Harley Benton MP-500

[MichaelDean]

I was nosing around on Thomann earlier and came across the MP-500. To the uninitiated, it is an audio interface you can hook up to an iOS device or computer and then control a virtual rig with the footswitches.

 

Anyone tried it out? Seems like an interesting alternative to a helix. 

 

Link: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_mp_500_interface_foot_control.htm

[stewblack]

Can you indulge me? Take me through how this works would you? Is it for studio work? Surely you can't be expected to lug a laptop onto the stage? Or can you programme sounds at home then store stuff on it? 

I'm intrigued... and very, very new to all this midi stuff. 

(I have already 4X'd someone off asking questions about this kind of thing, so please let me know if I get annoying) 

[MichaelDean]

I don't know more than I read from the product description and reviews, I was hoping to hear from someone with real world experience!

It's basically a multi-effects pedal but using your iPhone, iPad or computer for doing all of the audio processing. You plug in your bass, send the out to your amp/PA/poweramp/other, and plug in your chosen device via USB. From the device, you can then load up an app, use the effects/amps from there and turn them on or off with the footswitches. No idea how well it works, but I thought it was an interesting approach.

Plus if you don't like the available sounds in the app you have, getting a new app should have a lower outlay than deciding you don't like your Helix and buying a Kemper. That and most people update their phones every few years, so apps will probably keep improving as your phone does.

The drawback that spring to mind are that app updates sometimes do weird things which can change or remove functionality. I used to be in a band where the guitarist looped everything live, so after using a mixer for ages, we ended up running in ears going through his laptop. It took a really long time to get that set-up right. It was really powerful once we had it all in place though. He even started adding additional crazy reverbs to his signal before feeding it back to his pedalboard and we added our own effects to the singer's mic before sending it to FOH.

[Elfrasho]

Dont get me wrong, I get the idea of this kind of set up, and no doubt it will get more popular as it gets cheaper. However, I still think there's a fundamental problem with having things like ipads and laptops as your main audio source, for live gigs. Its just another thing to go wrong, or another set of problems  you'll need to overcome. Dedicated boxes just work.  You switch them on, and they work. If you've mucked about with settings so much that you can't get a good sound, you just factory reset. Dead easy. I just don't think this type of setup really gives enough of an advantage unless you're going into timed delays and programmed reverbs etc, then of course doing all that on a laptop or ipad would be far easier. But lets be honest, most folk dont do that. And most of the folk that do that, are wasting their time doing that. Might sound great through their IEM's but out front there almost nothing of an audible improvement.

 

To be fair though, it's nuts to think we can now have a mobile phone as your 'amp'. What a time to be alive!!

[MichaelDean]

Yeah, it's all a bit mad isn't it! The guitarist in the last band I was last in decided to replace all of his pedals with a helix because he was sick of the various things that go wrong with patch cables. After a while he decided he wasn't using the helix to it's full potential, sold it and went back to pedals. He then spent the first practice with individual pedals trying to troubleshoot it! 

There's pros and cons to every setup. 

[songofthewind]

Videos about variously branded versions of this on YouTube.