Lexicon MX200 - anyone used this?

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stoli,

I've another question for you also;

Do you guys still operate out of the original Bedford Massachusetts location or did you close that down?

Bob
 
Whats the story stoli???

Stoli.... Continue your posts... We'd all like to hear about the unit and maybe since you seem to be somehow connected with research and development, I'm sure we'd all be great for making suggustions... This is probably one of the best places you could come for that... Obviously from what people on here are asking/saying, I'll be willing to bet that all of us would love effects units that can be run as a plugin, that we could edit via the hardware knobs and have similitaneous reaction in the DAW... This is definitely the type of interconnectivity that we (home and project) recording fools would LOVE to see in the VERY NEAR future... Its true that as soon as one company does it, they're all going to do it... The question is when and who will take the lead!!!!

Also note to stoli... We'd like to hear a little on your background/job, etc. so that we know how to approach our interactions with you... This is nowhere near a bad thing as deepwater posts here quite often.. sometimes even sorting out issues with certain people who know how to find him here!!! Thanks alot and welcome to the board!!!
 
Hi! I work at a music retailer and we got two of these in yesterday. They are pretty frickin cool. We have ours setup right now as an 80's metal preamp/poweramp guitar rig. Having dual processors in one box is killer, you can set them up as either one input to stereo, two stereo ins to two stereo outs, two ins and two mono outs, and cascaded effects. It has midi connections, USB connections, S/PDIF in and out, and 1/4" in and outs. You can create and store up to 100 presets. 44.1 and 48 are both availible. You can also hook it up to your computer and save as many presets as your heart desires.

As for using as a hardware plug in, this is what the manual says.

You need a minimum of two inputs and four outputs.

It shortly mentioned latentcy, and what is says is to use the s/pdif, but you can use the analog ins and outs.

Its a kick ass little unit for pretty cheap, in my opinion. I love it in the guitar rig and I'm considering getting one for my home studio as well. If you have any more questions, I'll try to help.

Rory
 
I think my mouth is watering...

To those of you who are coming forth from retail/company/whatever experience, I sincerely thank you. Your participation in this thread is not only welcome...it's very much encouraged.

NOW TELL US MORE!! :D
 
indeed...

i cant decide between this and an old lexicon alex...

:D
 
stoli147 said:
I am affiliated with Lexicon, but not in the marketing/sales group. I wasn't coming to say how great our product 'xx' is and how much that product from company 'xx' sucks. More just hanging around to learn stuff and what should be improved on future products.
Click to expand...
Excellent. ;) I was lurking this thread anyway while wondering (and hoping) Lex might have more of this kind of hard/software combo coming down the pipe so I'll jump right in. I have the 80 and 90, but would still likely go for an offering of a midrange Lexicon with full p/c control/editing and recall. IMHO, units of this caliber have far too many useful tools, parameter layers and routing options not to want them accessible on a dedicated window. Just the factor of being to pull up and quickly see the routing and parameters of the patches would be a huge plus. Hopefully I'm not alone on this. :D
Wayne
 
Alex vs. mx

I'll tell you, the Alex units are cheap, but sound much worse than this unit. I own the alex and its great, but I'd never use it in a studio setting. I used it mainly as a wild and wacky stage reverb set to its maximum length. It sounds nowhere near as good as this new unit. But, for the price of the alex units, buy both!!!

Rory
 
rory said:
I'll tell you, the Alex units are cheap, but sound much worse than this unit. I own the alex and its great, but I'd never use it in a studio setting. I used it mainly as a wild and wacky stage reverb set to its maximum length. It sounds nowhere near as good as this new unit. But, for the price of the alex units, buy both!!!

Rory
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Rory,

tanx for your input on this...ill be using the stuff with a set of tascam portastudios though...so its all kind of "lo-fi" i guess...i didnt wanna blow 200 bucks just now (in europe its more like 250) for a verb when i can get the alex...every now and then i always see:

"when my alex died on me i almost cried" lol

"if it hadnt died, idd still have it and use it"

etc

so i thought it would be kind of a sleeper verb out there, up to par at least with the MPX series...its kind of sad really, i didnt wanna put a lot of money into a verb at this point :/


damn damn...
 
Cat's out of the bag...

