Re: Akia Headrush: good or bad?¿

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

There's not an easy answer to that.

If you're looking to use the Headrush to lock in rhythmically with other
musicians, it can be difficult.  No-one is perfect with tap tempo delay
input, and being off by, say, two milliseconds on the first repetition of a
four second phrase puts you 30 milliseconds off by the end of the first
minute.  For most musics, this is unacceptable.  The Headrush, or any other
tap tempo delay, follows its own clock, so the rest of the band needs to
folow its tempo if your looking for everyone to sync up.  This is difficult
at best, since the rest of the band probably can't hear the Headrush well
enough to follow it, and don't be surprised if you encounter resentment at
the suggestion.

If you're just looking to add non-sync'ed loopiness, it's pretty good.

If you're playing in smaller ensembles, particularly those without drums or
percussion, the sync issue is easier to deal with.

If you're doing solo shows, using the Headrush to accompany yourself, it 
can
be very workable, but it has a few limitations.  Once you define your
initial loop (tap, play, second tap), you can overdub on top of that, but
the regeneration rate in the looper mode is undadjustable and set quite
high, so things get thick and busy pretty quickly.  You can erase ALL of 
the
overdubs and go back to the origianal loop, but it can sound a bit jarring.
If you're using a mixer, you can send the Headrush to another channel and
mute the input while in overdub mode and it'll gradually fade out.

I use the Headrush for solo shows with an acoustic, and it works pretty 
well
for that, except for the "ever-additive" nature of the loops.  All in all, 
I
lean more towards the Boomerang in those situations.  Nicer (and quieter)
switches, much longer delay time, can mutate the loop content through
overdubbing, foot-adjustable volume control.

TH



> From: NoelG26@aol.com
> Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
> Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:49:14 -0500 (EST)
> To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
> Subject: Akia Headrush: good or bad?¿
> Resent-From: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
> Resent-Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:51:51 -0500
> 
> hey,
> i am concidering buying and akia headrush, but i hear they are not that 
>great
> for jamming live with. is this true? thats somthing i would realy want 
>out of
> my looper, so i can jam w/ it. also is there any news out on the new
> boomerang?
>