was really disappointing.I thought it was a limitation of the hardware.

While playing, I noticed that I was getting lights lighting on my mixer that showed there was a signal passing through it. I thought it was one of my 20 year old jamman loopers, taking the fader down didn't help. the sound was coming from the boomerang III. Then it donned on me, that  I never set the levels on the boomerang III . I recall that the boomerang I had a big switch that allowed the original guitar signal to pass through as well as the loop signal. this would explain why I was seeing levels on my mixer when there should have been none.

boomerang I kill dry signal switch

Now, I had to get the boomerang III manual as choosing to kill the dry sound is not as obvious as the old boomerang I. Instead of a big switch, it was a series of holding down 2 buttons. so I did and voila, all of a sudden the room became silent, no amp hum,no hiss ,nothing. I thought this cant be. I almost thought the boomerang III would not put out any sound as it was so silent. but I played a chord and recorded it and played it back and amazingly it played back at a healthy volume with no noise.

I felt like a numb nut, a boob, you mean this whole time I had been playing with my dry signal passing through the boomerang II causing a lot of extra noise. Lesson learned: know your gear and pay attention to the small details which may seem too obvious at first.

The hybrid amp: tube vs solid state

The hybrid amp: tube vs solid state

ok, well, its no secret that guitarist covet real tube amps for their glorious sound and I must say that being in a room and playing one of thee amps is spectacular especially when you stop plying and the amp goes deadly silent with no hiss as if not even on and then roars to life even with clean sounds.

Now, tubes present a set of problems. all tube amps are heavy as hell and you have to replace the tubes and they are expensive and fragile.  So, for years, companies have put out solid state amps without these limitations but the tone is usually compromised. So, they come up with these schemes to try to duplicate the tube: modeling, solid state preamps and so on and today i ran into the hybrid amp. A real tube preamp with a solid state power amp. that way you get the tone but not the headache and only 1 tube to deal with instead of 6-9 tubes.

 I was in a local music store trying out a super expensive fender twin reverb and it sounded good, but was freakin heavy as heck. and at almost a grand,wasn't going to happen. but I loved its clean tone. I then went through and tried almost every amp including a cybertwin, some other fenders, a couple of crates and they all paled into comparison. then as a last minute thing, I looked and hidden behind the fender twin ,obviously neglected, was this amp.It looked like a 2x12 combo amp. I just thought ok last amp, why not. I could tell the knobs were dusty and then it finally kicked in and I was stunned. here was that fender twin clean sound again and even at loud settings it still sounded clean like a twin. I mean it has that tube bass thump the solid state amps lacked. it reminded me of the Texas made Alamo amps (old and pretty rare).I then dialed in some of the effects,perfectly clean,not over the top. then the overdrive ch and it was pretty close to a  jcm800 sound ,better than a jcm900 anyway.it nailed a jtm-45 without even trying. not enough to do modern metal, but more like that jcm800 ac/dc tone. I couldn't believe a solid state could sound like a tube amp, this time for real. Best part was the price.I could buy 4 of these for the price of the fender twin.It was a hybrid amp, a tube preamp (1 tube) and a solid state power amp. I am on the hunt for a second one.Its the closest thing to being a full tube amp.The company is obscure and worse, they have discontinued that series of amps sadly. I wont tell you what they are just yet or they will be scoooped up before I can get a few lol..but hearing is believing.

Guitar Rig part V : Eventide H9 max and H9 core vs Lexicon mx series

Guitar Rig part V : Eventide H9 max and H9 core vs Lexicon mx series

ok well, were were we...oh yes, I was working out a new guitar rig and choosing effect processors. Ever since I got a Lexicon mx 200 and mx400 processors I have been obsessed with how clean an effect processor is and its audio quality including how large the stereo spread is, lack of hiss and the lushness of the reverbs and delays. the lexicon's surprisingly are low dollar budget effect processors, yet they are among the cleanest sounding I have encountered.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I thought, wow these lexicon's sound so very good, I wonder what the state of the art processor sounds like. To that end, I purchased, on payments an eventide h9 max pedal and an h9 core pedal for a price near $1000. Compare that to a used Lexicon mx200 for less than $100 and a used mx400 for under $200.                                                                                                   

first, I must tell you how guilty I felt spending $1000 on a couple of guitar pedals.I have always enjoyed and even reveled in using cheap gear and making it sound just as good as the expensive gear.Thoughts of someone slipping the h9 into their jacket and walking off with it at a gig came to mind.In any case, I unboxed the h9 with great care , I went to hook it up.While the lexicon's worked perfectly in my f/x loop, I was stunned to find that the expensive h9 max did not do well at all in the effect loop. I got a nasty distorted sound. So, that was a real disappointment. For the money, I had high expectations for the h9 and expected a lot.I eventually settled on running it in front of the amp as it was designed and using it as a stompbox.

