ART DMV Pro

all u gotta do is press edit and turn the knob.....although the knob can also be pressed to save ,a quite cool feature.bassically i tossed the manual over my shoulder.(and i usually read em)This thing is idiot proof for sure !!!

Ive been producing music in my and other studios since the 80s .I know what i like ,i was ready to hate it ,they made some quite bad processors in the late 80s.....but it sounds great ,its the be all end all for vocal tracking as the reverbs are lush and big...and its really flexible.For the studio its a must have for me ,i use lexicons and tc electronis yes but....for tracking and warm big reverbs, it does the trick nicely.

never had any problems.but if it ever goes out ill get another one .

never had to deal with em.

This one's pretty straight forward and simple. Three wheels, two for editing, one for recalling a patch. I was pleased to find a lot of factory settings that were ready to go- a lot of times the factory puts in all kinds of Martian sounds just to show how much crap can be piled up. I dialed in a few of my own w/o even cracking the manual. The routing can be tricky at first, but its capabilities are vast once you figure it out. I use it in my guitar rig, so I keep it simple, but it'd be great for studio or sound reinforcement use, I bet. I got this in a trade, so I'm pretty sure it's just the way it came from ART. The manual is idiot proof.

1I use this thru the effects loop on a 5150 stack, which is a noisy beast, anyway, but I also run a Hush Super C, so I can't say just how clean it really is. It's modern digital, so I imagine most of the racket I'm getting is from my amp. I traded my original issue MXR Phase 100 after I got this unit. It has the Phase 90 and Phase 100 built in. I dunno if they're modeled or just "simulated" into the thing, but they sound great, and are infinitely more adjustable in the ART processor. The reverbs and delays are crystally and warm at the same time, and the other delay-based effects are just fine. The pitch bending on the thing isn't perfect, but it can drum up a really convincing octaver. I didn't expect Eventide stuff, but I was hoping for a bit more. Most of the stuff has high and low eq that's adjustable, but for a digital processor, I wish there was a bit more flexibility here, too.

I haven't had it too long, but I haven't had a problem yet. I'd use it to gig w/o a backup, but then, I don't have any "Critical" patches, so if it ever crapped out, I'd just run dry and get my jape thru the PA.

I haven't dealt with ART yet, but folks I've talked to say they're tops.

I got this in trade, so I don't know if I got screwed or not, as far as value of what I traded, etc., but I feel like I got a good deal. I play mostly heavy rock and instrumental music, and for what I'm doing, It's just fine. I sold my stompboxes after I got this, and I don't miss them a bit. I've been playing for nearly 20 years, and I go back and forth between rack and floor stuff, and I think I'm gonna be playing thru this one for awhile. I've used all kinds of gear from a lot of manufacturers, and I can't see any reason not to keep this in my rig. It's easier and sounds better than most floor stuff, and if I ever do take it out of my guitar rig, it's going into the PA rack!!

This unit is essentially two effects units in one. Each processor (A and B) work independently. Four different ways of "routing" can be used to deal with almost every type of setup. The DMV Pro is extremely easy to use. It's twin backlit LCD screens and three turn/push knobs really make selecting and editing patches a breeze. The manual was available on ART's web site in PDF format. I downloaded it about a week before I received the unit, so I was familiar with it when it arrived. The manual is written very well and is very easy to understand. About the hardest thing to comprehend is the "routing", but after a little while of playing witht the unit, it will seem very straight forward. I believe my firmware version is 1.02, which an ART tech said was the latest. He also said (to my dismay) that there were no plans to add compression to the next update. That would have been great for me (I play bass).

The DMV Pro is very quiet in my setup. I play the bass and use the unit with my SWR rig and Sony minidisc/CD player. I run the bass through processor A, and the minidisc/CD player through processor B. All the effects are very quiet. The phaser sounds a little tinny, but with a little adjustment I got it to sound pretty good. I keep it simple since I am just playing the bass. I made patches one thru five exactly the same, with the same routing, too. Then I just changed the bass effect (SIDE A)on each. If I want chourus, it's patch 1. Flange is patch 2, etc.... and side B is always just a little bit of reveb for the minidisc/CD player. It works out very well. The LCD's are very easy to see and the menu/help system is awesome.

I haven't had it long enough to say if it's reliable, but it's got a three year warranty. Replacement AC adapters are only $10.00 plus shipping, which is nice. The quality of this unit, in my opinion, is poor though. Right out of the box, two of the three front knobs were scratched, and the "routing" LED's (all four of them) didn't match up to the front panel, so it was like each of the four holes had half of a rectangular LED in each. Does ART have a QC department? It sure doesn't seem like it. How did this mess get out the door? I work on electronics all day so I opened it up real quick and fixed the LED problem. I also noticed that the paint job was extremely messy. Under the knobs,it looked like someone just masked the paint off with some tape at random, then yanked it off as if to say "oh well....the knobs will cover my shoddy workmanship". The paint also has a small bubble in it, which is annoying, and some of the purple color doesn't even match up to the button holes correctly. Speaking of buttons....these buttons are so cheap, you'd think they were on a Soundesign clock radio at K-Mart. I'm not impressed at all with the overall quality of this unit. And I paid $420.00 for this unit????

I called ART's tech support with a question about the firmware. I got through after three rings and was on the phone with a tech in less than a minute. He was very polite and honest about what the unit could and couldn't do. Much better than Korg and Roland from my experience.

I play a lot of Peter White music(smooth jazz). I also like to play Petra songs because they sound good and are easy to play on the bass. I just switched over from playing guitar for about 20 years, and I like the bass much better! If the DMV Pro were stolen, I'd report it, collect the money, and buy something else. Although the unit meets my needs, the quality of the workmanship is simply not up to par with Alesis and DigiTech. There are two major things I wish it had - compression and the ability to have more than one effect on each mono channel. I'd love to be able to use reverb WITH chorus on one mono input with my bass on processor A, while still keeping processor B open. I thought it could do this, but I guess I was wrong.