Review: EHX Superego+

Started by Rhcole, October 28, 2017, 11:00:23 AM

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Rhcole

A few months ago at NAMM 2017 there were a number of reviews gushing about this upcoming product:
http://www.pluspedal.com/product/plus-pedal/

The people fawning over this product made me wonder: had none of them ever heard of the EHX Freeze or Superego (or the VG-99, EHX HOGs, etc.)? Freeze-type sustain technology based on samples ISN'T new. Good luck with your patent application, Plus Pedal...

But what I was willing to grant was that, outside of expensive specialized products such as the VG-99 and EHX HOGs, the potentials for freeze/sustain technologies had never been explored deeply in a guitar pedal. I liked the original EHX Freeze, but it is pretty basic. The follow-on Superego ultimately left me disappointed because I didn't feel like it brought that much new to the party.

So, here we have the Superego+ and EHX has raised the ante significantly. This time, they have added new features that greatly deepen the product's capabilities. Instead of the four control knobs of the Superego (Speed/Attack, Gliss, Dry, Effect), EHX has increased this to seven knobs, adding Threshold, Layer and Decay controls.

It bears a brief mention here that the SE+ is fully polyphonic because it is really just a kind of sound recorder/sampler. Tiny samples are referred to by synthesists as "grains", and that's what this records.

Physically, the SE+ has a good range of Ins/Outs, with the ability to insert it into a separate FX loop if you wish. You can also add both an expression pedal and a set of extension switches if you don't want the pedal itself on the floor. This is a nice and unexpected feature. The pedal is mono I/O, and there is no MIDI control for it.

The Attack knob from the original Superego influences how quickly a note freezes, from a staccato instant attack to a long, delayed synth-like attack for pads. Gliss creates a blurry transition between notes, and the Dry/Effect knobs blend in your dry and effected signals.

The Decay knob influences the length of the sustained sounds after freezing them. This is an important feature when combined with the Threshold knob to create piano-like sustain effects in certain settings.

The SE+ has multiple modes of operation. It can operate like earlier products, holding sounds as you trigger the switch on the pedal until you release it, this time with a selectable attack and release for the sounds. It also can function as a straightforward FX pedal, bypassing the freeze function altogether. And, like earlier products, you can freeze a sound with the pedal and latch it until you hit the pedal again.

With the new Layer knob, the SE+ can now build up thick tonal creations in a manner similar to a looper. But, instead of a looper's echo-like repetition of a series of notes, the SE+ samples are so short in time that you hear them as tonal textures, literally short individual samples. This is a terrific feature for shoe-gazers, synthesists, ambient musicians, really anybody who likes to build a wall of sound from a series of tones. This feature also allows you to increase the polyphony of mono synths or quasi-polyphonic products such as the SY-300. Much like how you can increase clean notes in the SY-300 by holding them, the SE+ can allow you to pick and choose the notes you add to your texture.

The new Sustain mode uses picking dynamics to individually select notes that then have an added decay and hold to them, much like a piano sustain pedal. In this area the SE+ competes directly with the Plus Pedal mentioned above. By skillfully using the Threshold knob with your playing dynamics while controlling the Decay knob to hold the notes, you can create anything from subtle sustained notes to smeary goodness that can become a thick collage of tones, particularly in combination with the other knobs.

With these seven knobs, the Superego+ has become a grain sample workshop, a kind of sound manipulation genie. It doesn't have the "outlander" features of some grain pedals such as stutters and reverses, but for creating textural pads, it can't be beat. Now onto the FX.

EHX clearly intends to use the SE+ as a kind of substitute for the oscillators in a synthesizer. The FX included with the pedal (echoes, filters, tremolos, etc.) are designed to create motion out of a stagnant signal. One of the knocks on freeze pedals in the past has been how lifeless frozen samples sound, so the FX create animations of various kinds for your sustained notes.

A notable omission is the lack of a reverb that can create ambience outside of the echoes for frozen sounds. Lacking this, you will likely be forced to use the SE+ at the beginning of your chain or in the middle. Without reverb, you will likely need an additional processor at the end of your signal chain. This omission seems to go with EHX's intentions to have the SE+ substitute for a signal generating or Osc section of a synthesizer, but it is really too bad that a basic reverb wasn't included in case you wanted to use it as the last element in your signal chain. The SY-300, for example, could use the SE+ to extend notes cleanly after the SY, but you either have to rely on the SY's reverbs powering through the SE+ or add an additional box after the SE+.

I can see how many will want the SE+ to feed a separate multi-FX box anyway though, because with the SE+ you only get one effect at a time. Thus, if you use the pitch shift, you will need a separate echo or reverb anyway because the onboard FX section is used up.

Speaking of the pitch shift, I had a breakthrough moment when I tried it out. This is a poly pitch shift that is the best EHX has ever made. Complicated chords have a minimum of gurgling and glitching. In fact, this may be the present winner for ¼" pitch-shifts. Add an expression pedal with this, and you get a kind of crazy mega-whammy, because you can mix in in freezes with pitch shifts. It's pretty awesome. I should mention that I perceived a short latency for this effect however, likely on the order of 50 ms or so.

