New Headrush pedalboard: Headrush Prime

[JiveTurkey]

Let's be honest here. With modeling gear; most all of the "flagships" can do what needs done to get through a gig or do a recording session. Any of these "dealbreakers" or "roadblocks" are 1000% self made. I'm looking firmly at myself as I say this


If something trips your trigger in how it works and sounds; use it.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Even a default layout for any preset would give you two separate level controls on the Performance pages. How is that not enough to modulate your cleans?

Because I'd have to resave for any number of patches. Which isn't doable during soundcheck. Let alone there's no room for finetunings during any set.

 

[Sascha Franck]

With modeling gear; most all of the "flagships" can do what needs done to get through a gig or do a recording session.

Absolutely. Which is exactly why it's down to usability for me. Which, in return, rules out plenty of contenders.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Absolutely. Which is exactly why it's down to usability for me. Which, in return, rules out plenty of contenders.

I use a Fractal. You know; The Most Unusable Modeler In The UniverseTM

 

[Sascha Franck]

I use a Fractal. You know; The Most Unusable Modeler In The UniverseTM

I'm using what must seem like the most convoluted mess ever to many people. And yet, now that it's done, it's incredibly elegant, efficient and nicely sounding.

 

[paisleywookiee]

try to find a whole-ass rig

It's true; no one likes a half-assed rig.

 

[Jarick]

Both Helix and Headrush should have block favorites you can save. Both of them should be easy enough to tweak on the fly if needed. Both of them once you get a feel for the UI and the available blocks, you should be able to create a preset from scratch in 5-10 minutes.

IMO it's not really about a race to build a preset in 3 minutes vs 5 minutes. That shouldn't really be something you do with the modeler outside of curiosity.

I never had the massive Headrush pedalboard, always the smaller units. So one thing I didn't like about those is you had to use the touchscreen for everything. I like how on Helix and Quad Cortex you have knobs for parameters. The big Headrush has three of them but here more could be better.

 

[mikah912]

Because I'd have to resave for any number of patches. Which isn't doable during soundcheck. Let alone there's no room for finetunings during any set.

"Number of patches" is the problem in that scenario. With Scenes/Snapshots/whatever and planning ahead of time, I try to keep gigging to 2 or 3 (very rare) patches at the maximum (and most times I can get by with one). That's too many discrete amp/cab combos to EQ for.

Even for cover band gigs spanning decades, a good multi-scene patch with drive, chorus, delay, and reverb in various settings goes a looooong way.

 

[timbuck3]

Even a default layout for any preset would give you two separate level controls on the Performance pages. How is that not enough to modulate your cleans?

No global block function on fm9? Or any fractals? That seems an oversight. Maybe ask cliff

 

[Sascha Franck]

Even for cover band gigs spanning decades, a good multi-scene patch with drive, chorus, delay, and reverb in various settings goes a looooong way.

Did that with the Helix. It's much more comfortable not having to deal with kitchen sink presets, though. As said, regarding usability, my current system is pretty much about perfect.

 

[Sascha Franck]

No global block function on fm9? Or any fractals?

Global blocks only exist on the Axe FX. And on the Boss GT-1000. No other modeler has them.
The parameter lock function of the Kemper might be good enough in many situations, though (but I'm not sufficiently familiar to tell).
All others are out. Unfortunately.

 

[timbuck3]

I use a Fractal. You know; The Most Unusable Modeler In The UniverseTM

I think a fractal with the hr core screen and gui or the tmp gui/ screen would be really amazing

 

[MadMaxG79]

Still won't help you in case you find that your cleans are too loud. Which is why an FM9 was never part of my considerations (unless they added the global block functionality, which doesn't seem to happen).

I'm going to be burned on a stick to a crisp for giving the Headrush units even more credit, but that's another feature I like about it. The effects block presets give you the possibility of having a global block across multiple presets. I actually used that on a gig where I knew I had to go into another guitarist's amp without having tried it first and only had limited time for soundcheck. I built my presets around a single amp block preset so that I only had tweak that single effects preset and it updated across all my presets for the gig. Worked like a charm.

Global blocks only exist on the Axe FX. And on the Boss GT-1000. No other modeler has them.

