------------------------------
Content-Type: text/plain

Loopers-Delight-d Digest                                Volume 96 : Issue 28

Today's Topics:
  Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes      [ "Todd Madson" <Todd.Madson@LaserMas ]
  Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes  [ Jon Durant <74074.1316@CompuServe.C ]
  implied rhythms                       [ sarajanes@mdcs.com (Sarajanes) ]
  possible stick for sale               [ Dan Howarth <howarth@U.Arizona.EDU> ]
  Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes  [ JOHNPOLLOCK@delphi.com ]
  Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes  [ Jon Durant <74074.1316@CompuServe.C ]
  Vortex                                [ angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanu ]
  Lexicon MPX1                          [ angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanu ]
  Vortex Applications Notes             [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr ) ]
  Re: Vortex                            [ Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net> ]
  Vortex Expression Pedal               [ "T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.c ]
  Re: Vortex Expression Pedal           [ angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanu ]
  Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes  [ ejmd@erols.com (Ed Drake) ]
  re:Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes   [ "Bret Moreland" <Bret_Moreland@maxt ]

Administrivia:
Looper's Delight
****************

Please send posts to:

Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com

Don't send them to the digest!

To subscribe/unsubscribe to the Loopers-Delight digest version, send email
with "subscribe" (or "unsubscribe") in both the subject and the body, with no
signature files, to:

Loopers-Delight-d-request@annihilist.com


To subscribe/unsubscribe to the real Loopers-Delight list, send email
with "subscribe" (or "unsubscribe") in both the subject and the body, with no
signature files, to:

Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com


Check the web page for archives and lots of other goodies!

http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html


Your humble list maintainer,

Kim Flint
kflint@annihilist.com

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 96 17:49:20 CST
From: "Todd Madson" <Todd.Madson@LaserMaster.Com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com, ToddM@lasermaster.com
Subject: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-Id: <9611038496.AA849664241@ccmailgate.LaserMaster.Com>

Andre:

> That's funny -- practically all of my user registers are filled with some 
> of the most bizarre, brain-bending, stomach-turning things I've ever heard.

Me too!  Actually, I kind of use the original patches as "the tasteful stuff
I use to plau normal music" and the user register's as "Todd's Playground of
the Audio disturbed..."

> I don't *understand* it that much either, to tell you the truth.  There 
> are a couple of very bizarre patches that seem to have minds of their 
> own, and behave in unpredictable ways.  My approach is usually along the 
> lines of, "HMMM, let's see what this thing does if I turn X control to Y 
> settings..." and then behold the onslaught.

That's what I LOVE about the box - that I have a series of settings that
respond and sound totally different depending on the level of delay I've
set for the effect, or how soft or hard I play.  

One patch I have on it makes my $90 Casio keyboard I bought at a local
discount store sound like a $5,000 keyboard.  Just this huge pad sound.
Massive.

Other patches make things sound tortured and wretched.  I've got one
patch, it's the greatest - if I put my drum machine through it - the
resonators cause the snare drum to ring like it's the loudest, most
nasty snare ever recorded.  It caused one of my jamming partners to
laugh out loud because it sounded like an alternative rock drummer
hitting the snare as hard as s/he could.  It instantly makes my 
lush sounding demo the crappiest, grainy sounding thing ever, but
has tons of character.  It sounds like some hip hop thing, but
me doing hiphop is like tiny tim doing death metal!

> The big problem (and the great thing about the box, as well) is that since
> every single effect responds differently to the same general family of
> settings, memorizing what a certain control setting does is only good for
> that particular patch.  So turning up depth 2 has a very different result
> on the escalator-over-the-seesaw pitch-shift thingie than it does on the
> robot-gargling-salt-water jobbie. 

I love your descriptions!  But the whole idea is to trade patches and
have a place to start that might not be exactly identical to what you
create, but gives a nice place to start and then tweak it and make it
your own.

