ULTRAROC GX110
+Once you activate the MIDI functions, the automatic effect-to-channel assignment feature will be disabled, i.e. changing channels does not automatically load the previously set effect. As this assignment feature would cause some confusion when controlling the ULTRAROC via a MIDI foot controller, it makes sense only when it is controlled from the enclosed footswitch or directly from the ULTRAROC’s front panel. To operate the ULTRAROC without MIDI remote control, please disable the MIDI functions (display reads “OF”).
You can select presets via MIDI using program change instructions. Since the range of program change numbers is 0 through 127, program change instruction 0 corresponds to preset 1, #1 to preset 2, and so forth (see table 6.2 in the appendix). After changeover the preset is activated immediately, i.e. it will not be affected by previously adjusted bypass settings.
Channel changes can be effected with controller #10. Sending value 0 via this controller will activate the CLEAN channel, while value 1 activates the OVERDRIVE channel. Program change instructions can also be used to change channels. Program change #123 activates the CLEAN channel, program change #124 selects the OVERDRIVE channel of your ULTRAROC. In addition to changing channels, you can also disable effects, by sending the value 0 via controller #11. Value 1 enables the effect. Alternatively, you can bypass the effect section by sending program change instruction #127.
MIDI controller #7 adjusts the input sensitivity of the effects module, enabling you to set the overall volume of your ULTRAROC as desired. Since this controller has no influence on the Master Volume control, you should adjust the maximum volume before with the Master Volume control, then use MIDI controller #7 to reduce the volume. This function is also known as “Volume Controller”.
The effect-specific parameter that can be edited with the FX MIX control, can also be remotely controlled from a MIDI sequencer of foot controller, using MIDI controller #12.
The operating range of the wah-wah effect is governed by MIDI controller #15.
Of course, you can also control the ULTRAROC from a computer-based sequencer software, particularly in a home recording environment. Specific environments for popular MIDI sequencer programs will soon be available from our web site (www.behringer.de).
4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND by Neville Marten (Guitarist Magazine)
The guitar amp: your tone generator
Many guitar players think of their amplifier as the least important link in their musical chain. Sure, everyone needs the right guitar, with the right finish, pickups and tremolo; and of course effects these days are so important in looking and sounding cool.
But what of the humble guitar amp? Is it just an ugly box that stands behind you, a heavy hindrance that’s just a drag to get into and out of the car? No, it’s your powerhouse, a tone generator that should work as an equal member with you, your guitar and effects in the creation of the best possible sound.
Ever since the 1940s, when a radio repairman in Orange County California started customizing tube radio circuits for the new breed of electric guitarists, guitar amps have been evolving into what we see today. Great American names like Fender™, Ampeg™ and Gibson™ supplied small-output amplifiers to the guitarists of the ’40s and ’50s, creating the sound of electric jazz, rock’n’roll and country music; a sound that’s still as fresh as ever at the dawn of this new millennium.
As the ’50s became the ’60s, the British sound was born with Vox™ producing small-powered valve amps for groups like The Shadows, then later The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, The Hollies and The Hermits. Then, in the mid-’60s a drummer from London was asked by some budding musicians to build them some amplification. Jim Marshall™ took the basic American design and using British components and speakers, created higher Wattage amps and multi-speaker cabinets to give bands like The Who, Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience the power to begin their assaults on the rock stadiums of the world.
Amp design has come a long way since then. Multi-channels and cascading gain stages, as pioneered by Randall Smith and his Mesa Boogie™ amps, are found in the majority of stacks and combos built by amp manufacturers all over the world today. Modern, solid-state circuits and digital effects are now commonplace and in some instances work successfully on their own, or hand-in-hand with classic tube designs, to create versatile performing instruments for working guitarists. Other manufacturers are looking back to the old ways, with hand-wired, vintage-style “boutique” amps than can cost the earth.
