Gorgon90
Harmonic Dive Bomber
Few weeks ago I asked if anyone had tried NUX effects to find out about the quality of their kit but no-one appeared to have. Thread is here. Anyway, it got to payday and I decided to chance it and ordered this little switching box for £28 delivered as if it worked it was ideal for my gigging situation where I need to control two amps, one either side of the stage. I figured if it didn't work I haven't blown hundreds on it.
A week after ordering, it arrived from China.
Physically it is a tough little metal box with big thick rubber protectors at either end which also work as non slip feet.
To assign the Midi channel, you hold the Midi/Chn button when turning on and then use the top row of four buttons to set the channel based on the chart helpfully printed on the top of the box. Set it to channel 1 and turned it off and on again and it was set.
You can also set the switch type to act as latched closed, latched open, momentary closed, momentary break, and if momentary, also the time of the it happens for to match the response times of the equipment you are controlling. I just need the latched closed for now so haven't tested the other states yet. To set the switch options power it on with the switch/assign button held down. Set it and reboot and job is down.
In normal operation with the switches all set to latched closed, the buttons 1 - 6 act just like 6 footswitches. My amp has clean, crunch, and dirt channels which takes 2 footswitches to control. It then also features switchable master volumes and footswitchable reverb needing another 2 footswitches. I then have a second amp (same model) on the other side of the stage to spread the guitar sound as we are a trio format which I feed from the preamp on the first amp out of the send of the effect loop into the return on the slave. This needs another 2 footswitches ideally to control the volume and reverb on that which are post the effects loop making a total of 6 switches. Now you can see why this little box is a game changer for me.
Switches are on TRS jacks in pairs.
The switches all work and the LEDs are easy to see (sorry, pics don't show this well). This is actually superior to my old Nobels MS-4 unit as that has 4 mono jacks on one side of the box and the midi cables on the other meaning some cable was always in the way. This keeps them neatly all on the back which is preferable.
The NUX works well and is going to be a staple in my live rig for some time, reliability allowing. I only encountered one issue and that is to do with the MIDI wiring in some of my other kit versus the NUX implementation.
The MIDI specification states that three of the pins carry the MIDI data, the other two are redundant. In my Nobels MS-4 switcher and Rolls RFX Midi Buddy MP128 footswitch, the other two pins are connected and used for phantom power. Hooking the Rolls up directly to the NUX using a MIDI cable that connects all 5 pins caused an earthing problem and neither would work (even with each having their own power adapter). Breaking those extra connections solved the problem. I did this by inserting my Anatek Pocket Pedal MIDI expression pedal reader box in between the two as I knew from previous experience it didn't have the through connections on the pins used for power by Rolls RFX and Nobels. A couple of MIDI cables only connecting the data pins are in my near future as a result.
For £28 it's a bargain and with a couple of minutes programing I can replace tap dancing across 6 footswitches with pressing one button on my MIDI pedal. I will try this for a bit and if reliable will be getting a spare.
A week after ordering, it arrived from China.
Physically it is a tough little metal box with big thick rubber protectors at either end which also work as non slip feet.
To assign the Midi channel, you hold the Midi/Chn button when turning on and then use the top row of four buttons to set the channel based on the chart helpfully printed on the top of the box. Set it to channel 1 and turned it off and on again and it was set.
You can also set the switch type to act as latched closed, latched open, momentary closed, momentary break, and if momentary, also the time of the it happens for to match the response times of the equipment you are controlling. I just need the latched closed for now so haven't tested the other states yet. To set the switch options power it on with the switch/assign button held down. Set it and reboot and job is down.
In normal operation with the switches all set to latched closed, the buttons 1 - 6 act just like 6 footswitches. My amp has clean, crunch, and dirt channels which takes 2 footswitches to control. It then also features switchable master volumes and footswitchable reverb needing another 2 footswitches. I then have a second amp (same model) on the other side of the stage to spread the guitar sound as we are a trio format which I feed from the preamp on the first amp out of the send of the effect loop into the return on the slave. This needs another 2 footswitches ideally to control the volume and reverb on that which are post the effects loop making a total of 6 switches. Now you can see why this little box is a game changer for me.
Switches are on TRS jacks in pairs.
The switches all work and the LEDs are easy to see (sorry, pics don't show this well). This is actually superior to my old Nobels MS-4 unit as that has 4 mono jacks on one side of the box and the midi cables on the other meaning some cable was always in the way. This keeps them neatly all on the back which is preferable.
The NUX works well and is going to be a staple in my live rig for some time, reliability allowing. I only encountered one issue and that is to do with the MIDI wiring in some of my other kit versus the NUX implementation.
The MIDI specification states that three of the pins carry the MIDI data, the other two are redundant. In my Nobels MS-4 switcher and Rolls RFX Midi Buddy MP128 footswitch, the other two pins are connected and used for phantom power. Hooking the Rolls up directly to the NUX using a MIDI cable that connects all 5 pins caused an earthing problem and neither would work (even with each having their own power adapter). Breaking those extra connections solved the problem. I did this by inserting my Anatek Pocket Pedal MIDI expression pedal reader box in between the two as I knew from previous experience it didn't have the through connections on the pins used for power by Rolls RFX and Nobels. A couple of MIDI cables only connecting the data pins are in my near future as a result.
For £28 it's a bargain and with a couple of minutes programing I can replace tap dancing across 6 footswitches with pressing one button on my MIDI pedal. I will try this for a bit and if reliable will be getting a spare.
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