New Headrush pedalboard: Headrush Prime

[Bob Zaod]

It's Pedro. We love Pedro.

I know who it is. Great actor. Insane.

 

[Fireproof]

Agree completely. That touchscreen looks great. I "wish" it was on something else

No kidding!

It looks like a lot of fun. It’s fun seeing realistic looking pedal images, etc. I don’t know why. I had a lot of fun with the Digitech IPB-10 (R.I.P.) back in the day for similar reason. (anyone remember MediaMan and his repository of tips/tricks/etc.???) Anyway - talk about a chunky form factor. But it was fun dragging/dropping pedals, tweaking the effects, etc.

I’m periodically tempted by the HR line for that reason, but I know I’ll be disappointed with the tones and other things, so have been able to resist.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I know who it is. Great actor. Insane.

He's eccentric, that's for sure.

 

[GTR37]

Agree completely. That touchscreen looks great. I "wish" it was on something else

That about says it all
Honestly if NDSP had come out with this interface , their footprint
And editor and plug in compatible they would have been hard to beat

 

[GTR37]

No kidding!

It looks like a lot of fun. It’s fun seeing realistic looking pedal images, etc. I don’t know why. I had a lot of fun with the Digitech IPB-10 (R.I.P.) back in the day for similar reason. (anyone remember MediaMan and his repository of tips/tricks/etc.???) Anyway - talk about a chunky form factor. But it was fun dragging/dropping pedals, tweaking the effects, etc.

I’m periodically tempted by the HR line for that reason, but I know I’ll be disappointed with the tones and other things, so have been able to resist.

I agree Fractal FM5 with this interface I would pay 1500-1600

 

[Daveporter33765]

Alternate take.

At this point; it looks like a pile of old plug-ins and "refreshed" 11 rack amp modeling with a pretty screen crammed into a battleship. With latency filled captures. Color me not very interested.

I bought their original Pedalboard. Just after one year, the motherboard died because of an electrical grounding design flaw (according to an Headrush service tech) and I had to pay shipping to have it replaced. I no more got it back after an extended wait and two switches failed. I replaced them myself to avoid the shipping costs and extended wait to get it back. Shortly thereafter, two more switches died. Many Pedalboard owners also experienced USB port failures (although I did not). In my book the Headrush unit was poorly designed and manufactured and was not reliable enough to gig with it. I sold it to another user for parts and moved to Fractal products…much more expensive but much higher quality overall! So, unless there are reports that the new unit is designed and manufactured to a higher quality standard I would wait to see what experiences early adopters have before I would consider purchasing the Prime.

 

[the swede]

In my experience (mx5) the fun parts and the ones I appreciated the most for giving me inspiration and creativity with the HR modeling. And good bye to this thread from me… enough is enough. T L Fucking D R warning

1. Looper is implemented well, enough time, hardcoded, not part of the signal chain, enough time, pre/post, enough time, let’s you change rig from the looper view, time bar, enough time.
Did I say it has enough time…

2. True preset/rig spillover. You don’t know how much you appreciate it until you’ve had it. I know it’s not of concern or even important to many people in various different situations. Not for a live musician nor the lonely homeplayer (me). But that little detail can sometimes stitch together compositions in a creative way that also inspires to record or do something with it. If I was heavy on “performing” social media I’d rather use that as an authentic tool than have to pre record passages to sound like I’m doing something I’m not. That’s often the case in the “post-rock/ambient” genre, where people spend a lot of time pre recording ideas that has that spillover flow or record and overlay something after the fact while still managing to show off like it’s a spur of the moment thing. In a live band context I doubt it’s practicallity other than as a nice effect when there’s only one guitar sounding.

3. Hold/freeze effect is already there and useable through all HR products. Cordy does it with split chains and delays in his Stomp, some (like me) split of the Ganymede reverb and put it on switch/expression, but it’s never a true Hold/freeze. I know I know… there’s the bla bla effect in helix. But Mx5 can do it without a cough, Stomp cant and that’s why I don’t even remember its name.

4. Feedbacker. As a post-rock ambient junkie, I find great pleasure using the HR feedback thingy into a drive into a reverb and then into the front of and amp model going nuts… because… because (can’t explain… either you understand or you don’t). The weird part with HR is that in a situation (rig) like that, you can maintain stereo through the amp model even when reverb is out in front. Not particularly authentic but a nice shortcut to a result that otherwise requires some messing around.

I sort of could pull off something similar with my stomp but it required using an Iridium for amp modeling (the thing sound great pushed) and putt all stomp dsp towards simulating chaos.
It’s just easy peasy in HR units. If it’s a good or not effect i wont be the judge of. I just like things like that.

5. IR management, they might not had to put a lot of effort to it because the androidish nature of the system and USB drive/folder behavior. But it’s damn nice and very pretty when you have renamed and imported a overly OCD managed IR library and the HR unit displays it perfectly and let’s you scroll through IRs like it’s dollar counter or something (bad comparison I know…)

6. Few amp models stuck to me, eob types… Orange, j45… didn’t have to use anything else. I greatly prefer Line 6 originals though, like the Litigator and Ventoux.

