mcgraham Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Was on Hartman electronics website and they were advertising a device called the FX tracker by a company called Backline Engineering. Here's the link - [url="http://backline-eng.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=5&74a0ad6b5f7a1df0ef4ab98b8fffbb41=20922c89c013dc09abd405e7bbf35390"]CLICK ME![/url] It seems to sense playing dynamics, speed of playing etc, and adjust a multitude of effects depending on what it senses. For example, you can alter its delay time to match the tempo you are playing at. Alternatively, you could alter the depth of chorus according to how loud you are playing. It has a whole host of built in effects, all of which are able to be tailored to respond to your playing in a predetermined way. As someone who HATES stomping pedals and likes to do everything from the guitar, this seems like a great idea, so I thought I'd post it up on here in case anyone was interested... or indeed if anyone has checked it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 It talks about two footswitches but I can only see one? Does it have USB? It's a very cool idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotticus Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Mcgraham, as someone who also HATES stomping pedals, can I ask what you do at the moment? If you're anything like me, you stomp hatefully because you haven't seen a worthy replacement yet. A blunder here, an inappropriate burst of noise there This idea is neat, but I don't use anywhere near enough of the effects on their list to make it the solution here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted May 18, 2011 Author Share Posted May 18, 2011 Scotticus, I don't use any effects on bass, at least for the moment - I'm probably going to get a Copilot FX Orbit sometime though for those glitchy sounds. I control everything from the onboard controls of the bass though, so I have radically different sounds that I adjust my technique for as well as the onboard eq, volume swells by tapping tones and rolling the volume control up, dub/synth pad sounds by rolling treble and mids off with bass up on the neck pickup and using the side of my thumb etc. With regard to guitar, I try to accomplish the same thing by my pedal choices and keep the pedal count to a minimum (e.g. they all fit on a PT Mini). I tend to pick my dirt based on how well it cleans up with volume knob of the guitar without substantial volume changes across the gain range. For examples, I use a Skreddy Screwdriver fuzz which responds amazingly to volume knob cleanup on the guitar without substantial volume variation. I also stick a compressor in the chain for limiting/compression options if I've got some particular difficult volume changes to handle but at present I only use that to taste on clean sounds or not at all. I am presently using a volume pedal post-dirt to control overall volume. I also have a delay with a useable delay setting for near everything (tap tempo built in in case I need it), and a Catalinbread Pareidolia that is a swiss-army knife of modulation tones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotticus Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Pretty cool! I've never spent any real time practicing tweaking the onboard controls whilst playing, but I've got 3 spare fingers most of the time. Definitely gonna put some time into it now and see if I can cut back on a few stomps that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted May 19, 2011 Author Share Posted May 19, 2011 What bass do you play? Does it have an onboard eq? Even if it doesn't there's a wealth of possibilities even with just one pickup, a volume control and a tone control, and (more importantly) your fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotticus Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 I'm playing a Warwick Corvette $$ at the moment, so potentially ridiculous amounts of sounds with the fancy switching you can do and the onboard EQ. Seems daft that I've only ever twiddled to get a good starter tone to work from for a song out of it and never changed anything on the fly now you've pointed it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 Yea it's worth working out various different sounds from the bass in isolation, and also in combination with different techniques and plucking positions, as well as different ways to pluck the strings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Sounds like a cool idea! - There are some modules on the (now fairly old) Tc Electronics GForce that allowed a player to control parameters of all of the effects blocks in the same way. I really liked my TC, so I think this is a great idea. for example, speeding up delays as you play a higher pitch or swelling between tremolos and phasers depending on how hard you play adds some real depth to a sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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