So... I, too, have been monitoring this thread for a few days... like Will, interested in the perception of this product... well... ALL products for that matter. For what it's worth, in addition to what I'm about to reveal, at heart... I'm a gear slut. :)

Unlike Will, I DO work in the Marketing dept. at Lexicon -- am, in fact, the Marketing guy now responsible for Lexicon. But that doesn't mean I'll try to sell you on the products -- even though, of course, it makes me happy when you choose them. ;)

My background is as a musician (duh), recording engineer since I was 17, managed several studios, worked in network broadcasting, was Digital Product Guru at Mackie, Senior Product Manager at Alesis, Product Manager at Gibson Labs, and most recently came out of semi-retirement (part owner of a vintage guitar shop in NorCal) to take this gig for Lex. Bedford, MA is still in operation as the "Consumer Hi-Fi" division, and the "Pro" division is housed in SLC with Harman Music Group.

So... now ya know. While this is my first post to this thread... admittedly, in my second post to the group I recommended an Omega to a guy wanting to spend money on an update, but AFTER I'd told him that his looking at HD24 wasn't a bad thing.. but he only needed 4 tracks at once. And in spite of my rather extensive "Home Studio" (which includes ViPRE preamp -- which I helped birth, MOTU2408II with 2 M20 ADATs for converters, tube gear and high-end mics to spare) -- I use Omega quite a bit... it's faster, and sounds good. Not quite trying to be a shill, mind you...

In any case, I'd be interested to know what YOU think of this product, and can help answer questions as well... like... How many instances? One... because it's hardware... the plug in is software control.

Audio questions? Lex questions? I'm game.

TGB
 
Sorry I didn't get back to the questions yesterday. Got a little busy here. But TGB chimed in to answer them. As for my role at Lexicon, I designed the hardware for the MX. So I was curious to see what the public opinion was of it. I figured I'd take the input I got from the thread to see what to do differently on future products.

As far as my home recording experience, it is very limited at best, so I rely on you guys and marketing for product development. My music background is decent. I've played the bass (upright) for 20 years in orchestra/symphony/philharmonic settings, with a 5 year stint playing jazz as well in the middle.
 
Good question -- but it would be more than irresponsible of me to comment on future products. I think it would be safe to surmise that it's obvious to the industry at large that DAW-based recording has nearly completely supplanted all other types of recording (I mean, when the last of the 2" tape manufacturers goes under, I think you can consider that an indicator....) and we want to bring the best possible products to market -- meaning those that work WITH the user -- or giving them new ways to work.

I hope that doesn't come off as double-speak... but hey... I AM in marketing. :cool:
 
Lex fellas...


im happy you guys are here...

about the "looks" on this new unit...i really prefer the the black/blue looks of the previous units...i love it, i think this new one looks "modern"...wich is fine i guess...im a sucker for vintage stuff though..be it vintage in sound and, (sorry to admit) looks...when these two things combine, its perfect.

with this said, im not taking anything away from the design of the new unit...but u guys want opinions, so thats mine..its a little too modern..too space shuttle :D

this wont stop me from buying it though...one other thing might do that though...ill use this with a set of tascam portastudios (cassetes), and i was planning on getting the lexicon alex...how would u guys compare this unit to the alex?

and also, how would u compare the alex against the MPX series?


tanx!
 
Looks matter...

Thanks for the welcome, diogo...

All things being equal (which of course, they're not...) I prefer the "vintage look" as well... see my first foray into industrial design here: http://www.groovetubes.com/product.cfm?Product_ID=1602

That having been said, I'm the one to blame for the blue panel... it's modern, and helps differentiate from the MPX series.

Don't shoot me, but when it came out -- I wasn't a huge fan of the Alex (too many years using PCM70/80/90 and 480L I guess...) Personally, in retrospect, it sounds pretty good compared to "other" stuff out there at the time... and I really DO like the MPX550 & MPX1. But it's a matter of taste; I think the MX200 sounds stunning -- $200 notwithstanding -- but then, I wrote the programs (with another colleague of mine). So I'm a little biased, but that never stopped me from saying I think this or that is "a good value... blah blah blah." I'd not say this about our little blue baby -- I think it sounds REALLY good -- even at a whole lot more money.

But I'd rather let YOU decide. I wrote programs based on what -I- like, and would use.... but you're gonna be different than me. But I don't work in a vacuum, either... others approved of them as well.

You can, of course, take all of this with the requisite grain of salt -- of COURSE I think it sounds good, or it wouldn't have left the building. Find a Lex dealer, and listen for yourself... it's your money, and your sound. We just help...

TGB
 
TGB said:
Thanks for the welcome, diogo...

