Alesis MidiVerb IV

very easy to get a good sound out of this unit.
ediring patches is quite hard, but you will make it if you have ?ver had other effect-processors
the manual is very good and it helps a lot.

i can get the great 80's hard rock guitar sounds out of this unit
the delays and reverbs are absolutely amazing!
and the pitchshift is good too
i use this unit with my custom warmoth guitar, ADA mp-1 and marshall 9005 poweramp
the flanger is quite noisy but a noisegate will fix it for you

no problems so far.
i would gig with it without a backup, don have any :-)

never dealt with them, never had too.
but the online support is great.

i play 80's hardrock/metal and this unit works great for that kind of music.
i've been playing fot 4,5 years and as i said above i use it with my ADA mp-1
if it where stolen i would beat the shit out of the asshole who stole it, and it's impossible to lose a rackunit, so won't bother answering that question.
I love everything in this unit accept for the noise and that it's pretty hard to dial.
this thing is a hell lot better than the ART sgx lt
wich i replaced with the Alesis. i choose this one before the quadraverb because of the pitchshifter( wich in this one includes octaver and harmony pitchshifting)
the only thing i wish this unit had built in is a good noisegate.

Sound quality was great (if it worked)

This processor was very unreliable. Broke and now just collects dust.

When it worked it sounded great however, It was in the shop for repairs three times the first year. Broke a forth time three months out of warranty and the factory declined the repair under warranty. I wouldn't recommend spending any money on Alesis products at all.
I have a project studio and I have purchased many products (Effects,Keyboards,Mixers,etc...)None of them Alesis!

Divido mi opinion para este apartado en 2 puntos;
el primero la programacion de patches y el segundo la manipulacion real de estos.

En cuanto a la programacion; el uso de capas (leyers o pages) hace facil el mezclar los ditintos efectos. Cada parametro tiene una peque?a barra grafica que lo hace intuitivo y comprencible desde el primer encuentro. El defecto en este punto seria que cuando estas listo para editar tu efecto no te muestra el nombre del efecto que borraras, eso es vital sobre todo cuando ya has editado un numero superior a los bancos libres.

En cuanto a la manipulacion, el Midiverb 4 deja mucho que desear. Al no tener un panel numerico el paso de un efecto a otro en tiempo real es simplemente imposible asi como modificar los parametros en tiempo real. Probe este aparato con el "footswich" pero definitivamente el pedal debio haber sido de "expresion".

El MIDI y los controles divididos para el volumen del INPUT son muy latosos, sin hablar de que el "Auto Level Control" es una funcion inutil.

La calidad del sonido es realmente buena, con su extra?o convertidor a 18 bits y un sampleado a 48khz, con lo cual cumpliria con los requicitos minimos para trabajo actual de estudio, mas al no poseer una "salida digital" esta calidad puede degradarce en los procesos posteriores.
Aunque los efectos suenan cristalinos, libres de interferencias y nos ofrece buenos parametros para modificarles, en general suenan un poco exagerados para mi gusto.

El problema principal de uso, es lo que primero asumes que te fallara... el control de Value. Es muy fragil y era obio que seria el control que mas se usaria, con el tiempo perdio firmeza y me brincaba un par de bancos, aunque es mas bonito, prefiero los botones up & down de los antiguos Midiverbs.

El otro gran problema... estos equipos usan un eliminador de corriente un tanto particular, cuando por alguna razon no esta disponible te quedas sin procesador ya que ademas de caros son casi imposibles de comprar por separado. Alguna vez tube que fabricarme uno yo mismo, mas es aclaro qie no fue por falla si no por extravio.

Un detalle curioso, despues de no usarlo durante un a?o, mis bancos se borraron, sin embargo la bateria aun funciona.

EL manual solo venia en ingles. Fuera de eso Alesis tiene en su sitio la descarga del mismo. El ocho principalmente fue por la dificultad para conseguir el eliminador de corriente.

A favor:
-Gran calidad de sonido.
-Buena calidad general de sus componentes.
-Edicion de "patches" sencilla.
-Conectividad sencilla.
-Buen precio.

