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I was in Portland last weekend, so of course I went to PGS's retail store in the Pearl District. Such a cool place.
I had a mission: get a killer delay pedal to run in the effects loop of my Mark V. One delay to rule them all. I knew that the X4 had just come out, but going in I wasn't certain it would be the one I took home. I was trying nearly every tap tempo delay in the store, including strong contenders such as the Memory Lane Jr. and the Empress Superdelay VM.
The Flashback X4 wins in every category:
- sounds great
- easy to use
- lots of versatility
Plus it's an excellent looper, which was something I was looking to get at some point anyway.
The three presets are great to have, since I like to have many types of delay available. On mine, I set the first one up with the Space Echo clone (not exactly as nice as a real RE-201, but a great sounding modded delay nonetheless) with quarter note repeats and moderate feedback. I am using this one the most right now.
The second preset is meant to do what I was doing with my Aqua Puss: analog mode (surprisingly good facimile of a bucket brigade delay), short time, lots of feedback. This is great for ambient, volume swell-type stuff.
I keep changing my mind on the third preset. For now I'm keeping it in 2290 mode for a tight, focused digital delay.
I haven't even scratched the surface of the Toneprint stuff yet. It's a pretty cool feature though.
I played the X4 in rehearsal today, and the band was gobsmacked. We all loved it. I've used plenty of delays in this band, but this was the first time I've had anyone else tell me my delay tone was awesome. The guys kept combing through our catalog for songs that had delay in them so we could keep hearing it. I've never had that reaction to a new pedal before. Everything it touched filled the room with lush, organic echo, and my dry tone sounded weak in comparison. I might just leave it on all the time, but set preset 3 up as an ultra-short doubling effect. Maybe.
Only negative points I can think of:
- It's physically very large. It replaced two pedals on my board, and I had to do a major board overhaul ... otherwise I would have had no hope of accommodating it.
- It has MIDI, but in and thru only (i.e. it will not produce MIDI messages itself) and it's not configurable in any way. I was hoping I could use it to send tempo changes to my M5. I guess I could have the M5 send tempo to the X4, but I much prefer the feel of the more rugged switches on the X4 for tapping.
Those are both very minor complaints for me, especially the MIDI one.
So yeah, emphatic thumbs up for the Flashback X4. Anyone who wants a tap tempo delay would be foolish to ignore it.
I had a mission: get a killer delay pedal to run in the effects loop of my Mark V. One delay to rule them all. I knew that the X4 had just come out, but going in I wasn't certain it would be the one I took home. I was trying nearly every tap tempo delay in the store, including strong contenders such as the Memory Lane Jr. and the Empress Superdelay VM.
The Flashback X4 wins in every category:
- sounds great
- easy to use
- lots of versatility
Plus it's an excellent looper, which was something I was looking to get at some point anyway.
The three presets are great to have, since I like to have many types of delay available. On mine, I set the first one up with the Space Echo clone (not exactly as nice as a real RE-201, but a great sounding modded delay nonetheless) with quarter note repeats and moderate feedback. I am using this one the most right now.
The second preset is meant to do what I was doing with my Aqua Puss: analog mode (surprisingly good facimile of a bucket brigade delay), short time, lots of feedback. This is great for ambient, volume swell-type stuff.
I keep changing my mind on the third preset. For now I'm keeping it in 2290 mode for a tight, focused digital delay.
I haven't even scratched the surface of the Toneprint stuff yet. It's a pretty cool feature though.
I played the X4 in rehearsal today, and the band was gobsmacked. We all loved it. I've used plenty of delays in this band, but this was the first time I've had anyone else tell me my delay tone was awesome. The guys kept combing through our catalog for songs that had delay in them so we could keep hearing it. I've never had that reaction to a new pedal before. Everything it touched filled the room with lush, organic echo, and my dry tone sounded weak in comparison. I might just leave it on all the time, but set preset 3 up as an ultra-short doubling effect. Maybe.
Only negative points I can think of:
- It's physically very large. It replaced two pedals on my board, and I had to do a major board overhaul ... otherwise I would have had no hope of accommodating it.
- It has MIDI, but in and thru only (i.e. it will not produce MIDI messages itself) and it's not configurable in any way. I was hoping I could use it to send tempo changes to my M5. I guess I could have the M5 send tempo to the X4, but I much prefer the feel of the more rugged switches on the X4 for tapping.
Those are both very minor complaints for me, especially the MIDI one.
So yeah, emphatic thumbs up for the Flashback X4. Anyone who wants a tap tempo delay would be foolish to ignore it.
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