Re: Vortex Alert and formal delurk

[JOHNPOLLOCK@delphi.com]

Erik Simpson wrote, in part,

>As a newly de-lurking reader, could someone kindly fill me in on the
>Vortex.

Erik,

Here's the short answer:

The Vortex is a stereo-capable signal processor which includes a
pair of delays, a pair of modulators, and an envelope follower,
which can be configured in a variety of ways.  It stores 16 pairs
of factory patches and 16 user-programmable patch pairs.  What makes
it totally different from most other processors is its capacity
to "morph" between the two patches in each pair, either with an
expression pedal or by programming a morph duration (which can be
up to ten seconds) and using a footswitch.  Some seriously twisted
things can happen during the morph, and the envelope follower can
make things even stranger.  The two delays can be cascaded for a total
maximum delay time of 1.846 seconds; tempo can be tapped in with a
footswitch; and it can be configured as a looping sampler.  It can
also be used more conventionally, as flanger, chorus, tremelo, and in
combinations. 

List price was $478; steep, IMO, for a non-MIDI controllable processor.
Apparently it was poorly marketed to boot, in that Lexicon failed to
make its capabilities clear.  My impression (after only three weeks)
is that it may take years to find the bottom of this box.

Since I've had mine for such a short time, I'm certainly no authority.
You can read the same user reports that seduced me into buying mine at

http://www.annihilist.com/loop/archive/filtered/Vortex.html

including exerpts from Lexicon's Vortex Application Notes, kindly posted
by Todd Madson (who apparently has the Only Known Copy In The World).

There's a little more about it on the newborn Delays & Loops page at my
Website, and the sordid and shameless tale of my acquisition of a
Vortex is told on my Gear Acquisition Syndrome page. ;-/

John                              Email:  johnpollock@delphi.com
Troubador Tech on the Web--http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock/