FX-Tracker Responds to Your Playing

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BackLine Engineering LLC announced FX-Tracker, an effects unit that allows guitar and bass players to control their sound by changes in their playing style. FX-Tracker utilizes the note recognition technology developed for the RiffBox looping device while incorporating many of the effects popular with musicians today. This allows you to tailor your own unique sound beyond what can be created using standard effects devices.

FX-Tracker includes 70 effects in the categories of Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, Flanger, Filter and Pitch Shifter. With most of these effects, you can control timing or intensity of the effect by changing your playing speed or your playing volume. An additional delay effect is included and can be placed before, after or in parallel with any of these effects to create unique layered sounds.

Some examples include:

• A delay time that matches your playing speed. Faster playing produces shorter delays.
• A delay time that increases as you play faster.
• Chorus, tremolo, flanger or filter periods that track your playing speed.
• You can trigger volume, chorus, flanger or filter envelopes with your playing, with the length of the envelope dependent on your playing speed.
• Whammy dive bombs that are triggered each time you play a note.
• Programmable arpeggio harmonies with intervals that can change on each note.
• Change the depth or feedback of an effect with your playing speed or your playing volume.
• Change effects without touching a footswitch. For example, slow playing provides a tremolo effect while fast playing switches to a delay effect.
• Output your playing speed or playing volume as MIDI CC messages. For example, you could increase the drive of an external amp modeler as you increase your playing intensity.
• You can have an external MIDI drum machine track your playing speed.
• Use it to create loops that you can play over with up to 60 seconds of stereo delay.
• Use an external MIDI expression pedal to manually sweep the chorus, flanger or filter. You can also use it to create a whammy pedal.
• Several effects allow you to transform a mono source to stereo delay, chorus, tremolo or flanger.

FX-Tracker provides mono or stereo audio. It includes a full MIDI implementation so you can control any parameter with MIDI CC messages. It contains 100 preset locations to save your favorite effect settings and you can also change the preset number using MIDI PC messages. This allows you to change presets from your existing MIDI floorboard.The firmware can also be updated to add new features.

You can check out some of the demo tracks on the company's web site. The retail price is $599.00 with a street price of $419.00.