h9 Pros

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I eagerly loaded the software editor on my PC for the h9.This allowed me to choose presets and algorithms. Then, the fun began. I tried every preset just about and each algorithm. My findings are that the sound quality is excellent, it is also super clean with no hiss. 90% of the algorithms sound great and all from a tiny pedal. The imitations of one algorithm at a time sucks and this is why I had bought the second pedal which I did not hook up.The stereo spread was large and the reverbs lush and dense.The delays and reverb were superb as well as the chorus and flanging and even the pitch shifting were super.I also loved the pc editor for editing and choosing presets via usb.So, reading this, you must think ,well whats there not to like then?

h9 cons

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Well, lets begin with the cost. I just couldn't get that out of my mind. $1k isn't that much, granted, but for 2 f/x pedals it is a lot!! you could by 2 budget real all tube combo amps for that and for $1k it had better squeal like Ned Beatty in "Deliverance".

The Sculpt and Crushstations algorithms just didn't do anything for me and sounded terrible in my setup. Kind of 1/2 distortion in a clean preamp sound considered bad by most.So, completely useless for me.I also found some of the presets useless and more like toy sounds. I was also never overcome with sounds I had not duplicated before really. After a while, all the different delays and reverb kind of mesh into one overall type of sound.The pith shifter was just too gimmicky for me anyway other than used as an octaver. However, I did realize the sound quality of each preset was great sounding.

Sound quality wise, I was astounded to find my budget lexicon's holding there own against the newcomer. The Lex's sounded just as good as the h9's.Just as quiet and just as big a stereo spread and the delays and reverbs as good. I suppose not as extreme as in the h9, but the Lex's always seem to stay in the usable range. I would have considered ditching the Lexicon's if the h9 blew them away, but it simply did not at all.

On top of that, the Eventide has the h9 control pc editor which is really well thought out and works great, however , the Lexicon's have their own pc editor as well to control the mx200 and mx400 (mx edit). both run off of a standard usb port. The eventide can use an ios (Apple) device which I don't have so  and no it wont run off my android tablet.The lexicon is usb only and it works great.

Lastly, I tried the h9 with the Lexicon's and it added a little sweetening of the sound but most of the time was so much effects that it turned to a mushy  mess of guitar with over processed f/x sound wise.

Conclusion

---------------

Had I not had the low budget Lexicon's to begin with,I would be thrilled with the eventide h9 .But when you compare the price to the similar sound quality of sounds and the Lexicon's covering all the useful effects I could use and that the Lexicon's also had a pc editor.Granted it was possibly easier to get a good sound with the h9 editor, but not really as the Lexicon mx-edit editor could not be much simpler to use.It became clear that I was paying $1000 for some sounds that are toy like and I would not really use and for effects  I didn't need and made to sound over processed when used with the lexicon's. I re boxed and unboxed the h9 3-4 times to give it another shot,but eventually the conclusion was always the same. So I re-boxed it and returned both the h9 max and the h9 core.

After I returned the h9's I was feeling a bit more relief in my decision to return them and no longer felt the apprehensiveness of paying 1 k for 2 pedals..Lessons I learned, is 1) the most expensive is not always best 2) budget gear can sound as good as the expensive gear 3)take some time and really learn your gear inside and out , all the parameters and effects and what they do,etc...4)sometimes, "less is more", in this case, the Lexicon's and the eventide was way too much effects processing and sounded like an out of control mess of sound. Each repeatedly was plenty for getting  a clear guitar signal.5)for some reason, the small "pedal" form factor is all the rage vs the rack unit such as the lexicon's. Usually this means no midi and very limited number so sounds and presets. you just usually  get more features,connections and options with a rack unit instead of a pedal most of the time, usually due to the pedal size.I prefer rack gear.

 overall, the Eventide h9 is amazing if you can afford it and don't currently own any effects units, but similar sound quality and effects can be had via the Lexicon mx200 and the mx400 for much less money.

author: Denis taaffe

http://www.lexiconpro.com/

https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/stompboxes/multi-effect.../h9

 

guitar rig part IV: Lexicon mx400

guitar rig part IV: Lexicon mx400

Lexicon mx400

in the previous blog, I gave the mx400 a terrible review.Well, I have since worked this unit extensively. First , let me say the mx400 is capable of some awesome super high quality sounds. However, getting there is a task.The idea is to have 2 stereo multiple effects units each with 2 effects each in one box. In theory this 2 stereo in, 2 stereo out idea is sweet. in reality it totally stinks. 