Other than that… pretty much everything sucks. I got two switches replaced on a brand new mx5, didn’t have to pay shipping though and it was serviced by the same excellent dudes that used to take care of digitech stuff here in Sweden. Top notch service, and not to credit Headrush for. Had to hard reset the mx5 a few to many times for my liking. Also managed to reinstall the whole unit without getting any help from HR (they don’t like replying to mails) but from real users.

 

[Foxmeister]

Stomptrooper owners, represent!

 

[the-trooper]

I bought their original Pedalboard. Just after one year, the motherboard died because of an electrical grounding design flaw (according to an Headrush service tech) and I had to pay shipping to have it replaced. I no more got it back after an extended wait and two switches failed. I replaced them myself to avoid the shipping costs and extended wait to get it back. Shortly thereafter, two more switches died. Many Pedalboard owners also experienced USB port failures (although I did not). In my book the Headrush unit was poorly designed and manufactured and was not reliable enough to gig with it. I sold it to another user for parts and moved to Fractal products…much more expensive but much higher quality overall! So, unless there are reports that the new unit is designed and manufactured to a higher quality standard I would wait to see what experiences early adopters have before I would consider purchasing the Prime.

You forgot about Rainbow Of Death, and USB port failing if you unplug the unit from PC without "safely remove hardware" (yes, seriously, they even have it in the manual).

 

[ragingplatypi]

if one had an 2004 VoxTonelab SE? Asking for a friend…

I loved my 2004 Vox ToneLab SE

 

[Daveporter33765]

You forgot about Rainbow Of Death, and USB port failing if you unplug the unit from PC without "safely remove hardware" (yes, seriously, they even have it in the manual).

The motherboard failure I experienced was a “Rainbow of Death” situation. The USB port failures that many users experienced were due to a variety of reasons, not just unplugging a USB cable at the wrong time if one believes that reports from users on the various web sites. I wanted to like my Headrush Pedalboard. It was priced very competitively, sounded adequate and was easy to use, but the poor hardware quality was a show-stopper for me. Also, the lack of an editor app was very problematic when one wanted to build presets or move presets…sitting on the floor for hours does not cut it.

 

[ragingplatypi]

There is a Rig configuration where the vocal and guitar inputs are separate... and the processing paths are separate.
What's not possible is routing the vocal and guitar to separate outputs (at least not via analog outputs).
Not sure when recording via USB. It may be possible to record vocal and guitar outputs separately.

That’s a bummer.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Alternate take.

At this point; it looks like a pile of old plug-ins and "refreshed" 11 rack amp modeling with a pretty screen crammed into a battleship. With latency filled captures. Color me not very interested.

Also add: you have to balance your vocal and guitar levels in the box because that makes perfect sense that you can't split the signals to different outputs to allow the soundman to do their job.

 

[pipelineaudio]

I love watching people say this thing is big, while they have pedalboards with a zillion pedals on them that is WAY less functional, but way bigger at the same time, not to mention frighteningly noisier

 

[ragingplatypi]

Also add: you have to balance your vocal and guitar levels in the box because that makes perfect sense that you can't split the signals to different outputs to allow the soundman to do their job.

It is a pretty silly oversight though I wonder if it can be fixed in an update. I’m assuming they were just thinking about recording applications when they did that.

 

[ragingplatypi]

I love watching people say this thing is big, while they have pedalboards with a zillion pedals on them that is WAY less functional, but way bigger at the same time, not to mention frighteningly noisier

The same folks say the HX Stomp is more budget friendly than the Helix LT without considering the cost of a pedalboard, good power that doesn’t buzz like hell, and the other pedals.

 

[Evilution]

I love watching people say this thing is big, while they have pedalboards with a zillion pedals on them that is WAY less functional, but way bigger at the same time, not to mention frighteningly noisier

While i have certainly complained about the size of the Headrush PB and the Helix i never had more than max 4 pedals when i used pedals and now its more that im thinking of scaling down becasue hauling a lot of stuff to play a few songs was never any fun really and it sure isnt fun now that i am in my 50´s. You are certainly right though if are going to completely replace a big board with pedals with something like a Headrush PB (or Prime) then it may not be such a big difference or even smaller in size.

I went digital as far as effects and modeling almost 20 years ago for my guitar rig and havent looked back, the practicality of it was actually a big part of why i went for an all in one rack unit so that i could get exactly the sound i wanted with just a press of one footswitch (patch) instead if tapdancing on pedals and ampchannel switch.

 

[dronerstone]

Tbh, possible hardware/build issues and careless customer support scare me off much more easily than the size, or lack of constant firmware updates.

When it comes to digital/programmable devices, Mooer have lost me after my Preamp Live went brick. That's how you ruin business.

Size? Come on, if you're considering something like the Helix floor or Headrush Prime, don't act like you don't know what you're in for. These are meant to (ideally) replace a complete board. But geeks gotta geek, hence we assemble another pedalboard to go with that, and run it in the loop.

 

[zib]

How long until a video ToneX vs Prime ? (No need to answer...)

 

[ragingplatypi]

I’m wondering how much I have to pay to use the Headrush Prime as my billboard the way Anteres did?