Alesis MidiVerb IV

The data wheel on this baby blows. Any kind of rapid movement causes the thing to skip a beat and it can be very annoying trying to make large-scale changes to a parameter. On the other hand, the big display is very nice, and the online help is useful.

I bought this gadget to stick in the effects loop of my Hafler T2 pumped into a Peavey Classic 50/50. When I bought it, I thought, "Man my tone sucks. I must have it configured incorrectly." After a year of tweaking, I was complaining to a friend about my sound. He lent me his Soldano pre-amp to test. I decided to run the preamp straight into my power amp, and got a pretty good tone. I decided to try the Hafler in the same config for a comparison, and was totally blown away. A year of fiddling with the damn MidiVerb had made me forget what a good sounding preamp I have! To make a long story short, the limited headroom on the MidiVerb4 makes it a big no-no for tube amp configs, especially if you want to get any kind of crunch out of your power stage. It's fine performance on the clean channel would suggest that it would be good for PA and studio rigs that don't need a lot of DB on the outputs. I'll keep it around for that reason, but it's going out of my guitar rack. I will miss the Leslie effect, which is very cool. The flage is very intense, and the room reverbs are great.

Have owned it for one year with only one glitch. One day I turned it on and all of my user data had been reset. Bummer.

Once again, do not buy this as a guitar processor. As a reverb/delay, it is much better than my Yamaha R/100 (although it is also a decade newer). Unfortunately, I bought this unit because of a few friends' recommendation of Alesis products without running it through my rig (last time that will happen). Really, for $300 you probably cannot get a better rackmount unit with this many effects or as good sound quality. I would imagine that the high gain levels of guitar amplification place quite a load on these processors. Clean tones sound great through this unit, and I have seen many PA boards running these units with great success. My advice is to test it with the application for which you intend to use it before purchasing the unit.

This is a very easy user friendly unit.The manual is good but still does'nt explain everything,but its easy to just figure it out because the buttons are clearly laid out and logical.

I use mine in the stereo effects loop of a Marshall JMP-1.The delays are very clean,the chorus is real nice,but the reverb is weak.(like most units that are in the lower price range.)I dont use reverb anyway,except in the studio where its T.C. or Lexicon.I bought this unit because it switches very quickly,and I dont have big gaps between presets.This was a big problem with most units I checked out, except the G-Force and the intellifex.Which both were too expensive for my budget.My only complaint is that its limited in memory.You cant run stereo chorus and stereo delay simultaneously,which is really a down side but I'll have to live with it.It still sounds real good though.For solos I use the stereo delay and it is real clean.You can only run 2 to 3 effects max at a time but I dont use more than that anyway.The few things this unit does,it does well.Overall I'm very happy with it because it does what I need it to do,and its cheap,but still sounds very good.

Its new so I could'nt say,but I have'nt had any strange glitches like with Digitech products.

Never dealt with them.

My music is a funky hard rock/jazzy influenced style.The unit fits in well because the effects are clean.My other guitarist has has a boss SE-70 and our stereo guitars blend real nice.I use a Carvin tube power amp,with a marshall jmp-1,a marshall 900 cab,and both of us use PRS guitars.I wish the unit had a little more features like stereo chorus and stereo delay together,and it should have midi mapping,which I could'nt find anywhere in the manual.Like I said the main thing was the switching speed via midi.In which nothing in its price range cold compare.If it were lost I would buy it again unless I had the cash for a G-force or MPX-G2.

Wonderful. The display is really nice, ten times better than my DP4's one. Too much easy to use, even : you can't experiment a lot.

It is quite easy to collect noise, the converters are not really good. Otherwise the overall sound is pretty cold, but it's not always a thing to blame, as long as 'cold' FX can be splendid too. It's mainly (on only, in fact) 'bread and butter' FX. The reverbs are, let's say, not too bad (useable for background instr. or percs). I would drop it out of my studio if it hadn't that lovely ability to go down to 0 Hz on the flanger.

This thing looks reliable, and it's so light I don't see how it could get hurt. I've already dropped it on the floor, and it's still going strong.

No idea.

I like it because it looks good, and with its green panel, it helps my already bright StudioQuad to enlighten my studio at night. Otherwise, I will never buy again this kind of cheap stuff. In fact, it does the job it is supposed to do, but nothing more. Not enought paramaters to tweak, in fact. An average utilitarian box.