En contra:
-Carece de algun tipo de AMP EG, filtro y distorciones, asi como el
tiempo del Delay es muy corto.
-Algunos efectos son imposibles de usar simultaneamente.
-Pocas prestaciones para "recitales en directo".
-El cambio de "patch" genera un silencio del efecto en proceso.
-Carece una salidad digital.

This is my only beef with the unit. Needs some knobs to go with the buttons...too DOS oriented. Not incredibly difficult to understand, as a matter of fact very straightforward.

Not as good as my Lexicon LXP-15, but a damn close second. Reverbs on the Alesis are darker than on the Lexi. Great reverbs, nice chorus and flange as well. A/B'd with my Lexi and these two are close!

Owner it for 3 years and no issues thus far.

N/A

I use this in the effects rack of my home studio, along with Lexicon LXP-15, Joe Meek MQ3, ART Pro VLA, ART eq, TASCAM CDRW-700, and TASCAM 488 MKII.
This is a great sounding unit. Anyone who says differently either does not know how to dial in the unit properly or can't tell shit from shinola.

firstly, i really didn't care for any of the preset sounds...they all seem to be too overblown, too overdone, too much of everything...just way too wet....i tried tweaking a couple of them to get a more dry/less wet blend, and they stayed too wet clear to the point where the mix was 99:1 dry to wet...this is totally useless to me...i prefer fx that have subtlety, and this just simply didn't meet my needs...others may like it but i don't find it very good at all...my application for this unit was in the fx loop on a marshall JCM900 head driving a vintage Hiwatt 4X12 with Fane speakers....after a couple of trials in rehearsal, i finally gave up...it's been a dust collector since.....difficult to program, although it's obvious that deep programming is possible...i don't have the time or desire to get that involved in something...i need a simple unit that will give me what i need without my having to spend hours with it....

sounds are transparent, with little noise, but as i said, they're just too overdone...i also have a digitech tsr12 and digitech dsp16, and i like them better

seems well made and never gave me any trouble, outside of the trouble with the rack ears outlined below...i'd rather have an integral AC cord than a wall wart, particularly in light of the fact that the wall wart is 9VAC, which will be really tough to replace when it dies, and all wall warts die eventually...

one big thing that bugs me about this unit is that the metal that forms the front panel/rack ears seems extremely brittle...the top two holes in the rack ears have broken out, simply as a result of being in a rack and being transported that way...it was never abused in any way, and i've never seen this happen with any other brand...i would not buy another of these units....

Pretty easy to use....although you should have at least some experience with other effects processors.
The manaul is very good and helps a lot.

The sound quality is absolutly amazing! Sounds very proffesional.
It sounds great on all units, i use it with a mic, for vocals, or with electric guitar through the effects loop of my randall rh200 head, it sound exellent on both.
Specially with the guitar....I use the effects both on the clean channel and distortion channel.
You can reaalt get "Tube" sound with the reverb and delay.
The range of the effect is amazin too...and the numbers of parameters available for editing, the cascade option is useful too.
The reverb combined with chorus or delay or just reverb makes solos come alive and cut through the mix.
There is NO NOISE at all from this unit, if you tweak the input and output level correctly, and it doesn't color the sound at all when bypassed.

No problems so far

Very quick responses to emails.

I play a lot of styles mainly metal.
It sounds exellent for children of bodom or nighwish sounds...
Also very good for metallica ( which I am a BIG fan of )
I can get any sound of any of those bands with almost precise quality... the rh200 head with a graphic eq is a must have!
Absolutly the best in the price range under 400-500$.

Friendly interface. Very good reference manual.

Very clean sound. I use with bass and works fine. Very good reverbs. Great chorus, flange and Leslie simulator. The delays are very good and clean without "digital taste".

Sound Quality is good. Not noisy for me. There are better units in the market, but the Midiverb is cheaper.

No problem. It's made in Taiwan... but all the components and parts are good.

