Blue Bear Sound...Where are you???

[ricrac47]

Bruce,
I need your help. My home studio is almost finished. I'm having one unresolved problem. Vocals! I have a AT4033a thru a preamp. I do mostly country, so I don't want overprocessed vocals....just a little reverb or maybe some slight delay to improve the sound. I can't seem to get a good reverb out of my Roland 1680...there's always a nasty aftersound that I can't seem to get rid of. The delay patches are slightly better. I even resorted to using my old ART SGX T2 guitar fx and programming my own patches. I't ok, but I don't want to waste time doing this. My question: Does ANYBODY make a decent rack mount aimed at vocalists. . . .just reverb and delay for a reasonable price? Also I've been reading about the DigiTech Vocalist VR.
It's a harmonizer and a reverb unit. Are you familiar with it? Any help you could give me would be appreciated. Thanks.
ricrac47
I also meant to say that I have a POD Pro. Can this unit be used for vocals?

[Blue Bear Sound]

Get yourself some flavour of Lexicon -- used LXP-series would be great, otherwise an MPX-500 or better, an MPX-1.

You can get away with low-grade 'verb on guitar - maybe even keyboards, but good-sounding reverb is especially important for both vocals and snare drum, so you don't want to cheap out at all in this area.

I haven't heard the Digitech unit you mentioned, but I'm 99.99999% sure any Lexicon unit will better it.

I've never tried the POD Pro for vocals - but I don't even like the reverb or delay on it for guitar, so I can't imagine what vox would sound like thru it - it may be good for specialized applications, but not for general use.

Good luck!

Bruce

[ricrac47]

Thanks Bruce,
Thanks for your prompt reply! Two questions. Are you familiar with the Lexicon LPX 5.... Found one for $150.
Would rather buy new. Also what is the difference between the MPX 500 and the MPX 1?
If the sound is the SAME, I'll be happy. I'm only interested in reverb and delay. So if I don't get a flanger or other bells and wistles with the MPX 1...that's ok. I assume they both have XLR inputs. Thanks again.
Rich

[John Sayers]

ricrac47 - I've been looking into the MPX1 v the MPX500. It appears the MPX1 has more processing and allows 5 individual effects to be chained together and has 32bit internal processing, yet it quotes 18/20bit conversion.

The MPX500 on the other hand quotes 24bit conversion. I want to buy one of them but I'm not sure which would be the best as we are using a DA7 which is running 24bit.

Bruce - any ideas??

cheers
john

[Blue Bear Sound]

I brought one of them home along with an MPX-1 and a TC Electronics M*One for A/B/C'ing purposes....

The MPX-1 and 500 were similar - sound quality was comparable - more features than I was willing to pay for at the time (on the MPX-1, I mean)... The TC Electronics wasn't even in either Lexi's league...

I took them all back to the store and bought 2 of the MPX-500s... and I use them ALL the time.... excellent, excellent sound quality. The 'verbs are so realistic....

(Makes me wonder what the big boy's version would sound like - at the $3K price point, if the little guys at under a grand can make me shiver!!)

Anyways - the MPX500 rocks - for the money it can't be beat.

Bruce

PS... the LXP-5 along with the LXP-1 are very nice units too... I used them a few years back and was impressed....

[Sound Cracker]

$150 is maybe on the high side for a LXP 5, but not unreasonable either. It is a very good unit, but, you will need the Lexicon MMC controller if you really want to tweek the effects. Figure another $100 for that.

John Sayers, hello! I took a look at your online manual and thought it was most excellent. Great job!

I think you would probably benefit far more with the versatility of the MPX 1 as opposed to the "alledged" better converters on the 500. I am sure that the quality of the DSP is about the same, and after around 20 bits, digital all sounds about the same.

Good day!

[ricrac47]

Ok, Here's the deal. I just talked to Jim at Lexicon...and he said that the MPX 500 in his opinion was a slightly better unit for vocals. He said that the "chip" in that unit is a slight improvement, and the reverb is slightly better. The MPX 1 offers more editing capability. I'm going with the MPX 500. I'm looking for simple! Thanks everyone esp. Bruce for heading me in Lexicon's direction.