I was assured by tech support at lexicon that there would be no loss of audio quality if I ran the outputs of effect A into the input of effect B.Well, as soon as I did I noticed a loss in quality and less parameters to edit on each effect and it seemed to amplify the noise (hiss) at the inputs. But worse, the mx computer based editor / librarian didn't work worth a darn. in fact it would only save 2 of the 4 effects per patch number. So if I brought up patch #11 with 2 delays on A and 2 compressors on B for instance, it would only save 2 of the effects (the 2 delays and ignore the rest). obviously useless. In a live situation you could not bring up the 2 delays and 2 compressors by calling up patch #12 only the 2 delays and the other 2 effects would be stuck on what last effects were loaded. completely retarded. if you cant save the 4 effects in a patch number and then cant recall those 4 effects with a patch number then what is the point of having 4 effects that you cant control?!?!Also, the effects didn't sound quite as clear.

I called lexicon and even sent screen pics and got bone headed answers as if they were reading the first line of the manual to me. Useless!!!

Solution

Finally I said screw it. I plugged one stereo input and one stereo output and completely ignored the other B in/out.I then set the processor to "stereo mode" as opposed to "dual stereo" mode. Suddenly, the hiss was gone, and incredible sounds came out of the unit. I was blown away . lush reverbs ,amazing delays and even the pitchshifter was cool. I thought I would miss the 2 other effects I paid for,but no I don't. It seems the 2 effects in "stereo" make up for it in sound quality.

Also, now mx-edit worked as intended. My suspicion is that lexicon knows its "dual stereo" multi input /output system sucks and doesn't work properly and to my ears anyway, hell no the effects do not sound as good as in simple "stereo mode". It's a shame really, just a few hours of programming could properly fix the problems. lame.Maybe this is why they never came out with the mx500 which they announced in 2007.

overall

Anyway, do not hesitate from getting one of  these boxes as the mx400 shines with super high clean clear audio quality in "stereo mode", just know that in the end for a guitar rig anyway, it is only good for 2 effects not 4.

guitar rig part III:: lexicon mx400 , mpx1,mpx550,mx200,digitech s200

guitar rig part III:: lexicon mx400 ,mpx1,mpx550,mx200,digitech s200

digitech s200

---------------

well, after fighting and fighting with the digitech s200 to try to get them to sync to midi clock,I finally got rid if them.Did I mention that I sold 3 then bought 3 more because I missed the sound and ended up selling those 3 as well. the digitech sounds good but doesn't sync to midi and for me that is a deal breaker.so, out the door they went.

lexicon mpx1, mpx550, mx200 and mx400

I tried  a bunch of the lexicon processors and each one sounded dated and needed a true bypass loop because it introduced a coloration of you tone when inline. the exception to this was the glorious mx200.the cheapest of the current lexicon processors at $199 new $100 or so used.yet, magically clean and doesn't color your tone.

lexicon mx200

--------------------

the beauty of the lexicon mx200 is that it is so simple to use and is perfect for a guitar rack. it has a mix level knob and 3 edit knobs, syncs to midi, fantastic sounds and looks good.

finally, I found a great sounding lexicon processor that didn't destroy my guitar rack sound. it added to it and it sounds amazing. the delays were every bit as good as the tc.electonics d-two I tried. so very clean and clear sounding. Now it only does 2 effects at one time,but it does them well. I really love it. sounds as good as and in some instances better than the digitech s200 and works great for guitar.

lexicon mx400 [see the next guitar rig part iv blog: new updated blog for the mx400]

--------------------

So I thought I would get its big brother the mx400, to complement the mx200, which is a 4 processor (2 mx200's in one box). well, that was a big mistake as well.

