ART Multiverb Alpha

exellant effect probably the best around. I use it with a Rocktron PRO GAP and it is amazing

I use a hughes and Kettner vortex stack and a Les paul. the sounds of the delay and chorus are cool with the Rocktron Preamp making all the distiortion. i also use a rocktron Midi mate with it and they both go very well!!!!

Oh yes i have never had any trouble with it at all

i would definatly use it sall the time without backup

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the multiverb was highly recomended by Stu g and neil costello so i went out and bought it and i think that it is fantastinc
iv'e have played in a lot of festivals with it and toured with it and if you see one....GET ONE

This unit is consistenly a hastle in your signal chain. It sucks out the tone of whatever Guitar/Amp combination you have. Digital (= shitty) sounding & useless..I finally accidentally ran mine into 220v. & fried it. Nothing intentional but this is what I should have done long time ago. Scheeeechh....What a relief.

BIG 0. This is it. If you play guitar, forget it.

Overview: digital multi-effects box with a bunch of reverbs, delays, flanger, chorus, phaser, pitch transposer, tremolo/panner, and EQ. But not all at once -- read on.
Patch editing is not so bad if you don't mind dealing with a little LCD window. The user interface has a nice rotary knob you can use to select parameters and modify their values, but it really should have two: one to select the parameter, and the other to modify the value. I always forget to switch the mode when editing.
If you're using an X-15 it is really, really, easy to add real-time MIDI control to patch parameters -- you can set min/max range of each modifiable parameter, arrange to do cross-fades between different effects, whatever.
The effects topologies are bizarre. I get the feeling this unit was not designed by a musician. The output of each effect has a level control which can send the effect output to the internal effects mixer. This allows the sounds of multiple effects to be paralleled. In addition, there are a few cases where it is possible to feed the output of one effect to the input of another for serial operation (although you can of course still mix that same output into the "wet" signal). The manual does not describe the effects topologies, or even which effects can be in the chain simultaneously. There are some cases where the manual is dead wrong, e.g., the manual says setting flanger type=post puts it last in the chain, but it turns out the flanger always gets the dry signal input, and the "post" mode also feeds the reverb output (if you are using reverb) through the flanger. So you can't get, say, a delayed then flanged signal, although the LCD display would lead you to believe this is the case. Although you could put the delayed signal through the reverb (in which case you get no reverb on the dry signal -- but you do get flange on the dry signal) and then flange the delayed reverbed signal. Another thing the manual does not cover is what really happens to your signal when you turn an effect "off" via MIDI. Turning an effect "off" should be the same as bypassing it, but it is not. For example, if you are using delay followed by reverb, and turn the delay "off", you would expect the delay to pass the dry signal straight through to the reverb. Not so. The dry signal is still delayed and sent to the reverb, but it does not regen (no multiple echoes) and the delayed is cut out of the wet mix. Tell me this is useful.
The rate controls step by something like 0.04 Hz, which might seem like fine enough control until you get to the really slow settings. Like if you want a really slow flange you get a choice of 0.04Hz (25 second cycle) or 0.08 Hz (12.5 second cycle). Compare that to an analog flanger where you can set it to anything, like 16 seconds.
The bottom line is, you could get lucky and have this box do what you want, in which case it is pretty easy to use, or what you want might just be impossible. You probably won't find out until you have it home.

The reverbs sound a bit grainy. In some cases it is possible to make better sounding reverbs with the tapped delay effect. The tremolo has a nasty buzzy sound which varies in pitch depending on the tremolo rate. The pitch transposer is slightly noisy even when it is type=off. The delays, flanger, and chorus have acceptable sound. With all the digital resources it seems to consume, I'd think the phaser could be a bit deadlier sounding. The phaser should also have settings for positive or negative regen (ditto on the flanger) and number of stages. I always get an annoying click at the start of the sound when using the sampler (I'm not sure why they included the sampler feature except maybe as a marketing checkoff; it's not terribly useful). I think the pitch shifter's octaves are out of tune but can be cleaned up with the fine tuning.
I have suspicions that the graphic equalizer causes some weird phase cancellations when you mix its output back in with the dry signal, but I've never checked.
The Acoustic Environment Simulator (an EQ to simulate different room materials) is useful if you're processing drums, but with the exception of a few of the more trebly settings it's pretty subtle when used with guitar or bass.
Switching in and out of bypass usually makes a noticeable snap, crackle, or pop.
I mostly give this a low sound quality based on the reverbs and the noise.

Seems pretty reliable so far (a couple years). My 100w Marshall head landed on it once and it didn't even dent (and my amp appreciated the soft landing!).

I would not buy it again. See "ease of use" and "sound quality" sections above.
The best thing about the unit is its seamless interface to the X-15 foot controller.
At the time I got it, I was looking for something that could do reverb since my amp doesn't. I was not interested in a combination preamp/effects box. The other unit I seriously considered was the Alesis Quadraverb. I can't remember why I got the Multiverb instead, but I soon wished I'd gotten the Quadraverb. It had a much more lush sound.

Adding an effect to the effects chain can be kind of annoying... because if you step past the effect you want, you have to start all over from the begining of the list again! (and this can happen because there are a bunch of different delays and reverbs and things).

Ok reverbs and delays. The eq didn't do much for me, but the "Acoustic Environment Simulator", or whatever it's called, had a couple of nice settings. One day, I yanked the unit out of my effects loop and plugged in a delay pedal---The pedal sounded a lot better! It seemed like the ART made my tone thin and grainy (sucked some mids) even in BYPASS!!!!

Never had any drop-out problems or anything, but at one point, the LCD started to act up and flicker a bit.

Never called them.

I wouldn't buy the unit again, but it was a good stepping stone to get into (or out of!!) the multi-effects thing.

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