EHX Effects Interface "Hardware Plugin"

[Elric]

Is the dream of a VST pedal that actually works going to be a reality? Not exactly; but this looks compelling/fun, gotta admit.



It looks kind of like a way to build a hybrid/computer based rig rather than a true stand alone, I guess. Will be interesting to see if this gets any traction. Plugins are just so good these days.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I don't exactly get the purpose of this.
For it to work, it either needs to be set up as the general interface as well, so you need to switch to it in favour of whatever your interface might be. Alternatively, at least under macOS, you could create an aggregate device, which usually isn't such a shiny idea.
And as a live interface (adding your computer to your pedalboard) it doesn't offer much functions, so you'd need all kinds of extra hardware to control your plugins and what not.
All of that can easily be done with any 4 I/O interface. Sure, with this thing the leveling issues are nicely taken care of, but that's about it.

 

[synthpenguin]

I don't exactly get the purpose of this.
For it to work, it either needs to be set up as the general interface as well, so you need to switch to it in favour of whatever your interface might be. Alternatively, at least under macOS, you could create an aggregate device, which usually isn't such a shiny idea.
And as a live interface (adding your computer to your pedalboard) it doesn't offer much functions, so you'd need all kinds of extra hardware to control your plugins and what not.
All of that can easily be done with any 4 I/O interface. Sure, with this thing the leveling issues are nicely taken care of, but that's about it.

Oh, I didn't look too closely, but I assumed Hardware Plugin mode + the plugin works like Elektron Overbridge, i.e. where you continue to use your own audio interface for other audio and only the plugin "talks" to this hardware (and without having to create an aggregate device on Mac or do weird routing stuff on Windows). I think that's how their earlier Big Muff version of this idea worked? But maybe not.

If not, then yeah, it just kinda seems like an overpriced audio interface, and then it needs two more outputs too.

If it does, it's kinda cool for some people, though still not as useful in this context as Overbridge is with the Elektron products, or the earlier Big Muff version of this idea, as you lose most of the automation capabilities inherit in those.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Hopefully they figured it out. I asked a couple questions about the fuzz interface pedal and nobody at EHX seemed to know how the interface side was set up. Seemed like you could either use it as an interface or use the fuzz.

 

[Sascha Franck]

What I actually like is that this comes in a rugged hardware format. So basically you could just slap it onto a pedalboard - which is a somewhat delicate thing to do with whatever standard audio interfaces. But then, once you hide an interface nicely and don't connect directly to its I/Os all the time, it shouldn't be much of an issue, either.
Whatever, for this to catch more of my interest, I'd like to know more about the interface performance, mainly its latency figures. Couldn't find anything about it yet.

Thing is, for the intended live usage scenario, any typical stereo I/O interface would do the trick already - unless you'd really wanted such a thing to actually provide a kinda FX loop (as in their sequencer-use example), hence running into your computer, then out to whatever analog stuff and then back into the computer. For that to work well, latency had to be super low as it'd kick in twice. And in case it's just your analog stuff into the thing plus computer or the thing plus computer into your analog rig, it wouldn't add much that a plain interface couldn't do as well.

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

I need to look further into the details, but I'm remembering their ''big muff plugin'' pedal a few years ago that seemed to appear and disappear pretty soon after. I wonder if this is based on that idea?

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

And, Orange made their version of this ages ago too (as have a few others I can't recall right now):

OMEC Teleport

The OMEC Teleport interface is a universal connection device (IOS, Android, Mac, PC) without any specific drivers or software requirements. It features high quality ADC/DAC converters – through a USB B connector – housed in a small effect pedal enclosure, first of its class, it´s loaded with a...

orangeamps.com

 

[paisleywookiee]

And, Orange made their version of this ages ago too (as have a few others I can't recall right now):

OMEC Teleport

The OMEC Teleport interface is a universal connection device (IOS, Android, Mac, PC) without any specific drivers or software requirements. It features high quality ADC/DAC converters – through a USB B connector – housed in a small effect pedal enclosure, first of its class, it´s loaded with a...

orangeamps.com

Joyo or one of the Chinese manufacturers did. Maybe it was Hotone?

