Headrush Flex Prime

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, I heard some excellent tones recorded with Eleven Racks already. And they only got better once people were able to ditch the internal cabs and use IRs instead. And no, I'm not talking "decent for the time it happened" but decent enough to still be good tones. Hence, in case it's true that the HR units share the same DNA, they can't be all that bad.

 

[MadMaxG79]

Turd status aside; that thing was HUMONGOUS. Good lord. Either way; use what moves you!

It's three inches wider than the Helix Floor. Otherwise almost identical in size.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Turd status aside; that thing was HUMONGOUS.

That however is true. And the Prime is yet 3cm wider than the Pedalboard. 8cm wider than the Helix Floor (which I always found too huge already).

 

[Sedaxel]

I've owned and played the Line 6 Helix Floor, the Line 6 HX Stomp and the Atomic Amplifire extensively along with a lot of other modelers and I definitely would not describe the Headrush units as turds, POS or horrible. On the contrary.

I had an Atomic Amplifire12 (and a FireBox) and a Helix LT. Found the Amplifire sims more pleasant than Helix ones. Actually, I liked Amplifire sims a lot. Do you like HR ones better?

Also, a mate of mine gigs regularly with an MX5, and what I heard was good tones from him. I don´t know if better or worse than any other modeler, though. I just don´t hear turdy tones out of that unit (or that fingers... anyway).

 

[Sascha Franck]

Found the Amplifire sims more pleasant than Helix ones.

As I have an Amplifirebox and a Stomp, I can as well compare them directly. I think there's some great amps in Amplifire-land, but they're really of mixed quality and some of them tend to get pretty harsh easily. Basically, I liked the Kornfield, the Friedman, the D Luxe and the B Man quite a bit. But I noticed that the Floor/Stomp would deal with external pedals a lot better - even if everbody was raving about how good of a pedal platform the Amplifire stuff was. For me, pedals really only worked in front of the clean amps, but the B Man has been my choice for around 3-4 years, so it defenitely paid off anyway.

 

[MadMaxG79]

I had an Atomic Amplifire12 (and a FireBox) and a Helix LT. Found the Amplifire sims more pleasant than Helix ones. Actually, I liked Amplifire sims a lot. Do you like HR ones better?

Also, a mate of mine gigs regularly with an MX5, and what I heard was good tones from him. I don´t know if better or worse than any other modeler, though. I just don´t hear turdy tones out of that unit (or that fingers... anyway).

I have the original 3 switch Amplifire and I really enjoyed the tones when I was still using it. It was especially great in the Marshall department. In the end I just couldn't live with the user interface. I tried integrating it with an HX Stomp and individual pedals, and while the sounds were great, I just realized that I wanted an all-in-one unit (again).

I wouldn't say that I like the HR sounds "better", but at least as much. I just really like the UI, which is second to none, in my opinion. And it has enough - to me - good/great sounding amps and effects in the sense that it's more than I'll ever need and not so many that I get option paralysis or have to spend too much time browsing through it all.

 

[Sedaxel]

In the end I just couldn't live with the user interface.

Same here. That was the ONLY reason why I sold the AA12.

 

[ragingplatypi]

I think debating tones is a fools game, because we’ve all heard people coax great tones out of turds. Calling the HR stuff turds is also just the usual hyperbole we sling around here.

The more interesting discussion would be what situations the gear works well in.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I think debating tones is a fools game, because we’ve all heard people coax great tones out of turds. Calling the HR stuff turds is also just the usual hyperbole we sling around here.

The more interesting discussion would be what situations the gear works well in.

I think people visiting this site have the gray matter between their ears to understand what's opinion and what's fact (even though a handful of members here still get the two confused).

 

[JCW308]

I think debating tones is a fools game, because we’ve all heard people coax great tones out of turds. Calling the HR stuff turds is also just the usual hyperbole we sling around here.

The more interesting discussion would be what situations the gear works well in.

OK it's not a turd. It's just last on the last as far as sound-quality.

 

[paisleywookiee]

OK it's not a turd. It's just last on the last as far as sound-quality.

Here's the inherent problem with trying modelers in stores as well: It was easy to use, no doubt. However, obviously I can't load a favorite reference IR, so I had to make due with stock stuff. So is the modeling not great in general, or is it just the stock cabs sucking that hard? I won't really know.

 

[mikah912]

I think debating tones is a fools game, because we’ve all heard people coax great tones out of turds. Calling the HR stuff turds is also just the usual hyperbole we sling around here.

The more interesting discussion would be what situations the gear works well in.

The Headrush Core is pretty much all that my bandmates in my current project use, and they do it for the same reasons people buy the Tonemaster Pro:

• The big touchscreen makes it approachable for non-techy people
• It's readily available to fool around with in person at Guitar Centers across the country whereas QC, Kemper, Fractal, etc. are not
• The factory presets cover a lot of common pop/rock use cases, so they never have to think about programming
• It has plenty of bass rigs/presets so it's super convenient for home recording peeps. My Fractal FM9, on the other hand, is threadbare in that department.

Honestly, while I wouldn't be happy with it as my main squeeze, it doesn't sound bad in mixes next to my FM9 or HX Stomp that I keep over there as a backup when I don't feel like lugging the Fractal around.

It's perfectly good enough for most purposes. My bandmates ain't loading IRs or updating firmware. They plug up a modeler/profiler. If the presets sound fine going direct into the recording interface, it's a go. If not or if they have to read the manual for anything....they're out.

