Rocktron Banshee anyone?

[hunter]

Discovered this pedal recently, basically like a voice box but without the hassle of having to connect the power amp to it.

Does anyone have any experience with it? Is it like the real thing with a much less problematic setup as it looks like?

Thought this might enrich our band's live gigs by some spectacular new sounds ...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gkryZXYl0LU

Any opinions welcome ...

[gwEm]

no experience with it, but if you do get one you could perform 'The Zoo', which is surely a good reason so consider it ;)

the other guitarist in my band has quite a bit of rocktron gear, and seems to be of pretty good quality.

[hunter]

The Zoo (Scorps)

Do you feel like I do (Frampton)

Livin on a prayer (Bon Chauvi)

Man in the Box (AIC)

Around The World (Daft Punk)

Anything else?

[shaman]

I have one-like most things, I prefer the Heil if I were  in the studio, BUT the simplicity of the banshee , for me , works in live application-bottom line, people recognize the effect-it does not get used as much as I thought it would..sort of a 1 trick pony for me, but I can't part with it-it is amazing how the face of the Average Joe just lights up when they hear that "wwwweeeerrrrrruuuooooaahhhhh"

[Crazy_Joe]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rSlRNLcfr8g

That is the best talk box solo i've heard haha, seriously cool things but i have never got around to getting one.

[psy]

I'm slightly confussed about this talkbox...  Does it have a mic that runs up the side of the tube so that you just plug it in line with the guitar?  Or does it need a seperate mic &  a PA?

Ta

[blue]

i had the same confusion and question, and it took some looking around to find a straight answer!  you do need a seperate microphone for the talkbox, there isn't one attached to the tube.  this means you need somewhere, a mixing desk channel or P.A. amp, to plug the mic into.

i still can't figure out if the output of the pedal to your guitar amp is muted when the effect is active.  it would seem wrong to me to have your normal guitar sound from your amp plus the talkbox effect from the P.A.

if only someone would build one that had either an integral mic or an input for one on the pedal to carry on through to the guitar amp, that's what i want rather than mucking about with P.A.'s and such.

[shaman]

put in front of amp just like any stomp box-it has an internal amp,basically-when you engage, the signal to amp is muted-sound generated in pedal is driven up tube
-position tube next to mic and pa does the rest
-it is loud and you can hook up banshee to external speaker cab
-drawback is...you are stuck with that one tone, but I figure most people are like me-you might use it in a song or 2-you don't get much mileage from the clean tones, but who wants to??you could prob. get a special mic cord(like a harmonica player might use...with xlr on one end and 1/4 on the other..) and feed mic into another guitar amp if you dont have a pa
-if you want to just jam in bedroom, you can actually put tube in mouth and it is loud enough to practice with-

[hunter]

So this is the deal:

1. There is the Danelectro one with integrated Mics, that deliver the "talkboxed" signal through to the amp, so no PA needed - HOWEVER - if you trust the reviews this doesn't work any well, so most Dano users just use the pedal with the tube and rip off the integrated mics, play it through a vocal mic/PA like any others. The Dano is cheap and according to HC not everyone gets great sounds out. But the Dano does distort and amplify the signal, so you only need the pedal and a PA.

2. The Heil Talkbox (or Framptone or whatever) is JUST A SPEAKER with a tube, that means you still need an amp to make your guitar sound that is then played through the talk box. Problems are: extra amp needed, long speaker cables, the switching can kill the amp if there is no load, it is difficult to get enough volume on the 100W driver of the box. But to some it's the only real sound.

3. The Banshee: It has an overdrive (pretty good one actually), an amplifier as well as the speaker. It is true bypass and mutes the signal to the amp when activated. It provides all the great sounds instantly. Really, I plugged this thing in and it took me 2 minutes to do very convincing rip offs of all the well known hits. By the way, there is also an external speaker out, then the Banshee can be used as a 2W practice amp with distortion, actually like a practice unit to practice just with your pedal board and a cab, quite neat side effect.

I am not regretting having bought the Banshee. But need to see how it comes across live, whether it stays in the band lineup. First attempt I received rave reactions from my band mates at least ...

Hope this clarifies?

[psy]

Thanks Hunter,

That all made perfect sence.   :)   I was hoping it was going to be more like the Dan Electro one you described & just pug in & go.

I might get one one day.  At the moment I'm trying to keep my set up compact.

ta

[shaman]

banshee update-I recently bought a mic transformer so I could use one of my vocal mics thru one of my amps(like so any harmonica players do..)...now I can use my banshee in my practice space without worrying about having the PA up and going-true, you must have at least two amps for this, but I am running the banshee thru a Boogie Mk IV and the sound is killer!!!the tone is soooo much closer to the real thing btw!wooo-looking like a joewalshmeetsframpton weekend for me!

[hunter]

Here is a clip of daft punks da funk played with the Banshee.

It's early stages so there are many mistakes, but guess the Banshee does rather well here

http://www.thegutbusters.com/rehearsal_24april/dafunk.mp3