Lexicon's top of the range 480L and its predecessor the 224X have for over ten years been held in the highest esteem. No high-end studio looks complete without the familiar LARC Remote Control on top of the mixer. Studio owners feel obliged to equip with one or more of these vastly expensive reverb units, which is perhaps due to prestige as much as sound quality. With these points in mind, it was very interesting to evaluate the PCM90. This unit, although significantly cheaper than the 480L, is Lexicon's latest dedicated reverb unit aimed at the higher end of the market.
Yamaha popularised assignable controls with their DX7 synth. (Eh? I thought this was a reverb unit review! <= editor's/reader's voice.). Ever since the DX7 took off, equipment manufacturers have not felt obliged to put more than one or two knobs on anything, from synth modules to reverb units. This is understandable, from a cost point of view, and also from a practical and technological standpoint. More and more features are added to each new model, which remains the same size or smaller than its predecessor. However, there comes a point where the user says "Enough!" This has already happened in the synth market, where Roland now market synths with lots of knobs, switches and sliders alongside their more "modern" units. This is also starting to happen in areas of the outboard effects market, such as the profusion of valve-based effects and other retro effects such as the Mutronics Mutator. However, reverb and multi-effects units have yet to veer away from their path along the road to assignability hell, and the Lexicon's PCM90 is possibly the worst offender I have encountered! There are two knobs on the front panel, labelled Select and Adjust, and nudge buttons for going up and down in the menus. These are what you use to do almost everything on this unit, and there is an awful lot you can do.
Lexicon
Founded in 1971, Lexicon has become one of the world's premier manufacturers of home theater and professional electronics. Innovative technologies, such as LOGIC 7, have helped Lexicon to push the boundaries of home entertainment. Lexicon audio systems are now available in the Rolls Royce Phantom, and LOGIC 7 in models from BMW, Mercedes and Land Rover.
Lexicon is a division of Harman Specialty Group.
Used Effects and Multi FX
Effects and Multi FX devices are devices that used in audio recording to alter the sound of audio sources like musical instruments by employing a range of digital sound effects. Also called a DSP Processor, Effects and Multi FX devices can alter audio sounds in a variety of different ways, and these changes can be either extremely subtle or hugely dramatic, depending on the type of digital effects unit which is used.
A Multi Effects processor can be used in both sound recordings or live during a performance. Effects and Multi FX can be employed to great effect with a wide variety of musical instruments, although they are most often paired with electronic instruments such as keyboards, bass and electric guitars.
Musicians and sound engineers use Multi FX devices such as fuzzboxes and wah-wah pedals to create a class of seven different sound effects, including Distortion, which clips the audio signal of an instrument, distorting the form of its sound waves and also adding overtones.
Other sound effects which can be achieved by an effects processor include Dynamics, which simply boost the volume level, Filter, which is applied to alter an audio signalâ??s frequency, and Audio Feedback, which was pioneered by the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Effects and Multi FX processors are also used to create sounds that have irregular tonal properties, an effect known as modulation, and can also modify the Pitch of an audio signal.
Lastly, an FX processor can also add time-based effects, such as delays or echoes.
PCM 91 - PCM 91 in excellent condition.
