Rack FX Units - which one?

[7 Dying Trees]

After coming to the conclusion that My setup is no longer really practical for hoofing around, I think it's time to upgrade my FX Unit to a rack based one. Unfortunately I know little to nothing about them. I've owned a boss gt-5 for coming up to 5 years now, which has served me well, but having a mass multitude of cables running back and forth doesn't help, and is very messy floorwise. It also can't be used for the continous control on my triaxis.

So I am looking into rack units and floor controllers. The floorcontroller may have to wait for a while, but the FX unit is something high up on the list at the moment.

What I need it to have is the following:
->A stereo return FX loop and stereo out (this should be quite easy), are there any ones which have multiple loops? This would be nice if another preamp was acquired.
->Ability to reorder effects including the position of the FX loop
->Tons of stuff to play around with, would be nice if parameters could be controlled by midi
->fairly easy to use (good user interface), as I don't want to have to spend years mucking about with it every time I want to tweak
->switching controls, nice o/p jacks that'll allow some fun switching and the like.
->DON'T NEED any modelling of any kind or simulators, as I never use that anyway.
->A nice harmoniser/pitchshifter would be good, one that works well.
->Lots of flashy lights is a bonus.

Don't know how much I am looking to spend yet, so recomendations and ANY ADVICE would be really cool. Manufacturers, models, the lot. Also if you could explain why it's really good, then that would be really cool! The only thing I know I don't want is anything POD/amp modelling like.

Once I've got a whole bunch of stuff to look at, I can go hunting round harmony cebtral for reviews nd pricing, and then get it down to a couple of options!

Thanks in advance for all the replies,

James

[Gresh]

Check into the TC ELectronics stuff, the G force or the G Major. *I don't have personal experience with either, but reviews just gush about the quality of the effects. *One is reasonably priced the other is pretty steep, full on pro type stuff.

[RSVampire]

I agree with Gresh...those 2 are like the best for effects (chorus, reverb, flanger, delay)(IMO)...as far as harmonizers go the Eventides are the best in that sector. Prices are pretty steep, but you can't beat the quality.

[littlegreenman]

James

I highly recommend the Alesis quadraverb GT or Quadraverb 2. *They are still some of my favorite processors for guitar. *Even with my Eventide, I use the verb's and chorus's off of the alesis. *
They don't have a pitch shifter at all, but the bonus is, you can get them for low dollars all the time!
worth checking out!

[rgr]

For effects I would recommend also checking out the Lexicon MPX-200 or the TC Electronics M-One. *

$0.02,
Roger

[texshred777]

i agree about the t.c electronics stuff...great gear...especially the choruses in either
the g-major or the g-force...another if you plan on spending big dough, is the
lexicon mpx g2, which is awesome...jp used it and halfed the size of his rack/s...haha...
of course...that doesn't say much...it would still take a small group of buff little people
to carry it around...(wanna be a rodie cody?)
christopher

[cerealk]

if you want to try out the G-major (again!-you played through it on Jan 12th!!!) then you can pop over to mine and give it a go.

From my experience the following were poor
Alesis Quadraverb
ART Multiverb alpha II
Marshall JFX-1

The Lexicon Reflex had good reverb but changes between patches was slow and you couldnt do multieffects (all i wanted to do was delay/reverb or chorus/delay)

Dont be misled by the cheaper price of the G Major it really is very good and has much of the features of the G-Force. *It has lots of dynamic midi control features and is very easy to program.
I got mine for £429 at Turnkey.

The one thing it does lack is a harmoniser.

I played through Rob's Balducci's (old) rig which had an Eventide harmoniser in it which was great but might not fit in your budget!
He also had a Rocktron Intellifex (which Herman has as well) which sounded good.

Other options may include (i havent used these)
TC electronic units M-one, D-two
Lexicon MPX range
etc.

As for floor controllers I am actually selling an ADA MC-1 midi pedal but it doesnt have a dynamic midi foot pedal.

The best pedal (all in one) is probably the Lexicon R1
A cheaper alternative to that is the ART X-15 which is the midi pedal I currently have

others *(i havent used these)
Digitech ground control (although I used Mr. Balducci's)
Rocktron midi mate
Rocktron all access (similar to Bob Bradshaw switching systems)
Roland FC-200 (big and heavy but does have lots of features and bulit in dynamic midi pedals)

If you want to talk rack sh*t
over a few beers you know where to come

Cheers

Simon

[jeffrey]

G-Force! There is no substitute.

[Jeroenn]

jeffrey on 4:25 am on Feb. 17, 2002
G-Force! There is no substitute.

Yes there is.. The G-major. Although not as advanced as the G-force, it's has a *lot*, and is a helluvalot cheaper. It's very clean, very transparant, and highly tweakable.

[bduersch]

As far as the Lexicon MPX series goes, I have a hard time recommending it as a sole FX processor. I have an MPX500. It switches rather slow via MIDI, and your FX drop out during the period that it's switching. I would only assume that the MPX200 and MPX100 suffer from the same shortcomings since they're somewhat cheaper models. The delay and reverb effects in the Lexicons are pretty good, but I've never fallen in love with any of the modulation effects (chorus, flange, etc).

I'm planning on using both a G-Major and MPX500 in my rig. The G-Major will be used for all choruses, delays, etc. The MPX500 will only be used for reverb--I'm taking the "set it and forget it" approach, so all my patches will have the same reverb level. As of this point in time, I haven't actually played the G-Major, so I can't give any constructive feedback on it, but I should have it early this week and will be able to give some more details then. (I bought it based upon all the glowing reviews I'd read and also I got the G-Major demo CD from the TC Electronics website)

--B

[djrjems]

If you wanna save a few bucks, dig up a used Rocktron Replifex. *Almost identical to the G-Major in terms of effects included . . . if I recall, the G-Major has a tuner, but the Replifex has Rotary Speaker and Speaker Emulation.

The Replifex is terribly simple to program, offers latch switching of 2 external devices and you can find 'em for under $300. *It's a heck of an "all-in-one" effects box for the money. *The Rocktron Intellifex doesn't have as many effects (just the basics - Chorus, Delay, Reverb & Ducking) but I've heard wonderful things about the quality of its effects. *For instance it has an 8-voice chorus like an Eventide. *Most reviews I've read imply that the Replifex user interface is more straight-forward than the user interface of the Intellifex. *A used Intellifex Online can be had for under $300 too. *I went with the Replifex 'cause I like my bells and whistles and I like a simple interface :biggrin:

Here's a link to the Replifex user manual: Rocktron Replifex. *There's also a PDF version available at rocktron.com under support, manual library. *Good luck!

[jeffrey]

I agree the G-Major is very nice.

But I've spent an enormous amount of time with both. I have a G-Force and a close friend has a G-Major. The G-Major is really nice, especially for the money, but in raw ability it really doesn't compare.

I suppose it also makes a huge difference as to what exactly you want to do. If you never want the sort of things the G-Force is capable of, then the G-Major will probably be great for you.