Reverb suggestions - pauper's Bricasti M7?

goldtop

So, Casey says the M200 is "a year off", and much as I love the sound of the M7 demos, I can't spend that much on a reverb. So what else? Something rackmounting for 'real spaces' as opposed to special effects and infinite shimmering, grunge, etc. The sheer number of Lexicons confuddles me. TC reverb 4000 seems to have a good rep.

I'd be upgrading from the TC m300 (the little one with few programs and not much control). I don't mind it, but I've never thought of it as sounding realistic. Don't need chorus/delay/etc modes.

I'm all ears.

cosmiccarrot

The m3000 would be be a good upgrade, if you've had the 300 (I've pm'd you if you're interested).
The one that's tempted me for sometime now, due to it's 'back to basics' (knob twists, ooh err) functions is the Eventide 2016.

goldtop

Thanks - will go look those up.

If anyone's got opinions on all of the Lexicons it would be very useful!

oaf

It's software not rack but I bought Reverberate 2 last week (£50+VAT on offer). They have some clever Bricasti M7 IRs available for download to use with Reverberate 2 (they're not "standard" impulse reponses). Don't know if it is of interest but from my limited testing it seems rather good.
http://www.liquidsonics.com/software_fir_archives.htm

goldtop

Thanks, but I'm sticking to hardware for this.

Any more thoughts?

xtedmanzie

You could pick up a lexicon pcm70 or pcm80 for a lot less than the TC 4000 - £350 to £450 probably. I had a pcm81 which was a bit more 'effects' those other two are straight up reverbs as far as I know - both famous industry standard pro units.

Stick to the PCM lexicon range and you'll be fine! 

xtedmanzie

Ps I expect the TC 4000 is great though

lasermonkey

The PCM 70 has a lot of fans, and for good reason. While there may be plenty of modern reverbs that seemingly give more realistic spaces, the '70 sounds incredible in the mix. Many of my favourite records were made with it.
 The only downsides are that its mono in/ stereo out and it's maybe a bit noisy by modern standards. Personally, I'd take a bit of noise to get the character.
 That said, I got hold of Valhalla's Vintage Verb plugin, as it does an incredible job of recreating those vintage Lexicon reverbs, at just fifty bucks. It's so good that I'm unlikely to buy any more hardware reverb units, unless I can find an Ursa Major 8x32 at a reasonable price.

xtedmanzie

Pcm 70 and m4000 on soundonsound at the moment, and two pcm 80s on eBay. Few years back I would have snapped up that pcm70 myself! But software reverbs are too good these days...

octatonic

PCM70 but getting parts can be tricky when they break.

lasermonkey

That's another downside I forgot to mention. Early Lexes tend to eat their DRAM chips for some reason, the PCM 70 being no exception. I've had to replace the DRAM on a few Reflexes, but I have quite a stash of the necessary chips.

lento

Always been a fan (there's a monster 480 on Gumtree atm) and had a 224 many years ago along with an AMS RMX and Quantec (the best ever early reflection and tunnel sounds) however, for the money they sell for these days a Sony R7 is a good bet!
I still have mine and if you like tweakability - you have oodles of it. Ditto for the slightly more modern V 77 (a 'best of' the older series)

goldtop

Thanks chaps. I know the Lexicons are well-regarded, but from reading around so far, it's not clear that they are 'natural' sounding? Am after convincing sounding rooms rather than cavernous/modulated space FX.

The Sonys have not appeared on my radar - will go off and find out more.

xtedmanzie

goldtop said:

Thanks chaps. I know the Lexicons are well-regarded, but from reading around so far, it's not clear that they are 'natural' sounding? Am after convincing sounding rooms rather than cavernous/modulated space FX.

The Sonys have not appeared on my radar - will go off and find out more.

Lexicon - They are THE classy (expensive) reverb sound, anything from tiny space to massive. What people probably mean when they say the aren't 'natural' is that they aren't convolution reverb - which is a different type of reverb used to simulate exact spaces. The lexicon sound is usually thought of as better for musical purposes, and convolution better for films (for example - to simulate real rooms). Also different eras of reverbs sound different due to different (not all would agree 'improved') processing capability. TC are also well regarded for actual room simulation as far as i'm aware. 

Demo the lexicon PCM native plugins - that will give you an idea of what you're getting.

Not sure about Sony but I've got a Sonnox (Sony) high end reverb plugin and it's great.

goldtop

Thanks for that. As the Lexicons are relatively affordable,

I'll see what people shove on ebay when the post-Christmas credit card bills come in... I may buy a PCM70 to try it out, and turn it around if I don't like it.