While I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "global blocks" I do believe that's what Headrush effects block presets actually is. You can edit that effect's preset and it will effect all the rigs/presets/patches (whatever you want to call them) that use that effects block preset.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The effects block presets give you the possibility of having a global block across multiple presets. I actually used that on a gig where I knew I had to go into another guitarist's amp without having tried it first and only had limited time for soundcheck. I built my presets around a single amp block preset so that I only had tweak that single effects preset and it updated across all my presets for the gig. Worked like a charm

Is that really how the Headrush works? That'd be completely new to me (but then, no firsthand experience apart from trying the thing in a shop rather briefly).
I always thought that'd be block presets just allowing you to load a block and then quickly grab your favourite settings.
So how is this handled then? Are these blocks somewhat indexed, so you know you might tweak more than one preset's content simultaneously? And can you kinda convert them to normal blocks only saved within a patch?
With the GT-1000 all block loading "stomp boxes" (which is what Boss calls that functionality) are indexed, so you know you're editing this block in all patches using the same stomp box, and then there's a "write to patch" option which makes the block function in "normal", single patch mode.

While I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "global blocks"

Just exactly what you describe...

I do believe that's what Headrush effects block presets actually is. You can edit that effect's preset and it will effect all the rigs/presets/patches (whatever you want to call them) that use that effects block preset.

As said, this is absolutely new to me. So far I always thought the Axe FX (where it's actually called "Global Blocks") and GT-1000 were the only modelers featuring such a functionality, with the Kemper's "parameter lock" possibly coming somewhat close (not enough experience with that).
Has been the reason for me to ultimately get a GT-1000 because I wanted that functionality (which actually is nothing else but "ok, let's make this work as in an analog setup") badly, because on all those mentioned telephone band jobs I'm very often running into the situation that I really want to "rebalance" a few things.

Is that function available in all HR modelers? Because I'm still considering to get a smaller unit for backpack/gigbag/train/flight gigs and that option alone would be worth to at least look at one of the HR offerings a little closer.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Hm, I skimmed through the manuals of the Headrush Prime and Core, none of them seems to mention that functionality.

 

[MadMaxG79]

Hm, I skimmed through the manuals of the Headrush Prime and Core, none of them seems to mention that functionality.

They only mention block presets very briefly in the Prime manual on page 24.

I'm going to test it again on my HR Pedalboard (it's been a while since I've used it) and get back to you.

Actually, this guy shows how it works and how it's organized in the UI (this is for the old Pedalboard but I'm pretty sure it's the same on the Prime and Core). He claims it's "only" for scenes on the Headrush but I've used it as a form of "global blocks".
This goes for all effects blocks in the Headrush of course, including amp, cab and IR effects blocks.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I'm going to test it again on my HR Pedalboard (it's been a while since I've used it) and get back to you.

Appreciated!

 

[the swede]

Yes. The block preset thing is quite cool.

In HR the blocks are essentially like plugins. This means that many of the plugins has presets within them.

What’s cool is that the amps basically work the same. This also means that you can switch between amp models within the amp “block”.

 

[nicolasrivera]

Yes. The block preset thing is quite cool.

In HR the blocks are essentially like plugins. This means that many of the plugins has presets within them.

What’s cool is that the amps basically work the same. This also means that you can switch between amp models within the amp “block”.

This has been asked for the Axe FX and the pedalboars since day one, not implemented yet. Only if you are using the editor and block presets gets stored in your computer only.

This should really be a standard for ALL modern units on the market.

 

[mikah912]

This has been asked for the Axe FX and the pedalboars since day one, not implemented yet. Only if you are using the editor and block presets gets stored in your computer only.

This hould really be a standard for ALL moden units on the market.

Yeah, it's maddening that Fractal has this blocks library and even provides premium artist blocks during their Christmas promotions....but you can only use them if you loaded them from Axe/FM3/FM9 Edit. There's no way to access them if you're not plugged up to a computer.

Just annoying craziness. It would absolutely obviate SO many complaints about getting around on Fractal hardware, but that and a number of other QoL improvements go ignored year after year. It's not cool, and I find myself getting more annoyed with every year I own my FM9.