Effects Rack

I have a Behringer (I'm not too much of a fan of them) effects rack that I have been using for 2 years, only for reverb. I got it for free. I looked it up on ebay, the model I have sells for like $50 bucks.

I'm looking to invest in something better because:

1. The effects rack is creating unwanted noise in my mix.
2. I'm getting an Roland Alpha Juno. I would like something nice to go with that.

I mainly want something for reverb, before I track out my beats. I like to hear it while I'm putting the track together.

I might be able to get my hands on a DP/4 but I want to use that mostly for non-reverb effects with the juno when I get it.

I've done my research on the few pieces I'm about to list, but I don't have access to any stores or any where that I can try them myself in my area (which sucks...)

What's your experiences/opinions of theses:

Lexicon MPX 1
TC Electronic M 300
DigiTech Studio Quad 4

Like I said, my main focus probably would be on reverb for drums and synths. I'm trying to keep it under $200. What's your suggestions and criticisms?

the studio quad is cool for lots of weird effects chains, but that sounds like that's what you want to use the dp4 for.

cannot go wrong with a lexicon.

tapedeck wrote:cannot go wrong with a lexicon.

Word. I have always heard about the "lexicon" reverb, but I don't know which units fall under that.

if you don't want to hurt your wallet, i personally feel alesis has the best reverb for the price. lots of pros have used the midiverb, quadraverb, and other alesis units... they're available for cheap on the used market... lots of options depending on what you need.

crossings wrote:if you don't want to hurt your wallet, i personally feel alesis has the best reverb for the price. lots of pros have used the midiverb, quadraverb, and other alesis units... they're available for cheap on the used market... lots of options depending on what you need.

I just want some decent reverb honestly, not trying to be super picky. I will check those out.

Anybody word on the Roland SRV2000?

Actually, I'm just looking for something that can give me a "big" sound, good cathedral halls. I will be using this on strings, brass, and synths alot to "liven" them up.

I recently bought a Drawmer 1968 dual channel tube compressor. Really loving the thing so far, dope sounding box.

RepRSP wrote:I recently bought a Drawmer 1968 dual channel tube compressor. Really loving the thing so far, dope sounding box.

That's a compressor, I'm looking at reverbs, but I bet it does sound dope.

Behringer Virtualizer pro, that's what I have right now...

i have a lexicon lxp1 (reverb) and lxp5 (reverb/multi-effects). they are half rack units from the 80s.
they both sound really good. should come in under $200. very nice sounding units. not as many parameter controls as more modern units.

Another cheap suggestion if you feel like checking the used market --

Zoom used to make a line of rack effects that were suprisingly decent considering thier budget pricing. The last and "ultimate" models were the RFX 2000/2200 from the late ninties/early 00s. I've been using a Studio 1204 from the mid-nineties. I thought it would be total junk till I actually turned it on and listened to it. We're certainly not talking Eventide quality but they really aren't bad for static effects (just have to remember to leave the I/O near unity as the thing has tons of gain and will produce as much noise if not adjusted properly). Realtime control was always a bit on the steppy side (Zoom never really got into the smoothing algorythims much) but that may not be an issue for your application.