Heeey Aaron, this was a great walkthrough, specially now that I actually pulled the trigger on the HR Core, good timing for your video. It _is_ truly great as a "one unit solution" for practicing or gigging. I've had several pedalboards and one of those was with 14 pedals.. you know... But I've got rid of it and also sold the most of my pedals and effect units. I still have the Plethora X5 in a smaller pedalboard together with 3-4 best pedals. But, the ease of use of Headrush, that touchscreen, intuitive interface, Scenes, Rigs, everything is so fresh and inspiring to me. I agree that it's rather heavy but I'd happily take less clothes and other stuff with me to be able to take it on the plane for ex.. That sturdiness is great for the stage, it stays where you put it! I've been using BOSS MS-3 processor for many years now but even if there's a software where I can pre-program my sounds, that micro screen is so outdated now. Even the UI and the setup seems so old. Nothing bad to say about the BOSS-effects, pristine, no discussion. But Headrush Core is my entry into *all in one* units and I do feel welcome. I hope HR people will watch your video and maybe read the comments --> here's my take on the "support". They have a forum online where I'm trying to be active and maybe get som help, but there are not so many HR employees active to meet both criticism and questions. Damn, this forum is a gold mine with many folks who are genuinely trying to help but no HR people around. OK, I've found some posts where they kind of helped, but hey, both you and I are members of the Ecamm Live Facebook group, there's NO comparizon in how Ecamm people are all over the place, starting from Doc, Daniel Chi and many others. Accessible, kind, helping, it's a true Ecamm Fam. Headrush has all the good vibes from the user community but musicians are also merciless in criticism because there are now many similar units that they can very simply switch to. I just think HR is a bit snobby about customer support and it might turn against them in the long run. I'm still a fan and I've found my ways around the UI and settings myself. I have a long list of things to test so I'm keeping myself busy. Thanks again for the good video Aaron, cheers!
Great stuff. It’s not the Core that’s heavy but the Prime. The Core isn’t too bad considering it is metal. I have heard criticism of their support but both times I contacted them I had an email reply within 48 hours. I think that is perfectly acceptable.
I absolutely love the HeadRush Core ❤ I run my Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer into the stereo FX return at the end of my signal chain in the Core I use 5 pin midi from the GR-55 into the Core to sync BPM I also use a $39 four footswitch chocolate plus midi pedal I run that into the USB-A of the Core allowing me to control looping via MIDI on three of those footswitches record / clear / start-stop and I still have a remaining midi footswitch that is assignable to whatever this allows me to not have to go into the looping menu or if you like looking at the looping menu for visual cue during a loop alternatively you could assign those four foot switches to other FX so you can stay in that looping menu without having to go in and out of it to switch effects on or off. I also purchased a $19 nectar expression pedal and modded with $10 worth of parts a footswitch to be able to turn wah pedal on and off and a female output Jack there is just so much wonderful capability and accessibility here for the low price it's amazing!😊 my advice to anybody is do not overlook this pedal and what it can do.
My B-stock ordered from Thomann here in Germany is arriving on Monday. Can‘t wait to try this unit out as a possible compromise. The manual doesn‘t seem to indicate any „global vocal chain“ like on the VL3X, but speaks of „block settings“ such as on the ToneMaster Pro. I hope several blocks can be defined as an overall block so it‘s easy to copy & paste an entire vocal chain across all presets (catering to different guitars)…
@ Don‘t you ever sleep, fine sir? ;-) It‘s 9 a.m. here in Germany, so maybe 3 in the morning in NY? Hope you just came off of a great gig. Thanks for the response. So the Headrush is no better (or worse) than the Tone Master Pro in this respect. This means that every on-the-fly tweak of one‘s vocal chain at a gig undertaken in one preset then has to be manually replicated in every other preset. :-( This is one of the main reasons I found the TMP to be unusable for me (so far) in live settings. Tweaking vocal channel volume, EQ and maybe even reverb amount or type is something I routinely find myself needing to do because of the specific acoustic environment of each venue (indoor, outdoor, low ceilings, no. of people in the audience absorbing high frequencies, etc.). What a shame that the Core comes this close to being great for singers, but fumbles the ball in the last few yards…
If you set up an fx loop block in your chain instead of setting the input as fx return, there should be a mix/blend option. Unfortunately it does mean using a precious fx slot but if it was just in a song or two, you could have a specific setup saved for it and sacrifice a delay, reverb or something you might not need for that song.