> I'm reluctant to post too many patches, partially because of time and
> partically because they're so wierd that I'm hesitant to give them away. 
> Besides, there's no great secret; all you have to do is sit down with each
> effect and tweek parameters 'till the cows come home.  You might be 
> surprised -- I still can't believe this is the same box I demoed at 
> Guitar Center.

It does take time, and I'm unsure if the patches I posted earlier helped
anyone, however, I'd like to see some patches others have tried.  And yeah,
if I went to Guitar Center now, I could totally and completely DESTROY minds
with some sounds I could create on the fly!

Todd.

Received: from spica.LaserMaster.Com by ccmailgate.LaserMaster.Com (SMTPLINK V2.10.08)
    ; Mon, 02 Dec 96 19:39:25 CST
Return-Path: <lists@slip.net>
Received: from ferret.slip.net (ferret.slip.net [204.160.88.6]) by spica.LaserMaster.Com 
(8.7.3/8.6.9) with SMTP id TAA25213 for <ToddM@lasermaster.com>; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 19:49:38 -0600 (CST)
Received: from lists by ferret.slip.net with local (Exim 0.57 #1)
    id 0vUjsO-0001FK-00; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 17:42:25 -0800
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 17:44:46 -0800 (PST)
From: The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.CALARTS.EDU>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Vortex Applications Notes
In-Reply-To: <961202225903_100041.247_JHB105-1@CompuServe.COM>
Message-ID: <Pine.SGI.3.91.961202173723.6153A-100000@shoko.CALARTS.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Resent-Message-ID: <"5Hk1Q.A.hDB.pU4oy"@ferret>
Resent-From: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
X-Mailing-List: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com> archive/latest/1270
X-Loop: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: SmartList <lists@slip.net>
Resent-To: ToddM@lasermaster.com
Resent-Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 17:42:25 -0800

------------------------------
Date: 04 Dec 96 08:12:20 EST
From: Jon Durant <74074.1316@CompuServe.COM>
To: "INTERNET:Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com" <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-ID: <961204131219_74074.1316_GHQ7-1@CompuServe.COM>

Todd wrote:
>It does take time, and I'm unsure if the patches I posted earlier helped
>anyone, however, I'd like to see some patches others have tried.  And >yeah,if
I went to Guitar Center now, I could totally and completely >DESTROY minds with
some sounds I could create on the fly!

If only there were more of you out there, Todd and Andre, this box might have
actually sold. Did I tell you about the demo I received when I popped by a store
in Nashville (in disguise, of course) that had been trained not two weeks prior?
(Q: What's a Vortex? A: It's a trick reverb) Or about the Guitar Center in the
San Jose area (can't remember now which city) that had a really noisy patch bay
and said it was the Vortex making all that buzzing? 

The thing that really pushed me over the edge, however, was when the UK
distributor said at an international marketing/bitching meeting (w/distributors
from Germany, France, Italy and England): "I can't believe Lexicon doesn't make
a delay box any more!" To which I replied, "Andrew, we make two. And the reason
you can't sell JamMan and Vortex is because you don't know what a delay box is."
This, of course, got me into big trouble with the President of Lexland, but it
also scored me a trip to London in time for Christmas, where I had a lovely time
hanging with Warren Cucurullo (a JamMan fanatic). But the point is that there's
only a handful of people who have a clue about this stuff. If we'd named JamMan
the PCM-43, and Vortex the PCM-44 people might have got it: logical extensions
of the PCM 41 and 42. But, we opted for cute and got burned.

Sorry for spewing more dirt, but the people need to know...

