Hey Guys,
I posted this review earlier on a different forum, but I wouldn't want to keep it from all you guys!!
Cheers,
Leon..
I just got home from an evening of testing. I've been looking for a multi fx unit for my small rack to be used at rehearsal.
Well I went over to a friends place tonight to check out a unit he had for sale, at this point let me just not say what it is. But if I wanted it I could have it for 200 euro. Since it was just for practice and quality is not that important I already said yes.
When I went there I saw he was working on someone's rack which had a lex pcm70 (v2), 2290, triaxis, ada mp2 and a kitty hawk power amp. He also had a pcm80 laying around, so ofcourse I wanted to test all of this stuff.
The fact that this rack also contained a 2290 was lucky, since I also own the unit (but ofcourse didn't have it with me) it would be an excellent frame of reference for the lex's.
I never worked with a pcm70 before so I was real curious about this unit, especially since it's still in Lukather's rack. Well, I started with the circular delays at I must admit it sounded real nice. Now I can definately understand why Lukather uses them. Playing around with the other presets, well, I must say I was not impressed. The circular delays were real nice, but the rest.... Nope, not for my ears.
Then the pcm80. Yeah definately an ok unit, the delays sounded nice so did the reverbs (offcourse, it's a lex!!) but the other presets were a bit too freaky for me. But some tweaking actually got me some cool sounds.
Ok, time to see how the 2290 sounded over this setup.
One word: DAMN....
Instantaneously I lost all interest in ever using a lex for delay. Maybe it's taste, but compared to the 2290 the lex's delays sounded real cheap, the only delay that had value was the circular delay on the 70, but that one still does not come close to the 2290.
Then, my mystery device. To be honest I was a bit worried about testing it against the lexs and 2290, especially because of my earlier experiences that night. But well, gotta try what I bought right?
I started with some patches with cho/dly/pit on the cleans. I was going like whoa, what the **** is this?? It sounded awesome!!! then some weird pitch patches, and I must admit, I nearly dropped to the floor. It was like hearing the 'crystal' preset on my H3000. My friend told me they used to call this unit the poor man's eventide, and yeah, now I understand why.
If ever you guys run into an old DIGITECH TSR24, DHP33 or IPS33B,
don't hesitate, BUY THEM!!!!
I got me a full option TSR24, and man, I wouldn't trade it for the pcm70 or pcm80 together. Sure, the 24 has no intelligent pitch shifting, but I don't care, this thing rocks!!! Stereo inputs and 4(!!!!) outputs!!
I'm real happy with this thing, and I'm even thinking about including it in my main rack (if it ever gets finished (just kidding McP!!)).
A small note about the triaxis compared to the mp2; forget about the triaxis.
It maybe the poweramp that doesn't fit the triaxis style, but I couldn't get a decent sound from it. The mp2 on the other hand sounded pretty ok.
My conclusion was that although you can buy 8 digitechs for the price of the pcm70 and 80, I strongly advice going for the digitech. More money, more tone? Not in this case!!
Cheers,
Leon..
I posted this review earlier on a different forum, but I wouldn't want to keep it from all you guys!!
Cheers,
Leon..
I just got home from an evening of testing. I've been looking for a multi fx unit for my small rack to be used at rehearsal.
Well I went over to a friends place tonight to check out a unit he had for sale, at this point let me just not say what it is. But if I wanted it I could have it for 200 euro. Since it was just for practice and quality is not that important I already said yes.
When I went there I saw he was working on someone's rack which had a lex pcm70 (v2), 2290, triaxis, ada mp2 and a kitty hawk power amp. He also had a pcm80 laying around, so ofcourse I wanted to test all of this stuff.
The fact that this rack also contained a 2290 was lucky, since I also own the unit (but ofcourse didn't have it with me) it would be an excellent frame of reference for the lex's.
I never worked with a pcm70 before so I was real curious about this unit, especially since it's still in Lukather's rack. Well, I started with the circular delays at I must admit it sounded real nice. Now I can definately understand why Lukather uses them. Playing around with the other presets, well, I must say I was not impressed. The circular delays were real nice, but the rest.... Nope, not for my ears.
Then the pcm80. Yeah definately an ok unit, the delays sounded nice so did the reverbs (offcourse, it's a lex!!) but the other presets were a bit too freaky for me. But some tweaking actually got me some cool sounds.
Ok, time to see how the 2290 sounded over this setup.
One word: DAMN....
Instantaneously I lost all interest in ever using a lex for delay. Maybe it's taste, but compared to the 2290 the lex's delays sounded real cheap, the only delay that had value was the circular delay on the 70, but that one still does not come close to the 2290.
Then, my mystery device. To be honest I was a bit worried about testing it against the lexs and 2290, especially because of my earlier experiences that night. But well, gotta try what I bought right?
I started with some patches with cho/dly/pit on the cleans. I was going like whoa, what the **** is this?? It sounded awesome!!! then some weird pitch patches, and I must admit, I nearly dropped to the floor. It was like hearing the 'crystal' preset on my H3000. My friend told me they used to call this unit the poor man's eventide, and yeah, now I understand why.
If ever you guys run into an old DIGITECH TSR24, DHP33 or IPS33B,
don't hesitate, BUY THEM!!!!
I got me a full option TSR24, and man, I wouldn't trade it for the pcm70 or pcm80 together. Sure, the 24 has no intelligent pitch shifting, but I don't care, this thing rocks!!! Stereo inputs and 4(!!!!) outputs!!
I'm real happy with this thing, and I'm even thinking about including it in my main rack (if it ever gets finished (just kidding McP!!)).
A small note about the triaxis compared to the mp2; forget about the triaxis.
It maybe the poweramp that doesn't fit the triaxis style, but I couldn't get a decent sound from it. The mp2 on the other hand sounded pretty ok.
My conclusion was that although you can buy 8 digitechs for the price of the pcm70 and 80, I strongly advice going for the digitech. More money, more tone? Not in this case!!
Cheers,
Leon..
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