@@aaronshortmusicThere are a lot of options when it comes to the I/0 the guitar input of course and then the mic input which doesn't necessarily have to be used for a microphone and the FX return also the auxiliary input which is limited as far as zero controls for it but it is available😊
7:39 How is it that nobody seems to have been able to top TC Helicon's harmonies in over ten years?! There is so much more processing power available now. It seems like someone should be able to reverse engineer what TCH did and at least match it, if not improve upon it.
Thats very nice. I listen to Dr. McFarland and he gets great sounds from his headrush. I would be curious how the new Boss Gx-10 compares or the boss gt core or even the Gx-100. The price points seem much better. I do like your new Cole Clark a lot.
@@aaronshortmusic no and doesn't have the mic input and the xlr out. but the gx10 is $300 cheaper and can have 15 blocks and multiple paths and all the boss effects..
13:07 so there are guitar IRs as well as amp IRs? So in theory I could make my Strat sound like a Les Paul? Make my acoustic sound like a Strat? Can it get a decent acoustic sound out of an electric?
Wow - what an eye-opener to see what this pedal can do for us singers who play both acoustic and electric! Totally wasn‘t aware of the ability to feed, say, an electric guitar into the effects return and save that input along with the preset. with the acoustic plugged into the normal instrument jack. Brilliant!!!! Wish I had known this long ago, as it could be the answer to my prayers. Not only that, but since the electric sounds are obviously heaps better than on the TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme, I could even skip a pedal or two in that department, as well as leaving off my usual AB/Y switch for switching back and forth between acoustic and electric. Questions remain, however. 1) How good is the onboard compression for modest settings on vocals and (especially) acoustic guitar? 2) How good are the EQ options for acoustic guitar? Is at least 10-band included, or parametric 3-band? 3) Any detune (key drop) pedal included? Does it work as well as The Drop? (Need to occasionally drop my electric guitar down half a step to vocally shine on some tunes, and won‘t carry a 3rd guitar just for that). 4) Vocal harmonies tracking well enough for automatic key recognition, no matter whether strumming or fingerpicking? 5) Vocal effects automatically switchable to off when the guitar is muted for tuning and talking in-between songs? Thanks for any input you care to share with me/us. :-)
The 7" screen is great, but like you said at one point, you don't want to bend down to mess with the screen in the middle of a gig. And although this is smaller than the full Prime, I'd still like it smaller without a screen. I know that HeadRush likes you to be able to do everything on the unit itself without an external app, but I'd much rather have a small footprint pedal on the floor with as many buttons as possible and a vol/wah type pedal or two, and then have an iPad app to get into the settings while standing up if needed during the gig.
I feel the same way but for those that want to use the practice features at home the screen is great. I am going they release an app since it has Bluetooth and WiFi!
2:46 When the Prime first came out I had just used the LooperBoard, and as far as I was concerned, that was the best looper on the planet - except for the size! Ugh! I was really hoping the Prime would have the same looping abilities. Was very disappointed that it was a simple 1-track looper.
@aaronshortmusic But they stopped making the LooperBoard. Although as far as I can tell the Sheeran one is pretty much the same thing with a different shell.
There is also pops and clicks when WIFI or Bluetooth is enabled. These items are also discussed on Facebook. I can not believe that these massive issues are accepted by the user community. Even Thomann support can reproduce this.
Hey Aaron I have a Cole Clark hybrid. I don't really loop live. Would you recommend this pedal for live performances, without using the looper? I guess my question should be would you start using this pedal live if you didn't use the looper?
16:09 Does it have MIDI control? Could you automate loading in a pre-recorded loop from an iPad app or something? Like when you pull up a song in your chord/lyric app, have it send the MIDI commands to load the loop that goes with that song?
I have bought the Headrush Core because of your video. Unfortunately the Headrush support is not very responsive. I have a lot of noise with condenser microphones and a lot of pops and clicks with Autotune enabled. Do you have similar experiences with these items?
Mine has been working fine. I did have to reach out to support and they got back to me within 48 hours but then the new update was released and everything was good since then.
I would run into IEM’s or studio monitors at home. The TC VL3X is still what I am performing with as I have it dialed into my workflow over many years but the Core has features that the TC lacks. I am hoping they release more firmware updates for it.
@ The TC VL3X but you have to understand that is because it suits my workflow doing the solo acoustic gigs. The Headrush does some things way better but the TC suits my act better.
@ That’s understandable. That’s mostly why I find myself here looking at the Headrush vs a QC or helix. I’m a vocalist who has acoustic singer songwriter songs and heavier alternative rock songs as well. I also play with tracks to fill out sound. I’ve eyed the TC VL for years to condense the setup. Now with a product like the Headrush core (prime is too large) it may be the way to go! Thanks for covering the Headrush core/prime. Information seems to be limited.
