Re: Thoughts on the Eclipse, Fireworx, G-Force, and PCM81

[mark sottilaro <zerocrossing2001@yahoo.com>]

You mention the PCM81, and I agree with the fellow who
said get the PSP plug in. I own it and it's great...
actually like Augustus Loop more but that's another
conversation...

If you like the Lexicon sound I recommend maybe a
MPX-1.  I honestly never compared it to any of the
machines you asked about, but I've always loved mine
and they can be found rather inexpensively on ebay.  I
think mine was abount $400 at Guitar Center but it
could have been a return and had definately been in
their demo rack for a while.

Anyway, I think it has great sound and a decent amount
of horsepower. I love the fact that it has an A/B
button so you can do a timed slide from one set of
perameters to another.

M

--- Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 25 jun 2006, at 05.07, Krispen Hartung wrote:
> 
> > I'd like to get your thoughts on the Eventide
> Eclipse, TC  
> > Electronic Fireworx, TC Electrronics G-Force, and
> Lexicon PCM81.
> 
> Hi Kris,
> 
> I own a Fireworx and I have once borrowed an Eclipse
> for two months  
> (to decide which one I should go for and also to
> write a test review  
> of the Eclipse for a guitar player magazine here in
> Sweden). I  
> finally went for the Fireworx because I found one on
> a sale at a very  
> good price. I also like that the Fireworx is smaller
> and lighter. The  
> Eclipse is quite big and heavy. But sound-wise I
> think they are  
> rather equal. What the Eclipse has that you won't
> get with the  
> Fireworx is the option to use pre-programmed scales
> for the pitch  
> shift function. This means you can use a MIDI
> footpedal to change  
> scale and have the machine add two notes behind the
> note you are  
> playing, thus creating three piece chords that
> follow the scale of  
> the key. To do that with the Fireworx you have to
> stay away from the  
> third note when programming the patch, so you can
> play either a  
> "major" or a "minor" third with your live instrument
> while having the  
> machine adding fifths or quarter intervals behind
> you. In a way I  
> like this "musician-craft" approach better, because
> it's more free  
> and doesn't lock the performer into a given key.
> 
> It took some time to get into how to program the
> Fireworx, but since  
> I finally managed to wrap my brains around it I just
> love it. Both  
> the Fireworx and the Eventide lack the CPU power to
> play patches that  
> use all available effects. Especially high
> resolution reverb is using  
> lots of CPU. So you have to constantly zap between
> patches when you  
> perform and lay down loop layers.
> 
> One final word on the Fireworx's effect feeback
> loop: it sucks  
> because of latency. When setting up patches inside
> the Fireworx you  
> can put a "feedback send" or "feedback return" at
> any place of the  
> effect chain. This means that part of the signal
> will be sent to the  
> units physical feedback output and retrieved from
> the feedback input  
> (digital or analog - but if you use the main analog
> input for your  
> signal source/instrument only the digital effect
> send is available,  
> and vice versa) But the signal is getting so delayed
> in that process  
> that it's not usable. Speaking about "effect loops"
> there is also  
> another kind of effect loop that you can set up
> completely inside the  
> Fireworx program, but this is another thing and it's
> working  
> perfectly well (define an "insert send" at any part
> of an effect  
> chain and retrieve that signal with a "insert
> return" block at an  
> earlier part so you can "cook" the sound even more
> by going through  
> the same effects again. It's a quite open system and
> if you have the  
> theoretical knowledge about how to create certain
> sound with the  
> normal effect arsenal you should be able to come up
> with almost  
> everything on a fireworx - as long as the CPU power
> stays with you  
> that is ;-)
> 
> However, you can hook up the Fireworx digitally in
> an effect loop to  
> some other software or hardware and then there is no
> latency at all.  
> I sometimes use the Fireworx in Logic, connected
> digitally to the RMX  
> Multiface audio interface and in praxis it's just as
> having a bunch  
> of new - non CPU bogging - plug-ins. This option
> also comes with the  
> Eclipse, but I never tried it.
> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.boysen.se (Swedish)
> www.looproom.com (international)
> http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
> http://www.myspace.com/looproom
> 
> 
> 
> 


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