EDIT

Yup, Hotone.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And, Orange made their version of this ages ago too (as have a few others I can't recall right now):

OMEC Teleport

The OMEC Teleport interface is a universal connection device (IOS, Android, Mac, PC) without any specific drivers or software requirements. It features high quality ADC/DAC converters – through a USB B connector – housed in a small effect pedal enclosure, first of its class, it´s loaded with a...

orangeamps.com

Great idea on paper, but AFAIR, that one delivered really bad interface performance.

 

[Whizzinby]

Oh, I didn't look too closely, but I assumed Hardware Plugin mode + the plugin works like Elektron Overbridge, i.e. where you continue to use your own audio interface for other audio and only the plugin "talks" to this hardware (and without having to create an aggregate device on Mac or do weird routing stuff on Windows). I think that's how their earlier Big Muff version of this idea worked? But maybe not.

Yeah this is what I assumed it is doing. (Need to see more info) If you can drop the “plug” on a track or bus and it essentially creates the bridge to your pedals on that track, then I actually think this could be really really cool. If it needs to be read as your audio interface, not so much.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Yeah this is what I assumed it is doing. (Need to see more info) If you can drop the “plug” on a track or bus and it essentially creates the bridge to your pedals on that track, then I actually think this could be really really cool. If it needs to be read as your audio interface, not so much.

Yeah that would be killer, if it actually works that way.

 

[mbenigni]

I'm not seeing anything novel here apart from the fact that it's USB C.

 

[Sascha Franck]

If you can drop the “plug” on a track or bus and it essentially creates the bridge to your pedals on that track, then I actually think this could be really really cool.

You can almost certainly do it that way. But...

If it needs to be read as your audio interface, not so much.

This is very likely a must. I mean, how would it even work otherwise? How would your tracks "talk" to the thing in case it's not used as an audio interface?

 

[synthpenguin]

I mean, how would it even work otherwise? How would your tracks "talk" to the thing in case it's not used as an audio interface?

I don’t know the technical behind the scenes, but things like Overbridge manage this and it works great, so it’s definitely possible.

With Elektron Overbridge, you can have your normal audio interface, and then, say, an Elektron Digitakt connected via USB too. Your DAW setup will be the same, everything going in and out of your regular audio interface and your monitors connected to that, and then the Overbridge plugin will handle the audio (and MIDI etc) I/O for the Digitakt, routing its audio into your DAW and going out to your monitors through your normal audio interface—without having to use the Digitakt as your audio interface or setup an aggregate device.

Do a search for “using elektron overbridge with an audio interface” and you’ll see plenty of threads and video examples.

 

[synthpenguin]

Either way, EHX should def make this clear! The fact that there is confusion about how the Hardware Plugin mode of this product and another product that’s been out for a few years now even works is…not great for their marketing.

 

[paisleywookiee]

From the manual:

Using the Effects Interface as a Hardware Plugin®
1. Connect the pedal(s) you want to insert into your DAW to the Effects Interface’s
INPUT and OUTPUT jacks.
2. Open up your DAW. You may need to open your DAW’s audio settings to set
your usual audio interface as your DAW’s input/output device. The Effects
Interface should not be used for DAW input/output in this mode.
3. Select a track or channel and open the menu for plugins. Find and select
Electro-Harmonix -> Effects Interface.

