Yeah, the Blonde is great and has tons of tonal options, but I always have run a dual amp setup and it using up one of the HX Effects effect loops. Now I have the right side of the board in one loop and the left side in the other, and the HX Stomp takes over the amp side of things.
Sorry to hear about the midi clock/CC problems. I never have used CCs with either HX unit, so haven’t personally experienced that. Although, I have always found that the tempo light never seems to flash in proper time. I wonder if that is related…
I got a Mooer Radar a few months back, to use after my Ethos Clean per-amp sim, and it’s pretty fantastic. Really quite impressive. Not really any need for software amp sims any more.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Sunlight Dynamic Reverb (exp in from OBNE Expression Ramper)
Cooper FX Arcades (Generation Loss)
TC Electronic Ditto+ Looper
The goal is drone-y clean tone with lots of freeze and sustain, to hopefully get a modulating sonic “bed” to play over, then taking everything through the Gen Loss/Arcades to get some tape simulation and warble. This is all for a project I’ve got going writing a bunch of apocalyptic slow-tempo electric singer-songwriter stuff, and the sounds coming out of the board have me feeling really inspired!
Edit: oh yeah, and I almost forgot it’s using a battery-powered pedalboard supply, so between that and a couple cheap 5ghz wireless 1/4" adapters, I’m able to keep it nice and portable at home. The temple board has a bunch of nice “mods” you can install on the side, so I have my pedalboard charger wired to an ac plug on the side along with 1/4" in and out and an onboard DI for signal boost.
Nice board. I recently scored a gca plus pedal and I’m absolutely in love with it. I’m a long time champion of the ehx freeze but the plus is in another league entirely.
I don’t have the wet pedal. Do you find it actually useful? It seems so expensive for what I assume is just a switch and a couple of jacks. If I could find a wiring diagram or a good picture of the inside I’d just build one.
Yeah, it’s a really great pedal. So much fun just messing around with it, and I actually use it a ton as a practice tool for scales – just lay down some chord that’s diatonic to the scale I’m practicing as a drone, and it’s really easy to keep a musical context without other folks around to play with. I kinda hate jam tracks as well, so it’s been a nice alternative. But the main thing has been how useful it is for performance and songwriting.
And yeah, the “wet” pedal felt bad to pay that much for given what it does. The only real reason I got it is because usually the very first thing I’m doing in songs is laying down an initial drone with the Plus Pedal, and that allows me to mute the dry signal while I’m setting that up. I also have a bunch of signal routing stuff on the underside of the board, so I’m keeping open some options for a second signal chain for the dry and wet signals out of the Plus. I’d say unless you have a specific performance need for the Wet pedal it’s not worth it. As you mentioned, it’s a very simple concept. It has a TRS cable and a button, I’d suspect it just sends some noise on the exp ring of the cable whenever you toggle the button, but I’m not positive. You might be able to play around with hooking it up to an expression pedal to see how it reacts.
Oh yeah! Love some EHX. Previously had the 16 second digital delay, polyphase, and frequency analyzer. They make excellent and very unique gear. Very tempted to get a Ravish Sitar, but luckily have no space for it.
As for sounds of this setup, I posted a thread of an ambient guitar album I just released last month. It’s pre HX Stomp, but otherwise same basic setup. All the tracks were recorded live direct to my computer and then remiced through a Epiphone Valve JR and Ashdown AE30. Here’s a link:
Thanks. That’s about what I suspected. I’m still exploring the possibilities with the plus so curious about options and potential.
So far I’m using it more to grab random snippets here and there rather than laying down pads though that’s obviously a great use for it. Paired with the malekko Charlie Foxtrot the double micro loops get satisfyingly weird really fast.
Are you using group mode or single moreso? I like having the plus along with sunlight since they both do freeze/sustain stuff, but sunlight is dynamic and plus is triggered, so I’m kinda letting sunlight just grab whatever it wants based on the input threshold and then I reset my plus drone between sections if needed. But yeah, I’m basically always running tail set to infinite on plus.
Well, I’ve been using the group mode more than the single but that might be because I tend to gravitate toward the extreme end of pedals capabilities when they’re still new to me. The single mode seems just as useful though, just different. Everything it does seems useful! I think it’s just that the group mode is still novel to me so I’m leaning into it while in the honeymoon period. I’ve had the freeze almost since it came out so single mode feels less new (though way better).
I don’t know about the sunlight but from what you’re saying it sounds like you’re using it similarly to my malekko cft. Dynamic loop grabbing determined by a threshold setting. It can be used predictably or setup to be fairly random.
@porkloin and @blurrghost, not to entice you to open your wallets, but y’all might be interested in the superego+. It allows triggered and dynamic grabbing, has in-built effects that act on the frozen sound, an fx loop for more variety, and morphing between presets (I’m using the OBNE expression ramper for this). You can’t have too many sustain pedals right?
Oh man I once saw an ambient guitar set, featuring a record number of infinite sustain pedals/gear - GCA Plus, EHX Freeze, EHX SuperEgo… my brain was just overwhelmed I couldn’t count any more after that. That guitarist had at least 5 such pedals - I just can’t remember the other 2.
Never heard of Nick Johnston until today, but his signature models look like good options for those wanting a Strat style guitar.
I’m not a good enough player to justify the cost of the USA version, although it is priced well for competing with Suhr Strat-style and Fender Custom Shop guitars. The import version (made in Indonesia I believe) might be a worth a look, with some key upgrades. This guy for example upgraded the trem to Vegatrem, replaced the pickups, etc.
Oh I’m well aware of the superego+. Haha. It seems like a great pedal. I’d like to give it a try sometime. I tried the original version once in a store and there was something about the core sound that rubbed me the wrong way but the demos I’ve heard of the newer + version sound pretty good. Maybe someday but I’m on the hunt for other stuff at the moment. If I was wise I’d be upgrading my pedal power situation before anything else but that’s not as fun.
I still haven’t thought more deeply about how to integrate HX Stomp with Octatrack, my Roland MC units, or M8 Tracker. It would make sense to automate things like program changes on HX Stomp if I have a well-structured song running on one of the grooveboxes.
Hopefully we can discover workarounds soon. Maybe Zoia might be better suited for taking MIDI clock and CC for the time being? I do understand though it will be annoying to reproduce your favorite HX Stomp sounds on the Zoia, or take out some FX blocks from your HX Stomp patches and replace them with Zoia patches . I mean of course the FX blocks that you want automated by MIDI - like I guess filter/wah, delay, tremolo, etc.
Oh yeah, while on the topic of Line 6, I almost forgot that Craig Anderton released his book on Line 6 Helix tip and tricks. He promised that his book includes techniques for getting the most value out of the 8 blocks and weaker DSP of Stomp compared to the more expensive Helix hardware. He chose to feature HX Stomp format presets because they can be opened in Helix but not the other way around.
Between Craig’s book and our own sezare56, we have all the knowledge we need to maximize our Helix family boxes.
