New Headrush pedalboard: Headrush Prime

[creative360]

PS
Whatever the appeal, I never equate someone throwing down hard with a great product release (or a terrible or deceitful one), with automatic negative implications for its competitors in this sector. I’m guessing that NDSP is still selling a ton of QC’s, Line 6 is mega mega, Fractal is buried in orders, ToneX pedals are .. they can probably never build too many of those, and Kemper heads and racks and Stages are still moving. (And whatever anyone wants to say if we made a list of the top 25 2023 arena tours incorporating digital for guitars, 24 of them are probably still Kemper racks, a decade+ old product.),

 

[mbenigni]

What would you do now if you started from nothing (including the knowledge you have).

This HR Prime is the first thing that's even made the needle move for me. But bear in mind, I haven't heard it yet, nor have I tested any of the many, many features that might be poorly implemented. The form-factor is really off-putting - 26" wide!! Another red flag is the fact that there is no existing "ecosystem" of "clones" yet. I can't imagine why HR didn't shoot a pile of these prior to launch. I don't have a wall of exotic amps and mics here at home, so out of the box, I'd be buying an 11 Rack.

tl;dr: If I were starting from scratch today, I'd buy another QC. But I'll be watching HR really closely to see what their next (non-aircraft carrier) product looks like. And one of these days, I do need to kick some FAS tires.

 

[GTR37]

Without DiGiTaL JoHn!?!

His QC contract states no demoing
Units with capturing technologies that could be as good or units with better WIFI

 

[mbenigni]

**** I also love that so far as we know, there’s no point man from Headrush waiting around to pounce on anyone who misstates some feature or who just wants to make fun of the thing, because making fun is fun. .

Double-edged sword: there will never be a point man from Headrush anywhere for any reason, like it or not.

 

[creative360]

Oh I don't know

I agree with you that it’s not a compelling reason to change if what you already have works for you. But nothing is. Regarding “accuracy“ the first chord that ToneJunkie strums sounds slightly rolled off compared to the source, but within seconds identifying the difference becomes way less possible. And in my experience profiles, however “accurate“ or not still sound and feel better than my experience with component modeling, including a ton of the latest plug-ins, but true, never Fractal. I don’t doubt that people who love Fractal really love it.

 

[norminal]

The form-factor is really off-putting - 26" wide!!

To be fair, an FM9 (20.2” wide) plus an EV-1 (4.1” wide) is a total of 24.3” without a 7” touch-screen interface. Not to mention the mic pre, etc.

And that is butting the FM9 and EV-1 together, which we all know you probably wouldn’t be doing in the first place.

I’d say the footprint is being slightly overblown.

 

[GTR37]

Seriously, though. NDSP ought to be thinking long and hard about reverting to their original $1650 price point. If that's still at all possible.

(As good a time as any for me to re-iterate: the routing implies that the HR Prime has much less processing power on tap. As far as watching 5 minutes of review videos has "informed" me LOL.)

Dual Cortex is coming at it will shock the modelling world
With less models
Less connectivity
And a modest 1399 price tag

 

[mbenigni]

To be fair, an FM9 (20.2” wide) plus an EV-1 (4.1” wide) is a total of 24.3” without a 7” touch-screen interface. Not to mention the mic pre, etc.

I’d say the footprint is being slightly overblown.

Fair enough. I suppose it does make sense for performers who need a full-featured foot controller. That guy everyone here likes to poke fun at - the one who keeps his "most powerful floor modeler in the world" on his desk ~24/7? That's me.

 

[creative360]

But did they name this thing Prime to piggyback on Jeff Bezos’ stellar public image? Wtf!?!?

 

[norminal]

Fair enough. I suppose it does make sense for performers who need a full-featured foot controller. That guy everyone here likes to poke fun at - the one who keeps his "most powerful floor modeler in the world" on his desk ~24/7? That's me.

No way in hell I’d give up that much desktop space to a floor modeler. I leave them on the floor.

That being said, the Headrush Prime doesn’t have a desktop editor. So that’s an instant no-go for me.

 

[TubeStack]

To be fair, an FM9 (20.2” wide) plus an EV-1 (4.1” wide) is a total of 24.3” without a 7” touch-screen interface. Not to mention the mic pre, etc.

And that is butting the FM9 and EV-1 together, which we all know you probably wouldn’t be doing in the first place.

I’d say the footprint is being slightly overblown.

That extra two inches can make a big difference.

But seriously, the FM9 is just on the edge of being too big for my preferences, as it is. However it's small size depth-wise is a redeeming factor (9" or so?).

