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How good is the Elephant Man model?


GingerLefty
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Apologies for the click bait title, I promise you that this is not click bait. Let me in good faith say up front that it is incredibly good, and therefore nobody ever needs to click the video. 

If you’re still here.... I have owned my Deluxe memory man since 2004, and I know it very well. I haven’t seen a comparison anywhere before so I decided to do one myself. If you want to hear just how accurate the model is to the real deal have a listen. I think anyone would be impressed. 

https://youtu.be/_ZLPTCT8zDs

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1 hour ago, soundog said:

Nice comparison! It makes me appreciate just how much time must have gone into the Helix modeling of any given stomp box.

Thank you. I was very impressed. It also means that I can run dual memory man setups without the extra DSP load. 

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Nice review, it does sound good! Seeing as you have a good long history with this pedal in its “natural habitat”, is there a significant change in the feel/sound of the actual pedal having it in a loop after the amp as opposed to in front?

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5 hours ago, Verne-Bunsen said:

Nice review, it does sound good! Seeing as you have a good long history with this pedal in its “natural habitat”, is there a significant change in the feel/sound of the actual pedal having it in a loop after the amp as opposed to in front?

The differences are minor and really not an issue. For me a modeller is all about how it performs sonically. The ‘feel’ is very much a non issue for me. I don’t go in expecting them to have the same feel, but when a model sounds as good as this one does, I am damn impressed. 

I have always had real amps with fx loops, so I have very rarely put the DMM in front of an amp. The main difference running it in front is that you can use the preamp in the pedal to give the amp a bit more juice, but I prefer to do this with other pedals. 

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3 hours ago, GingerLefty said:

The differences are minor and really not an issue. (...) I am damn impressed.

Well I am not :( You can make similar shootout of Squire Bullet vs Fender Stratocaster Deluxe asserting the difference is not an issue. Yes, in some circumstances like you have created in your video it is not.
I am not talking about details, but all Helix bucket brigade devices are not modelled correctly. They are muffled, overfiltered and do not have that BBD chime. Now I have only Memory Toy to compare but even MT is superior to Hx BBD models. I know buckets are hard to simulate. Strymon is close but at the expense of high DSP usage. Avid Separates 
BBD Delay plugin is also good. Can Hx model do the job? Yes, just like Bullet can mimic the Strat.
Please take a look how Shnobel make various DMMs shootout - to show the details that can be important:

 

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Yes I have listened carefully. If I wanted to make a video showing there is no important difference between EHX DMM and Line 6 Elephant Man I would do it just like you did. ;)
To make a video giving some justice I would make it like Shnobel.
If you seriously ask me for advice - please notice that grainy distortion  often called "chime" BBD chips deliver  Focus a little on how they are degraded with each repetition on longer delay times. Use some brighter tone.
BTW: I have Superlux HD660 and Beyerdynamic DT770. The difference is somewhat similar and yes I can agree HD660 can do the job. ;)

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It has always been my understanding (correct or incorrect as it may be) that the grainy distortion comes from the preamp in the pedal which you can push the amp a bit with. 

Also, I made the ‘Differences are minor’ comment to Verne Bunsen above, not in my video and his question was about FX loops vs front of amp. 

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Yeah. It can be the case too. Boss CE1 used to have preamp clipping that some guitarists loved. Delays dry paths are usually not transparent at all. When I compare for my own purposes I try to avoid converters influence. To be clear - I do not like to criticize things. Some Helix models sounds better to me than their analog counterparts. In my opinion BBD models don't come close. I do not know if they could be modelled better in respect to limited DSP resources. UAD Boss CE1 modell is outstanding - how much Sharc DSP processing power it eats? I dunno...  :(

 

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2 hours ago, zolko60 said:

Yeah. It can be the case too. Boss CE1 used to have preamp clipping that some guitarists loved. Delays dry paths are usually not transparent at all. When I compare for my own purposes I try to avoid converters influence. To be clear - I do not like to criticize things. Some Helix models sounds better to me than their analog counterparts. In my opinion BBD models don't come close. I do not know if they could be modelled better in respect to limited DSP resources. UAD Boss CE1 modell is outstanding - how much Sharc DSP processing power it eats? I dunno...  :(

 

 

As a tidbit, messing with the Elephant Man last night, it didn't seem to be one of the more DSP heavy users in the HX. 

3 hours ago, GingerLefty said:

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but did you really listen to the clip? Nothing muffled there IMO, and has that lovely glassy quality (you say chime). How more transparent a comparison do you think I could have done?

 

I really liked it. In fact, it inspired me to mess around with it last night because I didn't even realize it had a Memory Man model. At least for me, no desire to go buy the real one at this point. 

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1 hour ago, Kilrahi said:

no desire to go buy the real one at this point. 

Sure. DMM is clumsy I would not buy it either, but speaking about models even Amplitube buckets are better. Sound Toys EchoBoy is almost a cigar.
Speaking of Andy Summers: Amplitube model of EHX Electric Mistress, another iconic BBD flanger, is awesome, when I compare it to Hx model I want to cry... but Amplitube CE-1 model is crap just like Helix one.

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