Re: Headrush vs. Headrush (Delay vs. Sampling)

["Travis Hartnett" <hartne.t@apple.com>]

I found that if you mute the input on the Headrush with the feedback 
cranked, it took a long time (30 minutes or so) for the loop to fade.

Still, I'd have to second Mr. Keepnews overall assessment of the Headrush.


TH

----------
>From: James Keepnews <keepnews@node.net>
>To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
>Subject: Re: Headrush vs. Headrush (Delay vs. Sampling)
>Date: Mon, Aug 9, 1999, 3:01 PM
>

> So, I gots me the Headrush ($169 plus 5% off at www.musiciansfriend.com
> -- how do they do it? amplitude...), kinda likes me the Headrush. Kinda.
>
> Certainly, as someone whose sole dedicated looping hardware has been a
> slowly-disintegrating Digitech EchoPlus pedal (the PDS
> something-or-other) from 1989, the Headrush beats the Bush era with a
> stick the size of an oar straight out of the rowing scenes in Ben Hur --
> an era surely asking for it, to boot. I'll second my Svengali lover and
> fashion consultant, one Kenneth Douglas Baldwin, that that's alot of
> stick for $175, with 2-3 days shipping time, even.
>
> But, I'm troubled. Why Korg went to so much trouble to create four
> separate outs to create that not-exactly-cried-out-for four-head tapped
> tape delay is surely beyond me. It is a convincing emulation of such a
> vintage effect, but how many intend to ping that pong across four
> outputs more than, say, three times, ever? My extremely negligable
> knowledge of signal-processing hardware manufacturing practice leads me
> to suspect that, had they not striven to achieve this and left room for
> other types of effects processing (filtration of delay line, reverse,
> etc.), this whole 'rang v. 'rush imbroglio would go the way of, I don't
> know, Fred Travelena and/or other vintage emulators. The switching also
> strikes me as counter-intuitive, but that's simply a matter of
> familiarity.
>
> Here's the nut of it (and it could lead to an interesting thread, if
> anyone else on the list feels similarly) -- the ontology of delay vs.
> that of sampling. Loopers created before the JamMan/EDP era were
> souped-up delay pedals -- think of the EH 16-second or my own beloved,
> disintegrating EchoPlus. Post-JM/EDP, this has been replaced with the
> sensibility of sampling, a chunk of data that reflects the sensibility
> of the snapshot, not the fed-back repeat. As we read in the specs, the
> 'rush allows for the aforementioned, disturbingly extensive four-head
> delay, 11.3 second "sampling" looping and 23-second straight-up (or so
> one might be led to believe) "delay."
>
> Thus, the first question I asked when I busted out the 'rush was,
> "Where's the infinite repeat for the delay?" Ha ha, foolish,
> presumptuous boy; there isn't one. "Infinite repeat" is clearly a dead
> dog in the new looping era; that's a function only a "sampler" can
> utilize. So...one can get 23 seconds of delay that can only be added to,
> not set into place and soloed upon or messed with to any degree, less
> the decaying of the line. Great for "a capella" Frippertronics (as
> distinguished from "soundscaping," you understand...) and/or pieces like
> one Kenneth Douglas Baldwin's "The Long Dance" (hey, Doug, you gonna
> sell them "Solo Guitar" tapes on tour?) but basically a delay that is
> additional or subtractional but by no means loopable.
>
> Indeed, how much is it really "delay"? Like the "looping" mode, one is
> required to set in/out points for the extent of the delay line,
> something one shouldn't expect of a delay process; that should be
> well-determined in advance, unless you _want_ to tap a tempo. This
> approach is demonstrated on the 'rush when one tries to increase or
> decrease the "coarse" time dial. In the EH/EchoPlus worldview, this
> would speed up or slow down the pitch of the delayed signal according to
> whether or not the delay time, once set, was decreased or increased,
> respectively. Lovely chattering aluminum locust or pre-cambrian
> swampscape effects, respectively, could obtain from such actions in the
> old-skool looper. The Headrush? Fuggedaboudit. The "delay" becomes
> either clipped or extended but with the only effect from my experiments
> being the basic interruption of such a delay line, nothing else. I never
> thought to investigate this difference pre-purchase and more fool me.
>
> Kim recently discussed this pitch-shifting knob-twist as being cool but
> off the page as far as next-gen EDPs go. Which is fine -- a nicely
> tricked out "sample" oriented looper does things these old
> "delay"-oriented loopers will never do. But I'm still puzzled by the
> choices made by Korg for this pedal and mournful of the loss of
> functions I've come to expect from The Way of the Delay Pedal. I don't
> know if the Line 6 box will bring back the era of the true delay looper
> but you just might see a Headrush for sale on this list, shortly...
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>    ~      > --- James Keepnews --- <  "Don't quote anybody, Sir!"
>  (.-.)    > -- Multimedia Yahoo -- <
>     \                 *                           -- Krishnamurti
>    -      > -  keepnews@node.net - <
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>