- 10 -

4. VERY IMPORTANT: You must connect the software plugin to the Effects Inter-
face unit for the audio to reach the hardware:

a. Open the plugin’s graphic interface and click the Settings menu in the up-
per right corner of the toolbar.

b. Hover over Select Device. Select Device will be greyed out if the Effects
Interface is not properly connected to the computer.
c. Under the heading FXI-[4 digit serial number], you will see options for Audio,
Control, and Pedalboard. Hover over Audio, then select Stereo or Mono. The
USB light on both the software plugin and Effects Interface will turn green.
d. If this is the first time you have used this Effects Interface unit with this
computer, a hardware calibration screen will appear. Click “Calibrate” to
adjust the Effects Interface’s settings to your computer, then click “Done.”
5. Press play on your DAW. The audio of the selected track will now pass through

the pedal(s) you have connected to the Effects Interface. Press the bypass foot-
switch on the Effects Interface hardware or plugin to bypass the external pedal.

It sounds like it does exactly what we'd like it to do, with external effects in a DAW. It does require driver install, even on Mac (it appears so, anyway; I've not downloaded the Mac app).

 

[Whizzinby]

I don’t know the technical behind the scenes, but things like Overbridge manage this and it works great, so it’s definitely possible.

With Elektron Overbridge, you can have your normal audio interface, and then, say, an Elektron Digitakt connected via USB too. Your DAW setup will be the same, everything going in and out of your regular audio interface and your monitors connected to that, and then the Overbridge plugin will handle the audio (and MIDI etc) I/O for the Digitakt, routing its audio into your DAW and going out to your monitors through your normal audio interface—without having to use the Digitakt as your audio interface or setup an aggregate device.

Do a search for “using elektron overbridge with an audio interface” and you’ll see plenty of threads and video examples.

Yeah this is where I want to see a demo of the setup in the daw. If I had toggle dual AI’s then it doesn’t have much appeal, but if you’re simply dropping the EHX “plugin” on your track, and that plug is creating the bridge to the pedalboard without any other change to the daw setting then this could be pretty cool.

I’ve found a lot of times creating sends to achieve the same thing gets really finicky leveling wise which makes it often simpler to just use a plugin even if you don’t prefer it. But there are a lot of times I’d prefer to use an outboard pedal mod/delay/verb if it was simple and “just worked”.

 

[synthpenguin]

The SOS review for the previous Big Muff “hardware plugin” seems to confirm the same:

. . . It also means that you don’t need your main interface to have spare I/O to create the hardware send/return loop. You just hook up the pedal by USB, fire up the plug‑in and it’s all taken care of.

. . .

So, what the Big Muff Pi Hardware Plugin does, it does very well, and it does indeed present a novel way of integrating hardware into your software. It pushes the concept further than most ‘hardware plug‑ins’, since it both acts as a remote control and takes care of the audio routing, so you don’t need to use I/O on your main interface. It delivers the sonic benefits of ‘drivable’ analogue hardware, but also some of the convenience of a plug‑in.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Hardware Plugin

Want to use a real Big Muff Pi in your DAW session? With this one, you can just plug and go...

www.soundonsound.com

 

[Sascha Franck]

and then the Overbridge plugin will handle the audio (and MIDI etc) I/O for the Digitakt, routing its audio into your DAW

Looks as if the plugin is working as an interface host in that case. Kinda like a host-inside-a-host.
I expect the latency not to be super low, to put it carefully.

Edit: And yes, it actually looks as if this would be working in a similar way.
Interesting concept then - but as said, I would expect rather high latencies.

 

[synthpenguin]

Looks as if the plugin is working as an interface host in that case. Kinda like a host-inside-a-host.
I expect the latency not to be super low, to put it carefully.

Edit: And yes, it actually looks as if this would be working in a similar way.
Interesting concept then - but as said, I would expect rather high latencies.

Yeah, latency is relatively high with this approach, I think. Which isn’t a problem with mixing or production, but definitely for tracking / live performance (at least unless you’re using it for fully wet reverb or delay or something like that). I think anything this provides for live performance is probably better handled other ways anyway though.

If you’re not very technically minded and want a drag and drop way to use some outboard gear you have while mixing / producing, which probably matches up with a lot of guitarists tbh, it could be cool.

Price is still steep imo though, even taking into account that you’re paying for the software side of things.