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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => SR Forum Archives => Product Reviews: Sound Reinforcement FUD Forum Archive => Topic started by: david423 on April 16, 2004, 07:34:10 PM

Title: effects
Post by: david423 on April 16, 2004, 07:34:10 PM
I was wondering if you guys had anything to say about the alesis midiverb effects unit. I have seen it used a little bit. But the current rig that i work with uses all Lexicon effects. About the only difference i have seen was the lack of a tap button on the alesis. What is the best effects unit out there?
Title: Re: effects
Post by: Michael Prasuhn on April 16, 2004, 10:37:42 PM
david423 wrote on Fri, 16 April 2004 17:34

I was wondering if you guys had anything to say about the alesis midiverb effects unit. I have seen it used a little bit. But the current rig that i work with uses all Lexicon effects. About the only difference i have seen was the lack of a tap button on the alesis. What is the best effects unit out there?


Well, do you like those Lexicon effects? Lexicon is a very standard name for effects in this business. Although there are others, it is one of the top names. They do produce a very wide range of products from multi-thousand dollar studio effects units to 100-200 dollar low end units. My opinion of them as always been positive, and I have found the audio quality on even their lowest end units to be quite good, although limited in features.

Alesis on the other hand produces an acceptable product for some levels (some may argue with me here). But what you will notice is that Alesis has no high end effects processing used in pro audio similar to Lexicon. I believe on that level alone, you can exclude the Alesis from your consideration for all but the most basic and extremely limited budgets possible.

-Mikey P
Title: Re: effects
Post by: david423 on April 17, 2004, 02:03:21 AM
Yes I do like the lexicon and would advise anyone who asked me to go with them. I am just trying to learn more about brands and basically the entire audio business. Lots of people ask me advice, so i figured, why not ask the people that really know my questions. Thanks.
Title: Re: effects
Post by: Greg Koepke on April 18, 2004, 09:44:56 PM
Lexicon is indeed a great company that produces great effects, however in my expience I prefer TC Electronics.  They make outstanding effect units and are lower in price than the Lexicons and of better quality.  The reverbs are so transparent they make Alesis sound like a cheap attempt at producing such effects.  The M300 is awesome for the price but I really enjoy Fireworx processor but with a big jump is price as well!  Hope this helps!
Title: Re: effects
Post by: David Gunnardo on April 19, 2004, 02:50:17 AM
When i'm out "on the field", there are basicly three brands that shows up.

1. TC Electronic
My personal favourite since they're so easy to use, and sounds great.

2. Lexicon
Also very nice as long as it isn't the cheapest models 'cause they're impossible to use (a "whateverknob" to change the reverb.. nah..)

3. Yamaha
Have nothing to say about them. Works good most times..

Title: Re: effects
Post by: dawen on April 19, 2004, 07:12:08 AM
Hi David, nice seeing you around here too  Smile

David-DLT wrote on Mon, 19 April 2004 08:50

When i'm out "on the field", there are basicly three brands that shows up.

1. TC Electronic
My personal favourite since they're so easy to use, and sounds great.

A whole bunch of swedish effect racks contains a M-One, a D-Two and a few channels of compressors. Sounds great, easy as hell to use and doesn't kill your effect rack budget.
Title: Re: effects
Post by: Tim Padrick on April 20, 2004, 01:55:05 AM
I've heard very good sounds from the Alesis Quadraverb ($100 on eBay?).  On the other hand, I think the Midiverb 4 sounds like crap no matter how you tweak it.  The old Lexicon Reflex is decent for cheap ($100 on eBay?).  The Yamaha SPX990 is decent.  The TCM2000 is very nice (about $400 on eBay).

The TC D2 seems to be a popular and affordable delay, though a lot of folks still prefer the Roland SDE3000 (or 3000A).
Title: Re: effects
Post by: ThomasA(lbenberger) on April 21, 2004, 07:36:33 AM
Sorry David if this sound a bit harsh, but I really feel the need to jump in here and hope, you take it as constructive critizism.

Refering to this post and the other one of yours where you ask about the reputation of Crest, it is obvious that you are not exactly an old seasoned pro in this field of audio - and there is nothing wrong with that. But then you mentioned that you are often asked for advice, and there I see a fundamental problem.

If you have to ask about the difference between Brand A and Brand B just because one item you've seen has a button more than the other one, in my opinion you are not yet qualified to give other people advise on wheter to use it or not.

You ended one of the posts you did on the Crest topic with the remark, that you will not go with the opinion of your friend anymore (who told you that Crest sucked) but with the opinion you get from everybody here on this board.

I think this is a highly dangerous attitude of yours, to spread a message solemnly based on the opinion you gather from other people without having hard facts on hand. If you want to know what a product is like then go and research it. Download the manual, read it and for everything you do not understand you do another search on the web until you REALLY know what this piece of gear does.

Then at least you can say what it DOES but you still can not make a quality statement until you critically listened to it, or maybe even had the chance to compare it to similar products.

If you then take into account all the opinions you gather from various sources like this board is, add your personal opinion and weight them up against each other based on the facts, then you are on your way to judge the product realistically.

This is the point where you are qualified to give anybody else some advice on it, but always adding how much comparisons/experience you had with comparable products.

I really think that you are on the right track with asking and participating here on the board, but if you give an uneducated advise to somebody it not only could lead to a wrong buying decision, it also does not improve your future knowledge and quality of work, not speaking about your damaged reputation if somebody figures out that you did not really know what you were talking about.

Overall, it is just not professional and that is what we all should aim for.

Thomas
Title: Re: effects
Post by: david423 on April 21, 2004, 11:56:06 AM
Thomas,
No offence taken. I am by no means a professional in this business. But i have worked with a wide variety or equipment. When i say "people ask me for advice", they do. I tell them what i think and tell them where i learned it and then usually direct them to places where they can get a much better opinion than mine. I only give advice on what i know about, which is what i have worked with. I do not in any way consider it a professional opinion"  And for the most part it is a lower price, mid line rig. Now, i have worked with and seen many different brands in all price ranges and styles. But i always say, "Go ask....... and see what he says".and try to put more opinions together. But one thing that i make for sure that i say when giving advice - You are not going to know how well you like it until YOU try it out and see how it works for you.

Thanks for the criticism, i will take it constructively.