[Led]

What a morning, the Bricasti M7 and the new lights for my studio fishtank arrived at the same time just after I got in. Attached is a pic of it sitting on my console. I know a lot of crew are keen to hear about it so :
First impressions of the build and look - Nice clean design, and the buttons and dials all feel solid. Having the big main knob to spin through settings is a lot better than up and down buttons etc. The architecture of the menus and editing functions are all pretty intuitive and anyone who's used a few outboard verbs should be able to work it pretty easy without needing to refer to the manual. Spin the big dial, find a preset and hit enter to select.
The 6 buttons to the right of the dipslay - program, register, system, store, edit, enter - all choose the parameter you want and the large knob next to them alters values, similar to the later Lexicon units. Again, the simplicity of the interface had me dialing up sounds pretty quickly without needing to get the manual out. I believe the final production unit will have a remote control as well. The red display reminds me of the Larcs and red is my favourite colour. Nice to see a new unit without the obligatory blue leds everyone's using nowdays. It looks modern and sleek, I know the look doesn't affect the sound, but who wants to drop a lot of coin for a pig in a box?
The only thing I was a little surprised by was the size - at 1 rack unit it's quite smaller looking than the glory verbs of Lexicon's heydays but it's a sign of the times and components are much smaller nowdays. The good news is you can lift it with one hand so you don't need a team of labourers to help you rackmount it. Brian and the Bricasti boys suggest a half rackspace above and below for ventillation so it takes up 2 spaces in total, meaning you could fit around 7 in one average island outboard rack. And you will want at least 7 after you hear it.
So how does it sound? Well, instantly you hear the depth that is lacking in most plugin verbs and the tails of the decays are solid and smooth to the end. Lush, glorious, huge, silky, and numerous other overused catch phrases come to mind but I'll avoid using them. True stereo and not to mention the 30 second decay time you can get. I wonder how long it will be till somebody ends a hit song with this effect.....hmmm. Self noise is very low, possibly the quitest I've come across in an outboard verb.
I have a stack of samples I plan to post but I'm just checking a few things first as the unit I have is a preproduction one. What I will say is a lot of the high end community have been waiting for a long time for somebody to bring out a new unit of this calibre. How many post's have we seen asking why Lexicon don't reissue the 960 or 480? Well now I know it's because the guys who could do it were off making this baby.
I might sound a bit gushy. I have no affiliation with Bricasti and don't pimp gear but it has been a very very long time since I have tried a reverb unit that is new on the market and thought anything other than "maybe I could use it for a background effect etc". This one is no backgound player. It's an upfront star reverb and I'm no longer saving to buy a secondhand 960. Everyone needs at least one high end flagship reverb for their studio and this one is going to be just that for a lot of places IMHO. I have an inlking of a street price but it will vary from place to place so I'd suggest getting in touch with the manufacturer to check.
The only big mistake Bricasti made was letting the only unit in Oz end up in my studio because I'm packin it up in the boot of my car and heading for the hills. They're gonna have to bring in the swat team to get it back, and I won't go down without a fight. But the gunshots will be bathed in a beautiful hall reverb.....or maybe a plate...
I'll get those samples up quicksmart if it's cool.
Cheers,

Led