RE:EDP or REPEATER?

[Kim Flint <kflint@loopers-delight.com>]

At 02:12 PM 1/24/2002, William R. Walker, wrote:
>Heh William!
>
>If the following things are true  for you, I'd get a Repeater.
>1. You want to be able to save loops for later playing.

true, Repeater is nice for that. The EDP doesn't offer much for saving, 
midi sample dump is useless for loops this long, so you pretty much have 
to 
record the analog outs. You can automate this fairly easily with midi 
though, but direct digital is better. The EDP was really designed around 
the idea of constantly manipulating and evolving the loop, so the idea of 
saving the loop at some static point wasn't really considered, since that 
isn't really the point of it.

I've heard with the Repeater though, it is kind of a pain to really move 
files back and forth from pc audio programs, but I don't really care about 
that so I've never looked into it.

>2. You want to be able to play your loops from a midi controller (much 
>like
>you would a normal sampler)over a 3 octave range.

no, Repeater is not really like a sampler. With a sampler you press a key 
and the sample triggers instantly. Repeater doesn't do that. It will que 
up 
a loop to play after the current loop finishes, but not trigger it 
immediately. It will transpose the pitch of the current loop with a key 
press, which is really great and I think that is the feature you are 
referring to. But that is more like the roland VP-9000 than a sampler.

The EDP on the other hand, does trigger it's loops instantly with a key 
press, and is velocity sensitive. Or if you choose, it can que them up in 
a 
quantized fashion as the Repeater does. There are several different 
sampler 
modes that let you choose if you want to trigger a loop from the beginning 
and play as long as you hold the key, trigger for a one-shot play and 
stop, 
jump back to the loop wherever you last left it, or play from the start 
and 
keep going. If you mix this with autorecord you can also record all of 
your 
loops this way, instantly jumping from one loop to another and recording 
bits in real time and then jumping back to them to play what you grabbed. 
Fun to automate with a sequencer. Add real-time loop copies to that and 
there are many fun possibilities available nowhere else.

the EDP doesn't do any pitch transposing though, like the Repeater does. 
So 
neither works truly like a sampler. The EDP is more sampler-like to me 
though, and the Repeater is more like a roland VP-9000.

>3. You can live with the three button footswitch, until you integrate a
>midi footcontroller into your rig. (you are limited to
>Record/Overdub,Stop/Start,and Undo/Redone, with the 3 button footswitch)

if you can live with the 3-button switch, save yourself some money and buy 
the Akai Headrush since that is what you will reduce your Repeater to. If 
you actually plan to occupy your hands with another instrument and really 
use the features of the Repeater, you need a midi controller.


>4. You can live without the instant overdub capability a alaA the EDP.

That record into overdub thing is so boring. that's looping state of the 
art circa 1965. There's a hell of a lot more different about the EDP than 
that. The real-time multiply and insert and loop copies, multiple undo's, 
brother sync, unrounded multiply/insert, granular micro-looping, fully 
real-time funcion control, the sampler modes mentioned above, choice of 
quantized/unquantized function use, delay vs loop modes, continuous 
feedback control, crossfade knob, direct function to function access, the 
sync and time signature capabilities, etc etc.

Likewise, there is far more different about the repeater - slip, beat 
detect, trim, 4 tracks, fx loop, independent pitch and tempo change, mix 
sliders, etc etc..

>5. You would rather support an innovative, small company like Electrix, or
>a much larger corporate entity like Gibson ( who makes the EDP,correct me
>if I'm wrong)

you are wrong, see other mail.

>and has built a reputation of buying up small innovative companies and
>running them into the ground (see Opcode, among others).

see how many of them ran themselves into the ground before Gibson ever 
came 
along.

>Either way, they are both worthy devices, and one could argue that Gibson
>resurrected the EDP, though for how long I don't know.

there was no resurrection, since it never was dead.


>Disclaimer: I have never owned an EDP, I have checked them out thoroughly
>however,  and I was never too impressed by the footswitch which seemed
>suspiciously like an ADA footswitch, and a bit flimsy.

it is a lot like an ADA footswitch because we were working with ADA at the 
time and they made suggestions in how the make a simple and easy to 
manufacture footswitch. Zeta also had suspiciously similar footswitches.

We designed the footswitch so that it is extremely easy for users to 
repair 
it, modify it, or build their own custom switch. No secrets in there, it 
is 
easy for anybody to do it. All of the intelligence of the switch is in the 
rack, and only a simple mono patch cable is needed to connect the entire 
footswitch to the rack unit. the footswitch itself is dead simple. 
Building 
your own is simply a matter of a momentary switch and a resistor for each 
function. Details are 
here:  http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/echoplex/echopedals.html

We did that so anybody can make whatever control mechanism they like, 
without needing an engineering degree to do it. Mediocre soldering skills 
are good enough.


>I always relied on a
>jamman which only had four button footswitch live capability( unless you
>used a midi pedal),so the repeater doesn't strike me, as it does some
>loopers as a particularly cumbersome live tool.

There was a time long ago when I was happy with Johnny Walker Red. Yes 
it's 
true! I didn't know any better. It was probably a glass of Glenlivet that 
awakened me to the possibilities the world had to offer. At the moment, as 
I sip a dram of Highland Park that's all but melting in my mouth, I can't 
even imagine going back to those dark days...

kim



______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                     | Looper's Delight
kflint@loopers-delight.com    | http://www.loopers-delight.com