EHX Effects Interface "Hardware Plugin"

[MirrorProfiles]

Assuming you already own an audio interface with an available in/out, yes, it would be a lot less expensive to just use a reamp box like a ProRMP. To use your pedal board as a track insert in your DAW, just connect the reamp box to your audio interface. No power required.

IMO the whole point of this isn’t just the HW side - it’s the integration with a plugin, and recall. Of course it’s possible to do with other gear but it’s finicky.

If you use a reamp box, you still need to have available channels on your interface, you need to make a HW insert, deal with delay compensation (which can get thrown off with different sample rates of certain plugin chains and needs checking).

The EH being seperate to your main interface, and having its own dedicated I/O, as well as having the the plugin for recall is the whole appeal.

 

[laxu]

So do I understand this right? The only real difference to a regular old audio interface is the plugin -> hardware box connection, allowing you to add insert fx from pedals etc without complicated routing setups.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

So do I understand this right? The only real difference to a regular old audio interface is the plugin -> hardware box connection, allowing you to add insert fx from pedals etc without complicated routing setups.

Essentially yes. It frees up 4 channels of AD/DA, and provides the necessary reamp/DI features, as well as a plugin to recall levels and configurations (like wet/dry).

Saves having to patch into particular channels, check delay compensation.

Stereo radial pedal reamp box (EXTC Stereo) is £450 or so and doesn’t have any conversion or plugins etc. Its handling line to instrument level and back again, with the level and mix bits.

Client Challenge

I have available channels but I’m always using them for different things. doing it in stereo means I need to have stereo pairs of reamp boxes (I have a few lehle’s), and identical inputs available. And then I have to remember the chain i’m using for each project.

 

[LP59]

IMO the whole point of this isn’t just the HW side - it’s the integration with a plugin, and recall. Of course it’s possible to do with other gear but it’s finicky.

If you use a reamp box, you still need to have available channels on your interface, you need to make a HW insert, deal with delay compensation (which can get thrown off with different sample rates of certain plugin chains and needs checking).

The EH being seperate to your main interface, and having its own dedicated I/O, as well as having the the plugin for recall is the whole appeal.

Almost all DAWs already include a plugin that allows you to treat external hardware as a track insert effect and handles latency compensation and saves bypass state and send levels.

It’s two different ways to accomplish the same thing and some people may find one or the other more convenient, but I was just answering the question about which option would be less expensive, assuming you’ve got available I/O on your audio interface. You would generally only need a single reamp box, on the input side of your pedalboard, so that option, at around $100, would be less expensive. Depending on your particular needs though, it might not be as convenient.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Almost all DAWs already include a plugin that allows you to treat external hardware as a track insert effect and handles latency compensation and saves bypass state and send levels.

It’s two different ways to accomplish the same thing and some people may find one or the other more convenient, but I was just answering the question about which option would be less expensive, assuming you’ve got available I/O on your audio interface. You would generally only need a single reamp box, on the input side of your pedalboard, so that option, at around $100, would be less expensive. Depending on your particular needs though, it might not be as convenient.

Yeah, Im not saying it does something that can't be done (or hasn't been done for literally decades). The concept of this is to make things more easy.

I have everything I need multiple times over, and still I often CBA to configure it all because I'm mixing and matching different converters, patchbay, reamp boxes, instrument inputs, I/O assignments. And if you've ever used HW inserts in Pro Tools, you'd know to be quite wary of the delay compensation figures on any given day, so it's just an area that needs attention. On top of that, again in Pro Tools, HW inserts don't include levels, polarity, wet/dry etc. I'll do it when it's absolutely necessary, but rarely as a "norm" when mixing because my studio is constantly being reconfigured in different ways. I could dedicate 4 channels of my I/O and buy a stereo reamp box+DI, but I'd already have spent more and I'd lose functionality that I'm using elsewhere. And I'd have to go through the BS of HW inserts. Having a dedicated box for it that handles all the annoying parts without treading on the toes of what I already have is a nice concept.

I know other DAW's have HW inserts that ping for delay times, and offer levels/polarity/wet dry, but thats not the case for everyone. And what this offers is going beyond just what it's able to do. It's about making it so easy that you're actually likely to do it. I use HW inserts for compressors and reverbs and have those set up for that, and this wouldn't replace it. I think it would be cool to just have a self contained "pedalboard" plugin.

 

[jonathanthomas83]

Am I correct in assuming that a lot of modern stereo delays and reverbs, like the Strymon's for example, can be/are line level, and an interface like this wouldn't be necessary, and nor would the Radial device, as long as you have the available I/O on your interface. In other words, this is at its most useful for devices that typically need instrument level or for "inserting a plugin" into your effects chain? Or am I way off the mark?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Am I correct in assuming that a lot of modern stereo delays and reverbs, like the Strymon's for example, can be/are line level, and an interface like this wouldn't be necessary, and nor would the Radial device, as long as you have the available I/O on your interface. In other words, this is at its most useful for devices that typically need instrument level or for "inserting a plugin" into your effects chain? Or am I way off the mark?

Yes, if you have line in's then you can just patch it into your converters. You'd still need the channels available and to configure things accordingly. Thats the benefit of it offering line level operation, it'll play nice with other line level gear. I just park all that kind of stuff onto a patchbay.


Pedals can be finicky because of the instrument level, and also because some are mono in, some are stereo in, some are mono out, some are stereo out, and all of that can change depending on what you're trying to do. That makes it quite hard to have a fixed set up - the specific pedals you're using can be prone to changing and that can affect how your I/O lines up. Having something operating at instrument level means you can add a whole chain of pedals. With line level gear, it really needs its own loop to be able to do that quite in the same way.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

Yes, if you have line in's then you can just patch it into your converters. You'd still need the channels available and to configure things accordingly. Thats the benefit of it offering line level operation, it'll play nice with other line level gear. I just park all that kind of stuff onto a patchbay.

If I’m understanding it correctly, because I have the MOTU ultra lite mkv interface and the Morningstar ML10X I have it pretty well covered already? I guess I don’t have the sliders but the ultra lite hardware controls combined with its CueMix 5 app make it pretty easy.

Am I missing something?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

If I’m understanding it correctly, because I have the MOTU ultra lite mkv interface and the Morningstar ML10X I have it pretty well covered already? I guess I don’t have the sliders but the ultra lite hardware controls combined with its CueMix 5 app make it pretty easy.

Am I missing something?

I’m guessing so? You’d just patch the morningstar into corresponding inputs and outputs.

It depends on what you are trying to achieve and how you want to set your gear up. The EH wouldn’t offer you much that you can’t already do, it’s just about whether it would simplify anything (also debatable). I think it’s the kind of product you know if you need or not

 

[dws2384]

Assuming you already own an audio interface with an available in/out, yes, it would be a lot less expensive to just use a reamp box like a ProRMP. To use your pedal board as a track insert in your DAW, just connect the reamp box to your audio interface. No power required.

Ya, thats what I use already Radial. I also use it when going from my QC into the front or return of an amp, useful piece of gear.

 

[Whizzinby]

Sweetwater is shipping them out.