Not need it.

*** You can get any manual at the alesis site.

A very good unit for the price. It's very simple of use. Limited in patch configurations. You can only modify an existent patch, but this is enought for me. Works fine at studio and live situations.

Works fine with bass and vocals. I'm happy whith it.

The use basically revolves around finding sounds you like and writing down what they might be good for. It is really annoying though how there are no preset "normal" recording effects like basic reverb. I had to spend a lot of time editing a lot of different effects just to get a not so noisy regular reverb effect. Editing can be annoying because you can't do certain things. Each sound has a different set of parameters, so you can't edit exactly what you want. For example, one of my favorite effects on the midiverb4 is this slow tremelo effect, but I wish it had a little reverb. However, "decay," is not a parameter option on that particular effect so I'm out of luck.

This thing is way way way too noisy on a lot of the effects. It also "doesn't like" being paired with certain other effects and amps. Most of the neat effects have too much noise which makes them almost useless to record with, thus making the machine itself sort of useless to me.

Never gigged with it.

Lots of people own the MidiVerb4 because it's one of the only effects processors of its kind within a very reasonable price range. However, the bottom line for me is that it isn't all that great to record with due to noise and lack of certain qualities on the better effects. It always seems like it just does half of what I want it to do. I'll admit though, I've never gigged with it, so it might be better at live effects.

Manual was ok, I bought the Midiverb 4 to replace my Midiverb 3 that I had used for years. The sounds seem tailored more for keyboards than guitar. Because of that, it was tough to get any good sounds.

I used it in the effects loop of a Mesa Dual Recifier, with a Morley wah and Boss Distortion pedal up front. I couldn't find a chorus that worked for guitar, they were all too dark and intense. Verbs and Delays were fine.

The first one I ordered had a defect, the bypass LED stayed on all the time. I called Musician's Friend, and they sent me another one (after it was on back order for about ten days), and it had the same problem! Since I didn't like the sounds anyway, I got a refund. I called Alesis and they said it's a known issue with a batch of them. The Bypass LED was wired in backwards. Nevertheless, my old Midiverb 3 was very reliable, and had this not had a factory defect I would call it very reliable.

Customer support was ok, can't complain.

I play dance & rock covers from '70's - today, and have been playing guitar for 32 years. I don't understand why any guitarists would like the Midiverb, the sounds suck for guitar. Unless they're all like me, willing to put up with something for price and convenience and reliability, which this where this unit shines. I bought a Midiverb 4 because the price was right, and the selection of AFFORDABLE rackmount effects is very limited, especially with the current trend of putting the whole unit on the floor in front of the guitar player. I've seen gallons of beer and coke products dumped on my pedalboard over the years by drunk people in the crowd (on a good night :) and my experience tells me to keep nothing more than controller switches on the floor, and keep the electronics in the rack whenever possible. BTW, I finally shelled out a little more money and bought a Rocktron Xpression, and I like that a lot more than the Midiverb 4.

Extremely easy to use for a rack processor. Editing is straightforward, and the manual is very good.

I'm using this one in several setups, for acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin and as studio processor. The reverbs are excellent, with smooth tails and lots of parameters for those who like tweaking. In a couple of the dual configs there is a little hiss. Pitch shifter, delays and chorus are great.

I haven't had any problems so far, and I'm actually gigging without a backup. None of the Alesis products I've used (NanoVerb, NanoCompressor, mixers, pres) have ever died on me, so I'm pretty confident about this one.

Can't comment. Service for Alesis products down here in Argentina is quite good, though, so I guess they are good.

I use it for several types of music, mostly instrumental music, but some electronic stuff too. If ti were stolen and I could get one for the same price I would go for it. I definitely like it.

Like many Alesis products, it's well laid out, easy to use, decent feature set, plenty of decent presets.

Sound quality isn't this box's strong suite. I won't use it for recording. So I tried using it in the a parallel FX loop on my electric guitar rig and it found a home. Set to 100% wet and controlled with a midi pedal and tap-tempo pedal, it's not bad for this use (I only use it for echo and verb). I would never use it in the main signal chain between guitar and amp, nor would I use it with an amp that only has a "series" FX loop. But it's pass-able in a parallel loop when set to 100% wet...

