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Alesis MidiVerb III

Summary
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Manufacturer URL http://www.alesis.com/
Ease of Use 7.4 (8 responses)
Sound Quality 6.1 (8 responses)
Reliability 8.4 (7 responses)
Customer Support 6.0 (2 responses)
Overall Rating 7.2 (6 responses)
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Page: 1 (Show 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 reviews per page) Showing 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: 400 (Australian dollars) used
Submitted 06/16/2004 at 01:32am by Daniel Askey

Ease of Use : 7
At its most basic level this unit is quite easy to use ? you can figure out how to select and edit patches in no time. However if you want to dig a bit deeper into things like choosing configurations and using the unit?s MIDI functions you?ll need to use the manual. Luckily the manual is very good, so even using the more in-depth features shouldn?t pose any problems.

Sound Quality : 8
The Midiverb III can do up to three effects simultaneously ? reverb, delay and chorus/flange. There are various ?configurations? to choose from which determine what order the effects go in, and You can use MIDI to control the effects? parameters in real-time.

The reverb is quite good ? this is a budget unit, so it?s not amazing, but I?ve certainly heard worse. The chorus/flange is okay. The delay is fairly limited ? if you want more than one hundred milliseconds then you have to choose a configuration without reverb.

I found the delay and chorus worked well to thicken up keyboard and guitar sounds, while the reverb was worked well if used subtly in a mix ? certainly this reverb is better than most plug-ins.

Reliability : 8
Feels sturdy and haven't had any problems with this in all the years I've had it.

I think it could be depended on at a live gig.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion
Given that this tends to sell pretty cheap secondhand, I?d recommend the Midiverb III to anyone on a budget looking for some decent outboard effects. It sounds good and is surprisingly flexible. You might eventually want to buy a better quality reverb, but this would still be worth keeping as a second effects unit.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: 100 EURO used
Submitted 09/19/2002 at 02:10pm by Andreas Klemm

Ease of Use : 10
The factory sounds are amazing compared to TC G-Major for example.
Nearly every of the 100 presets is useable out of the box or can
be easily fine tuned.
Editing patches is extremely easy. Unlike other multi-effects that
come with tons of knobs/options/settings per effect the Alesis
Midiverb III lets you choose between different presets that all
sound different and good. You only need minor manual tweeking to
change that sound to your special needs.
The manual is o.k. and can be downloaded from internet.
I had to do so, because I got my Alesis from eBay for about
100 Euro.
Firmware revision is 1.0 and 1.01 (I got 2, 1.01 is the latest
one).
BTW, after a company merging Alesis lost Firmware upgrades and
nearly everything. This was the reason to buy a 2nd one as backup.

Sound Quality : 8
I use it with a Marshall JCM 900 50W Combo mainly for home recording.
BTW, You get a better tone if you don't use the record compensated
output and not the line out. Connect the Alesis to Effect out
and connect the Alesis to your Mixing device.
I have bought a Vintage Tascam M30. With certain Equalizer Settings
you get a great tone in conjunction with the Midiverb III.
I use a Gibson Les Paul '58 from the Historic Collection.
The device is not that noisy as many people say ... not noisier
as Marshall/tube amps ;-)
The follwing effects are a good start: 100, 101, 106, 107,
108, 109, 112, 114, 133, 160, 161, 162.
BTW, the effects over 100 are the same as <100, but these over
100 can be customized by you.
To sum up, for guitar I think the sound is great.

Reliability : 9
No problems with it so far. A friend of mine had one for
over 8 years now and he is also very happy with it.

Customer Support : 2
The Midiverb can't be bought anymore, its vintage gear.
But its a drawback, that Alesis lost every information
about firmware bugs and can't even burn you an EPROM
with the latest software. After they have been bought
up by another company they lost every information.
Helpful people at all in Germany, but useless, since they
can't give you anything ...

Overall Rating : 9
I play mostly rock (ZZ Top style) but also a little jazz and funk ...
I play guitar since about 20 years.
I bought a 2nd one, since I definitively want to have a backup
if my 1st gets stolen or damaged.
The favourite feature is, that you have for guitar cool
sounding factory presets that make your guitar sing and sound.
The Alesis seems to be an instrument "of its own".
Maybe it influences the tone too much for some people, when
reading other ratings, but I think the sound you get out of
it in life and in homerecording environment is really great,
vivit, sometimes thick and voluminous and NOT "synthetic"
or boaring like for example the TC G Major ... I dislike the
TC product with the lame presets and hundred of options that
you have to play around with to get a good sound.
Love it or hate it, I like it.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: US $100 used
Submitted 03/22/2002 at 02:27pm by Lonnie
Email: lonnie<at>lonmanproductions dot com

Ease of Use : 7
Don't have a manual. I get a decent sound from it with minimal tweaking (doesn't match my Lexicon unit).

Sound Quality : 6
Use it for recording & mixdown. Not unusually noisy, but I don't over effect either.

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
It works with our type of rock. We record other bands as well, while it's not my first choice of processing, if you can get it for under $150 us, it's worth it. WOuld like a manual & setting sheet though!


