Sound Sculpture Introduces HeadTrip Head/Speaker Swapper
February 17, 2003
The HeadTrip head/speaker swapper from Sound Sculpture is a 1U rack mount high power switching system providing guitarists, keyboard players, and other musicians with a clean and safe way to swap up to three amp heads and two speaker cabinets under MIDI or footswitch control. This switcher includes the ability to select either of two instruments, insertion of up to two effect loops into the audio chain, and activation of up to eight footswitch simulation relays to control the channels and reverbs of the amp heads.
With the HeadTrip the musician is free to select any of three heads and instantly route it to either or both of two speaker cabinets. Any two heads may also be selected at the same time with one head connecting to one speaker and the other head connecting to the second speaker. The HeadTrip can be used with less heads and speakers as well for a wide variety of scaled down setups.
With power handling capability of up to 500 watts RMS into 8 ohms or 250 watts RMS into 4 ohms, the HeadTrip can be used with most any guitar amp.
The entire audio path of the HeadTrip is relay based for absolute integrity of the audio signal. No active or passive electronics are used anywhere in the signal path. When the effect loops are bypassed, there is a direct hardwired connection between the instrument and the amplifiers as if the guitar or other instrument were plugged directly into the amp head. Additional audio enhancements include slew limited relay activation to eliminate switching noise and full ground and signal isolation between guitar inputs, between amplifiers, and between speakers to eliminate hum caused by ground loops.
A mode switch and full featured MIDI command set gives the user a wide range of switching choices under MIDI and footswitch control. Use MIDI Program Change or a dual footswitch to select dozens of pre-defined connections, or use MIDI Control Change (Instant Access) to select individual amps, instruments, speakers, and footswitch simulators. Both Program Change and Control Change may be used together for maximum flexibility.
Integral head protection is built into the HeadTrip. All de-selected amp heads are muted on their inputs and loaded on their outputs to prevent potential head damage due to floating outputs. Additional protection circuitry monitors head activity and mutes and loads all heads if a potentially damaging situation occurs such as cables connected the wrong way by the user or if an amp head is putting out audio when it should be de-selected. The Switching sequence is done intelligently, with silence and protection in mind including make before break connections so there is never an instant when the output of the amp is left disconnected. Amp head outputs are never shorted together.
The HeadTrip is available now.
For more information, visit their web site at www.soundsculpture.com. | 