Of course the design is quite dated by today's standards using 18 bit I/O and 20 bit processing (probably at 44.1 or 48 KHz).

I've had mine for 5 years, it looses the sysex setting frequently even though the internal memory battery is new. It also has a bad thumbwheel that makes it difficult to dial in values. But it has always fired up and made it thru a gig (even if I have to reprogram some presets in order to play).

I wouldn't buy a new one, it's simply too old of technology. If Alesis does an update like they've recently done for the nanoVerb, and does 24 bit I/O and processing, it may be worthwhile. Might make a decent eBay purchase for the right price if your expectations of it are realistic.

oh my gosh, this thing is friggin easy to use. manual is VERY informative.

I've used it when recording vocals and sometimes as a stompbox with my guitar(because i don't have an effects loop on my fender blues jr). For vocals its pretty cool, a lot of the presets drown your voice in reverb and effects though. but some of them sound really sweet. as a stompbox its really neat. a lot of fun effects to mess around with. nothing you'd really use so much for rhythm playing, but more so for lead (riffs, solos, arpeggios). a lot of the presets seem to have some latencey, even if its ever so slight.

i play blues, jazz, rock, funk, and soul. i love it all except metal. i dont see myself gigging with this any time soon but it'll definitely be used when i record again. aside from a tremolo pedal, distortion pedal, and wah, this is the only other effect unit i have. I got it as a gift from my friend. He used it STRICTLY for vocal effects but then he "upgraded" to a TC Helicon Voiceworks unit and had no use for this and well, i used it more than he did so he just gave it to me. Sweet deal. If it were stolen i'd replace it with something, not sure what. i'd look around at maybe something that is more guitar oriented. iunno. since it was free, i give it an extra point!

Here is a quote with my response for this arrogant person who is so drown in his own stupidity that he believes himself:

"clean great for home studio for those people who uses this equipment for guitar needs a brain sergeon. this piece of equipment is for studio use nothing more and thats the main design for if you use this for guitar set up it's like using using a bass amp on a regular 6 string electric guitar" --Submitted by Robert James at 10/11/2002 12:51

First of all guitars are used in the studio, DUH! It is NOT like using an electric guitar with a bass amp! This thing is for modulations and reverb, NOT GUITAR DISTORTION. And if you had any freaking brain you'd understand how retarded you sound. Jesus, someone get the rubber mallot out! This guy apparently has no experience with rack setups let alone guitar processing signals. Look at all the guitar players using this for effects. Does this guy not understand a damn thing? yep! Go bang on your keyboard or whatever the hell you got it for and shut up about stuff you have no idea about

Reverbs are great, chorus fairly good unless you use it on a mic'd harmonica(just kidding LOL; This was for Mr. Brain Surgeon)

no probs.

Pretty easy to use and edit patches. I have the manual but just went straight to changin the settings. It is dead easy to operate.

My Setup:
Ibanez JEM (w/Duncans)->Digitech XP100->JCM800(2205)->MIDIVERB 4(effects loop)->412m(peavey)
I mainly use it for the delay and reverb but when I want a good clean tone I will add the chorus. The flangers are okay if you mess with them (duh). I play anything from Disturbed to Satriani and its good for all of that.

No problems yet. May have to change the clock battery soon. As for gigging with out a backup, I am not an idiot. Why risk a good show?

This thing kicks ass for the amount of money I paid for it. I just seen it in a music store new for $440.00. I wouldn't pay that much for I would go for an MPX or something. One thing I didn't like is the rotor wheel needs some "debounce" circuitry added (for the engineers in the crowd) fairly simple mod if you know what your doing. It is a bit hard to dial the correct setting but I interface with a midi controller so not a big problem just more that I had to complain about something right! Cheers. stay cool but don't freeze.

It's very easy to use but it's better if you read the manual first.