Later,
Jon Durant

------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 21:14:55 GMT
From: sarajanes@mdcs.com (Sarajanes)
To: loopers-delight@annihilist.com
Subject: implied rhythms
Message-Id: <849734095@mdcs.com>

                                  Somewhere in the midst of considering 
    issues addressed in E. Cook's thoughts on drumming with loops, and 
    the more recent "implied music" post, I found myself uneasy with the 
    seeming dichotomy of these two texts as they related to the 
    description of musical events. The "linguistics & semantics" game 
    has always annoyed me as a person who plays music by ear, and who 
    could not stomach the scholasticism that musical instruction and 
    theory always seem to be anchored in. Hence I stop lessons, drop out 
    of college, and rock and roll. However real freedom of musical 
    expression does not arrive for me until I discover looping in the 
    late 70's. Finally I can access the tonal and textural powers of 
    an ensemble with out the rampant breakdown in communication and 
    spirit that was always present for me in group musical situations. 
    Better still was the freeing notion that a sense of rhythm was 
    always presenting itself within the loop itself as opposed to some 
    pre-meditated calculations between the "rhythm section" and the rest 
    of the group. Gee...not a team player, am I? Anyway this "systems" 
    generated sense of rhythm within the loop made precise and imprecise 
    polyrhytms available to me for the first time, no mean trick for a 
    guy as white as I am. Even after looping for 18 years now I truly 
    love to find a loop of increasingly stammered and clutching sounds 
    becoming its own "groove" as it where. Since outside (the loop) 
    counterpoint can be reallly powerful, given a good loop to play 
    with, the draw to find a synchronous relationship to the sounds 
    within the loop is overwhelming . The contrast between an 
    acccompanied loop versus a solo loop is really clearly heard if 
    you listen to any "Frippertronics" work with a lead non-loop melody, 
    such as "Evening Star", and compare it to solo-loop work such as 
    "Let The Power Fall", the differences are major. So it's cool to 
    "play along" as it where, but for me at least the notions expressed 
    in "drumming with loops" seem far less viable than the plan of 
    attack presented in "implied music". I know "different strokes for 
    different folks" and all but it reminded me of an experience I had 
    11 years ago this week when I was attending my second Guitar Craft 
    course. In the midst of a group discussion concerning composition 
    and performance issues, I found myself asking Mr. Fripp why we had 
    to endure this endless parade of mathmatics to access our musical 
    aims. His stern and steadfast reply was that "it wasn't mathmatics, 
    it was arithmatic!" I'm still just looking for music, and I have 
    always believed that along with rhythm, it will present itself. 
 
                                          Bryan Helm 
                                         " Looper, Bombastic Ranter 
                                           & Musical Fascist" 
                                                    

------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 20:29:24 -0700 (MST)
From: Dan Howarth <howarth@U.Arizona.EDU>
To: stickwire-l@netcom.com
cc: loopers-delight@annihilist.com
Subject: possible stick for sale
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.3.95.961204201502.63590A-100000@tortola.u.arizona.edu>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

hi folks,

i'm considering selling my stick... 

Ironwood #1563 - ten strings
truss rod installed
refitted/inspected by SE/Mr. Chapman sometime in summer '95
straplocks installed
-----it can be seen on my web page--------

also including - 
the usual flight case, 'free hands' book, stereo cord

plus:

a gig bag
two spare stereo cords (if you want them)
and an unopened set of stainless steel strings

asking $1000 for everything - OR BEST OFFER (very negotiable)

this is the instrument i've gigged with for two years - it's a fine piece
of equipment, with absolutely nothing wrong with it. 

contact me if you're interested.

****************************************************************
**  Dan Howarth, History/Music, University of Arizona, Tucson **
**  http://www.u.arizona.edu/~howarth (under construction)    **
****************************************************************

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 03:58:38 -0500 (EST)
From: JOHNPOLLOCK@delphi.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-id: <01ICMY8UMRJS9888KI@delphi.com>
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

Jon Durant wrote, in part,

>If only there were more of you out there, Todd and Andre, this box
>might have actually sold. Did I tell you about the demo I received
>when I popped by a store in Nashville (in disguise, of course) that
>had been trained not two weeks prior?
>(Q: What's a Vortex? A: It's a trick reverb) Or about the Guitar
>Center in the San Jose area (can't remember now which city) that had
>a really noisy patch bay and said it was the Vortex making all that
>buzzing? 

