Headrush Flex Prime

[MadMaxG79]

I saw Trixter the other day (I know, I know... ) and Steve Brown was using one of these Headrush units and I have to admit it sounded amazing. One of the few times (if not the only time) I was actually impressed with the tone from a modeler.


They don't seem to be well liked here though... what are the issues with it?

It seems to me the issue around these parts is not so much with the unit itself but with the company, InMusic / Headrush. Forum members, many of which have not actually tried the unit, will be ill disposed towards Headrush because they're reportedly rehashing old algorithms from the ElevenRack days and borrowing design features from other, more reputable big brands in modeling (the chinese derivatives such as Mooer, Hotone, Valeton etc. all do this, but somehow it's much worse when it's Headrush). And not least that the newest generation of Headrush units (Flex Prime, Core and Prime) all share the same architecture as the legacy units (MX5, Gigboard and Pedalboard), yet has a lot of new features which could apparently easily be incorporated into the legacy units but most likely won't.

In the meantime I'm really enjoying my Headrush Prime - just like I really enjoyed the Headrush Pedalboard

 

[Mikael Dez]

It seems to me the issue around these parts is not so much with the unit itself but with the company, InMusic / Headrush. Forum members, many of which have not actually tried the unit, will be ill disposed towards Headrush because they're reportedly rehashing old algorithms from the ElevenRack days and borrowing design features from other, more reputable big brands in modeling (the chinese derivatives such as Mooer, Hotone, Valeton etc. all do this, but somehow it's much worse when it's Headrush). And not least that the newest generation of Headrush units (Flex Prime, Core and Prime) all share the same architecture as the legacy units (MX5, Gigboard and Pedalboard), yet has a lot of new features which could apparently easily be incorporated into the legacy units but most likely won't.

In the meantime I'm really enjoying my Headrush Prime - just like I really enjoyed the Headrush Pedalboard

Yeah my big gripe with them is just the lack of updates for their “legacy” gear - if the QC/Helix/Fractal did that I would feel the same way about them. I did own an MX5 and it sounded great, my biggest complaint was having to toggle the interface whenever I wanted to use it with my computer - super annoying.

 

[JCW308]

I wish HR would do an update that would enable the devices to load NAM files. That, combined with their OS and web editor, would really bring them into this century as far as sound.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

It seems to me the issue around these parts is not so much with the unit itself but with the company, InMusic / Headrush. Forum members, many of which have not actually tried the unit, will be ill disposed towards Headrush because they're reportedly rehashing old algorithms from the ElevenRack days and borrowing design features from other, more reputable big brands in modeling (the chinese derivatives such as Mooer, Hotone, Valeton etc. all do this, but somehow it's much worse when it's Headrush). And not least that the newest generation of Headrush units (Flex Prime, Core and Prime) all share the same architecture as the legacy units (MX5, Gigboard and Pedalboard), yet has a lot of new features which could apparently easily be incorporated into the legacy units but most likely won't.

In the meantime I'm really enjoying my Headrush Prime - just like I really enjoyed the Headrush Pedalboard

Oh yeah I forgot they were the company behind the Eleven Rack. That was a really good unit for its time tbh.
"Borrowing" from other companies is lame though.

 

[timbuck3]

Yeah my big gripe with them is just the lack of updates for their “legacy” gear - if the QC/Helix/Fractal did that I would feel the same way about them. I did own an MX5 and it sounded great, my biggest complaint was having to toggle the interface whenever I wanted to use it with my computer - super annoying.

of head rush/in is they buy old tech and just rebrand it and stick it in a unit and they really don’t have a huge department that actually builds upon these things so they’re not really into putting major updates out and adding a tonne of amps or effects or whatever I look around for old tech, they buy it and they rebrand it as their own and stick it in the next unit
like their interface on their units and their Bill quality is very good. I just don’t find their tones to be up to par with other units from what I’m hearing. I would even buy a bass GT 1000 overhead rush at this point even though the GT 1000 does not have that nice touchscreen but I still find it’s a better sounding unit and yes I did have one for almost a year when they released it, I enjoyed it but I thought they should’ve released it with way more ex amps which apparently in a new upgrade they released it with some more of the exam so that’s pretty coolI think their next GT 1000 will be similar to the GTX 100 and that will have a really nice touchscreen.

