Reverbs. Lexicon MX200

The MX200 effects come in four varieties:

Stereo, Mono In/Stereo Out, Mono (Wet only), and Stereo (Wet only). When using

Wet only effects, turn the processors Mix knob fully clockwise.

Reverbs

Reverberation (or “reverb” for short) is the complex effect created by the way we perceive sound in an enclosed space. When sound waves encounter an object or boundary, they don’t just stop. Some of the sound is absorbed by the object, but most of the sound is reflected or is diffused. In an enclosed space, reverb is dependent on many features of that space, including the size, shape and the type of materials that line the walls. Even with closed eyes, a listener can easily tell the difference between a closet, a locker room and a large auditorium. Reverb is a natural component of the acoustic experience, and most people feel that something is missing without it.

Hall Reverbs

Stereo

Small Hall

Large Hall

Vocal Hall

Drum Hall

A Hall is designed to emulate the acoustics of a concert hall – a space large enough to contain an orchestra and an audience.

Because of the size and characteristics,

Halls are the most natural-sounding reverbs, designed to remain “behind” the direct sound – adding ambience and space, but leaving the source unchanged.

This effect has a relatively low initial echo density which builds up gradually over time. Vocal Hall and Drum Hall reverbs are specifically tailored for those uses.

Vocal Hall has as lower overall diffusion which works well with program material that has softer initial transients like a voice.

Drum Hall has a higher diffusion setting which is necessary to smooth out faster transient signals found in drums and percussion instruments. In addition to general instrumental and vocal applications, the

Hall program is a good choice for giving separately recorded tracks the sense of belonging to the same performance.

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Plate Reverbs

Stereo

Small Plate

Large Plate

Vocal Plate

Drum Plate

A Plate reverb is a large, thin sheet of metal suspended upright under tension on springs. Transducers attached to the plate transmit a signal that makes the plate vibrate, causing sounds to appear to be occurring in a large, open space. The

Plates in the MX200 model the sound of metal plates with high initial diffusion and a relatively bright, colored sound. Plate reverbs are designed to be heard as part of the music, mellowing and thickening the initial sound. Plate reverbs are often used to enhance popular music, particularly percussion.

Gated Reverb

Mono In/Stereo Out

Gated reverb is created by feeding a reverb, such as a metal plate, through a gate device. Decay Time is set to instant, while Hold Time varies duration and sound.

The Gated reverb provides a fairly constant sound with no decay until the reverb is cut off abruptly. This program works well on percussion — particularly on snare and toms; be sure to experiment with other sound sources as well.

Reverse Reverb

Mono In/Stereo Out

Reverse reverb works in the opposite fashion from normal reverb. Whereas a normal reverb has the loudest series of reflections heard first that then become quieter over time, the Reverse reverb has the softest reflections (essentially the tail of the reverb) heard first, and then grows louder over time until they abruptly cut off.

Room Reverb

Stereo

Room produces an excellent simulation of a very small room which is useful for dialog and voiceover applications. Room is also practical when used judiciously for fattening up high energy signals like electric guitar amp recordings.

Ambience Reverb

Stereo

Ambience is used to simulate the effect of a small or medium sized room without noticeable decay. It is often used for voice, guitar or percussion.

Chamber Reverb

Stereo

Historically, recording studio chambers were oddly shaped rooms with a loudspeaker and set of microphones to collect ambience in various parts of the room.

Chamber programs produce even, relatively dimensionless reverberation with little color change as sound decays. The initial diffusion is similar to the Hall programs.

However, the sense of size and space is much less obvious. This characteristic, coupled with the low color of the decay tail, makes these programs useful on a wide range of material - especially the spoken voice, to which Chamber programs add a noticeable increase in loudness with low color.

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Studio Reverb

Stereo

Much like Room reverb, Studio produces an excellent simulation of smaller, wellcontrolled acoustic spaces, characteristic of the main performance areas in recording studios. Studio is also useful with dialog and voiceover applications as well as individual instrument and electric guitar tracks.

Arena Reverb

Stereo

Arena reverb emulates a huge physical space such as an indoor sports venue or stadium. The characteristics of Arena reverb are long secondary reflection times and a reduced amount of high frequency content. Arena is a mostly mid- and lowfrequency dominant reverb, and is an ideal selection for “special effect” type applications that require extremely long reverb times. It is not a good choice for a very busy mix, since it can reduce intelligibility.

Spring Reverb

Mono In/Stereo Out

A Spring reverb is created by a pair of piezoelectric crystals—one acting as a speaker and the other acting as a microphone—connected by a simple set of springs. The characteristic ‘boing’ of a spring is an important component of many classic rock and rockabilly guitar sounds.

Reverb Controls

Pre Delay

Creates an additional time delay between the source signal and the onset of reverberation. This control is not intended to precisely mimic the time delays in natural spaces, as the build-up of reverberation is gradual, and the initial time gap is usually relatively short. For the most natural effect, the Pre Delay values should be set in the range of 10-25 milliseconds. However, if a mix is very busy or overly cluttered, increasing the Pre Delay time may help clarify it, and set each instrument apart from each other.

Decay

Controls the amount of time the reverb can be heard. Higher settings increase reverberation times which are usually associated with larger acoustical environments, but can decrease intelligibility. Lower settings shorten reverb times and should be used when a smaller apparent space or a more subtle effect is desired.

Liveliness

Adjusts the amount of high frequency content in the reverberation tails. Higher settings increase high frequency response, creating brighter reverbs; lower settings create darker reverbs with more bass frequency emphasis.

Diffusion

Controls the initial echo density. High settings of Diffusion result in high initial echo density, and low settings cause low initial density. In a real-world situation, irregular walls cause high diffusion, while large flat walls cause low diffusion. For drums and percussion, try using higher Diffusion settings.

Shape

This control helps give a sense of both room shape and room size. Low values for

Shape keep the majority of sound energy in the early part of the reverb tail. High values move the energy to later in the reverb, and are helpful in creating the sense of a strong rear wall or “backslap.

Boing

This is a unique parameter to the Spring reverb, designed to increase or decrease the amount of spring rattle that is a physical characteristic of spring tank reverbs.

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Note: Values of 0 – 100 are displayed as 0 – 00 (100 is displayed as 00 in the Program

Display). Values of greater than 100 are shown with a decimal between the digits, i.e.

115 displayed as 1.5, 150 displayed as 5.0, and 200 is displayed as 0.0.

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