>The thing that really pushed me over the edge, however, was when the UK
>distributor said at an international marketing/bitching meeting
>(w/distributors from Germany, France, Italy and England): "I can't
>believe Lexicon doesn't make a delay box any more!" To which I replied,
>"Andrew, we make two. And the reason you can't sell JamMan and Vortex
>is because you don't know what a delay box is."  This, of course, got
>me into big trouble with the President of Lexland, but

Synchronicity:  Within minutes of receiving Jon's post, I got a phone
call from the Guitar Center employee who sold me my Vortex a few weeks
ago.

GCE:  "Are you happy with it?"

Me:  "Deliriously."

GCE:  "Really?!?

Me:  "Yeah...Why are you so surprised?"

GCE:  "Well, I wasn't sure if you'd tried one before you bought it..."

Me:  "Never heard or laid eyes on one until I took mine out of the box."

GCE:  "Well, then, how...why...uhh..."

I explained that I had a good idea of the unit's capabilities from the
L-D list and Web site, at which point he became very excited.  It turns
out the guitarist in his band has a Vortex, but no clue as to how to
use it.  I gave him the URL. :-)

I'm not sure whether he was looking for help, or trying to placate a
potentially unhappy customer, or both.  I did ask him about the Vortex
User Guide Addendum/Application Notes, and he said he'd check and get
back to me.  It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Unlike Todd and Andre, I can't say that I really "get" the box-- I just
don't have enough hands-on time at this point.  Also, I've been using
what time I do have for looping!  Deja Vu B with expression pedal assigned
to Envelope.  This afternoon I was playing heavily distorted (saturated)
guitar, and set up a rhythmic loop that wasn't quite right.  Instead of
starting over, I started adding to it with scrapes across muted strings.
Then I stuck in some single notes, a different one on each beat, fading
them in and out with the expression pedal.  I repeated these notes several
times.  It still wasn't right.  I tapped the tempo pedal a couple times,
just to see how chopping it would do...and burst into laughter:  I had
unintentionally created a heavy metal Cajun waltz, complete with rubboard
and accordion!

Another thing I do is to set up a very simple rhythmic loop, back off
the expression pedal to a value of 3 or 4, and play over the loop.
When I stop playing, I'm always surprised and usually delighted by the
wash of sound that has accumulated in the loop, but which I couldn't
hear clearly while playing.

When I get time, I'm really looking forward to running my acoustic
guitars through Duo A and B, with piezo pickup feeding one side and
magnetic to the other. 

So, yeah, I'm deliriously happy with the Vortex--but I bought it as a
$150 looper/tap tempo delay.  It does chorus, flanging, rotary, and
morphing as well?  Thaaat's nice...but I'm not sure I would have paid
$478 for it.

See, the JamEntity has features that are not only easily understood,
but roughly quantifiable in dollars:  "It does what one of those 8-second
Digitech boxes does, for only a little more.  It can expand to do double
what the EH 16-second delay does, and if you can _find_ the EH box, it'll
cost twice as much. PLUS it's MIDI controllable, and can slave to my drum
machine--OR make my drum machine ITS slave, and therefore the slave of MY
tapping toe!  And a chromatic tuner to boot?  That's worth $40-50 right
there...Write it up!"

With the Vortex, the process is more like:  "That's a pair of $150 chorus/
delay stompboxes, plus a $50 stereo volume pedal for panning.  No MIDI...
less than two seconds delay... Nawp, lemme look at that JamOne again..."

So, tell us, Jon, if you can:  Is there really some exotic and expensive
DSP deep mojo in the Vortex, to justify the list price?  Or did the
Lexfolk simply misguess the desirability of morphing along with the
need to explain Bleen?

John                              Email:  johnpollock@delphi.com
Troubador Tech on the Web--http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock/

------------------------------
Date: 05 Dec 96 08:09:08 EST
From: Jon Durant <74074.1316@CompuServe.COM>
To: "INTERNET:Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com" <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-ID: <961205130908_74074.1316_GHQ75-1@CompuServe.COM>

John writes:
>So, tell us, Jon, if you can:  Is there really some exotic and expensive
>DSP deep mojo in the Vortex, to justify the list price?  Or did the
>Lexfolk simply misguess the desirability of morphing along with the
>need to explain Bleen?

