Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Chamai,

    If it;s the reverb you are going for, then you want the PCM 91, which is a slightly augmented version of the PCM 90. The PCM 80, and PCM 81 are basically the modern updates of the PCM 70.
   The PCM 70 featured a few reverb settings but it was mostly a multi-effects signal processor that has chorus, flange, delay simulated stereo imaging, phasing, and compression effects.

   These were great studio processors, but in a live guitar rack it was pretty much limited to only a few useful effects combinations. There is only a mono input and dual mono outputs on the PCM 70.
    The PCM 80 has all the original PCM 70 effects chains plus a few more, and features a dual processor engine, so now you can have a stereo input and stereo outputs as well. Still. the reverbs are limited to the same few that were in the PCM 70. This is why the PCM 80, and PCM 90 were released at the same time. One was a multi-effects processor, while the other was a reverb processor.

[MarshallJMP]

Well Chamai you are right about those 2290's they stay quite expensive.(around 1000 euro's over here).

Harley, how would you compare the reverbs from the PCM series to the MPX-1?

[rabidgerry]

Accidentally bought a furman this week and I accidentally 

won a Kitty Hawk Quattro on ebay for £112 complete with footswitch

 

GAS

[Chip Roberts]

If I recall the quote from Reb Beach correctly; Kitty Hawk made one great rackmount, and everything else was shit, yielding the pet-name "Shitty Hawk" from the Winger road crew   

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey MJMP,

    The MPX series was released at the same time as the PCM 80/90, and it was the successor to the LPX series processors. In the 90's after Harman Group bought Lexicon, they went with dual processor engines in all the rackmount effects which used one processor for the reverb effects and the other for the modulation and time based effects.
    The result was more transparent effects than in the earlier versions. The reverb effects in the MPX-1 are basically the same as the PCM-80, the only differences are the arrangements of some of the effects chains in the PCM-80. The MPX has a smaller DSP engine for the modulation/time-based effects, and what you have in the MPX is all you have to work with.
   The PCM series at that time featured something new which was the addition of the memory card slot on the front panel. The PCM has a bigger DSP processor which gave the PCM-80 longer delay times, and the ability to split the delays into two separate channels in the effects chains, and the ability to parallel the modulation and time effects with the reverb effects, and send each to separate outputs from the PCM.
   The memory cards were intended to offer upgrades to the PCM models instead of having to swap IC chips on the boards, as well as new effects groups for the PCM series, but I never saw more than two new memory cards for the PCM-80/90 back then before the models were upgraded to the 81/91 models, then discontinued.
    Personally, I wanted the reverb effects from the Lexicons so I went with the MPX which was $1500 cheaper than the PCM 80 at the time. IIRC, when I auditioned both units in the shop, I liked the factory presets better in the MPX-1 than in the PCM-80 as far as the reverb effects were concerned. They sounded more like they were set up to just add to my effects chain and just go, whereas the PCM-80 factory presets sounded like they needed to be edited before they could be practical in the effects chain. One thing I  always do when I'm shopping for a new effects processor, is to try and edit or modify a program there in the store, to see how easy it is to do, and I wasn't getting anywhere with the PCM-80. None of the sales people knew how to get into it either, and they brought out the manual which I thought was an encyclopedia book. So obviously, I went with the MPX.

Harley

[Chamai]

Hey Chamai,

    If it;s the reverb you are going for, then you want the PCM 91, which is a slightly augmented version of the PCM 90. The PCM 80, and PCM 81 are basically the modern updates of the PCM 70.
   The PCM 70 featured a few reverb settings but it was mostly a multi-effects signal processor that has chorus, flange, delay simulated stereo imaging, phasing, and compression effects.

