Headrush Prime- 4 Month Review

[Chris6542]

Four months now with the Headrush Prime and its been quite a journey. The verdict, it's truly a great sounding piece of kit that does so much at a great price, but you must get to know it and explore it's capabilities, never a quick process. As owner of a Kemper Stage (two incredible machines), I can say the Prime delivers wonderfully on tone if you have good rigs (such as built by Daniel Kramer on YouTube which he sells for like $13 for about 25 killer patches), mostly capture rigs (modeling tones are "good", but the capture tones are excellent, I personally feel modeling is done, captures will dominate now). With someone who knows how to properly build capture rigs, the Prime sounds as good as anything, but knowing what you're doing in building rigs can't be overstated. This is a really complex machine that can sound as amazing or lackluster as YOU program it. The more time I spend with it, the more I love it, plus I find it really inspiring as it does kinda have its own personality, offering unique tones that have songwriting ideas running through my head, perhaps the ultimate compliment. This machine will stoke your creativity like no other I've played, it's really unique. I think people who get caught up in comparing gear too much are missing the point of what everything brings to the table. Are Bogner tones better than Soldano tones, nope. Are Soldano tones better than Bogner tones, nope, they're just different, an outlook people should use when evaluating modelers. My Kemper Stage is amazing, but so is the Prime, both in their own way. Would I ever sell either machine.....nope. Would I ever sell my SLO or Ecstacy, nope, as they bring different things to the table. Is the Prime big and heavy, yes for sure, but I happen to be a guy who likes big meaty things. It's a phenomenal machine that rocks amp captures, great tones & effects, a terrific Cloud full of both capture and modeling patches (rigs), a great practice tool you can import say backing/drum tracks to stoke that creativity, and more. The only thing I'm still working through is the workflow aspect of the machine between scenes, songs, and the way they chose to organize the workflow....still working on becoming one with the workflow, but it's more me than the machine. So in closing, don't let anyone tell you this is "B-Tier" sounds, it's not, it can do A-Tier tones for sure, but as a real complex piece of machinery, you have to know what you're doing building rigs, or better yet buy proven awesome patches from talented people like Daniel Kramer on YT which will have your Prime sounding true A-Tier for sure. For $1300 new, it's a steal. The more time you spend with it, the more you appreciate it's abilities & personality. Never judge any unit, new or old on modeling presets ever, merely starting points programmed by software engineers. The Prime delivers for sure, but you have to know what you're doing with it. My 2 cents...

[Top-L]

It is intriguing. A full-featured mature mfx that can do captures. I think this competes against the Quad Cortex, which apparently has issues.

The only negative I heard about the Prime captures is that they have a ton of latency while playing. Do you experience latency while playing captures?

[DankStar]

Still digging this unit? I didn't realize it at the time, but you posted this the same month the Core model came out. That one is looking really good to me.

I was bummed at first when I realized it didn't have a JS peavey but I think the XXX II is the same amp right?

How's the noise gate treating you? I didn't like the one on the mx5 (the core [and probably the prime] has that one but one more, so that's promising).

I'd love to play with the amp cloning feature too. How do you like that? I read a youtube vid response that they fixed the latency issue - that true?

The Core has a price that I think is fitting for such a unit (not a fan of >$1K modelers given how fast things change).