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: US $150 used
Submitted 01/05/2002 at 10:18pm by Tristan
Email: tristan at forthazel<dot>com

Ease of Use : 8
Fairly easy to use for an effects unit with menus.

Sound Quality : 3
I was using this in a studio for general purpose reverb and delay sounds. It is very noisy, even more hiss than the older Midiverb II. For this reason I sold it.

Reliability : 9
worked great.

Customer Support : No Opinion
don't know.

Overall Rating : 5
really noisy and crappy sound. reverbs OK but not super lush. I sold it to buy a midiverb II, and even that's just for special effects. The favorite reverb in my rack is the Roland SRV3030, quickly followed by the Zoom 1204. I run a studio.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: 90 (GBPounds) used
Submitted 09/17/1999 at 06:09pm by mark
Email: mark at thebubble<dot>co<dot>uk

Ease of Use : 7
Easy to use, but to get a good sound maybe not not. Editing's pretty straightforward, just change the patch & hit store. The manual is ok, but i think the effect config. section could have been clearer, and there's no description of the presets which would have been helpful as a starting point. . As for the effect quality, i used to think it was great until i got a Zoom 1201, and the reverbs on the zoom are a bit better. The chorus on the Alesis is good (not that I use it much), but the flanger lacks swirl - a bit plastic-sounding

Sound Quality : 7
I use the Alesis in the effects loop of my 4-track (analogue rules !) and use it mainly for processing drum machine and guitars. Some of the smaller room reverbs are great for livening up my drum machines (Yamaha RX8 & Roland TR505). I've used some of the reverbs with vocals and it seems to take a lot of tweaking to get a good sound. Overall it's not fanatstic, but put the time in to edit the patches and it's worth it (and keep a list of them !)

Reliability : 9
I got it seconhand from a friend, and when i first got it, about an hour of use would make it shut down, just 3 dashes in the display and any signal would runnning through it would come out a fuzz mushy mess. eventually i open it up and the heatsink for the power supply regulators had worked loose, so the regulators were oveheating. one screwdriver later it was fixed and i've had no problems since.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never tried

Overall Rating : 7
It does it's job ok, but doesn't blow me away. i'm using it with a tascam 414 and it was the first effect rack i got. since then i got the Zoom and it's a lot easier to gte a good sound out of. the hall reverbs are particulary 'effect sounding' and i don't use them at all. it's great for wild effectathon stuff though ! i've got a soft spot for it it must be said, as i've had it for so long.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: US $320
Submitted 02/17/1999 at 12:11am by TheBru

Ease of Use : 6
Easy to use, just use the manual value up/down keys. You adjust parms but pressing buttons which appears a little strange at first since buttons function depends on the effect. I give it a 8 for not having NAMEABLE presets and take off 2 more for the goofy button assignment.

Sound Quality : 7
I've had this since I bought in new in 1991 ? At the time it was the fantastic, now it's just good to workable. With so many 20 bit effects units it makes this 16 bit unit more dated. I still use mine, especially on my 16 bit modules (like a D4) and SY22. However, I am not the most critical reverb critic in the world. I uses my newer units for vocal applications and wouldn't use it for that. I don't find it unusually noisy at all.

Reliability : 10
No problem with the unit at all. Yes, I feel very comfortable with it.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Nope never had to use customer support.

Overall Rating : 8
It has chorus, echo, flange, reverb, etc. 100 preset patches, 100 user patches. I use this mostly for the 16 bit gear and for background guitar colorings. Since I've had this for years and I have 2 other alesis effects units (MV 4 and Q2), I would buy another different new unit if it quit (but it doesn't seem to want to). I don't really like the number scheme and wish it had names. I do like the organization of the patches in groups. If I had to buy it again when I did I would have in a heartbeat, it's served me well.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: Australian $600 used used
Submitted 11/22/1995 at 07:09pm by Matt EDEN

Ease of Use : 8
Quite an easy unit to use. I bought mine without a manual and figured out how it all worked in about 20 minutes.

Sound Quality : 7
The quality 'ain't bad but it can sound muddy or washy on certain settings. It has this ability to take away the clarity of your sound.

Reliability : 5
I have had to have it repaired twice since I bought it. I seems to have a problem with the timing circuitry and general aquistition of information from its ROM. Don't be shocked when you turn it on one day and the panel shows three red dashes on the display. A very tempremental piece of equipment.

Customer Support : 10
Because I'm in Australia Alesis don't realy play a part in support. The guy I took mine to is an agent for Alesis and was really good. He even gave me the circuit diagrams for the thing. I can now fix it myself. Maybe thats what he had in mind???

Overall Rating : 7
Good for what it cost. Considering that a new Quadraverb will set me back about $1250 in this country it was a reasonable purchase for for the quality of sound. If you have a little money to spend I suggest you look at the Quad series. They seem to be a lttile better.


Product: Alesis MidiVerb III
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 05/11/1995 at 07:52am by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 6

Sound Quality : 3

Reliability : 9

Overall Rating : No Opinion
5

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