@ Definitely consider the VL3x and the Core and choose based on the features. I use the QC as my audio interface and love it (also for the electric sounds). You could also do something like that (VL3x and QC) unless you need an all in one.
I tried the MX5 too and I liked how compact it was but this is much easier to use and dial in. If you only need three electric guitar sounds and no looping/vocal effects/USB interface then of course it’s probably overkill.
I'm happy with my CORE on guitar part but not for a vocal part, the vocal harmony is not process the harmony vocal well, I mean it's sound suck. Compares to my TC Helicon is sound more better. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong even I'm used the preset from the vocal list, It still bad.
Yea absolutely. It depends as I don’t really percuss on the top 🔝 f anything the sides as the sides are Blackwood. But what a stunning sound. I really love it. Also picked up a new Maton Michael Fix today. Wow that’s also cool
Heeey Aaron, this was a great walkthrough, specially now that I actually pulled the trigger on the HR Core, good timing for your video.
It _is_ truly great as a "one unit solution" for practicing or gigging. I've had several pedalboards and one of those was with 14 pedals.. you know... But I've got rid of it and also sold the most of my pedals and effect units. I still have the Plethora X5 in a smaller pedalboard together with 3-4 best pedals. But, the ease of use of Headrush, that touchscreen, intuitive interface, Scenes, Rigs, everything is so fresh and inspiring to me.
I agree that it's rather heavy but I'd happily take less clothes and other stuff with me to be able to take it on the plane for ex.. That sturdiness is great for the stage, it stays where you put it!
I've been using BOSS MS-3 processor for many years now but even if there's a software where I can pre-program my sounds, that micro screen is so outdated now. Even the UI and the setup seems so old. Nothing bad to say about the BOSS-effects, pristine, no discussion. But Headrush Core is my entry into *all in one* units and I do feel welcome.
I hope HR people will watch your video and maybe read the comments --> here's my take on the "support". They have a forum online where I'm trying to be active and maybe get som help, but there are not so many HR employees active to meet both criticism and questions. Damn, this forum is a gold mine with many folks who are genuinely trying to help but no HR people around. OK, I've found some posts where they kind of helped, but hey, both you and I are members of the Ecamm Live Facebook group, there's NO comparizon in how Ecamm people are all over the place, starting from Doc, Daniel Chi and many others. Accessible, kind, helping, it's a true Ecamm Fam.
Headrush has all the good vibes from the user community but musicians are also merciless in criticism because there are now many similar units that they can very simply switch to. I just think HR is a bit snobby about customer support and it might turn against them in the long run. I'm still a fan and I've found my ways around the UI and settings myself. I have a long list of things to test so I'm keeping myself busy.
Thanks again for the good video Aaron, cheers!
Great stuff. It’s not the Core that’s heavy but the Prime. The Core isn’t too bad considering it is metal. I have heard criticism of their support but both times I contacted them I had an email reply within 48 hours. I think that is perfectly acceptable.
I absolutely love the HeadRush Core ❤ I run my Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer into the stereo FX return at the end of my signal chain in the Core I use 5 pin midi from the GR-55 into the Core to sync BPM I also use a $39 four footswitch chocolate plus midi pedal I run that into the USB-A of the Core allowing me to control looping via MIDI on three of those footswitches record / clear / start-stop and I still have a remaining midi footswitch that is assignable to whatever this allows me to not have to go into the looping menu or if you like looking at the looping menu for visual cue during a loop alternatively you could assign those four foot switches to other FX so you can stay in that looping menu without having to go in and out of it to switch effects on or off. I also purchased a $19 nectar expression pedal and modded with $10 worth of parts a footswitch to be able to turn wah pedal on and off and a female output Jack there is just so much wonderful capability and accessibility here for the low price it's amazing!😊 my advice to anybody is do not overlook this pedal and what it can do.
My B-stock ordered from Thomann here in Germany is arriving on Monday. Can‘t wait to try this unit out as a possible compromise. The manual doesn‘t seem to indicate any „global vocal chain“ like on the VL3X, but speaks of „block settings“ such as on the ToneMaster Pro. I hope several blocks can be defined as an overall block so it‘s easy to copy & paste an entire vocal chain across all presets (catering to different guitars)…
You can just save the preset to another slot and make changes from there.