I use it on a send/return of my Marshall JCM 900 100W Hi Gain Master Volume head amp and my guitar is a Ibanez Jem77fp. This thing is great!! it has very cool delays and reverbs, the choruses and the flangers are ok, flangers are a little noisy (anyway i never use chorus and flanger).
Great for those cool guitar soloing that needs efects and the midiverb is not noisy

It really fits my style, I'm playing kinda Satriani stuff, I've been playing guitar for 3 years and a half so this is my first rack product (i got tired of those fucking little noisy pedals) and I'm happy with it. If it were stolen I definitly would buy another one.

Easy as hell

What I like the most of this unit is the chorus effects for vocals. Then again, I'm also a guitar player, and you can get pretty good effects ( especially delays )out of it as long as you use it on a send/return of an amp. DON'T use it as a stompbox. Furthermore I use it for live reggea dubbing. I've got some cool programmes stored in there, such as reverb-flange effects, although the unit's reverb isn't that great in combination-effects. But, that's what i'm looking for when I'm getting the Marley feeling.

Still, I think it's a good machine for a lot of different purposus.

I've got mine 6/7 years now (new), although now i've got lexicons and yamaha's its still part of my studio, guitar, and live setup. It never broke down.

It's a decent effect unit for home studios and starters, don't expect to have a good pitch shifter, but the delays and chorus are great. Some of the reverbs do well too, but they don't really sit in the fedded input sound. Never worked alot with flangers, so can't tell you about it. But for the (second-hand) pricing of today, get one.

easy very easy

clean great for home studio for those people who uses this equipment for guitar needs a brain sergeon this piece of equipment is for studio
use nothing more and thats the main design for if you use this for guitar set up it's like using using a bass amp on a regular 6 string electric guitar

it's made of metal

The unit comes with a superb manual and only a total idiot would struggle to get a good sound out of it. Editing patches is very easy. It's very easy to use. (Though I doubt I use it properly).

The guitar I use through this is a 1983 Fender Strat, and sometimes on old Japanese Strat copy with a built in phaser. I have 2 Big Muffs (Russian and American) a RAT2, a Mini Q-Tron, a Deluxe Memory Man, a Crybaby and Digitech RDS4000 rack delay. The combination I use them in is a closely guarded secret known only to me. My amp is a Hiwatt Lead 100 going through a 2x12 with one Celestion Vintage 30 and one Celsetion Greenback. I use this unit mainly to create unique and extreme sounds, but used conventionally it works well. The delays are good, as are the reverbs, but the modulation effects seem to be lacking in soul, so I'm going to get some analogue ones. I'm sure if it was used properly (i.e. in a studio on vocals or drums) it would be good as well.

It is reliable in the sense that it doesn't break down. But sometimes all the user patches get deleted inexplicably, which is a bit annoying. I would (and have) gig it without backup.

This is a good unit and allows me to create some very individual sounds, the like of which I have never heard, though I think this is more down to my lack of respect for doing things conventionally. It also has MIDI options (you would never guess from the name), but I don't use these. There are also many other features on it that I have never and probably will never use, but that's only because I'm very happy with what it does to my sound. It's good, and at #200 (which is what the going rate for them is nowadays) I would have no hesitation recommending it.

I didnt read the manual. I actually bought it on the way to a gig, hooked it up to the front of the house vocals and it seemed pretty easy to use right out of the box. As a matter of fact, the default settings (00 on the display and both dials at 12 o'clock) are pretty sufficient if a little bit of reverb is all you need.

I used this unit on my vocals through a subgroup insert on my Mackie console. The unit "clips" at 0db which can make it difficult to keep it from making a distorted sound if you are running several vocals through it. It seems to sound best when used by one or two vocals or on the back side of a compressor (if you want to add an effect to the entire mix). Some of the effects are a bit too noisy, however, the ones that are really important, (delay, reverb, plate & flange) sound pretty clean.

