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Looper's Delight
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Recently I noticed some remarks on the GNX3 on this list, and by
coïncidence I was just writing a text on it:
From Digitech's GNX3 specs and manual I assumed that it can be used as a
looping device. It is advertised as having a JamMan mode. The machine is
not on the Loopers Delight Tools of the Trade list. After checking the
GNX3
in the music store I can see why it is not on the list. Before I forget
the
details of this 'all-in-one box' with its irrational quirks I'll write my
remarks down to save some of you guys the effort of finding out what's
wrong with it.
The GNX3 is a guitar-effects pedal board of high quality, which features a
four track stereo digital recorder / looper (or an eight track mono
recorder / looper) as an extra gimmick. The small recorder part with its
switches is built in the pedal board. Some of the most important recorder
functions can be operated with the footswitches when in the recorder mode.
Optional is the FS300 footswitch with 3 switches for recorder functions.
In
this case the main board can be used in the effects mode.
The recording routine is devised in such a way that you do not need to
touch the panel with your hands for simple four track or eight track
recording and looping. After pressing the record (foot)switch the GNX3
starts to record track 1 (track 1 and 2 in stereo-mode). Your action after
finishing track 1 determines whether the song will be a normal song or a
loop: when pressing 'stop' it will be a normal one shot song, but after
pressing 'record' a second time while recording it will be a loop, and it
is automatically in the overdub mode for track one. It's also possible to
press 'play' directly after finishing track 1, and after a couple of
seconds the machine sets track 2 in the record stand-by while looping your
first take. This routine is maintained consequently for all other tracks,
so once you decided to make the recorder loop you can fill up to eight
tracks with a theoretically infinite amount of overdubs. As long as you
are
building layers the machine works fine and operations are simple. If you
make a mistake you can press the undo switch on the record panel or the
undo-footswitch on the FS300 to clear and re-record the current track.
There comes a time you want to cut in the layers as there is too much
sound
or music. After all, the GNX3 is a recorder and not a delay machine, so
everything recorded remains there until you decide to cut it. The simplest
way of cutting parts is to mute a track. This can only be done with the
tiny track switches on the recorder panel, so you must bend over to the
pedal board. As you might have built an impressive wall of sound by that
time it need not be a problem to bend over the panel for a second. Or you
might practice to do this with your toes, leaving one shoe off. From the
recorder panel you can set level and panning of each track, only after
stopping playback. But the real problem with this machine arises when you
want to replace tracks, or even start a new loop. While the loop is
playing, the track switches toggle between play and mute. To re-record a
track other than the last one, first you have to stop playback. The
machine
then takes a couple of seconds time to save all information to memory,
during which it is impossible to resume playing. Only from stop it is
possible to switch any pre-recorded track of your choice to record
standby. By the way, I found a strong tendency of the system to crash when
trying to replace a recorded track, but did not test till the point of
knowing the exact cause. After crashing the machine does not respond to
any
switch-pressing, be it of the recorder section or the effects section. It
needs resetting by turning the power off and on. It may be there is a way
of operating the machine without forcing a crash, but as far as I know
there is no way of replacing tracks, other than the last one, without
stopping playback.
Now comes the biggest blooper of this looper. You want to set up a new
loop? To start from scratch, just switch to a new song, with the 'up'
switch on the recorder panel or the 'up' footswitch on the main board in
recording mode. After the time-consuming procedure of saving the current
song, the new song or loop starts with a four beat click lead in guide! No
way to turn this lead in ('pre-roll') off globally! To turn it off you
have
to dive deep in the multi-page song set up menu, not available during
playback. This song set up contains settings like input configuration as
well, and by switching to a new song all settings are set to default
values
including the click lead in. If you try to get around this by deleting
your
entire current loop to re-record it the same terrible thing happens.
Couldn't believe my eyes and ears.
After spending a couple of hours with this machine I concluded that at
least this version (it showed version 1.0 in the screen) cannot be used as
a looping machine for live performance in whatever way. It has more than
one serious flaw. However, I was quite impressed by the effects section.
The features and presets seem to suit metal guitarists best. I am not a
guitarist, and I did not particularly like the metal-riffs my thumbpiano
played through this machine, but the versatile parameter control probably
admits a wide use of the quite extreme sound manipulation. It has an
expression pedal for 3 parameters simultaneously, and two LFOs. Conversion
is done at 24 bit 44,1 kHz sampling rate. An XLR symmetrical mic input
with 20 Hz to 20 kHz flat response is provided in addition to the 1/4 inch
guitar jack. There is also a 1/8 inch stereo line input, specially devised
for the silly 'Learn-a-Lick' and 'Jam-a-Long' purposes. There is a left
and
right 1/4 output, a separate XLR mic output, an RCA digital output, and a
1/4 inch headphone output provided. Although various routings for these
inputs through effects and recorder to outputs can be set, routing is not
as flexible as in a modular set up. Via MIDI most effect parameters can be
controlled, not the track levels unfortunately. I cannot report on the
midi
sync aspect, but I remember somebody mentioning the impossibility of
synching while in loop mode. O yeh, and it has a drum function
incorporated, but I did not listen to that.
With all its features this machine still remains attractive. The GNX3
could
be exploited as a clever effects pedal with onboard prefab audio
tracks.You
can construct loops of different length and character at home and use
(selected tracks of) this material in live performance, just like some
artists use recorded material on cd or minidisc in a gig. The GNX3 creates
seamless loops whereas a cd player or minidisc player can't do that. A 128
Mb Smart Media card (the maximum accepted by the GNX3) can contain 3
minutes of 8track recording in cd-quality, and more in lower quality or
with less tracks. Overdubs on a track do not consume extra memory space,
so
lots of looping material can be recorded on one card. However, as the
stupid little details disabling live loop performance frustrated me,
I've put the whole thing off my mind. I cannot understand Digitech's
people developing such a wonderful machine, and forgetting what looping is
about.
If anyone can tell me there is something I misunderstood about this
machine
I would be pleased to hear so.