@ Don‘t you ever sleep, fine sir? ;-) It‘s 9 a.m. here in Germany, so maybe 3 in the morning in NY? Hope you just came off of a great gig. Thanks for the response. So the Headrush is no better (or worse) than the Tone Master Pro in this respect. This means that every on-the-fly tweak of one‘s vocal chain at a gig undertaken in one preset then has to be manually replicated in every other preset. :-( This is one of the main reasons I found the TMP to be unusable for me (so far) in live settings. Tweaking vocal channel volume, EQ and maybe even reverb amount or type is something I routinely find myself needing to do because of the specific acoustic environment of each venue (indoor, outdoor, low ceilings, no. of people in the audience absorbing high frequencies, etc.). What a shame that the Core comes this close to being great for singers, but fumbles the ball in the last few yards…
Great video, so informative! Thanks for sharing!
As a practice tool... I'm hoping they can add some Drum Machine type functions to jam/practice to. Firmware update? 🙏
That would be great!
If you set up an fx loop block in your chain instead of setting the input as fx return, there should be a mix/blend option. Unfortunately it does mean using a precious fx slot but if it was just in a song or two, you could have a specific setup saved for it and sacrifice a delay, reverb or something you might not need for that song.
They would allow me to blend the pickups but I want to blend two signal paths and even if I could do that I would lose the vocal path.
@@aaronshortmusicThere are a lot of options when it comes to the I/0 the guitar input of course and then the mic input which doesn't necessarily have to be used for a microphone and the FX return also the auxiliary input which is limited as far as zero controls for it but it is available😊
Very interesting. Love the Cole Clarke guitar and your playing. Keep up the good work.
Prime & Core are fantastic machines. Honestly, my Kemper Stage can't keep up with them. 💯
I like the Kemper Player for the form factor but the features on this are great!
7:39 How is it that nobody seems to have been able to top TC Helicon's harmonies in over ten years?! There is so much more processing power available now. It seems like someone should be able to reverse engineer what TCH did and at least match it, if not improve upon it.
I agree. TC nailed it and we should be able to do even better now. At least the Headrush has it though!
Thats very nice. I listen to Dr. McFarland and he gets great sounds from his headrush. I would be curious how the new Boss Gx-10 compares or the boss gt core or even the Gx-100. The price points seem much better. I do like your new Cole Clark a lot.
Thanks! Does the Boss have the alternative input for two guitar pickups to be used at once?
@@aaronshortmusic no and doesn't have the mic input and the xlr out. but the gx10 is $300 cheaper and can have 15 blocks and multiple paths and all the boss effects..
....and the guys over at Tone Junkies, who are Fractal nuts, have had really nice things to say about these 2nd Gen HR products.
13:07 so there are guitar IRs as well as amp IRs? So in theory I could make my Strat sound like a Les Paul? Make my acoustic sound like a Strat? Can it get a decent acoustic sound out of an electric?
Not guitar IR’s. I created and loaded my own acoustic IR in. This is something that the TC pedals cannot do.
Wow - what an eye-opener to see what this pedal can do for us singers who play both acoustic and electric! Totally wasn‘t aware of the ability to feed, say, an electric guitar into the effects return and save that input along with the preset. with the acoustic plugged into the normal instrument jack. Brilliant!!!! Wish I had known this long ago, as it could be the answer to my prayers. Not only that, but since the electric sounds are obviously heaps better than on the TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme, I could even skip a pedal or two in that department, as well as leaving off my usual AB/Y switch for switching back and forth between acoustic and electric. Questions remain, however. 1) How good is the onboard compression for modest settings on vocals and (especially) acoustic guitar? 2) How good are the EQ options for acoustic guitar? Is at least 10-band included, or parametric 3-band? 3) Any detune (key drop) pedal included? Does it work as well as The Drop? (Need to occasionally drop my electric guitar down half a step to vocally shine on some tunes, and won‘t carry a 3rd guitar just for that). 4) Vocal harmonies tracking well enough for automatic key recognition, no matter whether strumming or fingerpicking? 5) Vocal effects automatically switchable to off when the guitar is muted for tuning and talking in-between songs? Thanks for any input you care to share with me/us. :-)
The 7" screen is great, but like you said at one point, you don't want to bend down to mess with the screen in the middle of a gig. And although this is smaller than the full Prime, I'd still like it smaller without a screen.
I know that HeadRush likes you to be able to do everything on the unit itself without an external app, but I'd much rather have a small footprint pedal on the floor with as many buttons as possible and a vol/wah type pedal or two, and then have an iPad app to get into the settings while standing up if needed during the gig.
I feel the same way but for those that want to use the practice features at home the screen is great. I am going they release an app since it has Bluetooth and WiFi!
You could use midi foot switches on the floor and raise the headrush pedal at arm's length so you don't have to bend down all the time.