I had it for almost a year before I mounted it in a rack. Because of its lightweight and compact design, I had been inclined to store it in some abusive places.. everywhere from the case with the mic stands to tossing it in the back of the amp racks. After all of the bumping around and dropping it several times, it works as well now as the day I bought it. I eventually mounted it in a rack and it looks horrible but it's still going strong.

I never had to call for tech support. But I didnt see any numbers in the manual either.

This has proven to be a very useful multi-purpose unit for anyone who is not exactly sure what to buy. If you are not sure as to whether you want chorus or delays or reverb its money well spent. Any effect in this box will work well enough to do what you want it to do. I would not reccomend it for anything serious unless you plan on using it for single channel reverb or vocal plating.

This has more effects than you will ever use or ever need. Most of the effects sound so similar to each other that it can be somewhat difficult to differentiate between which hall sounds better than the other. I have heard better units which cost much more and I am able to make wise decisions based on what I learned from owning the Midiverb 4.

I have the manual,which is great WOW it has a cover.so far i cant seem to figure out how to set it on the same channel my pedal and preamp are on.anyway i went on.its real easy to send and save programs.find a program you like hit store put the channel in you want it to go,hit store again and wham its there.

my setup is a triaxis preamp,mesa 50/50 power amp.gibson fender/esp guitars.plus the midi verb4 the effects sound good to me.im also suprised how quiet it is.it doesnt have millions of effects but the reverbs,delays,choruses are good enough for me.

I dont know how reliable it is.Ive only had it a month.so far so good knock on wood...

never had to.

Ive been playing about ten years.if it were stolen ya id buy another one,for the money this thing is worth it.ive tried other pruducts before i bought this one,and when i tried to switch preset programs, theyd take a second or two to switch with nothin but dead air.this unit is instant.I read someone elses review which said if you turn the wheel to fast it tends to jump between other programs,well mine does that too bummer.but all in all for the price its great.

A monkey could use this thing and get a good sound out of it. Believe me because I have just spent 6 months trying to master a quadraverb plus. This thing is very user friendly. It can make an average guitarist sound like a professional.

I'm using an American Standard Telecaster through a Hotrod Deluxe Amp (replaced the speaker to greatly improve drive channel). I have the unit plugged into the effects loop. There is absolutely no noise. I don't use any pedals in the setup because I like to keep it simple. I purchased the unit because I wanted a more presence in my sound. The reverbs are reasonable. They could be warmer. The delays are very good. The only setting I plan to use is the multi effects no. 84 which is a combination of reverb and delay. I like my sound to be as unartificial as possible. Its a great combination if you want to nail a clean Jeff Buckley like sound. The most important thing that you have to do before you will get satisfaction out of this unit is to make sure that your rig au naturale is sounding as tight as possible. Lots of tone because some of it will be eaten by this thing. The trade-off is tone for character. I use the mix at about 25% better otherwise it is too wet and artificial. Keep the reverb input down also because it is quite bright. This unit drives very well, oozing character.

Don't really trust it that much - Get surge protection

Never delt with them

If you want a Jeff Buckley sound don't buy a quadraverb as he used because you will spend 80% of your guitar playing time tweaking and 20% getting better. This unit is exceptional for the price but you have to have a good sound to start will.

It's pretty easy to use- a nice big display and several buttons making getting around the on the unit a breeze. Alesis writes pretty good manuals- this one is up to their high standards. Responds well to MIDI control. Several editors support it.

I'm running keys and vocals via the effects loops on a desk. Very quiet. Sounds digital, but pretty good.

For examples of only the MidiVerb 4 processing sounds take a look at Spider Sounds on MP3. The URL is:


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



The above sample is mostly factory presets working on a synth. Will give you a good idea of the MidiVerb 4 sounds like.

A lot of bang for the buck. Easily the class act in the price range- is not going to give you lots of strange sounds, but it does give you a decent effects that you'll be using for a long time.

Pretty good. The main knob seems a little light, but after years of use no problem.

A good unit. I'd replace it if lost. Very easy to use and edit. Excellent manual.

