Re: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V03 #43

["Jimmy George Band" <jg@jimmygeorgeband.com>]

ditto on the jm!
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Monk <billmonk@mac.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V03 #43


> >I wonder whether Line6 tried and did not succeed or whether they did
> >not think of it?
>
> I havn't played with the DL-4 much, but the (now discontinued)
> Johnson/Digitech JM150/250 amps have, with the later OS upgrades, a
> -great- analog delay module. I call it great because it has the same
> capacity as the Memory Man to sound cool while sounding like it might
> blow up, and to be controllable while having a lot of things (way more
> than the MM) that can make it freak out and suddenly scare the bejabbers
> out of you.
>
> Have had one of these amps since '98, but just recently discovered the
> power hidden in the "analog" delay. Auddenly it was like 1980 again, when
> my Deluxe MM (and EH "3-Phase Liner" jewelry with 6 pattern-flashing
> LEDs, now that was amazing) had just arrived direct from NYC.
>
> The JM delay has the usual LPF for faking an analog delay, but with
> variable cutoff frequency and output gain. The LPF can be set pre-delay
> or post-delay. "Smear" makes repeats more and more spread out - so a
> short staccto note will eventually become a long, weirdly diffused note
> if repeated enough. The feedback control is continuous through both
> positive and negative feeback. Tweaking the delay time smoothly, but
> "crappily" (in a good way) alters the pitch - it sounds like a MM to
> me....
>
> Finally, -all- of the effect params can be put under glitch-free foot
> control using their (also discontinued) J12, which allows scaling the
> range of each param, so that a toe-down foot controller might == 100% on
> one param, 25% on another, and -40% on a third. Up to 16 params can be
> controlled at once.
>
> Jsut folling around, I can up with this: feedback set for 0 at mid-pedal,
> and increasing through positive values to HOLD at toedown, and decressing
> to -80% feedback at toe-up, The same pedal alters delay time, starting
> from 500ms at mid-pedal, decreasing delay time as pedal comes back, and
> increasing as pedal goes down.
>
> The effect is that at mid pedal, there's a single repeat. Play a lick,
> slam the pedal down, and it drop an octave and goes into hold. Back off
> just slightly, and it starts to go nuts. Meanwhile you are playing over
> it. Stomp another switch (set to add a few points to LPF gain, say) or
> use another controller to play with the LPF frequency. Pull the first
> pedla back a bit, picth goes up, feedback does down - thing was abou to
> blow some speakers....
>
> Pull the pedal quickly back though midpoint, not stopping at the 0
> feedback there, and the loop smoothly comes up in pitch, you can play it
> with the pedal. Meanwhile, feedback is going increasingly negative and
> lights are coming on all around the neighborhood. At this point I got my
> first taste of that first MM terror from so long ago - what will stop it?
>
> It's getting louder...fast. Reflex says heeldown, like a volume pedal,
> nope that's making it higher, and louder faster. Toe down - wrong, and
> the lows is haking the windows. Mid-point on the pedal - yes there's the
> zero point, all the wonderful noise gone just as my wife starts coming
> down the stairs. |-.
>
> Sounds goofy, but that's the way I felt. And no piece of gear has made me
> feel that way in a long long time.
>
> Plus, with a little exploration, the effect is musically useful, and I
> stay up most the night  making more and more variations, tweaking. No
> gear has made me want to do that in a while either.
>
> Too bad the manufacturer had little idea how to market this thing against
> Line6. If it had stereo preamp out/power amp in jacks to insert a pair of
> EDPs, it would be the perfect, self contained looping rig with (as far as
> I know) unparalleled realtime control. But Johnson Amps only put inserts
> on their -basic- models, which have almost no realtime control!
>
> I've seen these amps used for not a lot more than a new DL-4. Worth
> checking out at those prices; it's a deep product, not without flaws, but
> is very, very usable live.
>
>