How much time've you gotz? OK, DSP-wise there's a cute little chip the likes of
which had never shown it's face 'round the Lex parts. Generally, since the
advent of the Lexichip (the DSP engine which powers all Lex processors from
'88-forward) the engineering staff snickered at the concept of using some
"generic" dsp chip. Eventually, some smart person put his hands on a new (at the
time) 2105 chip (manufacturer escapes me temporarily, sorry) and began
experimenting. He discovered some serious mind-altering delay modulation stuff
which simply couldn't be done within a Lexichip. (Now, understand, we're looking
at the other half of the PCM -42 equation here, JamMan being the straight delay
part, but you couldn't wobulate it. So...) Now, everyone agreed that a
modulating delay would be cool. Then somebody stumbled into the morphing thing,
and a whole new set of doors opened up. 

What we started to hear were a whole new category of effects. Think about how
long it's been since somebody had a "new" effect. Remember the first wah,
phasor, flanger, chorus? Well, now we had the first Bleen. Well, OK another
example might be better, but maybe not. We kept looking for unusual ways to go
about things. The reasoning behind the names was that, even though "Choir" is a
chorus and "orbits" is a leslie, they work really differently from their normal
effectoid counterparts. The envelope control was a big part of that, as well as
pedal control. And the more outside stuff (Bleen, Fractal) gave us a chance to
really get something shocking into the box to compliment the more "useable"
effects.

Morphing: OK, it was "an idea who's time had come", but I will say this.
Morphing is the primary reason I use the box. I use it all the time, to either
swell in delays, fast pedal detunes, slow ring-mod to
flangin/panning/looping--fractal, or sometimes leave the pedal somewhere in the
middle for horribly nasty beauty. (This is how Torn uses Vortex--the goo in the
middle.) 

As you can see, this box has so much it's hard to imagine people not getting it.
And I distinctly remember the first time we trotted it out to the LA/NY sales
guys. We had to clean their seats after our demo. "This is the home run box!"
"This one's gonna break us in MI". Well, kids, what happened?

BTW: The GC blow-out deal makes Lexicon $0 per unit. GC bought them at Lex's
cost to remove them from inventory. GC makes about $20/unit. Good profit, huh?
By 'em while you can, gang, 'cuz you'll never see anything like it again. From
anyone. (I can still hear the dirisive laughter from my friends at Digidreck.)
Then, 20 years from now, you'll be able to sell it for $1200 as a classic,
vintage, whatever...

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 10:01:27 EST
From: angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanuel Angel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Vortex
Message-Id: <9612051501.AA29050@matisse.pet.upenn.edu.noname>

I just got my Vortex in the mail yesterday.  I bought it on faith but
loved the sounds and warm tone quality immediately.

The presets do seem fairly tame, in terms of how novel the sounds are.
I get the feeling pretty quickly that the weird stuff will come from
programming the registers so that I can morph between *different*
algorithms.  Hitting the A/B button to morph between preset pairs has
not been too dramatic.

I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions as to good expression pedals
for the unit.  Does Lexicon sell one.  Or maybe there are compatibles
from other manufacturers which work as well or better.  Any suggestions
from those more experienced with this box would be appreciated.

Mickey

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 10:07:10 EST
From: angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanuel Angel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Lexicon MPX1
Message-Id: <9612051507.AA29199@matisse.pet.upenn.edu.noname>

I'm curious to know if anyone knows anything about the new Lexicon
MPX1.  It looks to be a mid-priced unit that will retail for
around $1000, but I know little more about it.

