With a Cheapness (Reverbs/Multi-Effects) Inexpensive Loot for the Budget-Minded Slut

[Empty Planet]

For modulation fx, you could do much worse than to snag a Lexicon Vortex on Ebay -- around $150 (they started out much more expensive, but something about their interface and general concept made them fall out of favor). Very odd little box, can go places most fx units cannot -- whether you want to go to those places is another question altogether -- but has some great delays and solid, lush, Lexi choruses that can be the bomb in certain applications.

Cheap and lush. Can't be that.

[JeffSanders]

Great thread!

How do the TC Electronic M-One and M300 compare? Has anyone compared both?

As someone who's only ever used VST delays and reverbs, I'm looking forward to my first hardware verb. And other forums I've researched have led me to the M-One. Worth the extra bucks? Or are they both entry-level products in the league of software verbs?

Thanks! thumbsup

[TornadoTed]

Ensoniq DPpro - I'd still have it if Ensoniq hadn't broken their promise to bring out the digital board for it, rrrr.

Digitech Studio 400 - A poor mans Ensoniq DP4 but quite an amazing box for the money.

Roland SE50 - Great for f*****g things up. Yep, noisy but one mans noise and dirt is another mans character!

[Needle201]

Originally Posted by frothingbadger

This discussion has been extremely helpful. However, perhaps a few of you knowledgable types could weigh in for me on the Lexicon Lxp-1. It has only been mentioned indirectly here but I keep hearing studio type gurus etc. wax amazed about this little gem. I'm looking at acquiring one but would like more info!

What I'm really interested in with the LXP 1 other than its "colour" (which has been widely discussed elsewhere as warm and on the "dark" side of the spectrum) is whether I can get deep "SPACEY" ambient stuff out of one of these little bastids. Any other remarks would be greatly appreciated.

Also, anyone know where I can find some sound samples using one of these?

cheers,
FB

i own two LXP-5s, and i gues those are comparable to the LXP-1s...they really made a difference to my sound, the verb is really nice, warm, and dark..thats true..

really cheap gem...

[bunnerabb]

Those little Lexi MPX-100 rigs are really nice. About three really good verb settings.

Lexchip sound.

Dirt cheap.

[code green]

the lex. lxp15/15II is a great studio box that excels at reverb (vocal plates!!!) and also has very usable pitch-shift/delay fx (don't mean to damn the ps/del. fx with faint praise, i just have other units i go to first for these). they don't go for much, given the quality of the algorythms (i'll never learn to spell that word!)...and the ensoniq dp (2/4/pro) series is a phenomenal (the pro is pro in every way) but somewhat overlooked line that will sometimes slide by cheap in used gear shops/craigslist/ebay--great multi-fx with tons of versatility, some excellent room algos.

and keep an eye peeled for the mxr pitch-shift doubler...a neat and apparently rare little 1ru box that i go to again and again for backing vocal wonders (and other such). they're obscure but seemingly not sought after either--i forget what i paid for mine but i remember it was ridiculously low, maybe $35? couldn't find any info on it but figured at that price i couldn't go wrong...and i didn't!

[dkelley]

just to keep things up to date, the cheapest pro sounding reverb box available new these days is, wait for it...





the behringer v-verb. It's excellent, sounds quite similar to the kurzweil rumour, but maybe a couple of percent less finished than the rumour in a few ways. Really Berry's best product to date. I just put one in my studio recently and it is my new go to vocal verb (plates particularly but lots of settings sound great on it, I mean really really great).

Very convincing real life verbs. That plus my lexicon plus my alesis gear and my in the box convolutions gives me every verb my clients can dream up and many they've never heard before.

I did rent a rumour for a while before and it was great, a little nicer to use, but really to purchase for $250 new more or less the berry v-verb could sell for as much as the rumour and just be it's direct competitor, it's that good. And of course, both the rumour and the v-verb sound like units that used to cost $$$$ a few years back, so they're both steals.

I hope it's ok to add to these cheapness metas after such a long break like this, I figure we might as well keep the useful stuff up to date for the cheapo purchases.

Cheers,
Don

[dkelley]

also, I suppose I can post my sleeper cheapness reverb box here, I already have mine so I doubt there will be a huge jump of people trying to find these and escalate the prices LoL. It's just me probably, but I own a yamaha fx500 half rack sized fx box, originally intended for guitar use but also many other studio type presets in it. Only -10db output (or -20????), not +4 which sucks. mono in, stereo out, not balanced connectors either (at least not on the inputs, not sure about the outs.

However, all things being equal, I use this box for it's very natural sounding reverbs all the time. Rest of the fx are guitar oriented (and not that great, modulation stuff is pretty good I guess, but I don't use it with guitar any more so whatever).

In case you want good sounding realistic reverbs on the cheap, pick up an old 80's fx500 for as little cash as you can. Learn how to use it, you'll have to mess with the settings a lot ot get it right, mix to 100% if you use in on aux, etc, crank the output to get -4 output from it which will at least be audible on a +4 mixer, and watch the input gains because this thing suffers from digital clipping on the input badly if you give it excessive drive (but it has excellent led warning of that well in advance which is good).

I use my quadraverb for dirty delays and pingpongs and pitch shifted delays, I use the fx500 for verb on background instruments or sometimes on snare/toms, and v-verb on lead vocals (assuming pop mixing).

This is all within the cheapness category of course, I use better gear when in a better studio, but in my own studio this stuff sounds incredible and nobody questions the quality of gear, in fact I get compliments on mixes and tone all the time using this stuff. The point being, you too can get great sound with crappy old gear (ok, this was like $600 new in the late 80s, but still, fairly low end 16 bit digital).

cheers,
Don

[theom]

Ah, Yes the alesis midiverb II

dirt cheap.

presets only.

08-- a very nice small room
16 a very nice plate
23 a long verb with a lot of swoosh
26 bowling ball in the swimmingpool toms

I like the wedge too.
and the quadraverb
Plus the tc D2 is a great ddl and chourus box, but perhaps not quit worthy of the "with a cheapness" moniker.