When you've played around with it for a while it isn't so hard to get the sounds you want.

I'm using it in the effects loop of a '73 100w Marshall head along with an '81 Gibson Les Paul. Also in the rack I have a Behringer Autocomp MDX 1200, a Roland GP-8 and a Digitech mono28 eq. I had to play around with the input and output levels for a while 'til I got rid of the noise. With these settings it's completely noiseless (I have it set on Input: 30 Output: 80). The effects are damn good at this price. As mentioned above... the decay of the reverb sounds a bit odd. But it sounds very good as a whole though.

The AC adaptor have been giving me some problems but not the unit itself. I have been gigging with it every week now for 2 years and it works perfectly.

I play everything from Jazz to Black metal. In all the styles I like to use effects to build up a certain feel and add some spice to what I'm playing. I think that the MidiVerb IV is the perfect choice for a guitarist who don't have a lot of cash but needs high quality effects.

I don't have any trouble editing the patches, and the manual seems to do a good job of explaining how to access the edit menus etc. I haven't tried to use the unit with MIDI yet, so I don't know how easy that is to do. Overall, I think that once you become familiar with the page format in the edit menus, it's fairly easy to get the sound you want

I have played this with both a Strat and a PRS, and it sounds pretty good. It gets a little noisy when you plug it in-line before the amp though. Right now I am using it with a Marshall VS265 in the effects loop, and it adds some fuzz, butnot more than you pick up by switching to a distortion channel. The effects, sepecially the reverb, sound good overall, but I feel limited by the preset chains. You can't just set up any chain you want. I also wish it had a phaser and some EQ.

I haven'y used this at a gig, but I do transport it a fair amount w/o a rack case, and it seems to be fairly sturdy. The power adaptor doesn't plug in very firmly, and the effects/data wheel seems a little flimsy too. I had it sitting on top of an old stereo amp in my room once (about two above the top of the stereo, and it shut down. It wouldn't strat up again until I removed it and let it cool down for about 10 minutes.

Never dealt with them, but I wish the warranty was longer than ninety days. I would recommend that the unit be burned in, to make sure its not defective before the warranty runs out

Overall, this is a great unit for its price if you are looking for a reverb processor. I play guitar and now I wish that I had bought a floor mounted unit that was designed to accept an instrument cable directly. This thing would be perfect for someone looking for a processor for a small studio, or an overall live sound effects unit. If you play guitar, you should look at this carefully yo see if its what you really want before you buy. I am thinking about replacing mine for a floorboard in the next month or so. This rating is an average of the unit as a guitar processor/ studio workhorse. I would give it a 4-5 for guitar and 9-10 for studio FOR ITS PRICE RANGE.

This unit is easy to understand in that it's parameters are simple. As far as getting a good sound out of it, that could take a while. The manual really does'nt explain how each parameter will effect the overall output sound. As far as I know, there is no way to upgrade it, no slot for a card or anything.

This unit was used in a guitar rig, was not noisy(except when using the "wheel" to change through patches), and has a pretty nice reverb, although the decay is a bit odd. This unit was used with a Mesa/Boogie DC-5, and then a TriAxis before being replaced with a TC electronic G-Force. The chorus and flange tend to be weak, and the delay is'nt very flexible. This unit sounds really nice on vocals, or clean instruments, distortion tends to sound muddy, or a bit brittle. The unit does'nt keep the original signal path free from being altered, even when bypassed.

I played out alot with this unit and never had a problem. It's rackmountable, and I highly recommend it be put in a rack seeing as though the sides of the unit are plastic, and not your typical steel. I used this unit without a backup and I did'nt worry about it failing or anything like that. If something would have happened to it during a show, I would have been o.k. because I don't use my effects as my tone center.

I had questions about how specific parameters would effect my overall tone. The tech gave me some helpful pointers, but it became evident that what I wanted out of this thing could'nt be done.