its just a poorly designed product. first off, for guitarists, its just a bad design. all the presets are 100% wet which sucks. you want a 50/50 mix,well,you have to go into each patch and changing the mix/routing,there is no mix knob. then the input volume is hard to setup and either at +4 or -10 it seems to overload/distort,unlike the sw200 which is perfectly happy with line level or guitar signal it seems. then, the manual says hey it can be configured three ways as it has 2 input and 4 outputs (hence dual stereo. well, how deceiving, I discovered that 1 stereo input doesn't access the 4 effects at all,it just disables 2 of the effects, so you paying for 4 effects but only have access to 2. the only way around this is to wire output 1 into input 2 and then use output 2( all in stereo) which works but is a clunky mess. so, the idea that the mx400 is 2 mx200's in a box is bs.Also, on the mx400, obvious items such as setting the dry/wet mix is buried in heaps of menu's. I loved the mx200's simplicity and it just works well,designed well where as the mx400 becomes a complex mess even with its lcd readout.

oh yeah, I almost forgot, the sound quality of the mx400 is decent. I prefer the mx200 sound quality though the 400 is supposed to sound better . but after hearing all the presets 100% wet while I tried to figure out how to change it to a global 50/50 mix [which doesn't  exist on the mx400 what an oversight?!] it kind of ruins it even when set for a 50/50 mix for guitar. so, its going back in the box and will be sold.

conclusion

-------------

well, my quest continues. I think I see another mx200 in my rack soon and hope it works well with my existing mx200. I will also give the mpx550 another try and if that fails as well, then perhaps a tc elecronic m-one xl (even with just xlr and no 1/4" in's and outs).

guitar rig part II:: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,digitech s200 ,disaster designs smartclock

guitar rig part II:: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,digitech s200 ,disaster designs smartclock

In my quest for better tone,I had sold all 3 of my digitech s200 processors because they did not sync to midi.I replaced them with the lexicon mpx550,mpx1 and mx200.Slowly, I re-bought 3 digitech s200 processors as I had sold my old ones and regretted it.I suspect that someone is cornering on the market on these as they were very hard to find and expensive.All of  sudden, that really smooth feel and sound was back. I don't know how to describe the digitech delays for instance as they have a pleasing grittiness,but ultra clear sound that sounds so very good and you cant find it in the lexicons or any other delay .

 When you play a processor and it make you smile you know you are on the right track. now , its one fatal flaw,syncing delay times to midi!! now, I researched and researched,even called the companies to try to solve this problem. I then discovered this tiny company called disaster designs who claimed they made a pedal that would take midi clock and convert it to tap tempo which the digitech s200 would sync to. Is this possible?I was So suspicious, but if it could it would be amazing. the pedal itself  is called the smartclock and its really expensive approaching boutique pedal prices a $179.00. I have not tried it yet but the potential of this pedal if it does what it claims to would be amazing .

I also discovered that no digitech pedals from the s100 top the digitech quad and 400 sync to midi, So we will see how the smart clock solves this problem.

More digitech s200
The digitech s200 has just a great sound , the kind that just being plugged into smooths out your guitar sound and even feel. Its the kind of processor that doesn't need to be in a true bypass and can stay in your signal chain all the time. The same cant be said of the lexicon processors except possibly the mpx550.The mpx1 has a great tone,but it has a glassy effect on the tone which doesn't work for distortion all that well and would benefit form a true bypass when not used in your guitar signal.

mpx550

mpx1

 Now, what happens when you combine the power of the lexicon with the finesse of the s200  in one guitar sound. you get heavenly bliss. The kind of tangerine dream gilmore type delays you only find in high end delays like the strymon timeline, tc 2290 and eventides for example.Just a solid delay with an ambient sound complementing it. AMAZING. It seems the lexicons and digitech's together seems to work wonders.

Be back soon with part III.................

guitar rig part I: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,tc m-onexl,podhd500x

guitar rig part I: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,tc m-onexl,podhd500x

I took the unusual step of overhauling my guitar rig.This was a frightening and expensive experience.I was prety happy with my guitar setup. I liked the sounds I got so why change? Well, I was searching for even better sound of course,but more than that, I had not achieved what was my original intention: to have my guitar rig replace an entire band via looping  .

For this to work, I needed to keep things in sync. perfect, I would use midi clock generated by my drum machines to keep all my loopers and delays in sync. Well, to my dismay, the three digitech s200 multifx processors I had didn't sync to midi clock??!?! wtf?!?!?!? So, determined, I sold all three!!! this gave me some money to buy new gear!!

next , was to find a replacement multi fx that would sync to midi clock. I first tried a tc electronics m-one xl fx processor

It was under $200 range as were my s200's. to my shock ,the damn thing only had xlr outputs?! WTF again?!! so I had to get these 1/4" to xlr adapters what a pain as I was already using 1/4" splitters to route audio around my other gear. it sounded really good ,very clear, but for me was a bit too clean, Eric Johnson type sounds came to mind. now, the data knob broke in my hand, what crap, I cant rely on a flimsy unit if I plan to play gigs. so I sent it back.