This Headrush thing is WAY too big for my liking.

 

[norminal]

That extra two inches can make a big difference.

Unless the EV-1 is butted right up against the FM9, which wouldn’t work for my size 11 Wide, they’re pretty similar in footprint.

 

[TubeStack]

Unless the EV-1 is butted right up against the FM9, which wouldn’t work for my size 11, they’re prettily much the same.

My DVP4 fits very nicely beside the FM9 on a 24" PedalTrain, though. Room to vent/breath, as well.

 

[Fireproof]

This HR Prime is the first thing that's even made the needle move for me. But bear in mind, I haven't heard it yet, nor have I tested any of the many, many features that might be poorly implemented. The form-factor is really off-putting - 26" wide!! Another red flag is the fact that there is no existing "ecosystem" of "clones" yet. I can't imagine why HR didn't shoot a pile of these prior to launch. I don't have a wall of exotic amps and mics here at home, so out of the box, I'd be buying an 11 Rack.

tl;dr: If I were starting from scratch today, I'd buy another QC. But I'll be watching HR really closely to see what their next (non-aircraft carrier) product looks like. And one of these days, I do need to kick some FAS tires.

It moved?

 

[mbenigni]

No way in hell I’d give up that much desktop space to a modeler. I leave them on the floor.

That being said, the Headrush Prime doesn’t have a desktop editor. So that’s an instant no-go for me.

The QC is only 11" wide, it provides own (excellent) control surface, and it also serves as my audio interface, so it hasn't overstayed its welcome on my desk. My biggest problem is when I want to bring it across the room to blast some captures through a different cabinet, I have to take half my studio apart. First world problems.

Headrush not having a desktop editor at 26" wide, yeah. If anyone were pissed that the QC didn't have one, I don't know how they'd ever deal with that. Hopefully HR turns it around faster than NDSP has. (Couldn't be any slower LOL.)

 

[the swede]

haven’t watched any of the videos yet, but just curious - is whatever modelling tech they’re using available in a plugin format? Is the underlying modelling actually good in 2023?

presumably this thing is running plugins internally? Eleven/Revalver/Autotune etc.

I think the modeling is good even though people bash on HR for the old “it’s just 11 rack ported to a new modeler” thing. That is also not the complete truth. The team has proven themselves and the actual modeling tech. In the recent three years rolling out few but very good amp models like Orange ad30 and the 4 ch Engl being two very good examples. So clearly they can do good stuff with the tech. It’s just that they can’t throw out extensive updates like Line 6 does, which tells us they are a very small team. My guess is that the software/modeling team is very few.. like 2 or 3 people.

Btw, their Marshall JCM800 and JTM has always been good and ime more fun and rewarding to play than Line 6 versions of the same regardless of what people say about accuracy and it seems that is one of the toughest crowds to please…. those is HR are a pure joy to play.

The plugin parallel is about right. The whole underlying behavior of the software is very much like it’s a plugins for each type that hold presets.

A good example is the amp block. Within the amp block you have access to all other amp models and can change the model (preset in HR land) seamlessly without actually changing to another rig. You can scene change (snapshot in Helix language) the amp model…..

 

[mbenigni]

But did they name this thing Prime to piggyback on Jeff Bezos’ stellar public image? Wtf!?!?

FAS used up all the other suffixes.

 

[norminal]

My DVP4 fits very nicely beside the FM9 on a 24" PedalTrain, though. Room to vent/breath, as well.

I was only using the EV-1 as an example to compare to the Prime’s full-size (and same manufacturer) expression pedal.

Personally, I prefer my EV-2 to its big brother.

 

[mbenigni]

It moved?

JUST FOR A SECOND!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I think the modeling is good even though people bash on HR for the old “it’s just 11 rack ported to a new modeler” thing. That is also not the complete truth. The team has proven themselves and the actual modeling tech. In the recent three years rolling out few but very good amp models like Orange ad30 and the 4 ch Engl being two very good examples. So clearly they can do good stuff with the tech. It’s just that they can’t throw out extensive updates like Line 6 does, which tells us they are a very small team. My guess is that the software/modeling team is very few.. like 2 or 3 people.

I think some of the underlying approach to Eleven was pretty solid, I was reading the manual for it and they knew what they were doing with how they tackled it. I think some of the team behind that may have moved to UAD or elsewhere, but I can imagine with some tweaks and advancements it’s still a good platform. Revalver probably needs a little more in the way of updating to catch up but again it’s a solid base to start from.

I’m just curious if it’s possible to use their modelling in a plugin form seeing as it seems to be built off a plugin and (potentially) running plugins internally