Let's talk Lexicon VORTEX!

[Jackie Treehorn]

I'm just scratching the surface, but the tap tempo and ability to do various rhythm aligning between the two delay lines so simply is definitely amazing.

I can't believe these things aren't more popular considering they go for <$150. I haven't gotten into all the sounds, but I'm pretty happy with just the delays. I did a touch sensitive vibrato/delay thing that works really well with pinky swells. The tremolo looks like it will be equally as impressive. Also, some looping! Without a doubt, a singular box!

Is anyone else using this unit? Which sounds? etc..

[TheGrooveking]

The aerosol preset is one of my favs, I have two of these and agree I do not know why more players don't use them. You can morph between two presets A and B. It's midi capable and it has excellent sonic qualities, some of it's capabilities are in the MPX-1.

TheGrooveking

[Jackie Treehorn]

The aerosol preset is one of my favs, I have two of these and agree I do not know why more players don't use them. You can morph between two presets A and B. It's midi capable and it has excellent sonic qualities, some of it's capabilities are in the MPX-1.

TheGrooveking

Are you running stereo? I'm just doing wet/dry, so I'm probably not getting the most out of it. Are you actually using two at once?

One aspect which I think is really nice is setting the envelope so the effects get more intense as the notes decay. It kind of picks up where the amp lets off in keeping motion in the sound, etc.

I haven't gotten into the morphing much at all. I understand it from the standpoint of setting rotary speeds/vibrato/tremolo rates slow & fast, but I'm wondering what it will do with some very different style effects over long morph times. Are you doing anything unusual with the morphing?

[KustietheKlown]

I am a madman with the vortex. i have one in my pedalboard, mounted under the top level. plus a custom made unit that replaces the 2 stomp pedals and puts all their functions in one 4 button pedal (found it on ebay). also use the expression pedal for all sorts of morphing madness. i find myself using the vortex more than anything else. believe it or not, i like the leslie sound on it. i've made all sorts of custom patches, i don't think any of mine are the factory presets anymore, except maybe a couple of 3 dimensional reverbs where the echo modulates off. a truly beautiful unit. i like the tremolo on the vortex better than the TR 2, mainly because you can program in all sorts of speed changes during the decay. i have a great sound that starts as a nice slow choppy trem in the heel position and then as you move to the toe position it speeds up the trem to the point where all the way down on the toe position it becomes a straight up robot noise. the looper on it is excellent as well-- i do a lot of solo stuff and find that if i get a nice little base level loop going and then run THAT through the boss loop station, i can get huge sounding, LONG loops that are perfectly in rhythm. when the boss loop starts over the vortex loop is still going perfectly in time, and i find that does really well to mask when my boss loop is slightly off rhythm. with the vortex it all works out. i also love to set really long preset a/b morphs that take 20 seconds to switch and you get all manner of sounds in between. a truly awesome machine, my secret weapon for sure.

another thing it's great for is i have a DD20 before the vortex, and i can make good infinite loops on the DD20 and then send them into the vortex and do all sorts of tweaking and modulation on the fly.

I love the vortex's flanger as well.

All the sounds on the vortex are kind of digital for sure, but that's part of its greatness. i can also run a dry signal into the DD20 that is parallel to the vortex, and they all come back together right before the loop station.

Just a couple of hours ago i made an awesome improv performance of paul simon's "can't run but" using the vortex.

Oh yeah also to counteract the slight volume drop on the leslie sound i run an MXR eq after the vortex to give it a little boost when i need it.

+100000000000 on the vortex. grab one if you get a chance, it's a whale of a device for the money and it's a crime they never caught on. actually, i take that back because i'm glad i'm one of the only players with one under the hood.

[KRosser]

I used to have one, used it for a few years in the mid/late 90's. When I had it I used it a lot.

I definitely miss it.

[simeon]

yeah, i had two at various points in the 90's

i loved them, but for some strange reason, lexicon saw fit to make them run at +4db instead of -10db, which meant they never sat well with all my other rack stuff that was (and is) running at -10db

great unit though....especially for processing loops

sim

[threm]

Andy Butlers Vortex site
http://www.andybutler.com/vortex/vortex.htm

Manual etc
http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/vortex/vortex.html

[Creamy]

Butler's site is great. I'm in the process of rediscovering the Vortex. I would recommend it for the morphing possibilites, alone. So if you haven't done so yet, hook it up with the expression pedal. Cool stereo stuff too. You can have echoes on 1/4s and 1/3s simultaneously (though, I forgot what settings do this). On the flip side, the device is a little noisy and it would be nice if it had true bypass... but for its price point, a truely unique pedal.