Ageing, inexpensive, hardware effects... which ones do you still have love for?

[dialectic]

It seems that there are certain aging and inexpensive hardware effects units that many of us still like to keep onto and use, often due to the unique character of these units and/or certain patches that they contain. Example that spring to mind are the Yamaha SPX90 (particularly for its Pitch Shift and Symphonic patches) and the Alesis Midiverb II (Bloom reverb etc), both of which I still have sitting in my rack. Then there are those 'sleeper' effects units, those that provide surprising good quality for very little cost.

So which old underdogs have you kept onto and what is your justification?

[matic]

I use an Alesis Midiverb III for monitor effects. It's patched into aux 2 and and I put verb in the vocalists headphones with it. Never recorded though

[jude]

as an ex live sound enginner, turned to the studio, i still love the SPX990. im always trying to find someone to sell me theirs. no one wants to part with them tho

[pristudio]

I'm still using an old SPX90II for gated reverb, can't find a software that does that....

[chevega]

Just last week i was having trouble getting the right verb sound my client was asking for. In desperation, I fired up the old Behringer Virtualizer Pro, which is basically a seventy dollar piece of garbage, but lo and behold... there was the sound! It is tentatively still patched in for future exploration.

I often say that every piece of gear does at least one thing well. Of course, I never thought that applied to anything made by Behringer.

[Preston135]

SOS! for cheapness. :D

[foldback]

My MXR Pitch-Transposer, which I bought new in 1981 with the display option, gets used four or five times a week. I use it for very small pitch shift chorus sound on vocals.

The Alesis Wedge reverb still sees some use around here too. It's kind of grainy but I think that's what I like about it, there's a thickness to the verb that makes thinner recorded tracks sound bigger or more powerful.

[piotr]

I have these three Electrix boxes, which I can't seem to bring myself to sell. I use them occasionally, but certainly not on a regular basis.

This is someone else's rack, but those are the three units I have:



They also released some half-rack units, but never got those.

p.

[biggator6]

Ensoniq DP4

[babydaddymusic]

alesis microverb II

[maggotspawn]

Alesis Quadraverb.

[Granny Gremlin]

I have a DP4 but don't use it anymore (such a pain; mostly used for verb and now I have a BX25).

Also:
Tapco 4400 (for anything but drums)

Roland UA100 (yes, it is a USB audio interface BUT it has awesome emulations of every Boss effect ever made but with a million more parameters than the originals had - love the Hexa-chorus preset and Orange vocoder in particular).

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by pristudio

I'm still using an old SPX90II for gated reverb, can't find a software that does that....

Have you ever tried a reverb and a gate? Plenty of software options if you look at using two seperate plugins.

[joeq]

LXP-1 for the dark plate

sometimes the chorus can be cool


Sony HR-mp-5 for this one preset: "New York City Loft"
one of my favorite room sounds, or do I just love the name?

[Buss-me]

Alesis Microverb, I & II.....best lo res fake "room" for drums, ever!!

[jasyr]

Lexicon Alex

[Manfrensengensen]

dbx 163X (3)
MIDIVERB IV
ASHLY GQX3101 EQ

[suedesound]

may not fall into the right category here but i love the ams rmx16 for the hall sound (i don't own one but used one regularly at a place i worked), when you consider the age of it it's pretty ****ing amazing. also, delay not reverb, but nothing does what a pcm 42 does. i know these aren't on the cheaper side but they have their own mojo.

i tried forever to get the right reverb sound an artist was looking for i was mixing a few years ago and finally after trying several boxes (480, ams, spx90, pcm70 etc) for shits and giggles threw up the standard digi plugin. after tweaking it for a minute he said that was exactly what he was hearing in his head. just goes to show everything has a use.

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by suedesound

may not fall into the right category here but i love the ams rmx16 for the hall sound (i don't own one but used one regularly at a place i worked), when you consider the age of it it's pretty ****ing amazing. also, delay not reverb, but nothing does what a pcm 42 does. i know these aren't on the cheaper side but they have their own mojo.

i tried forever to get the right reverb sound an artist was looking for i was mixing a few years ago and finally after trying several boxes (480, ams, spx90, pcm70 etc) for shits and giggles threw up the standard digi plugin. after tweaking it for a minute he said that was exactly what he was hearing in his head. just goes to show everything has a use.

Perhaps we should redefine "inexpensive", Suede.
"-)

[BudgetMC]

I kinda miss my old ART FXR! It had some very funky effects ("Sparkle Fifths," anyone?) that occasionally were exactly the sorta outta left field kinda thing that you needed. I gave it away a couple of years ago, and occasionally miss it, even though I would probably almost never use it now.

[suedesound]

Originally Posted by biggator6

Perhaps we should redefine "inexpensive", Suede.
"-)

yeah, sorry. i had a feeling that post wouldn't fit with the idea of this thread. in live sound world i've been suprised by alot of cheap units for great verbs but not studio tested.

[Traintrack]

LXP-1, Can't say enough about this small box. Very smooth great sounding reverb and the other settings all can work. I am presently looking for a backup.

[Joe Hone]

Hughes & Kettner BATT - more often than not it beats out the bass rig brought into the studio, sometimes direct with no cabinet micing, once in a while the best choice as a preamp for electric guitar. Just a great piece of gear.

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by Traintrack

LXP-1

it's better than PCM native plugins

[DITN]

An old, £70 WEM Copicat MkIV was easily my favourite effect unit that I've ever had. Must pick up another soon.

[rez]

still using an old proco rat pedal from the mid eighties and will not let it go...

[dialectic]

Keep em coming!

[lhama]

Lexicon vortex.

[dialectic]

Originally Posted by lhama

Lexicon vortex.

Yeah, that is quite a unique unit, I have one of those myself.

[Colonel Blues]

To me, one of those analog delay pedals reissue (Artec, Belcat… I have both) just brings you back to our favorite vintage sounds… even if so limited in time (no more than 350-500ms delay…).
But, for those rockab' slapback or gilmourish soloes, you can't beat them !!!