Mickey Angel

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 15:49:27 GMT
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr )
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Cc: 74074.1316@CompuServe.COM
Subject: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-Id: <13737.199612051549@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Jon said:
>As you can see, this box has so much it's hard to imagine people=
 not getting
>it.
>And I distinctly remember the first time we trotted it out to the=
 LA/NY sales
>guys. We had to clean their seats after our demo. "This is the home=
 run box!"
>"This one's gonna break us in MI". Well, kids, what happened?

I don't have one, and have never tried one (there aren't any in Scotland=
 afaik),
but you need to look at the market it was competing in.  It has no=
 distortion.
I'm guessing, but the big sellers at that price point are DigiTech=
 and
Boss, do-everything packages.  For the low-end user, kids just want=
 a box
that turns them into this week's hero.  The mid-range-price guys,=
 with MIDI
preamps should have gone for it, but I gather it's not MIDI.  If=
 not, why??
 It _depends_ on working with a preamp for the reason named above.=
  When
the Alex came out over here (that is the non-Midi rvb, innit?), that=
 was
the single big gripe in the reviews.  Then there are the big money=
 guys,
and they'll buy high-end Lex and Eventide stuff, 'cos they can.

As far as I can see, the only group who would choose the Vortex above=
 a
Digitech etc are the experimentalists, like us.  I mean, how many=
 other
people actually _program_ their FX?

>BTW: The GC blow-out deal makes Lexicon $0 per unit. GC bought them=
 at Lex's
>cost to remove them from inventory. GC makes about $20/unit. Good=
 profit, huh?
>By 'em while you can, gang, 'cuz you'll never see anything like=
 it again. From
>anyone. (I can still hear the dirisive laughter from my friends=
 at Digidreck.)
>Then, 20 years from now, you'll be able to sell it for $1200 as=
 a classic,
>vintage, whatever...

Try telling that to your UK distributor (Turnkey/Soho Soundhouse,=
 am I right?).
They're still =A3250 ($400) over here.  :(

So, could someone go through this "non-midi" thing one more time?=
  How do
you control the beast?  If it only accepts footpedals (eg the supplied
Jamman set)
then it doesn't work well with the Jamman (which needs midi for the=
 fade
section).  Incidentally, why (oh why) doesn't JM accept Midi volume....
And does it really have two amp-switching feed-outs? Now that *is*=
 cool!!


(Sorry, rant mode off)

Michael

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine=
 Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12=
 8QQ, U.K.
        "Everything in moderation, including moderation" (Zen Proverb)

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 09:55:33 -0600 (CST)
From: Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Vortex
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.93.961205095002.32717C-100000@icarus.icarus.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 5 Dec 1996, Emmanuel Angel wrote:

> 
> I just got my Vortex in the mail yesterday.  I bought it on faith but
> loved the sounds and warm tone quality immediately.

Another convert!

> I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions as to good expression pedals
> for the unit.  Does Lexicon sell one.  Or maybe there are compatibles
> from other manufacturers which work as well or better.  Any suggestions
> from those more experienced with this box would be appreciated.

If you find a good expression pedal, let us know, okay?  I'm currently
using a modified ADA expression pedal, but I can't get it to sweep
completely from 1-64.  Generally, it doesn't go below 12-13 at the low
end, which is irritating.  I've thought about getting one of the cheap
Rolls pedals, but I'd like to try before I buy.  Besides, if I get a
stereo volume anytime soon, it'll have to go on my acoustic guitar
(which now has a piezo and an internal mic running down a stereo
cable).  

Also, if you find an expression pedal, be prepared to do some
soldering.  The wiring on the Vortex is a little unusual. 

-dave

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       /* dstagner@icarus.net */
   -Charles Fort              

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 23:12:19 -0000
From: "T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.com>
To: "Looper's Delight" <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Vortex Expression Pedal
Message-Id: <199612051712.JAA94970@scv1.apple.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I use the Boss EV-5 for an expression pedal on my Vortex, and I've had no 
problems with full range or a need for resoldering the connection.  It 
cost around $70.

