Headrush/Space Station review

[Unit Circle Media <unitcirc@unitcircle.com>]

Just picked up a Headrush and Space Station.  I've only spent a few hours
on 'em, but I can give some inital impressions.

The headrush is pretty cool, but there are a couple issues.  The
construction seems a little weak.  The case is plastic.  It seems ok, but
it might be a problem, and it's certainly kinda lame on a box this
expensive.  The tape delay works ok, and normal delay is completely as
expected.  The tap tempo is cool for both of these.  The looper is pretty
weak, imho.  Doesn't come close to the 'rang except for the undo feature.
For those who don't know, the way the headrush looper works is that you
record the first loop and then once it's set you can overdub as many times
as you want.  If you want, you can blow out your overdubs by hitting a
button.  I like that, but the interface is kind of weak.  You start
recording the loop by hitting the right button.  If you go over 5.9
seconds in your loop record it won't let you overdub, so the recording
light starts flashing as you get close to it.  To start the loop going,
you hit the left button.  This is maybe a little weird, but ok.  Hitting
the left button again stops the playing.  To overdub, you hit the right
button again to start overdubbing.  While overdubbing if you hit the right
button a second time, you blow away all you overdubs.  This is kinda
lame and took a little getting used to.  To stop overdubbing you have to
hit the left button again.  This is a little goofy.

If you're looking for a looper, get the boomerang.  If you want the tape
delay aspect of it, it's great for that.


The space station has been gone over a lot on this list and on the web.
So, I'll be more brief.  The space station also has some plastic
construction that worries me about it as a proffesional pedal.  I'd be
careful before only taking one for a world tour.  Essentially, the SS is a
mini vortex in a pedal form with about 1/10th the control available to the
player.  If you had to choose between it and a vortex (if you can find
one), get the vortex.  If you want something that just does some very
strange sounds that you can't edit too much, go with the SS.  I haven't
tried the SS and the vortex together, but I bet they would work pretty
well in parallel (or maybe even in series, but that might just be evil).

later,

        Kevin


Kevin Goldsmith                         kevin@unitcircle.com
Unit Circle Media                       http://www.unitcircle.com/