Bricasti M7 - Woohoooo!

[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

[robot gigante]

Cool! Would love to hear how it stacks up to the classics like the 480.

[Led]

Bit under the hammer so I'll try to get samples up here and there. These are all just presets, none of my tweeking so you hear how it comes loaded. Apologies for the 320k mp3's instead of wavs but it would have been too big to upload them all that way.

[Rick Sutton]

Congrats Led,
Really liked the chamber preset. Very promising!

[Led]

Cheers Rick, but just to clarify, I don't own this unit, it is a preproduction one. But I'm stealing it anyway.

[ISedlacek]

I have it here for testing too. I played with it for some time. The simplicity of controls and user interface are amazing comparing to PCM-91 (which is quite horrible in this sense). It has few very cool control parameters for each preset: like modulation and density. Increasing "modulation" values, the reverb gets more "lush", coming closer to a "Lexicon mood".

I tried it on few of my solo instruments (flute, monochord, viola and also full power ethnic drums) and compared directly to PCM-91. For longer halls (I used Large Hall and few of the church presets), Bricasti seems to have clearer sound and more obvious depth, while Lexicon has a bit more "space" or "poetry" (being a bit less deep and dense). Of course, the presets are not identical, but for the little I tried, I felt I slightly prefer Lexicon sound for the "spheric" solo instruments, Bricasti halls reminded me somehow the TC type of nice, clean reverbs.

Then I tried few plates on full power ethnic drums. Here again, Bricasti sounded a bit denser and cleaner (it was obvious when listening just to 100% wet reverb sound), Lexicon plates were tiny bit less focused, but overall bringing slightly different type of sound (more spacy ?). But again - the presets are not identical on both, so the comparison is just approximate. For drums I would probably prefer Bricasti.

I will try more today.

There is however one drawback for me: quite audible fan noise. On recommendation, I put it out from the transport rack it arrived in, now it is just put free on the top of rack, the fan started less, but after some time, it went on again full power and did not stop ... A bit disturbing for me.

Led, do you hear it too ?l

[Led]

Hey Ivo,
if I put my ear up to the rear of the unit I can hear it but it's certainly not what I'd call loud. If it were in a rack I wouldn't be able to hear it at all. The one I have here's fan plays an F.

[Led]

Apologies for the cheezy sample cd sounds I'm using but I can't be bothered getting clearance for other stuff.

[Led]

more stuff

[Led]

updated

[ISedlacek]

Hi Led,
do you have some Lexicon around for a direct comparison ? I may try something later

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by Led

Hey Ivo,
if I put my ear up to the rear of the unit I can hear it but it's certainly not what I'd call loud. If it were in a rack I wouldn't be able to hear it at all. The one I have here's fan plays an F.

Mine is E-flat

[Led]

Ivo, I'm at home now, long weekend here so got some house stuff to get done. I'll try to send you those files in the next few days. I'll also re upload the 30 second decay file as the head of it sounds awful when I download it here. I appear to have dropped the ball a bit on that one.
Well, ya pay peanuts ya get monkeys.....

[GYang]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

Mine is E-flat

Ivo can you track and load sample of fan noise?

Thanks for unbiased opinion, I was under impression that you were not completely blown away what is similar to what I heard from some people who had rare chance to play with it.
Still I can't comment as I don't have direct experience.
Anyway, in my FX rack 6 U rackspace still waits for additional reverb outboard (to join couple of Lexs, TCs, Eventides).

[ISedlacek]

I found that it is very likely that the most disturbing noise factor is caused by slightly loose upper lid touch (could happen during transport) - when I press on it, it is much less, so it may be a kind of mechanical resonation ... so this thing could just an accident.

Anyway, now I started to play with it with fresh ears and also adjusting some preset parameters (mod, density) on my favourite long reverbs (churches etc.) and I feel it starts sounding quite great. I slowly start being blown away ...

I just had a nice talk with Brian (the designer) and I am quite overwhelmed by the incredible possibilities when shaping the reverbs on this unit. From clean to most lush ...


I will post a comparison between Bricasti and Lexicon long reverbs on few instruments soon

[ISedlacek]

Here are few initial samples (PCM-91 vsBricasti) which I actually made before I discovered those incredible adjustment possibilities. What is interesting is that although I always set the same decay time for both Bricasti and Lexicon, Lexicon always
tends to sound with longer tale (in case of Gothic Hall preset I had
to make it just 3,5 sec comparing to Bricasti 5 sec (West church) and
still Lexicon seems to sound with longer reverb. The same with drums
(all plates have just 1 sec decay) ...

For drums, Lexicon sounds a bit blurred to me, while Bricasti keeps very tight shape and adds a nice size ...

These are zip files, too lazy to post each file separately ... After unzipping you will get few marked files.

Halls1 are few longer halls used on monochord and flute (Gothic Hall and Small Church on PCM-91 and East and West Church on Bricasti) + there is an acoustic guitar with Large Hall on both

Halldrum are ethnic drums with Percussion and Fat Plates on Bricasti and Big Drums and Drum Plate on PCM-91

www.savita.me.cz/show/hall1.zip

www.savita.me.cz/show/halldrum.zip

[effectsnut]

sounds like a nice box..i would love to hear it next to my 960...whats the list price on it?