Travis Hartnett

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 12:20:38 EST
From: angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanuel Angel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re:  Vortex Expression Pedal
Message-Id: <9612051720.AA02150@matisse.pet.upenn.edu.noname>

>I use the Boss EV-5 for an expression pedal on my Vortex, and I've had no 
>problems with full range or a need for resoldering the connection.  It 
>cost around $70.
>
>Travis Hartnett



Thanks Travis.  I will get one (ha! for nearly half the price I paid
for the Vortex itself!).


Mickey

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 12:43:48 -0400
From: ejmd@erols.com (Ed Drake)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject:  Re: Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-Id: <v01550100aecc9e151d40@[205.177.146.197]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

John Pollock said:

>See, the JamEntity has features that are not only easily understood,
>but roughly quantifiable in dollars:  "It does what one of those 8-second
>Digitech boxes does, for only a little more.  It can expand to do double
>what the EH 16-second delay does, and if you can _find_ the EH box, it'll
>cost twice as much. PLUS it's MIDI controllable, and can slave to my drum
>machine--OR make my drum machine ITS slave, and therefore the slave of MY
>tapping toe!  And a chromatic tuner to boot?  That's worth $40-50 right
>there...Write it up!"

Until I'm able to afford an Echoplex, I've been trying to wring every bit
of performance out of my Jam Man.
I recently purchased a Ground Control pedal by Digital Music which is a
MIDI foot controller ( Thanks to Dave at Studio Seventeen for the
pre-purchase advice) and I've got it hooked up to my rig including the Jam
Man and it's working great!  If any of you have a Jam Man you owe it to
yourself to try to use MIDI to control all of its' functions using program
change messages. Tapping using the cheesy footswitches that come with the
Jam Man is OK but the response time using MIDI to tap is almost
instantaneous and my rhythmic loops have gotten noticeably tighter. Via
MIDI you have access to either of the 2 Loop modes (Punch-in or Phrased)
regardless of which Loop mode you actually have the front panel knob set on
(This I discovered by accident, it's not in the manual). With MIDI you can
also access some nifty loop fading functions not available from the front
panel and cueing up multiple loops on the fly is effortless as well. You
still have to have the mode knob set to the correct MIDI quarter note
setting for syncing to drum machines etc. On page 26 of the Jam Man manual
there is a list of the 20 parameters for Loop mode which are accessible via
MIDI. Parameters for the Echo and Sampling modes are available there too.

I know I've grumbled here lately at some of the Jam Man's limitations (lack
of undo and no odd time signature syncing, etc.) but it does do some things
very well and even when I get a 'Plex, I'm going to keep my Jam Dude and
use them together. Are any of you using a 'Plex and a Jam Man together ?
How well do they work together? Also are any of you 'Plexers out there
using MIDI to control things ?

While we are on the Vortex thread , how are you hooking up your Vortexes,
directly in line (as Lexicon suggests) or in the effects loop of a mixer ?
I'm just using mine in line but I haven't had time to retweak things to try
it out in the effects loop and I was wondering if any of you had tried it
and if you liked it better or not ?

                 Thanks and Best Regards    Ed Drake

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 11:31:44 MST
From: "Bret Moreland" <Bret_Moreland@maxtor.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: re:Re[2]: Vortex Applications Notes
Message-ID: <vines.PP59+EIldmA@Longmont64.Maxtor.COM>
Content-type: text/plain;
               charset=US-ASCII

You guys got to me with all of this Vortex talk.  Reading about an effect 
that 
is so unusual that most people can't grasp what it is, that those who have 
it say it will take years to _reach the bottom_ of it's capabilities, that 
is selling for 30% of list price, I couldn't miss this.  Sound unheard, I 
ordered a Vortex from Guitar Center.  Is the Vortex going to be the 
Electro Harmonix 16 second digital delay of the 90's?
-------------------
Jon wrote:
 The envelope control was a big part of that, as well as
pedal control.
------------------

What is the pedal?  Is this included or do I provide it?  Is there 
anything else I should add to the Vortex to make it more useful?

regards,
bret

--------------------------------