2:46 When the Prime first came out I had just used the LooperBoard, and as far as I was concerned, that was the best looper on the planet - except for the size! Ugh! I was really hoping the Prime would have the same looping abilities. Was very disappointed that it was a simple 1-track looper.
I can’t see them doing it as it would eat into sales. I would be happy with a two track looper and the ability to save loops to presets.
@aaronshortmusic But they stopped making the LooperBoard. Although as far as I can tell the Sheeran one is pretty much the same thing with a different shell.
@ Exactly. They make the Sheeran loopers but you’re right. Two tracks would be nice.
There is also pops and clicks when WIFI or Bluetooth is enabled. These items are also discussed on Facebook. I can not believe that these massive issues are accepted by the user community. Even Thomann support can reproduce this.
Mine isn’t doing that. I would send it back for a replacement.
Hey Aaron I have a Cole Clark hybrid. I don't really loop live. Would you recommend this pedal for live performances, without using the looper? I guess my question should be would you start using this pedal live if you didn't use the looper?
Actually yes even more so. The way you can connect both outputs and switch between two presets is awesome and the sounds are excellent.
16:09 Does it have MIDI control? Could you automate loading in a pre-recorded loop from an iPad app or something? Like when you pull up a song in your chord/lyric app, have it send the MIDI commands to load the loop that goes with that song?
I don’t believe that the loops can be assigned with MIDI either.
I have bought the Headrush Core because of your video. Unfortunately the Headrush support is not very responsive. I have a lot of noise with condenser microphones and a lot of pops and clicks with Autotune enabled. Do you have similar experiences with these items?
Mine has been working fine. I did have to reach out to support and they got back to me within 48 hours but then the new update was released and everything was good since then.
I have send back the first purchase but the second one has the same issues. Even Thomann support can reproduce this with another one.
@ Sounds like a bad batch. I would let Headrush know and if they don’t have a fix then return it and get something else.
That must be a big batch of defective units. My first one was from Amazon and the second from Thomann.
@ You need to talk to Headrush.
Hi, Aaron. Is there a way to have a foldback feed come into the Headrush & then to the headphone out but not the FOH outs pls?
I’m not sure. I haven’t deep-dived yet.
Sounds great , is there anything else on the market besides this for singer songwriters? What do u run it into at home, any recommendations?
I would run into IEM’s or studio monitors at home. The TC VL3X is still what I am performing with as I have it dialed into my workflow over many years but the Core has features that the TC lacks. I am hoping they release more firmware updates for it.
@@aaronshortmusicif you were purchasing today, would you chose the TC VL or the Headrush core?
@ The TC VL3X but you have to understand that is because it suits my workflow doing the solo acoustic gigs. The Headrush does some things way better but the TC suits my act better.
@ That’s understandable. That’s mostly why I find myself here looking at the Headrush vs a QC or helix. I’m a vocalist who has acoustic singer songwriter songs and heavier alternative rock songs as well. I also play with tracks to fill out sound. I’ve eyed the TC VL for years to condense the setup. Now with a product like the Headrush core (prime is too large) it may be the way to go!
Thanks for covering the Headrush core/prime. Information seems to be limited.
@ Definitely consider the VL3x and the Core and choose based on the features. I use the QC as my audio interface and love it (also for the electric sounds). You could also do something like that (VL3x and QC) unless you need an all in one.
I had an MX5, sold it within a week, far too complicated I just need 3 sounds, found it impossible to dial in anything decent, quickly
I tried the MX5 too and I liked how compact it was but this is much easier to use and dial in. If you only need three electric guitar sounds and no looping/vocal effects/USB interface then of course it’s probably overkill.
What is the difference between this and say the Quad Cortex?
Most of the features that I highlight in the video are not available on Quad Cortex.
I'm happy with my CORE on guitar part but not for a vocal part, the vocal harmony is not process the harmony vocal well, I mean it's sound suck. Compares to my TC Helicon is sound more better. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong even I'm used the preset from the vocal list, It still bad.
Yes TC still does harmonies better but the Headrush ones are OK if you keep the mix down low so they are more hidden in the background.
THE SMALL ONE IS BETTER BECAUSE I USE PUBLIC TRANSIT.
I agree.
So you got the hybrid eventually 🤣🤣
I’ve had it for two years!
Ah ok I didn’t know you had one already. I got the redwood when I got home and it’s so different especially for picking.
@ I hear the redwood tops sound excellent but are softer so don’t take percussive playing as well.
Yea absolutely. It depends as I don’t really percuss on the top 🔝 f anything the sides as the sides are Blackwood. But what a stunning sound. I really love it. Also picked up a new Maton Michael Fix today. Wow that’s also cool