lexicon mpx1
What I really wanted was the lexicon sound. much more lush than tc electronic sounds. But which unit?!? The lexicon mpx1 was their early model and was great as it had 2 chips : one to handle reverb and the other for everything else, but to edit the model was difficult.I got one and the damn battery in it was dead and it had to be put on the board on so it would not save any user settings.  I sent it back and got another one. I have to say the sound was so very clear and pro sounding, wow!!!! and it syncs to midi.

lexicon mpx550
I had heard, however, that the next model lexicon mpx550 sounded as good as the mpx1 and they redesigned the editing to make it much easier. so I got one to try it.ok, first thing, it doesn't sound like an mpx1 at all, maybe 1/2 of one. however, it had some great sounds for guitar!!! easier to program but not by much, syncs to midi ,it only has one chip to handle everything.

now interestingly, the lexicon mx200 was their latest and cheapest processor, I got one used for under 1/2 of its new price of $199.I think it was $86. the mx200 is a strange beast as it syncs to midi and has some great sounds as well, not sounding like any lexicon before it.

heck, the built in compressor was worth the price alone.still working on this one to see if t works for me.

line 6 pod xt live/pod hd500x
now, as a side note, I discovered that my line 6 pod xt live did not sync to midi and had long been replaced by the line 6 pod hd500x at $500new and a just released model called the helix at $1500??!?I thought ok, $500 is already a ton of money,but $1500 hell no!!! So, I got a used pod hd500x which syncs to midi of course my existing pod xt live did not sync to midi. not a big deal as I get delays from the multifx units,but it was an added bonus to buy the hd500x:.

ok, this was a disaster for me. The hd500x presets totally stink and even the ones you can download stink.on top of that, it sounded dull compared to the pod xt live I was using. trying to get a good sound was like pulling teeth.even though everyone online raved of how much better it was. what bunk!!! I promptly sold it thank goodness.honestly, it took the fun out of playing guitar. the xtlive is a blast to play.fun!!!!

maybe I will play again with the pod hd500x when its $50 used . but seriously I already had great sounds out of my pod xt live and I got little sounds I can describe as usable out of the pod hd500x,I am glad I am sticking to my trusty pod  xt live.

Lastly, I made another mistake.I tried the pod distortion sound with the lexicons and got this noise with it and it sounded completely different, not in a good way.what I mean is, that without the s200 which gave the pod a bit or reverb and delay and had a built in noise gate, it kind was perfect to leave on for all the sounds. you cant do that with the lexicons.the lexicons blow away the s200 in reverb and quality but alter the sound of the pod in unpleasing ways if used to just add a bit of "air" ambience" via a tiny bit of delay and reverb. so, of course, i regret selling mine and am in process of getting another s200 for this purpose. instead of swappng out the lexicons I should of added them with the s200.Yes I know it doesnt sync to midi but doesnt need to for this ambience purpose.

Now, syncing my drum machine to my loopers via midi clock made all the difference. I use one for bass emulation on guitar and its syncs perfectly every time.then I use one for guitar loops done on the fly and man, its just heavenly. my dream of doing gilmorish tangerine dream stuff on guitar was becoming a reality.I also discovered that i had to rewire all my rack gear and discovered a bad midi cable, no wonder one of the loopers didn't seem to sync properly.

oh yeah, to control all this stuff you need some midi controller pedalboards. so I tried 2:

behringer fc1010
this was a cheap $120 midi controller to midi control everything .seems pretty nie with 2 continuous controller pedals.

lexicon mpx r1
I also got lexicon's version which is older. still a nice unit and I got it for less than$100.I figured I can sell it for more than I bought it if i don't use it.

 I like the buttons on the behringer better.

Conclusion
I guess the moral to the story is to try try try all kinds of gear and combinations and don't believe hype from other people. case in point the pod hd500x and lexicon mpx550 for example. neither turned out to be what I had read online about them .Also, just because its an older unit doesn't make it not as a good. don't spend $1500 on a unit just because its the latest greatest as in the pod helix. I would be embarrassed to have a $1500 pedalboard lol. I much prefer finding cheap gear and making it sound like super expensive gear I guess.Also, when trying this gear, make sure you have an avenue to sell the stuff you don't like or be able to return it.Overall, I spent as much as I got for my 3 processors so no harm done and now I know what works for me and what doesn't.


Anyway, regardless, find the right combination of gear that sounds good and works for you.