First impressions

[nick robinson]

My soundbite XL arrived today - bought from ebay for £99, brand new & direct from redsound, (look for the seller ID redsoundsales - they relist these units all the time) who sell the same unit from their own site at £179 ;D

First surprise was that it doesn't send the incoming signal to the output - you can't hear what you've recording until your sample is recorded, then it autoplays. I'd assumed I could use it "in line" as an FX pedal, but clearly I'll have to take an output from the mixer to it whilst monitoring from the mixer. Presumably this is so you don't get feedback whilst using it.

It's so simple to use, although I'll definately need to DIY a pedal as Stephen did, unless of course, I resample parts of my other looping devices! The reverse feature is coool!

The BPM puzzles me - I hold edit and set the range to be 900 (the manual says it display 90.0!) but then in theory I can choose a BPM from 60-120, the display scrolls between 1630 and 101 - any clues Stephen? Presumably I want the BPM as low as possible to give maximum recording time.

Once I've set the BPM, do I need to disengage the engine - presumably it will still be analysing my input for beats (good luck to it )

[Stephen Scott]

admin said:

My soundbite XL arrived today - bought from ebay for £99, brand new & direct from redsound, (look for the seller ID redsoundsales - they relist these units all the time) who sell the same unit from their own site at £179 ;D

First surprise was that it doesn't send the incoming signal to the output - you can't hear what you've recording until your sample is recorded, then it autoplays. I'd assumed I could use it "in line" as an FX pedal, but clearly I'll have to take an output from the mixer to it whilst monitoring from the mixer. Presumably this is so you don't get feedback whilst using it.

It's so simple to use, although I'll definately need to DIY a pedal as Stephen did, unless of course, I resample parts of my other looping devices! The reverse feature is coool!

The BPM puzzles me - I hold edit and set the range to be 900 (the manual says it display 90.0!) but then in theory I can choose a BPM from 60-120, the display scrolls between 1630 and 101 - any clues Stephen? Presumably I want the BPM as low as possible to give maximum recording time.

Once I've set the BPM, do I need to disengage the engine - presumably it will still be analysing my input for beats (good luck to it )

Yep, the unit is designed to be used in an FX loop, the output phono sockets carry only the loop samples, no input. However, the headphone output carries only the thru, input, no sample! This works brilliantly for me though, because I can use that OP as a dry feed onto any other devices (eg my SU10).

Setting the BPM - takes a bit of practice, you have to do this exactly;

1. Hold down the tap button and turn the jog wheel anticlockwise. The display will show '900'

2. Release the tap button, and press the disebgage button - the display lights will now flash.

3. do a few rhythmic taps on the tap button, about 1/sec, until the display changes to a number. Depending on the accuracy of your tapping, that should be close to your desired bpm. If you want to get it to 60bpm do this;

4. Hold down the re-sample button and keep it held for about 2 seconds until the 6 sample pad lights begin to flash. At this point, keep the re-sample button held down, and turn the jog wheel anti-clockwise until the display shows '60.0'. Voila!

If you accidentally release the re-sample button during part 4, you will just have to repeat part 4 and it should work. Otherwise, you will end up changing the timeshift of all the loops (which is why your display was reading numbers between 101 and 1630).

This sounds complicated, but I do it automatically immediately after powering on, so it's only a one-off procedure at the beginning of each session.

And yes, you MUST keep the engine disengaged (indicated by the main display flashing continuously) otherwise as soon as you start playing anything after this, the device will try to latch on to a beat, and you'll have to go through 1-4 again.

[nick robinson]

sylvianfisher said:

Setting the BPM - takes a bit of practice, you have to do this exactly;

Blimey - I didn't see that in the (fairly concise) manual - where did you pick the sequence up from?

I've been running the guitar into the vortex into the soundbite and find the input slightly overloaded in almost all circumstances - any thoughts?

I really appreciate your advice, BTW....

[Stephen Scott]

admin said:

sylvianfisher said:

Setting the BPM - takes a bit of practice, you have to do this exactly;

Blimey - I didn't see that in the (fairly concise) manual - where did you pick the sequence up from?

I've been running the guitar into the vortex into the soundbite and find the input slightly overloaded in almost all circumstances - any thoughts?

I really appreciate your advice, BTW....

It's mostly on pages 6-9 of the manual.

I'm not sure about the soundbite overloading thing. My vortex does tend to overload v easily though, and it has got quite a high output level too. You may need to change the output levels in the programs to a lower level.

[nick robinson]

sylvianfisher said:

It's mostly on pages 6-9 of the manual.

Aha - I've downloaded a manual which has much more information than the 8 page job that comes in the box

www.redsound.com/images/SoundBITE_XL_manual.pdf