HX Effects Advice

[Al81]

Hi All, new to forum and investigating the  potential purchase of the HX effects.

So.... I'm currently running a pedal board that's not huge in size and obviously I have run out of room for all my needs/wants!!.

I don't want to get a bigger board so considering the HX effects to help reduce things down, hopefully replacing 90% of my pedals.

Ideal current set up on my board if I had the room.

Front of tube amp
Tuner
Wah
Octaver
Fuzz
OD 1
OD 2
Preamp

FX loop
Flanger
Phaser
Tremolo
Random crazy fx 1
Random crazy fx 2
Delay 1
Delay2
Reverb

I'm happy to bin off all my modulation pedals and just use the HX for all my modulation. Easy peasy

If I wanted to keep some of my favourite pedals but also use some other FX on the HX I can see this being an issue.

Example 1. I'm using my stand alone OD and the HX Wah(with expression pedal) but prefer wah before OD. Is there any option where your guitar signal goes into the HX signal chain?

Example 2: A stand alone modulation pedal (that HX can't do) that I want running into FX loop but HX is already doing so.

I've tried to do some research but can't find the answer. There seems to be so many options with the HX. 

The HX does look really good but I am a bit apprehensive going full digital right off the bat and building patches for everything :)

Also any feedback on what the preamps and Octavers are like on the HX would be appreciated. Are the octavers polyphonic? I do love my echoplex preamp and Octaver (T-rex quint) I'd have a hard time moving T-rex off my board.

[Kilrahi]

I'm worried I don't understand your questions.

 

For example, on question 1, you're just wondering if you can have the HX wah before your "real" OD pedal? The answer is yes, use an FX block. However, in question 2 you mention the FX block which means you must know about them, so I'm thinking I don't get what you're asking?

 

As for question 2 ... huh? I have no idea what you're asking here. You want to use a "real" modulation pedal but you can't because your HX Effects is already using a modulation block? That's how I understand that question but the solution is too obvious (remove the HX block) so that must not be what you mean.

[bobcoss]

Hi Al,

 

I have both the Helix and the HXE.  I mostly use the Helix now.    You will be able to replace many of your pedals with the HXE.  The overdrive/distortions are fantastic.   You will likely not need the echoplex for a boost because of the wonderfull pedals modeled in the HX.    I think the consensus is that you will want to continue to use your octaver depending on how you use it.  There are some nice delays and reverbs that do polyphonic intervals however you set them.  I am content with them personally.  You only get 9 blocks in the HXE and it's possible to run out of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) depending on what kinds of blocks you are using.     You can put the HXE Wah at the beginning of your chain and it will sound great.  But if you have a Wah you like, that would be one of the pedals I would keep because because the HXE doesn't come with an expression pedal.

 

Lets say you want to use your favorite flanger pedal.  You can use a send/return block (uses 1 of the 9 avaialble) to insert it into the chain wherever you want.   I don't think you will have any problems there. 

 

You can for example consider having your HXE path split into two sections.  Here might be how It could look.

 

Guitar -> Tuner pedal -> Wah Pedal ->  T-Rex ->

HXE In [ -> Facial Fuzz -> Tone Sovereign -> Teemah ->  HXE Send ] -> Preamp Pedal -> Flanger pedal -> Phaser pedal ->

HXE return [ -> Tremolo -> other effect block -> another effect block -> Digital Delay -> Tape Delay -> Hall Reverb ] HXE Out  ->

Favorite old Reverb Pedal ->  amp guitar in.

 

If you want to, you can use the 4 cable method to user your amp's preamp like this.

Guitar -> Tuner pedal -> Wah Pedal ->  T-Rex ->

HXE In [ -> Facial Fuzz -> Tone Sovereign -> Teemah ->  HXE Send ] -> Guitar Amp In

Guitar Amp Send -> Flanger pedal -> Phaser pedal ->

HXE return [ -> Tremolo -> other effect block -> another effect block -> Digital Delay -> Tape Delay -> Hall Reverb ] HXE Out  ->

Favorite old Reverb Pedal ->  Guitar Amp Return

 

Lots of flexibilitly.  You can put your pedals anywhere in the chain.  You are just limited to 9 blocks including the send/return block

 

Bob

 

[ajb1965]

Hi,

 

The HX effects integrates with existing stomp boxes very easily.  It is limited with only 2 loops but you can get really creative.  I did that for quite a while and here's how I had everything set up.  The time based effects that I owned and always kept in my amps FX loop were plugged into the physical cable chain heading to and from my amps FX loop.  They were all MIDI capable so I used MIDI CC and PC messages sent by the HX in Snapshots to change parameters etc per patch.   I kept my 3 drives, fuzz, and compressor in front of the HX just like they were going in front of an amp.  The few odd pedals that I wasn't always sure where I wanted them were chained together and placed in the HX's other send/receive loop so I could put them anywhere, even route them into my amps FX loop if I wanted to.

 

If you want to get REAL creative,  you can always get a MIDI capable loop switcher like a Boss ES5 or ES8 and place them into the HX loop and use MIDI to control it all. 

 

Bottom line is there are always options.  Just be aware when you are using either of the HX loops you need to be mindful of the levels and make sure all your ins/outs are set accordingly for Inst or Line.

 

Best of luck!