And speaking of the expression pedal- you will want to get one of these. You can shift between one grouping of settings to another across the expression pedal range. You can't save more than one of these, but the creative in-between settings are significant even with one preset. Also, the FX allow the expression pedal to control one important feature per effect- rotary speed for the Rotary effect, for example, or controlling the pitch shift like a whammy.

The sound of the SE+ has noticeably higher fidelity than previous freezes that I've heard. The original EHX HOG, for example, had a very metallic and blurry freeze sound. The SE+ is much cleaner by comparison. In fact, I am interested in how it will sound altering other fundamental sounds. A good example would be the Mel9 Choir setting, which will sound very different if mangled/reconstituted by the SE+.

Combine the SE+ with almost anything else and the creative possibilities rocket out of your hands. Add a multi-FX before or after, add a looper, throw in a Synth9 or some device that makes non-traditional sounds, and you will likely never leave your practice room.

And that brings us to the real bottom line for this product. It is an experimenter's playground, a real must-have for all of you noodlers out there. There are so many textures, in-between sounds, and possible variations of this pedal that it can honestly be called an instrument itself. Think of it being in the same class as the Strymon Big Sky reverb, the high-end Eventide products and the like. If you are a gigging player who wants something simple and ready to go, don't buy this. But if you can spend hours fascinated by the gems your musical toys can produce for you, get your wallet out now. This is one of EHX's finest, very likely to qualify for my best new product of the year.



mchad


Thanks Rhcole for the comprehensive review.

chrish


vanceg

Really nice review! 
I'm looking forward to trying to create a polyphonic version of a Freeze pedal.  The Layer mode sounds very similar to what I'm hoping to achieve, but I'd like to be able to play a chord, freeze each string separately, and then play another note on just one string, REPLACING the currently held note with a new note, allowing me to slowly shift chords one note at a time... combine this ability with the layering (adding new held notes on top of old notes) and things could get pretty amazing.   
I TOTALLY hear what you are saying about perhaps needing more than one additional effect at at time to breathe new life into frozen notes. essential.

Rhcole

Here's a brief update on my review. I originally claimed that the Exp pedal is a mandatory and cool accessory, which it is.
BUT-
You can't disable the Exp function for each FX, meaning that if you use FX they get altered by the Exp pedal whether you want it or not. With the pitch-shifter this is a big deal because you get a whammy effect no matter what, which renders the Exp useless to me. I want the Exp for the Freeze only, not the pitch shift. It's the same with other FX as well. You get run-away tremelos etc. as you advance the pedal.

Pity. Exp pedal is back in the closet.  :-\

chrish

Quote from: Rhcole on November 20, 2017, 09:20:28 AM
Here's a brief update on my review. I originally claimed that the Exp pedal is a mandatory and cool accessory, which it is.
BUT-
You can't disable the Exp function for each FX, meaning that if you use FX they get altered by the Exp pedal whether you want it or not. With the pitch-shifter this is a big deal because you get a whammy effect no matter what, which renders the Exp useless to me. I want the Exp for the Freeze only, not the pitch shift. It's the same with other FX as well. You get run-away tremelos etc. as you advance the pedal.

Pity. Exp pedal is back in the closet.  :-\
does that exp issue take it off of your best gear of 2017 list?

Rhcole

No way! It's an incredible tool!
But, it seems like there is always some feature or aspect that isn't fully thought-out on all of these boxes, GP-10, SY-300, GR-55, Mel9 and everything else. It would have taken one little software feature to correct this, but this is what you get.

Bill Ruppert

#7
Set the effect depth all the way up in pitch mode. With the depth up it takes it out of whammy mode.
Then clear the memory.
With heel down on the exp pedal hold the effect button down until it brinks green. Set your pitch where you want it and set your freeze where you want it at heel down. Then repeat with toe down and hold the effect button to save.
Now your pitch will stay where you set it and you can control the freeze only with the exp pedal.

Rhcole

Thanks Bill!  ;D

Couldn't find any mention of that in the manual anywhere!

Elantric


Brak(E)man

Sounds like a brilliant pedal but without stereo not a thing I'd buy.
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

Folkstone57

Quote from: Bill Ruppert on November 20, 2017, 11:39:16 AM
Set the effect depth all the way up in pitch mode. With the depth up it takes it out of whammy mode.
Then clear the memory.
With heel down on the exp pedal hold the effect button down until it brinks green. Set your pitch where you want it and set your freeze where you want it at heel down. Then repeat with toe down and hold the effect button to save.
Now your pitch will stay where you set it and you can control the freeze only with the exp pedal.

Hello Bill,

Do you have a video on this ?


Folkstone57

Quote from: admin on March 09, 2021, 03:27:30 PM
Easy to find

Yes, & one of the reasons I now own 3 SuperEgo+ pedals, but I meant your directions:

Set the effect depth all the way up in pitch mode. With the depth up it takes it out of whammy mode.
Then clear the memory.
With heel down on the exp pedal hold the effect button down until it brinks green. Set your pitch where you want it and set your freeze where you want it at heel down. Then repeat with toe down and hold the effect button to save.
Now your pitch will stay where you set it and you can control the freeze only with the exp pedal.

Do you have a video of this comment ?