Alesis MidiVerb II

Very straightforward and quick to use - only thing to worry about is setting a good gain structure i.e. balancing the input and output with your mixer for good gain structure

I think the sound quality is excellent - it has a colourful, warm sound, it's not a Lexicon but what is?
Also, I don't agree with some of the reviews that have said it is noisy. I think it is only noisy if the levels are not set right on your mixer in combination with the levels of the midiverb. Furthermore, for the reverb presets, to make a more realistic or transparent sound some High End should be rolled off the returns anyway, which eliminates any tiny amount of hiss that it produces.

I haven't had mine for that long (got it second hand) but with the exception of the rubber buttons this device gives me the impression that it is fairly sturdy. To be fair I won't give this a rating though.

An excellent piece of gear for the price you can get it for. I would recommend it. The only thing to bear in mind is that the parameters can't be altered - you basically have 99 presets.
This might sound horrifying, but there really is enough reverbs, delays, choruses, flanges, and other little variations on these to be able to get pretty much what I want out of it, and believe it or not, I'm quite fussy when it comes to reverbs.
If you want perfection without a bit of EQing/fiddling at the mixer stage, obviously get a Lexicon or high end Yamaha unit or something, but otherwise, I would strongly consider this!

This unit is very easy to use, as you just call up your favorite preset patcches. You cannot edit the patches, but you do have control over the input & output levels, and the mix between the dry & effected signals. The manual covers all you need to know.

Overall i'd give this unit a 8 for it's sound, it has nice reverbs, good chourus and flange effects,and my favorite delay patches, #76 for a all purpose delay, #85 for a longer lead delay , and #99 for a all out crazy delay.This unit is pretty quiet. I play a Parker Nitefly guitar into a ADA MP-1 tube preamp, with the Midiverb2 in the fx loop of the MP-1.From there i either go into my Line6 Flextone3 amp, or my Carvin x100b amp W/412 cab.All the patches sound good, it's just a matter of finding your favorite ones.

20 yrs old and still being used regularly, thats reliable!

No contact with the company

I've been playing for 32yrs, and i play classic rock, blues, mowtown, and some jazz.this unit is a good match for all the above styles.I own a Parker Nitefly guitar, a Kramer Pacer DEluxe guitar, a Line6 Flextone3 amp,a Carvin x100b tube amp, and asst. effects.I wouldn't buy another if this died on me, the technology is just to old, but it's served me very well.I love it's ease of use, quiet patches, nice effects and low price, also I can change the MIX & output levels on the fly, with good old fashion KNOBS, without "GOING IN" to the patch.I chose this unit because I didn't want to tweak parameters all day to build thr sounds I wanted. I can concentrate more on my PlayingI just call up a patch and go!It has helped me makes lots of music over the years, from my little home studio, to my guitar rig, iv'e used it for everything!

Very easy! Manual shows 99 presets. No patches to edit.

The quality is very good for the time period. The effects are acceptable. I use delay with the mains at certain times. Not noisy.

Bullet proof! The wort is still going after all these years. But I worry about it. It sounds fine for any gig, unless you make too much money!

You won't need customer support!

I play southern rock/fusion/jazz. It dose a good job, of course there is better stuff now. I use a TC M-One XL for reverb and the Midiverb for delay. I know that sounds crazy but it works for me. I have had this thing for 20 years it has never failed. If you don't have a ton of money sittin around this would be my first choice. I don't think there is too much to hate but (you don't want to get all giggly inside). It works! It's very easy to turn on and gig. I wish it had a simple tap delay. But when you have all this stuff on stage, you?re playing the bass, singing lead and working the lights its best not to fool with a lot. I'm not sure where I got it, one of my many deals. It never gets in the way. This is a perfect little unit for certain musicians. It will never let you down. PS Protect the WORT!

I bought my Midiverb 2 in London (around 1988 when they were new items).
It cost then over ?300 which at the time was a fortune.
I used it extensively for four-track home recording and i thought the quality
was lovely - but in that era and for the relatively cheap price, a 16 bit effects processor was a great thing to have at your disposal. As for ease of use I thought it was fine although I didn't ever need to get too technical with it.
All this is past tense since i haven't used it for ages...the mains adaptor gave up the
ghost (I think it might be a common problem since I've seen several midiverb 2's for sale without the adaptor).
Incidentally if anyone knows where I can get an adaptor - either new or second hand I'd
be much obliged.

Easy, plug in, adjust the in - out levels, choose a preset and go. I don't use the Midi and some say it's not worth the trouble. I'd say a 9 if the Midi interface did not require a lot of extra stuff and bother ... but then again, just look at my equipment, who cares about Midi at this point! I just wanted some good cheap 'verb and got it. 9 It is. I always wanted just a pan pot to move through the sounds, shut my eyes and use the ears you know?

57 Strat into a small 50's unknown thing that kicks ass and looks like shit. The Alesis actually seems to quiet down some of the errant hum that was quite annoying, an unexpected plus. Unknown to me how it acts through something decent. The effects have never faded under stress, solid. Good but not revelatory sound, probably limited by that amp, I've gotta try this through something bigger to know.

It came in off E-bay with a hatcheted adaptor plug, missing the nut on the adaptor receiver and broken connector internally at the power supply. Certainly no fault of quality, just rough handling. Easy to fix. A few twists back and forth and the pots are as good as new, the preset buttons take a confident push to register, so no accidental brush of the hand will change it when you're not looking.(hint to Hatchetman, learn how to solder, throw your black tape away, and crossing wires won't get power to your unit). Sheeeesh.

