Akai New Headrush: looks like a Helix! (Best thread version)

Bridgehouse

The real problem here is Track record as well - not theirs, but Line 6's.

The Helix updates have been consistent, good quality, and meaningful. Line 6 really do have a good team and the fact that they have built up trust will be difficult to compete against - even at this price point.

Having said that, Helix Native - assuming it's not a coding f-up has pretty much made a lot of this irrelevant anyway. 

digitalscream

Another headscratcher is the name. I know the parent company (InMusic) own the Akai brand, but while they can quite legally nab the Headrush name, the wisdom of doing so is questionable. If you want to see why, just try searching for something to do with this thing on YouTube without using the terms "NAMM" and "2017".

EricTheWeary

John_A said:

Sure it's just early days, and the demonstrator hasn't had any time with it, bet it's going to sound great but with the Helix going from strength to strength with all the updates they have some catching up to do

I'm presuming that NAMM is one of the most important showcases for new gear ( gets reported on every guitar gear website, lots on YouTube channels, it's where many dealers get to see stuff for the first time)so having a demonstrator who hasn't had time that get the hang of it seems a bit of a cock up. It's not helping. 

digitalscream

EricTheWeary said:

John_A said:

Sure it's just early days, and the demonstrator hasn't had any time with it, bet it's going to sound great but with the Helix going from strength to strength with all the updates they have some catching up to do

I'm presuming that NAMM is one of the most important showcases for new gear ( gets reported on every guitar gear website, lots on YouTube channels, it's where many dealers get to see stuff for the first time)so having a demonstrator who hasn't had time that get the hang of it seems a bit of a cock up. It's not helping. 

I know he's had it for at least a month - he's recorded some tracks for his band with it, and he released one a couple of weeks ago. He's also the main "content creator" for Headrush; presumably the guy who's creating all the patches. If he can't figure it out...

mr-mac

Did it say it was based on an eleven rack anywhere? I saw it said plenty of times it was based on i think Eleven plugin ie. computer based tool for recording and applying tones... This to me means it has very little specific audio hardware or any analogue distorion stages or anything clever like that. What I think it is we have here is small, low power, low heat cpu's have become powerful enough to run their full protools software plugin and that's all it is. A tablet like computer in a box running purely software with basic ADC/DAC's hung off it, throw on a screen and some switches and that's it. I'll even go as far as bet the line outs Are supplied directly off an all in one dac solution and not given a proper driver....

I am also going to predict every manufacturer and their dog are going to go this way to be able to provide a cheap solution like line 6 stuff.   

Now if you gave me something clever here like a base OS that allowed me to load in any pro tools plugin I wanted that may he cool. Could choose amp modelling, effects and Cab modelling plugin you wanted from any company (that would be very clever if was powerful enough to keep latency down). Add some quality ADC, DAC and maybe some analogue goodies in a plugin that comes with base OS... That could actually be a compelling system.

Teetonetal

@mr-mac ;There was a pedal called vped that was able to run vst plugins in a foot pedal format. Was short lived and company went bust. 

mr-mac

Teetonetal said:

@mr-mac ;There was a pedal called vped that was able to run vst plugins in a foot pedal format. Was short lived and company went bust. 

I mean now though. Hardware power is probably getting to point it can handle multiple plugins as blocks so could soon be at stage it could make a compelling route... But in mean time I think we will see a lot of things like this hit market that are software only and touchscreen hitting quite low price points

mr-mac

And got a feeling a lot will be ok but not compelling

therose789

digitalscream said:

Gee, that went well...dude went on the same schpiel that he did on all the other videos out there, and as soon as it departs...oh dear.

Best thing about that video was danish Pete's cheeky wink at the camera at about 10 mins in. 

I totally get who their target audience is but it really isn't for me. 

gibsongretschfan

S-Gear pedal in a 6 button compact format about the size of an M9 anyone?

gearaddict

Yeah, the touch screen puts me off tbh. I can just see that having a pint spilled over it and resetting my jazz cleans to Dimebag destruction or something. 

gearaddict

No more on this then?

I have been very much enjoying the flexibility of the Pod HD500X. I have the expression pedal set up to control the distortion level on the amp, which is an awesome thing It means a single patch covers a huge amount of ground and is super tweakable on the fly...but it would be nice to have something with more awesome sounding amp models. I'm hoping the Headrush might be that coz I'd rather not have to fork out for a Fractal or a Helix. 

digitalscream

gearaddict said:

No more on this then?

I have been very much enjoying the flexibility of the Pod HD500X. I have the expression pedal set up to control the distortion level on the amp, which is an awesome thing It means a single patch covers a huge amount of ground and is super tweakable on the fly...but it would be nice to have something with more awesome sounding amp models. I'm hoping the Headrush might be that coz I'd rather not have to fork out for a Fractal or a Helix. 

Nope - they're not exactly being forthcoming with information (especially on the topics I mentioned earlier), and the release date is supposed to be April. I suspect we won't hear anything until 30th April.

Bridgehouse

This is turning into the Star Citizen of the guitar world...

digitalscream

Bridgehouse said:

This is turning into the Star Citizen of the guitar world...

I think that's a bit excessive, but...if you're going to make a surprise announcement of a product nobody was expecting, the worst thing in the world is to say "it'll be ready in a few months". I mean..."Hey, we're starting a cool new project, will be available in a couple of years!" is OK, and "We've been working on a cool new thing in secret, you can have one now!" is bonzer.

A sorta-kinda-maybe halfway house just seems like a copout. It says "We thought we'd have it ready, but couldn't quite manage it", which doesn't bode well.

Bridgehouse

digitalscream said:

A sorta-kinda-maybe halfway house just seems like a copout. It says "We thought we'd have it ready, but couldn't quite manage it", which doesn't bode well.

That sums up Star Citizen for me perfectly.. I stand by my original statement

digitalscream

Bridgehouse said:

digitalscream said:

A sorta-kinda-maybe halfway house just seems like a copout. It says "We thought we'd have it ready, but couldn't quite manage it", which doesn't bode well.

That sums up Star Citizen for me perfectly.. I stand by my original statement

My point was that I don't think there's been any point in Star Citizen's development where they considered "having it ready" to be a realistic prospect

Bridgehouse

digitalscream said:

Bridgehouse said:

digitalscream said:

A sorta-kinda-maybe halfway house just seems like a copout. It says "We thought we'd have it ready, but couldn't quite manage it", which doesn't bode well.

That sums up Star Citizen for me perfectly.. I stand by my original statement

My point was that I don't think there's been any point in Star Citizen's development where they considered "having it ready" to be a realistic prospect

Good point, but the correlation between getting people's hopes up and answering questions with real answers is pretty similar

I'll stick with Elite Dangerous, er, I mean my Helix..

professorben

digitalscream said:

Bridgehouse said:

This is turning into the Star Citizen of the guitar world...

I think that's a bit excessive, but...if you're going to make a surprise announcement of a product nobody was expecting, the worst thing in the world is to say "it'll be ready in a few months". I mean..."Hey, we're starting a cool new project, will be available in a couple of years!" is OK, and "We've been working on a cool new thing in secret, you can have one now!" is bonzer.

A sorta-kinda-maybe halfway house just seems like a copout. It says "We thought we'd have it ready, but couldn't quite manage it", which doesn't bode well.

What's Star Citizen?

vasselmeyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Citizen