 

[JCW308]

of head rush/in is they buy old tech and just rebrand it and stick it in a unit and they really don’t have a huge department that actually builds upon these things so they’re not really into putting major updates out and adding a tonne of amps or effects or whatever I look around for old tech, they buy it and they rebrand it as their own and stick it in the next unit
like their interface on their units and their Bill quality is very good. I just don’t find their tones to be up to par with other units from what I’m hearing. I would even buy a bass GT 1000 overhead rush at this point even though the GT 1000 does not have that nice touchscreen but I still find it’s a better sounding unit and yes I did have one for almost a year when they released it, I enjoyed it but I thought they should’ve released it with way more ex amps which apparently in a new upgrade they released it with some more of the exam so that’s pretty coolI think their next GT 1000 will be similar to the GTX 100 and that will have a really nice touchscreen.

Heck yeah, the GT-1000 absolutely slays any HR unit as far as sound goes. For sure. And no, it's not all subjective!

 

[paisleywookiee]

Forum members, many of which have not actually tried the unit

How do you know?

This kind of artificial construct people create when others don’t love the shiny new toy gets old. I was hoping that wouldn’t carry over to this forum.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

That's the tone I was talking about, he's running a Headrush straight into the PA

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Great tone for the style. Sounded great in the room. Killer player too.

 

[MadMaxG79]

"Borrowing" from other companies is lame though.

Except every company does it. For example, If I remember correctly, Fractal was first with the whole "scenes" thing and Helix and the rest followed suit a couple of years later. But nobody hates on Line 6 for that.

How do you know?

This kind of artificial construct people create when others don’t love the shiny new toy gets old. I was hoping that wouldn’t carry over to this forum.

Because every time I ask the haters I've encountered around these parts I'm met with silence. Which I choose to interpret as confirmation. The HR hate is much less prevalent on that other forum, BTW.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Except every company does it. For example, If I remember correctly, Fractal was first with the whole "scenes" thing and Helix and the rest followed suit a couple of years later. But nobody hates on Line 6 for that.

"Scenes" are strings of multiple MIDI CCs within a patch. If you want to credit someone for "inventing it", it would probably be Bob Bradshaw in the 80s since that's how he programmed his rigs.... but even that's disputable because it's just part of MIDI language. I guess you could say that Fractal came up with the name but it's hardly a new concept. I've been using it since the 80s/90s since back then a lot of effects processors where slow to change patches.

But I don't hate Headrush, if you read what I wrote, I was just wondering why people didn't like it since I heard one live recently and it sounded great.

 

[ian_dissonance]

I don’t like HR stuff because both times I’ve tried to test one out it’s literally locked up where the screen and switches don’t do anything.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Because every time I ask the haters I've encountered around these parts I'm met with silence. Which I choose to interpret as confirmation. The HR hate is much less prevalent on that other forum, BTW.

Maybe they don't really want to engage with you, because you immediately take the stance of calling people "haters", and constructing a scenario that doesn't really exist?
I don't like the Headrush stuff that much. It's not terrible, but it definitely has a latency issue, and I don't think the models sound as good as a Helix, Neural, or Fractal. Does that make me a "hater"?

 

[JiveTurkey]

Use what you like That clip Bill posted sounded GREAT. I LOVED the 11 rack. The only bias I have against the Headrush stuff is that it's just not exciting in any way.

 

[MadMaxG79]

Maybe they don't really want to engage with you, because you immediately take the stance of calling people "haters", and constructing a scenario that doesn't really exist?
I don't like the Headrush stuff that much. It's not terrible, but it definitely has a latency issue, and I don't think the models sound as good as a Helix, Neural, or Fractal. Does that make me a "hater"?

I get that I might have rustled some feathers using the word "haters" and I apologies for that. It's just that whenever there's a any HR thread around these parts, every third or fourth comment is along the lines of "don't bother with HR, they suck". I get that we don't all have to like the same thing but it's just that I see a fair number of users going out of their way to trash HR in those threads. And when confronted with the question of whether they've actively tried one, they never respond. It just gets old quick. Especially when you're a happy user of the product and don't go actively out of your way to trash the competition. I have the HX Stomp and love it for what it is. Tried the Helix Floor but preferred the workflow of the Headrush. And I've never felt the latency issue that I've seen mentioned - but I might just not be sensitive to latency

Use what you like That clip Bill posted sounded GREAT. I LOVED the 11 rack. The only bias I have against the Headrush stuff is that it's just not exciting in any way.