 

[Sedaxel]

The Headrush Core is pretty much all that my bandmates in my current project use

I love the HR Core form factor. If only the cloning was a little better, I think it´d be in the game.

 

[mikah912]

I love the HR Core form factor. If only the cloning was a little better, I think it´d be in the game.

I've said this before, but the fact that Headrush equipped it to run "amp clones", but included zero (and I don't think the Prime has any either) in the factory content is them kinda telling on themselves. The list of included amp clones for even the "new" Revalver is the same old creaky ACT "clones" they've been selling for years now.

That being said, amp cloning/capturing/profiling would make no difference to the guys I'm currently playing with. They know if it's a "good" tone for that song or not, and it's all they care about.

 

[JCW308]

• The factory presets cover a lot of common pop/rock use cases, so they never have to think about programming

"so they never have to think about programming"........

 

[MadMaxG79]

Sorry to hear. This is a big mistake IMO.

That's a fair opinion. But in my view my biggest mistake was letting myself be convinced by forum users that one product was inherently superior to another, instead of listening to my gut feeling and trusting my own experience with regards to use cases and convenience factor. As such the Helix Floor has got to go. I still have Helix Native and my trusty HX Stomp if I still want to dip my tones in Line 6 Helix land. AND, if I really wanted to, I could just clone my favorite Helix amps via Native and the, with the HR products included, Revalver software and migrate it to Headrush land.

Here's the inherent problem with trying modelers in stores as well: It was easy to use, no doubt. However, obviously I can't load a favorite reference IR, so I had to make due with stock stuff. So is the modeling not great in general, or is it just the stock cabs sucking that hard? I won't really know.

Exactly. It is widely agreed among HR users and YT gear reviewers that the included cabinet emulation is the weakest link. I personally agree and am currently only using IRs on my HR Pedalboard. But then again, I've been doing that with my modeling units ever since IRs became widely available. Doctor McFarland (the HR equivalent to Jason Sadites) is the only one I've heard getting good sounds from the built in cabinet emulations - this is one of the things Line 6 has really gotten right after the cabinet update they did to the HX line. I can easily get good sounds from the built in cabs on the Helix Floor.

On the other hand, Headrush has the strongest implementation of user loaded IRs that I have seen. There's seemingly no max on the number of IRs you can load onto the unit, you can store them in neatly named folders and it is really easy to audition them in your preset by turning a single knob or even just pressing a footswitch if you go into hands free editing mode on the HR. It's these small UI things on the HR that really adds up for me.

 

[Sascha Franck]

On the other hand, Headrush has the strongest implementation of user loaded IRs that I have seen. There's seemingly no max on the number of IRs you can load onto the unit, you can store them in neatly named folders and it is really easy to audition them in your preset by turning a single knob or even just pressing a footswitch if you go into hands free editing mode on the HR. It's these small UI things on the HR that really adds up for me.

That, in fact, is one very strong point in case IRs are a relevant thing you fool around with regularly. Had me quite interested in the HR units for a while, but then I realized that I would settle to just a mere handful at one point anyway, so it got less important. Still, the way HR has this done is just nailing it. Out of interest: What does it do in case an IR required for a patch is missing? Does it tell you any meaningful things or even allow you to locate the IR (in case you're using an editor)?

 

[laxu]

"so they never have to think about programming"........

I wouldn't be surprised there are a lot of modeler users like this who will e.g pay for preset packs...anything that lets them get going with minimal tweaks and doesn't require them to invest themselves into learning the platform.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I wouldn't be surprised there are a lot of modeler users like this who will e.g pay for preset packs...anything that lets them get going with minimal tweaks and doesn't require them to invest themselves into learning the platform.

Which, IMO, is perfectly fine. Just that I think most presets are too much of whatever it might be and also don't come with instructions about what to do in case you needed to adjust a patch according to your needs. If I was to create a preset pack, it'd rather be more like a kinda template thing and come with some documentation. "To push this sound from rhythm to lead, engage the boost block in front of the amp and the post-delay", "and if you want more gain, check the output level of the boost block, should you need a more intense delay, adjust feedback and mix within range XYZ".

Now, I'm a tweaker almost by nature, so learning the modeling devices I use pretty much inside out comes pretty much automatically, but I know more than enough folks (some pretty established players among them) who have zero interest in all these things and just want to play.
As a sort of anecdote: I once got someone into buying a GT-10 for a musical theatre gig (because I used one and back then that was one of the best solutions and it's still doing at least well-ish). But he had absolutely no idea of how to set things up, so I did it for him and told him to only ever copy those baseline patches and modify them to his needs (I had everything set up in a sort of "idealized" way). He must have used these very same patches and some deviating copies for around 10 years. He's always been pretty happy. And we're talking about an extremely decent player here.

 

[laxu]

As a sort of anecdote: I once got someone into buying a GT-10 for a musical theatre gig (because I used one and back then that was one of the best solutions and it's still doing at least well-ish). But he had absolutely no idea of how to set things up, so I did it for him and told him to only ever copy those baseline patches and modify them to his needs (I had everything set up in a sort of "idealized" way). He must have used these very same patches and some deviating copies for around 10 years. He's always been pretty happy. And we're talking about an extremely decent player here.

Yeah this is exactly the type of player I'm talking about. I'm not saying it's wrong, but to me it's just totally foreign that I'd never learn to truly use a piece of gear I use regularly.

But I'll admit that as a beginner grade synth player, I mainly rely on preset patches on my Hydrasynth Explorer and just haven't had the will to deep dive into tweaking them beyond the basics.