All things being equal (which of course, they're not...) I prefer the "vintage look" as well... see my first foray into industrial design here: http://www.groovetubes.com/product.cfm?Product_ID=1602
Click to expand...

this looks GOOD. care to send me one for free? :D ill write a review and post it here... ;)

jk.

TGB said:
That having been said, I'm the one to blame for the blue panel... it's modern, and helps differentiate from the MPX series.

Don't shoot me, but when it came out -- I wasn't a huge fan of the Alex (too many years using PCM70/80/90 and 480L I guess...) Personally, in retrospect, it sounds pretty good compared to "other" stuff out there at the time... and I really DO like the MPX550 & MPX1. But it's a matter of taste; I think the MX200 sounds stunning -- $200 notwithstanding -- but then, I wrote the programs (with another colleague of mine). So I'm a little biased, but that never stopped me from saying I think this or that is "a good value... blah blah blah." I'd not say this about our little blue baby -- I think it sounds REALLY good -- even at a whole lot more money.

But I'd rather let YOU decide. I wrote programs based on what -I- like, and would use.... but you're gonna be different than me. But I don't work in a vacuum, either... others approved of them as well.

You can, of course, take all of this with the requisite grain of salt -- of COURSE I think it sounds good, or it wouldn't have left the building. Find a Lex dealer, and listen for yourself... it's your money, and your sound. We just help...

TGB
Click to expand...

but TGB, would u say the alex is more or less in the same ballpark as the MPX series? (not taking into consideration bit rate, balanced ins, spdif, etc etc etc.) im only interested in reverb quality...thats really what i want to know...

i dont doubt the MX200 sounds good...but as my whole setup has nothing to do with computers, in terms of verb quality, what would be the equivalent of the MX200 (this might be a little overkill for me) in terms of reverbs (considering LXP series, MPX series, and the alex)......im not going verb lo-fi for the sake of it..just trying to cut costs and keep quality cheap, but still quality...i really need to know how all these series compare to eachother, and i cant imagine anyone answering that better than u guys...

i always heard (here and other places) that the alex smokes the lower MPX (110/200/500) line...is this true? again, just reverb quality...

ps. believe me TGB, the blue panel is not a deal breaker..i doubt it will be to anyone..frankly i think itll apeal to lots of ppl so, u dont have to worry :D

i may spray paint mine though if i ever get it lol
then stroll through the presets based on chance..
that might actually work... :D

seriously, thanks a lot, and keep the info coming...ill have the make a decision on the alex in 2 days maybe less..thanks!
 
I'll second the welcome! Glad you guys are interested in what the crowd has to say and willing to participate. How often does a home recordist get to talk with the folks who designed the hardware? I think that's awesome.

If you aren't aware of it already, though, I'd also like to warn you that there are some folks on the board who take extreme offense to anyone from a manufacturer posting here. Since any conversation about a product draws more attention to that product, they figure your presence here at all MUST be to sell your product. That's too bad, in my opinion, but things can get pretty hot pretty fast.

So please be careful what you say and how you say it. As much as we'd all love to just be PEOPLE talking about gear, you can't help but represent your company at the same time.

Again, welcome aboard! Thanks for joining us.
Chris
 
Thanks, Chris -- and believe me, I have experience with those who think either a) we just want to sell gear... which... sure -- it pays our bills -- but advertising reaches a LOT more people. :) or b) we are targets for everything they HATE about manufacturers.

I've already had a conversation with Will about "being careful;" as for me -- I'm a recording guy (with a great studio tan.) I'm always interested in what users think -- but I take everything you guys say with the same serving of salt with which you take what _i_ say... :p

I can help answer product-specific questions to the extent that the information is public and not priveledged.. no trade secrets divulged here. As a guy with >20yrs in recording, and who's honest to a fault, you don't have to worry so much about me asking you to drink the company "kool-aid."

Will & I seem to have been lurking independent of each other -- just snooping around the groups to see what the buzz on this product was -- and he felt compelled to answer some lingering questions. I joined in only because I thought I could be of some help from time to time... on audio in general.

You can peruse some old articles of mine at:

http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazineid=33&releaseid=9913&magazinearticleid=141955&SiteID=15

http://emusician.com/met/emusic_cans/

Which may help give you some idea of the context, and where I'm coming from.

Best,

TGB
 
If this gadget operates similar to a vst plugin...and you say you get only instance of it...can this plugin be used as either a track insert? aux bus insert? or main bus insert?

Does the unit's clock slave to the master clock in S/PDIF? Or does it keep its own time and ignores whatever is on the S/PDIF? You see, I would have to chain this with my external convertor.

Bob
 
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