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Anyone (guitarists mostly) uses LEXICON?


somberlain

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Hey, welcome to the Forum, somberlain!

 

For one thing, Lexicon makes some sweet sounding processors. Among the best of brand-names. Their reverbs especially sound beautiful, even on their less expensive units!

 

I have a Vortex, and despite it's somewhat oddball interface and parameter controls- it isn't the most "user friendly" for live guitar performances, but it wasn't really meant for that- it sounds amazingly warm and almost analog for a DSP rack-unit.

 

I'll have to come back to post a link or two for you, that pertain to Lexicons and related issues, that you might find handy. (I have one link that goes directly to some Vortex info, involving footswitch mods, etc., and I'll have to follow up on it and find the original Lexicon stuff that would pertain more to your quest; but I've got to get ready for work right now.)

 

I can't remember if it was Dougsthang' or Timrocker or who it was, but somebody here at the Forum used to work for Lexicon, and (surprise) owns some of their choicer guitar gear! The'll probably be along here soon...

 

Best of luck, and let us know how things go!

 

The other models that you mention all sound great, and I'm sure are more live/guitar friendly than my Vortex.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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That would be me.... I worked with Lexicon for around four and half years. Currently I'm Western Regional Sales Manager for Digitech/ DOD, another Harman company.

 

I'm also a guitarist with a few CD's out and a decent home studio. So I'll give you as straight up information as I can without sounding Bias.

 

You really can't go wrong with any Lexicon product. They pretty much developed the ideas of digital effects processing. Here's a break down of the products.

 

MPX110 - fixed presets, wall wart power supply, unbalanced in, stereo out, SPDIF (digital) out. array of effects, chorusing, delays, reverbs and the like.

 

MPX200- They were planning on letting this one run it's course then putting it to sleep. Basic advantage over the MPX100 is you can edit the presets, internal power supply and now stereo unbalanced in and out and well as SPDIF in and out.

 

MPX550- The best of the MPX models, one you should look at. Stereo in and out both XLR and 1/4" balanced, SPDIF in and out 44.1K/48K 24 bit. multi page editting, has software interannly which allows the MPX550 to be fullt controlled by a midi floor board.

 

We used to make a model called the MPX G2. This was the BMW of the line. Maybe you could find one on E bay. Specifically designed for the guitar player, a full array of pre amps, digtial effects, classic analog effects (MXR, Cry baby, MuTron....) The guys that developed this left Lexicon and went work for a then young up and company called Line 6, hmmmmmm I wonder were they got that stuff, hmmmmmmm.

 

Fire away with questions

overheard street personality on Venice Beach "Man, that Bullshit is Bulllshhittt...."
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I've been thinking about adding a Lexicon unit to my home studio rack and I've got some questions for you, dougsthang'! First off, you didn't mention the MPX-1 which was the unit I was leaning toward. I'd kinda thought that was the flagship of the line, not the MPX-550...but it's really not clear from Lexicon's marketing. Not that that's important, I just wanted to make sure there were no big deficiencies with the MPX-1 that I might be overlooking. I think I read where the the MPX-1 has one processor dedicated to reverb and another for "everything else." If that's true, I'd expect it'd be a pretty versatile box, in that you wouldn't need to crank back on the quality of your reverb just to be able to add a delay, etc, etc. Also, there seem to be 20-bit and 24-bit versions of the MPX-1 available on the used market which makes it kinda confusing for prospective buyers (me). Of course, I'm watching the classifieds/ebay for a used PCM80/81/90/91 at the right price. I'm hoping to be able to add reverb to an aux bus in Sonar via S/PDIF so I won't need to go through any additional conversion. Thanks for any info you could provide.
None more black.
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Your absolutely correct about forgetting the MPX1. We always considered that a junior PCM model, in fact it almost was tagged as PCM 1. So I always think of the MPX550 as best of the MPX line (MPX100 good, MPX200 better, MPX550 best). The MPX1 is a 24 bit processor. I wasn't aware of a 20 bit version but it might have happened on early runs. The MPX 1 is a very versitile machine able to create up to five effects at one time.

 

Don't know if you saw the blurb on the new I/O box the Lexicon Omega. 6 in and out with DBX preamps and a new software reverb called the Lexicon Pantheon. The Pantheon is now bundled with the new Sonar software. I'm not sure if you can get the Pantheon yet as a stand alone software. It's so new and I've been pretty busy with Digitech. I did hear it and have top say it's very PCMish in it's quality.

overheard street personality on Venice Beach "Man, that Bullshit is Bulllshhittt...."
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Thanks for the info! Now I feel better about the MPX-1 again. Actually, I have Sonar 3 with the new Pantheon. It does sound great but also puts a pretty big strain on the processor when I'm going reverb-crazy (although I must say it's way less of a hog than you'd expect from listening to it). So, my plan is to offload the super-lush major reverb to a hardware device, hopefully via s/pdif if I can get it work. Then, with any luck, I'll be able to get away with using the Pantheon and other soft 'verbs a little more sparingly. Thanks again for your help!
None more black.
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Good call, reverb is the biggest power soak when it comes to CPU. You need a lot of processing to do it well. Your always better to go to a dedicated hardware piece as apposed to software when it comes to reverb. With SPDIF I/O it's almost a no brainer, that's how I do it with my PCM...
overheard street personality on Venice Beach "Man, that Bullshit is Bulllshhittt...."
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Well, after playing around with one for 15 minutes this weekend, the new Lexicon MPX-1 is on order. I decided to buy it new instead of risk picking one up off ebay. Of course, this means it will be discontinued tomorrow but I'm used to that happening. Cross your fingers for me; I hope it's a winner! I especially loved the reverbs in this box (which is good because that's what I was auditioning it for!), but I only had time to mess around with the presets and in a less-than-optimum listening environment. I figure there's no way I'll be disappointed since I've been using Alesis reverbs for the last few decades! :rolleyes:
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dougsthang, Interesting. When did the MPX550 replace the MPX-500? I have two Lexicons: the PCM91 and the MPX-500. They're in my studio not my guitar rack however. What's the difference between the 550 and the 500? I don't like the reverbs in the MPX, (of course not when compared to the 91) but I do really like the delays, chorusing, leslies, etc..

All the best,

 

Henry Robinett

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there is/was an update chip available for the 500 called the V2 chip. It had 64 presets of digital compression and some algorithm enhancements. The 550 is basically a 500 with that V2 already inside of it. We did tweek a few of the algorithms but not so great that you'd jump to the other unit. We also made the 550 so you could use the R1 floor controller and get all around the unit via foot control.

 

No doubt the PCM verbs are better because most of the processing is dedicated to producing the verbs, with the MPX the processors have multi functionality. Thus the verbs are a bit less defined due to the chip performing other high speed math functions. Still for the price point of the MPX550, no much else is going to give you that "Lexicon" reverb sound.

overheard street personality on Venice Beach "Man, that Bullshit is Bulllshhittt...."
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