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Echoplex usability ( was Re: Vortex/Jamman)



At 7:30 PM 12/6/96, PMimlitsch@aol.com wrote:
>O.K. -- I'm convinced.-- Could someone re-post the phone # of the place
>that's selling the Vortex unit for $150.00?  Also, I'm thinking about 
>adding
>another Jamman to my setup but have also been thinking about the Echoplex.
> However I'm a little worried that the Echoplex might not be as intuitive 
>to
>use as the Jamman. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I'm obviously biased on this issue, but here's my thoughts anyway.

The Echoplex offers a lot more functionality than the Jamman, so in that
regard it might have a somewhat longer learning curve. But it was designed
to be intuitive and usable in live performance situations. If anything, the
display on the plex is a lot more informative and the footpedal is
certainly more useful than those offered for the Jamman. What you see in
the Echoplex is the result of 5-6 years of development by people who spent
a lot of time trying out all the ideas in real situations and making it as
musically useful as possible. And that development was based on previous
experiences with delays and loop units going all the way back to tape stuff
in the 70's. Find one and spend enough time with it to appreciate some of
the subtleties in the interface.

The Echoplex does offer a lot of depth, some of which you may never get to.
You can do a lot with just the three most basic functions - Record,
Overdub, and Multiply. Even if you never get passed those, you can open up
a whole new world in your music and have a great time with it.

If you see an Echoplex in a music store and ask for a demo, you will almost
certainly come away thinking it is confusing and hard to use. Its the same
sort of problem that Jon was talking about with the Vortex. Your average
music store retard just doesn't get it, and hasn't taken the time to figure
it out. A looper is really an instrument unto itself, and doesn't just sit
there passively like a reverb or something. You have to interact with it,
and it does take some effort to learn to do that well. Its like if I were
to try and demonstrate trumpets, being a guitar player. My demo would suck,
because I don't know how to play a trumpet!

In the hands of competent loopers, jammans and echoplexes both become
obviously useful and exciting items. You should check them both out and see
what works for you. The echoplex does cost more, so it may be an economic
decision.

Some other things to consider are that the echoplex uses its own internal
power supply, rather than a wall wart, it can have much longer loop times,
its memory can be updated with cheap and easily obtainable simms rather
than hard to find zip memory, it uses higher quality sampling than the
jamman, and it just does more stuff.

And if I just reopened the jamman vs echoplex / hardware geek debates,
sorry. You knew it had to come up again sooner or later, right?

kim


______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com