Check out these links for that long lost card info.
http://planet0.planet-zero.org/wiki/index.php/MidiVerbII
Alesis website also has two pages on it, pretty good support for no longer being in production. Hats off to Alesis, that's class.

I honestly didn't know what this thing actually did, it kind of dropped into my lap through a friend who bought two and kept one, so it was worth it. It certainly seems to have brought my tone quality up from the gutter a notch. Now I'll have to learn how to play something pretty after all these years.

If you can boil water and chew gum at the same time, you will find this unit very easy to use.

For my applicaiton(s), it works very well. i was suprised as I had heard very bad, nasty things ( after I bought it, of course!! ) about the Mid-Verb. While probably not the most ideal unit for adding reverb to a revebless guitar amp, I was quite shocked and amazed at the nice reverb, delay, flange, chorus, trem tones that originate from this single rack spaced wonder.

??????????????????? Are you kidding me? This thing is at least 10 - 12 years old and I bought it in a pawn shop, so Lord knows how amny owners it has been through in that time. Other than a few preays of Lube Job on the input, mix, and output ( to get rid of a bit of static and stiffiness from sitting on the shelf for a few years ) potentiomiters, I've done nary a thing to it. If it does happen to go
( as the English say ) Teet's Up, well......I'll then ahve to think about a Lil Lanalie, Holy Grail, Digiverb or some ( hopefully ) low cost vintage piece to satisfy my reverb jones. As far as can I depend on it and would I use it without a backup....well....YES.

Hee hee hee. Haw haw haw....Ho ho ho. Surely ( I told you to never call me SHIRLEY ) you jset.

I'm a good old blues boy from way back. Not as old as some, but older than most who frequent this board. Been playing for well over 30 years. Made my living playing Top 40 in the 80's and had a blast playing in Blues bands, country bands, oldies bands, etc on a part time...weekend basis. These days, my style consists of mostly blues, some country & jazz & slide on the ol' electric and Fingerpicking, altered tunings, slide..whatever...on the ol acoustic. Even though I consider myself a blues player, I find myself more of a "texturalist" with the praise & worship team I'm now blessed to play with at our church. Since I'm the third of three guitar players, I try to find my own space in the group format and do my best to not mash frequencies nor step on others toes or play redundant parts that have no need to be there. So, instead of bashing away on rhythm or playing leads all over the place, I find myself using overdrives ,delays, volume pedal, ebow, slide etc, to accentuate the mix. Sometimes, it's such a cacophony, or din of noise, that I don't play at all...prefering to worship. Ahem.....getting back to the overall rating of the midi-verb.....a solid 7 seems to be in order. Not the best, most pristine or guitar friendly unit out there, but for a piece of gear that is as old as it is and as much as it's ( obviously ) been used, the old buzzard still has a useful life. I bought in on a whim as I was perusing the local pawn shop for some unforseen prize. Perhaps and original TS-808 or Lexicon 284 for $15 dollars. But, alas......I came away with only a little Midi-Verb.

With the laminated patch sheet it is a doddle to use.

Sound quality was excellent for its day and still stands up for home/demo recording. More than good enough for live stage work.

The only things that go wrong with these are
1) the pots get crackly if ou don't use them enough (true wit most things) and
2) The power supply adaptor packs up. This is an A.C. power supply NOT D.C. (the AC-DC & smoothing must be in the midiverb itself. The cheap way to fix this is to buy a D.C. adaptor,rip out and bypass the all the rectifier smoothing circuitry (worked for me!).

Never dealt with Customer Support.

The only thing missing from the Midiverb II is an ON-OFF SWITCH!!!!
The only way to switch if off is either unplug the powersupply jack at the back of the unit or if that is inaccesible then at the mains socket. This can explain (see above) why the power supplies on these can fail (people forget to switch them off).

Very Very east to use... push two buttons and you have reverb. I love the reverb sounds but there is no controll over the reverb time at all.

I LOVE THE SOUND!!! I use this on a DW drum kit for a country/rock band so its got to sound good allready. I usally use #05 for faster songs and for songs like "Amazed" I kick it over to #17 and crank it up!

Its been in the rack since I started as the bands sound engineer

Didnt need to use it... If you dont know how to use this reverb you need not be a sound engineer.

Great verb but, absolutly no control over the reverb times. I will probably buy two of these when I put my sound system together.

Super easy- all presets. Dial up a number and go.

Really good sound quality for the technology of the time.

I used it in a guitar rack for years without any problems. Then I shifted to recording and sold it.

don't know.

After my "goth rock" days, I sold this unit. I moved on to other styles and shifted from performance to recording. I bought many fancier reverbs. I always missed some of the special effect patches on the Midiverb II, especially the reverse reverb. I recently bought one again and feel complete.

This is a No Brainer device. Comes with a quick chart that goes through the presets

For the money I have yet to hear anything that compares at this price range. The first thing I check is ( Tone in verses Tone out ) I find this unit will reproduce the tone very closely to the original tone.Because of this, I don't need a EQ on the output which only adds to signal noise. I rate this a 10 based on the price range.

I have two of these units. They have worked without a flaw since 1988 when I purchased them. Is that worth a 10? What do you think?

Never needed it ( See above comment )

I have used these devices in my studio for a long time. To date they have not let me down.When you are on a tight budget, this unit has pleased every customer who has come in. I prefer these units as they are made to give one effect at a time. The processor never gets overworked as in later models made by Alesis. The MIDIverb III degenerates tone once you put in 2 effects or more. The Midiverb II does what I need it to do. If you do Budget recording, concider this unit. Bottom line " Let your ears decide "