   These were great studio processors, but in a live guitar rack it was pretty much limited to only a few useful effects combinations. There is only a mono input and dual mono outputs on the PCM 70.
    The PCM 80 has all the original PCM 70 effects chains plus a few more, and features a dual processor engine, so now you can have a stereo input and stereo outputs as well. Still. the reverbs are limited to the same few that were in the PCM 70. This is why the PCM 80, and PCM 90 were released at the same time. One was a multi-effects processor, while the other was a reverb processor.

thanks for the write up.
i bought the pcm 81 because it was the only one at our local chain music store. i have not seen these units on craigslist or at any store before. i mean these things go for quite a bit of money so finding one locally is a bit hard. i was just browsing the used section of our local chain music store and toronto store just put up a pcm81. i did some research and decide to buy it blindly. it's a bitch to program

i gonna try to get a 80's shimmer patch going. apparently someone on HRI mastered programming these units. that person has a website so i will prob pay him for his patches. this thing makes no sense. or im just fxcking stupid.

[Chamai]

Well Chamai you are right about those 2290's they stay quite expensive.(around 1000 euro's over here).

Harley, how would you compare the reverbs from the PCM series to the MPX-1?

i don't think they are true stereo too. prob have to buy 2? ahaha

these things can crap out anytime and no one can fix it.

[Soloist]

I had an MPX1 for a while, the reverbs on it were very tasty! Unfortunately  I felt it lacked on everything else, and it wasn't very user friendly.
On the 2290, man I would love one of those! I see them going for $800 -$1000 here in the States.
 
Some others on my wish list :
Roland Dimension D.
Mesa Triaxis
JCM 800
TC G-System

[rabidgerry]

If I recall the quote from Reb Beach correctly; Kitty Hawk made one great rackmount, and everything else was shit, yielding the pet-name "Shitty Hawk" from the Winger road crew   

I haven't read that they made one great rack mount, but I have heard the name "shitty hawk" before due to reliability issues not sound quality.

But I've read quit a bit about the Quattro and Testarossa being good preamps.  Also about a few of their amps being good as well.  Since I'm not into amps I've been on the lookout for a Quattro for a while.  Reb Beach and Winger is not a selling point for me 

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Chamai,

   Don't feel bad dude! Lexicon has always been one of the more complicated programmable units to understand, and even though I have enough knowledge about them to eventually figure out how to get what I want out of them, I still don't understand how they do things completely.
    I never looked at the PCM 81 so I don't know what they added to the PCM 80. As I said in my last post, I wanted to try a bit of editing in the PCM 80 in the store, but no one knew anything about it there. The Lexicon designers who came up with the programming in these units might have been drinking mushroom tea when they designed it

[MarshallJMP]

Well Chamai you are right about those 2290's they stay quite expensive.(around 1000 euro's over here).

Harley, how would you compare the reverbs from the PCM series to the MPX-1?

i don't think they are true stereo too. prob have to buy 2? ahaha

these things can crap out anytime and no one can fix it.

What do you mean by "these things"? the 2290 or the pcm?

[Chamai]

Hey Chamai,

   Don't feel bad dude! Lexicon has always been one of the more complicated programmable units to understand, and even though I have enough knowledge about them to eventually figure out how to get what I want out of them, I still don't understand how they do things completely.
    I never looked at the PCM 81 so I don't know what they added to the PCM 80. As I said in my last post, I wanted to try a bit of editing in the PCM 80 in the store, but no one knew anything about it there. The Lexicon designers who came up with the programming in these units might have been drinking mushroom tea when they designed it

im gonna spend the whole day tomorrow going over the manual again. i wish they had a youtube vid that guides the user on what most of this shit really mean.

[Chamai]

Well Chamai you are right about those 2290's they stay quite expensive.(around 1000 euro's over here).

Harley, how would you compare the reverbs from the PCM series to the MPX-1?

i don't think they are true stereo too. prob have to buy 2? ahaha

these things can crap out anytime and no one can fix it.

What do you mean by "these things"? the 2290 or the pcm?

the tc2290

pcm 80/81 should still be repairable

[MarshallJMP]

I think the pcm is a lot harder to repair then the tc. The pcm is DSP based while the tc is not. Also a lot of SMD stuff in the PCM.

[vansinn]

An added benefit to the 2290 is the build-in analog routing/patch bay; don't recall how many connections, think it's 4 or 5, all mono IIRC.  Just might mean not having to shop a patch/router for the couple of pedals you can't live without..

Unrelated and OT: Methinks Petrucci sounded better with 2290, Lexicon and Eventide than with Fractal.