[net.music.synth] Digital Reverb Query

shep@datacube.UUCP (11/04/85)

I've decided I -must- buy a digital reverb. Range of effects
and midi programmability are the two main factors. It must be
not cost over 1.2k. This brings me down to the choice between
Yamaha's REV-7 and Lexicon's PCM-70. Both sound great. Both
cost about 1k. Both have some degree of midi programmability -
but I want more than just patch switching; I want to tweak !

Has anyone had experience with either of these two units?

Shep Siegel                           UUCP: ihnp4!datacube!shep
Datacube Inc.; 4 Dearborn Rd.; Peabody, Ma. 01960; 617-535-6644

rnj@brl (Robert Jesse) (11/10/85)

About the Yamaha REV-7 vs. Lexicon PCM-70 --   I happened across
both units at AES a few weeks ago.  The following is based on my
possibly erroneous recollections -- I have info on paper only for
the REV-7 and no reliable pricing info on either.

The REV-7 lists for about 1.2k and is a mono-in stereo-out reverb
unit.   Various echo/reverb parameters can be edited, resulting in
new reverb "patches" you can store in memories provided in addition
to the factory set ones.  The nomenclature surrounding the device
will not be foreign to anyone familiar with standard reverb processors.

The PCM-70 is billed by its mfg. as an effects processor, not a
reverb unit.   In fact, so the fellow said, they didn't even intend
for it to be a reverb box, but simply happened to notice that it would
serve nicely, so they tossed in a few plate/foil/room/etc patches.
The numerous editable parameters, most of which are replicated for each
of six voice-like entities, are thus not quite so familiar as those of
the REV-7.

I think the price is around 2.2 or 2.3K.

What is needed is critical fiddling with the units side-by-side in
a setting that permits acute listening.   My feeling is that if the
reverb functions of the PCM-70 match those of the REV-7 in quality,
then it's worth a kilobuck for the nifty extra features.

[in answer to the original question, it's true that both permit patch
selection via MIDI; i don't know if either allows actual editing via
MIDI]