"legendary Gear" $4k Reverb Unit Options

[Todd Simpson]

After the thread about the DUMBLE amps that cost as much as a decent condominium, I got to thinking about other legendary gear. There is a reverb unit, an actual unit, not a plugin, that falls in to this category. You see them in pro studios and you may have seen 2 of them on JOHN MAYERS live rig. This is the BRICASTI M7. Much in the same way pro players used to use pricey lexicon studio reverb units in their live rack setup, players with wads of funds like Mayer are still using crazy pricey gear in their live rack mount setup.

QUESTION: KEN: Have you tried one of these? Has anybody? I"ve seen them but I've never tried one to taste the magic.

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[klasaine]

Nope, not the Bricasti. Not to my knowledge.
A lot of Lexicon units are 4 grand, same with Eventide gear. The really high end reverb in major studios are/were the Lexicon M200 thru M400 series and those were $7000 to $10,000.

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[Todd Simpson]

It's crazy expensive to be used at a bit of road kit. Still, it's evidently being used that way by some pro touring folks and of course you gotta bring two of everything on the road in case one breaks so it's 8k worth of reverb units in John Mayors rack! The same guy did a great vid with an old LEXICON PCM90 when he was doing old ZAKK WYLDE stuff and he did nail the old zakk tone.

Nope, not the Bricasti. Not to my knowledge.
A lot of Lexicon units are 4 grand, same with Eventide gear. The really high end reverb in major studios are/were the Lexicon M200 thru M400 series and those were $7000 to $10,000.

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[Mertay]

I did share some files with an owner when it was first released, was kind of a forum based experiment as we were testing plugs vs (bricasti) impulses vs the hardware itself.

It was a while ago but I remember it took quite some effort to make plug-ins sound close to it. The impulses were at first not bad but since you can't adjust much settings for the source I also remember thinking plug-ins were better if one can't afford the hardware itself.

The algo of the hardware sounded to me like kept the reflections controlled to have a pink-like flat curve, thats why it sounds a bit warmer and the unit needs more DSP power than alternatives.

I also have some experience with rack units used for amp reverb, mainly TC electronic. Wasn't really into it to be honest, too much adjustment needed to find the best for such use.

Also the typical MXR, Boss etc. reverbs if you're not aiming ambient/fx are more than enough for live use. Likely not as warm compared solo, but in a band music should be fine or even rather nice.

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Sep 15 2020, 12:30 PM

[Todd Simpson]

Good point! For live work, a decent MXR reverb / delay pedal is usually enough to get the job done. There are more elaborate options available as stomp boxes. Once one gets in to rack units, the sky is the limit and you are heading towards the potential for huge sums of money. There was a very popular TC electronic rack delay/chorus unit that everyone used on the road for big tours and it was in every big studio for a while and now is a hardware controlled plugin. I'm talking of course about the legendary 2290. You still this unit in studios and now that it's a hardware controlled plugin, it's popping up everywhere I think that road is the likely course for just about every sort of pricey rack unit on earth at some point. Eventually, once a product reaches sales saturation or is replaced etc. A builder can get more revenue out of licensing it out than out of building it. The good news is that nearly every cool piece of kit will be a plugin of some type at some point UA have done a great job of turning some of the best hardware on earth in to plugins. Bricasti may join in at some point. But only time will tell

The original TC rack which was priced way out of reach of most working musicians for many years.



It's rebirth as a hardware controlled plugin now costing only a few hundred bucks

I did share some files with an owner when it was first released, was kind of a forum based experiment as we were testing plugs vs (bricasti) impulses vs the hardware itself.

It was a while ago but I remember it took quite some effort to make plug-ins sound close to it. The impulses were at first not bad but since you can't adjust much settings for the source I also remember thinking plug-ins were better if one can't afford the hardware itself.

The algo of the hardware sounded to me like kept the reflections controlled to have a pink-like flat curve, thats why it sounds a bit warmer and the unit needs more DSP power than alternatives.

I also have some experience with rack units used for amp reverb, mainly TC electronic. Wasn't really into it to be honest, too much adjustment needed to find the best for such use.

Also the typical MXR, Boss etc. reverbs if you're not aiming ambient/fx are more than enough for live use. Likely not as warm compared solo, but in a band music should be fine or even rather nice.

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[Mertay]

Also just incase someone is curious, used reverb racks go pretty cheap for a while now; https://reverb.com/brand/lexicon

Lexicon is not the only brand but its a good starting point. These should be able to connect similar to the bricasti's mentioned, having lots of options if not better sounding than a modern guitar pedal.

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[Todd Simpson]

Well said!! The "LEXICON SOUND" for reverb has become a short hand for big/thick/wide reverb. One of the BIG Lexicon Reverb units is the PCM70/80/90 which used to cost as much as a decent car but now can be had pretty cheap on ebay/reverb.com

Here is a quick intro to the lexicon sound.

Also just incase someone is curious, used reverb racks go pretty cheap for a while now; https://reverb.com/brand/lexicon

Lexicon is not the only brand but its a good starting point. These should be able to connect similar to the bricasti's mentioned, having lots of options if not better sounding than a modern guitar pedal.

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Sep 17 2020, 12:25 AM