I have been looping for 15 years, creating multi part songs (see: http://www.thethirdinternational.com for body of work) using Oberheim Echoplexes. They are getting old and hard to maintain and I thought, from reading the specs, that the 45000 would be the answer. NOT.
The 45000 is created envisaging a user sitting at it, with all the time in the world to overdub and store at leisure. The unit then can perform the work of a sequencer with its storage capacity. The point is well taken that the recorded loops cannot be efficiently erased, and as I do all my stuff live, having a stored loop in a place where I want to go is a disaster waiting to happen. This unit is simply not useable in a live context. The footswitch is pitifully inadequate and the architecture non user friendly. This is all such a shame as EHX have built a roadworthy, good sounding unit with many excellent features. (Storage, for one…but how do we circumvent it easily? Stereo….excellent idea. MIDI capable for using a drum machine to clock …about time).
EHX would do well to address the deficiencies in design and then they will have a truly groundbreaking unit.
A last comment: I special ordered one through Guitar Center and was sent a used unit. Guys, it STORES the loops. So your previous would be customers’ efforts are in there! Not cool.
So for now I will stick with the old Echoplexes, with their limited memory and finicky personality, as they are the only ones that do the live job to the degree I need.