I used this unit for styles ranging from jazz to progressive rock. For a $300 processor, it was nice, probably the best in the price range. It's versatility is'nt bad, but I think it would do better in the rack of a small PA system for rehearsal, using nothing but reverb and maybe a little delay. Like I said before, the chorus and flange are not all that good, I can't comment on the pitch shift because I don't like that effect at all, useless in most practical applications because of its tendency to turn a tone brittle and digital, unnatural. Anyway, the unit does a good job at what it says it does, i.e. don't try to run more that two different effects at a time, it runs out of memory, and the sound quality DOES suffer! The unit was designed to run one effect at a time, maybe two at the most, which makes me wonder why they made programs with and effects chain four deep. If you are looking for an entry level processor for not alot of money, this might be the way to go. If you have experience with processors and are looking for something that is easy to use and inspirational at the same time as being powerful and sounding great no matter the application or amount of effects used, you'll want to look else where. Overall, for the money, not bad, would I replace it if it were stolen? I own a TC electronic G-Force now, so I don't see a need for the midiverb.

A big "data-wheel" makes it easy to change parametres except that it sometimes has problems to keep up with my spinning. In stead of adding numbers it it skips back a few, which is very annoying. Easy to edit patches, large buttons, easy to hit. The manual is not very good. It's hard to get a good overlook beccause there is no good structure in it!

I use this unit with a SansAmp PSA-1 preamp, and a Valvestate 8008 poweramp. The Midiverb has a "Dry defeat" function, but in my opinion it doesn't work that well. If you use a patch that feeds delay into a reverb effect, you only hear the reverbsound of the delay instead of the delayed sound PLUS the reverb sound. This is irritating. The A/D and D/A converters is not so good. They tend to colour the sound to much! But despite all of this, the reverb sounds great, and the stereo flange is HUGE on clean sound.

I haven't heard anything bad abuot it in this matter!

No problems so far.

I'm a guitarplayer, and I play various sorts of music! All styles from heavy metal, blues, fusion, pop etc. This thing does an OK job I guess. I miss bigger stereo algorithms, phasing and a tremoloeffect, but otherwise it's OK. I don't think I'll buy it again.

It's usability is more than advantage. I've never have problem to make my own setting. However, Changing program is not so nice. Using dial is only way, and It requier a lot of spinning to skip program 12 to 120...Unless you control it via MIDI. It's going to be much better if MidiVerb would have ten key.

I used to use it for my home recording with bunch of synthesizers. MidiVerb is very quiet effect unit. A lot of Reverb is quite nice but bit blighter for my ears. To feed bright synth sound is very nice, but not for drums or percussive sounds, In my opinion. Also, it can make nasty digital noise easiliy if you feed over level signal for it.

Im' quite happy about my machine about reliability axis. It hasn't have any seriours problem.

It's nice budget reverb machine, and I'm quite happy. But, over drive digital noise and bit brighter charactor for my ears (again, it's my preference!) are minus point.

This is an EXTREMELY easy system to use...the backlit display and LARGE text of the menu on screen make this a great On-Stage effects unit...

VERY quiet...I use it in my Funk Band as the processor that I run my Trumpet and Trombone through...I get VERY CLEAN sound out of this unit...never been happier...

128 pre-programmed effects and 128 user defined...makes this an awesome effects kit (especially on a per dollar basis) The midi-interface is adequate...and the component can be easily chained for multi-effects...

Only had it for a few weeks...but it's performed flawlessly...even survived a rear-end car accident (that's another story entirely!)

Nothing compares for the price range...beatiful sound that I can run live horns through...AS WELL as using it in STUDIO for adding effects to pre-recorded tracks... EXCELLENT value....I would DEFINATELY buy this hardware again...

very easy.. I didnt even look in the manual except for a few particular things. Kinda reminded me of my Digitech 2112

We use this for studio verb on everything. drums, guitars, vocals, bass, etc. The sound quality is especially great on the small rooms. The bigger ones seem to wash out if you use too much, which is to be expected, I suppose. The flanger and chorus are odd, not bad, just different. Not like a guitar chorus or flanger, they are more "animated" it seems.. I really like the chorus, gives a big stereo doubling effect . It really doesnt sound like "chorus" like I know it, from various guitar effect processors. Once again, the small room verbs using the "ambient" configuration are awesome.. very very realistic and lifelike. I've basically stuck to presets so far. The reverb is better than my Digitech 2112's, better than my Nanoverb, although similar.

my nanoverb and nanocompressor have both survived for a year or so.. I have hte midiverb in a rack, so I would expect it to do fine.

I like it pretty good. It gives us good all-purpose reverbs. Since we use one "type" of verb for the whole mix, I've been using the small room types, which dont wash out or become muddy.. The bigger reverbs are great too, you just need to watch how many tracks to run thru em, and dont use too much :)