ART MultiVerb II

Presets ok as starting point. Menu system is easy and manual quite adequate. Plenty of adjustment to settings except that smallest pitch shift is something like 6 cents, so no realy fine adjustment.

Used this with all kinds of stuff. plenty of gain for most instruments (not suitable for pluging a mic. straight in). Reverbs and delays are usable but not the most natural reverb. EQ is just a low pass filter. Chorus and Flange ok as fx.

Very dependable PROVIDING POWER SUPPLY IS STABLE! Poor power supply and Data corruption and total loss of settings happens all the time. This can be a real problem with gigs, so I stuck some anti surge protection onto the PSU (internal - only to be done after warrenty has expired) and it has worked perfectly ever since.

Local shop sent it back to ART for repair, took a couple of weeks.

Had this thing for years. It compared well with other multi fx of its age, but outdated now

I have owned this unit since 1991, I cant live without it but, nicad battery has to be constantly replaced, unit has problems which has caused me to factroy reset many times!

I use for guitar, I like patch 87 "imaged chorus", I also setup my own pitch patch for 5ths and 4ths, very noisy unit, led has gone south, this unit needs a independant on/off switch!

I have used it for gig's, but that was when it was new! I would never use it live now, it has to be babied too much!

Never contacted ART! Why would I need to on a cheapo unit like this!

I would buy another one, but that is only because it is like a bad habit I keep coming back to! Kinda like that girl friend you keep calling back!

I've gotten pretty tired of the up/down button & LCD 40x2 interfaces that is on so much gear these days. The frustration was bad enough I stopped editing and creating sounds on this years ago. This is a better unit for preset surfers, plenty of things for instant gratification.

I don't think it is very easy to get a good sound out of the Multiverb II. Most of the reverbs don't sound very good and the modulated delay effects (chorus, DDL, flange, etc) can't take much signal without clipping, so your S/N ratio suffers. It takes some extra tweaking to get it to sound good.

Between the interface and the extra work needed to get it to sound good, I give a 5 rating.

The manual is written out well and I have the latest firmware.

I use this in an effects loop on my line mixer.

It's noisy if you use the modulated delay effects (chorus, DDL, flange, doubling, etc) because you have to keep the input send low to avoid clipping and then crank the effects return, which raises the S/N ratio which ain't pretty.

With a few exceptions the reverbs aren't very useful. The plate reverbs are the best DSP algorithms. The short rooms are adequate. No matter how much tweaking I did, I could not get a lush reverb for ballad-style vocals or drums - look elsewhere. Hell even my Vestafire RV-2 spring reverb sounds better (see my review). The EQs aren't very musical either.

Don't bother using it inline with guitar->ART->amp, the ART sucks out your tone. Best with an effects loop. Even then the quality suffers, I can hear the tone difference on simple DDLs listening to only the effects return.

For tapped delays, straight DDL, or simulation of small reflective rooms it's great. Unfortunately that's all I use it for anymore.

Works good for keyboards, guitars, and ambient drum sounds. Not very good on vocals or bass guitar.

DON'T change presets with the output up - some of them make a NASTY noise when changing programs, especially anything with a flange algorithm. Sounds like a trash can falling from a building.

Some of the factory presets are REALLY nice - #49 and #74 are two I come back to a lot.

Two words - Caveat Emptor.

It crashes a lot. I noticed that the back of the chassis gets really hot. Lukewarm is OK, hot to the touch is not. There's NO front panel on/off switch so if it crashes you have to manually unplug it to reset it.

In the twelve years I've owned this thing, the internal RAM memory contents got corrupted TWICE. When that happens you can't save user programs and the thing goes FUBAR. I had to do a hard reset which wipes out your user programs. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP this thing RELIGIOUSLY!

I've had to pop the hood and clean excess flux on the power transformer secondary leads and the voltage regulator transistor leads. Poor workmanship on this part. Then the LCD acted up and that was dirty connector contacts. A friend of mine had an SGX that was sounding funny - popped the hood on that and his regulator trannies weren't even SOLDERED!

This is not a multiFX for live gigs!

Never needed them yet, the manual gives me everything I need and I do my own repairs.

This was my first multiFX when I bought it in 1990 and I have been using it less and less. I primarily play keyboards and over the years I progressed to using other effects in place of the Multiverb II.

I used to like pumping my Memorymoog through a chorus/delay for some stereo imaging but I didn't like the poor S/N and the loss of tone. I got a Korg SDD-3300 for that now.

I also tried in vain to get a good stereo bass sound from my Moog Source through the Multiverb - the Korg SDD-1200 does a much better job.

All I use the Multiverb for is to add some ambience to my dry ROMpler sounds. In the future I'll add some Lexicon multiFX for the better reverb sounds and maybe I'll keep the Multiverb around for simple reflection algorithms to add life to a static timbre. However I will admit that I learned some new tricks by studying some of the presets in edit mode.

I can't recommend the Multiverb based on its sound, its poor workmanship, and its stability. Nobody should have to get under the hood to get it to work right and you don't want to be playing a solo only to discover that the thing is locked up. Don't depend on these for live gigging.

Easy to use once you get used to ART's logic. If you get tired of pushing dials MOTU UniSyn supports it. Manual is pretty good as far as effects units go.

I'm running synths, drums and vocals through it via a desk. It's not noisy. Has a digital edge (bite) to the sound- not something good or bad- it just does.

There are some samples of the unit at Spider Sounds on MP3. See:

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/171/spider_sounds.html


I'd say this collection of patches show about 50% of what the unit can really do.

No problems. Works well under MIDI control.

Don't know.

I've had this unit for many years now. It works well under MIDI control and each patch has at least one parameter that can be controlled via MIDI. If you are willing to work a little it is worth the effort. I do get tired of the knobs- but since I use the computer to edit it this has become less of an issue.