Welcome to the Vortex Database at it's new location on www.andybutler.com. There's much new I'm afraid, and you no longer have the option to submit your own patches online. As hardly anyone did that anyway, and half of them were mine anyway I guess that's not such a loss to you, but the patches that were submitted are still available here.
*NEW* Many thanks to Lexicon for making the Vortex Schematics and Service Sheet available. Scroll down to the Documentation section.
*NEW* Now at reduced price of only £6, a whole CD of music made with the Vortex as the only FX processor, using the Digital Echoplex to create multi-tracked compositions in real time. Go to http://www.andybutler.com/livelooping.htm for details and to hear music from the album. Hint...album sales help to keep this site alive.
*COMING*
Hopefully now that Lexicon have given access to the schematic I can work out the
range of possible power supplies for the Vortex. Currently I recommend to stick
to 9V AC as in the original, but a few people claim that a DC supply hasn't damaged
their Vortex......yet.
I'm also hoping to find a replacement Rotary Encoder for the Vortex, this is
the most common Vortex fault, with symptoms such as some of the Registers not being selectable
by the knob, or the Value knob not working right. It's the same component for
each of the 16 position Vortex knobs (also for JamMan) but it seems that Lexicon
got a load made up to spec, and now the only way to obtain an exact replacement
would be to order 1000 of them. I have a local (UK Norwich) repair guy who's confident he could
do the fix if a suitable component could be found.
Lexicon are a company who specialise in digital reverberation simulators, as
used in the top recording studios. At one time they decided to produce a range
of cheaper processors which consisted of the Alex, Reflex, JamMan and Vortex.
These are all long discontinued.
The Vortex was the first of those four units to be discontinued
, essentially because no-one understood what it did. They can still be bought,
often at a substantial discount. In the UK the going rate is about £150 for an
'as new' unit, in US they're even cheaper. As the RRP was £400 this is a pretty
good bargain.
The Vortex is a digital sound
processor capable of phase, flange, chorus, tremelo, pan and vibrato effects
with an analogue type sound. It is also a 2sec echo/looper or a dual 1sec echo.
It can combine these effects in a number of ways.
But.... setting up
any two of these sounds you can blend seemlessly from one to
another by a process known as morphing, and you can do this with
footpedal control. It's this that really sets the Vortex apart, for instance
it's possible to set up a 2s loop of sound, then split it into to seperate 1s
loops (panned L&R) and then to recombine them into a rearranged 2s loop. Not
even the top of the range lexicon stuff with let you do this.
Unfortunately it requires extensive use of the manual just to
set up basic sounds, and the morphing feature can produce unexpected results (OK
maybe not such a bad thing).
These pages are dedicated to making it easier
for Vortex users at all levels, from those who just want to dial up a sound, to
those who aim to completely understand every function. Also those who experiment
at random are particularly welcome to submit their findings.
These are mp3s for download, (right click link and 'save as'). Recorded at 160kbps for better than standard mp3 quality. The Vortex is the only FX unit used, and there's no overdubing or editing. The set up was guitar (with on board distortion) DI-ed through a TLA valve EQ into a mixer, sending out to the Vortex, and then straight to Hard Disk.