[Tomer1]

Hmmm the verbs do sound awesome,
I would love some IR impulses of the hall and plate settings

[raal]

heard some of your samples. wow. have a 480L, TC5000, H3000SE, etc. still would like to hear this baby for sure. your 'string rich plate' killed me.

[Omicron_9]

Led,

Yikes, that is a sweet verb. I'm using a PCM-91 and a Rumour at present, but am starting to wonder if I need to look for an additional rack space.

I have had a few conversations with Brian Zolner, and he had told me that the BSO was using an M7 for some recordings and he was having a hard time getting it back from them. Amazing when you consider that their space is Boston Symphony Hall; I've been there many times and I can say it's not a bad sounding space (understatement). <understatement>

Thanks for posting the samples; the clear hall and the BSO hall were my faves. Very clean and detailed.

Regards,
-0.9</understatement>

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by Omicron_9

Led,

Yikes, that is a sweet verb. I'm using a PCM-91

Have you listened to the PCM-91 vs Bricasti samples I posted above ?

[matucha]

I'd go with whatever is cheaper, because it sounds very similar to me. Yep lex is a bit muddier/more smeared, but that's not a bad thing, because it feels smoother because of that.

[Omicron_9]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

Have you listened to the PCM-91 vs Bricasti samples I posted above ?

They're downloading now....

Thanks, Ivo.

-0.9

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by matucha

I'd go with whatever is cheaper, because it sounds very similar to me. Yep lex is a bit muddier/more smeared, but that's not a bad thing, because it feels smoother because of that.

But don´t take these samples as a given fact. Starting adjusting any preset on Bricasti (Modulation - Density - Early/Reverb) makes in an incredible range of the reverb shape, colour etc. even within one preset. From very clean - to very "lush". It is of course not possible to post all these variations. As I said, the posted samples are just the basic presets without any further creative adjustments.

[ethan_c]

WOW! Thanks so much for sharing! You have been very generous with your time. The Bricasti sounds like it just might be worth the wait.....

[SnakeCained]

I played withone in Sweden a few weeks ago and was very happy indeed.

Best new reverb I have heard for a longtime.

Having a look round the back there is a port called 'remote' or something like that.

Are they going to do a LARC type thing for it?

Soundwise for me it sounds like a clean lexi very musical and better than real.

The guy said it would be about $3500 but he was converting form swedish money so may have been a bit off.

I want one!

[effectsnut]

Originally Posted by SnakeCained

I played withone in Sweden a few weeks ago and was very happy indeed.

Best new reverb I have heard for a longtime.

Having a look round the back there is a port called 'remote' or something like that.

Are they going to do a LARC type thing for it?

Soundwise for me it sounds like a clean lexi very musical and better than real.

The guy said it would be about $3500 but he was converting form swedish money so may have been a bit off.

I want one!

so like tc electronic reverb?

[mixerguy]

one can buy a used TC-4000 reverb for approx $1750 - and that is a very smokin reverb (top of the stereo TC line - same sound as the 6000 supposedly)... so the M7 had better be pretty hot to shell out $3,500!!!!

[GYang]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

one can buy a used TC-4000 reverb for approx $1750 - and that is a very smokin reverb (top of the stereo TC line - same sound as the 6000 supposedly)... so the M7 had better be pretty hot to shell out $3,500!!!!

TC M4000 is great reverb for many applications, but Lex sound is what only Lex produces.
To some extent Lex M300 (for average price of around 1500 bucks 2nd hand) helps to add Lex's touch (in its more modern sounding variant) without need to have some legendary, but way too old machines with all headaches or to overpay for 960.
Now the point is if Bricasti interprets beloved Lex sound appropriately for the price (or at all) or we just get another new, nice reverb outside the box.

It should offer more than M4000 + M300 combined for its price.

[ISedlacek]

Bricasti has great sounding drum plates - tight, big and dense. My PCM-91 sounds nice too, but tiny bit less focused ... (it was also quite audible when listening just to 100% wet signal).

I tried vocal plates too, here it was a bit more difficult to distinguish between both. I sent few AB samples to a friend and he was not sure which he likes better, sounded similar.

For halls (I mean my favourite long "spheric" instrument halls), I admire the large field for adjustment options for each preset in Bricasti: modulation, density, early/late etc. which move the given reverb sound to all possible directions - from clean to more dense, spacy and "coloured".
The "halls" and "spaces" presets sound very clean, very well defined, with a great sense of (adjustable) depth. Yet, for my particular instrumental "fantasy" style, I found Lexicon reverbs suiting maybe a bit more, not being THAT perfectly defined and clean, but somehow a bit more "real" as if (maybe not good word) by their slightly "smeared" nature, not that "perfect", but quite pleasing (maybe because of that ?). But these differences are rather subtle. Both are great units.

One funny thing happened during my Friday testings : I played solo monochord tracks (from the newly prepared CD), listened to the reverb and thought this M7 sounds really wonderful - so smooth, natural, musical and spacy, simply perfect for this task (how could I miss it before ?). And only after some time I noticed that by a mistake I had the tracks connected to Altiverb :-)))) . When connected back to Lexicon and Bricasti, neither of them was able to recreate that space feeling I heard before ...

Anyway, the new Bricasti reverb is truly admirable unit, bringing something very new to the reverb world (not trying to be a new Lexicon clone).... I look forward to trying it later again (now I am off for other tasks and someone else is waiting to try this demo unit)