And that's totally fair. It's not exactly ground breaking in any way I just happen to love the UI and it fits my use case perfectly.

 

[Sedaxel]

In a video from Andertons a few days ago, comparing captures in Kemper, QC, Tonex, HR... I really liked the HR tone. They said that there was some lacking in "inmediacy" or something like that. But the tone... honestly, I found that captures on par to the best ones. Better than Kemper ones, in my taste. They chose the Kemper over it, but I think it was for the feeling, more than tone itself. Or maybe because they liked the tone more, not because they finded it more accurate.

To sum up, I tend to think that HR issue is latency, some kind os disconnection that the other units don´t have.

 

[timbuck3]

That's the tone I was talking about, he's running a Headrush straight into the PA

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Great tone for the style. Sounded great in the room. Killer player too.

just about any unit can be gotten to sound good at this point in the game and that person in the video obviously has a good set up probably a guitar tech probably a great PA guy so all those factors enter into it. He could’ve probably been using a pod and gotten great tone.
Yeah, he plays really well

 

[timbuck3]

Except every company does it. For example, If I remember correctly, Fractal was first with the whole "scenes" thing and Helix and the rest followed suit a couple of years later. But nobody hates on Line 6 for that.

Because every time I ask the haters I've encountered around these parts I'm met with silence. Which I choose to interpret as confirmation. The HR hate is much less prevalent on that other forum, BTW.

I don’t hate head rush in fact I had the small unit by them with a touchscreen the MX unit and I really enjoyed it but I wasn’t too hot on the tones or the effects but they were the first ones to come out with a touchscreen if I remember correctly and I think their touchscreen is really great and I think they’re gooey is pretty cool and I don’t think they borrow from anybody they just buy up old tech and then they just kind of implement it into their stuff but they don’t really do a deep dive into that old tech and totally revamp itPlus they seem to spend more time doing that than actually enlarging what they already have and growing on it so that’s where their fault lies I think is that they really don’t dedicate enough resources to evolving the tones and effects compared to safe fractal or even helix.

 

[timbuck3]

It seems to me the issue around these parts is not so much with the unit itself but with the company, InMusic / Headrush. Forum members, many of which have not actually tried the unit, will be ill disposed towards Headrush because they're reportedly rehashing old algorithms from the ElevenRack days and borrowing design features from other, more reputable big brands in modeling (the chinese derivatives such as Mooer, Hotone, Valeton etc. all do this, but somehow it's much worse when it's Headrush). And not least that the newest generation of Headrush units (Flex Prime, Core and Prime) all share the same architecture as the legacy units (MX5, Gigboard and Pedalboard), yet has a lot of new features which could apparently easily be incorporated into the legacy units but most likely won't.

In the meantime I'm really enjoying my Headrush Prime - just like I really enjoyed the Headrush Pedalboard

I also think that head rush price point is a bit high compared to the other ones you mentioned like hotel and more and the lower line line 6 stuff I think that head rush is more on power with zoom and even zoom have overpriced themselves in the market in their modelling units

 

[timbuck3]

Maybe they don't really want to engage with you, because you immediately take the stance of calling people "haters", and constructing a scenario that doesn't really exist?
I don't like the Headrush stuff that much. It's not terrible, but it definitely has a latency issue, and I don't think the models sound as good as a Helix, Neural, or Fractal. Does that make me a "hater"?

I think the mpc one+ and mpc live are great unirs if into that

 

[Elric]

I get that I might have rustled some feathers using the word "haters" and I apologies for that. It's just that whenever there's a any HR thread around these parts, every third or fourth comment is along the lines of "don't bother with HR, they suck". I get that we don't all have to like the same thing but it's just that I see a fair number of users going out of their way to trash HR in those threads. And when confronted with the question of whether they've actively tried one, they never respond.

A lot of folks around here have owned or DO own all the major stuff.

The Headrush stuff does not outright suck and can get some good results in the right hands; BUT their stuff is simply on a lower tier of quality/value than almost all their competition. They’re hard to recommend to a new buyer if you have a lot of experience with this stuff and I think its fair to warn off newbs who might be attracted to an inferior product because it is highly available (GC carries it) and looks comparable while not actually being as good over the long haul.

IMHO. YMMV.