I've had this unit for 2.5 years; my first "pro" studio gear...The presets are good; the user programs are basically a copy of the presets you can tweak with up to 16 parameters. Editing patches is simple for a processor based unit, but give yourself about 2 weeks to learn it. The manual is very good; it doesn't read like an engineering textbook like some other Alesis products. Software version 1.04

I bought this thing first to process a guitar. Strat w/ emgs..on this it sounded just okay, a bit "thin." Sounds fuller on a humbucker equipped guitar. Then I bought a Behringer 16 channel mixer and stuck the midiverb in the auxiliary send. It is best suited here so it can process all the guitars and sound modules I have plugged into the mixer. Now, running my main tele with humbuckers thru a tube preamp directly into the mixer sounds the best...And the midiverb reverbs are excellent...I own a Roland VS recorder and the alesis effects sound much "warmer" and "fuller" than the Roland effects built into the multitracker and better than the effects in a Korg PX-3 which I use for practising. I love the reverbs, all of them... I still have not found a better sounding reverb unit, including the cheaper Lexicons, that sounds this full and lush...The sound quality of the modulation effects like the chorus and flanger are not too good- the flanger has some pretty harsh peaks that will fry any speaker so I don't use these effects. The Leslie simulator is decent. The Pitch shifter is not too good. Reverbs shine, the rest doesn't.

The display, which is nice, is fading as are the lighted buttons..I've had it for 2 and a half years

I emailed them about software upgrades a year ago and didn't hear a thing...

I play the blues, some classical, mostly mellow easy listening..I've been playing for 13 years...I own 5 guitars, and some recording stuff...If it were stolen then i would buy one for about $200 like they are going for now....Or maybe get a Q20. It was either this one or the Digitech studio 200 which was very "thin" sounding...It sounded, for lack of a better word, "fake." It definately helps me make music, the reverbs are absolutely incredible! So rich. Oh yeah, if your unit is making the hissing noise, then get a surge protector for around $40 from the computer store and hook up ALL your gear to one outlet to prevent loops. Mine made noise and I was about to toss it when I read something about ground loops and using multiple outlets in the home. Use one if you can. And, my Furman PL plus power conditioner was a waste of $140, because it makes noise, believe it or not..I am serious about getting rid of noise so I got rid of the Furman. This unit is a keeper....

I borrowed it to test drive it during i gig. I spent the night before
trying to find suitable patches. There's one thing I don't understand.
This thing has double DSP, why can't I use one program per channel?
You have to find a suitable program designed by alesis. Why can't
I put togeather for example chorus+stereo reverb, or chorus on
channel 1 and reverb on level 2? I don't want to rely only on presets when designing the fx program for a gig. Well I found a reverb +
chorus program so I could have use general reverb and a chorus for the
saxophone. Well I guess that's ease of use. You only have to use
the dial to choose a program, done.

It sounds increedibly good. The reverbs are very rich and chorus and pitch shift sounds good. I did the mistake of letting our saxophone
player get the mic with pitch shift on. He had a great time..
I hooked it up to aux send-return but there's also a mix mode so it
can be used inserted in the signal path. The reverb blended in nicely
during the performance and it sounded really sweet on the vocals during quiet passages.

Well if you rack mount it I guess you might as well forget about it.
I don't think it'll break.

They should give away t-shirts, not sell them! :)

I guess this is a great fx module for studio people looking for the
perfect reverb preset to use on a snare drum but it's not good for
live use. The presets are way too limited. Maybe I'd buy one for general reverb but I'd probably buy multiple Lexicons instead.

- This SUbMission I have just made to answer those pretensions below -
-I won't set any marks as i have already done that in last submission

So. Some of You wrote that it has too many parameters to set up. I don't agree with that as i thing 16 parameters are way too less. also help is very nice ( press and hold the buttton of interesting parameter ). Imagine having over 40 parameters and no help like in digitesh studio quad. mostly a lots of people cannot swim in settings as they can't figure out what do they do. that's beacuse of incompetence in processing techniques. sad thing ;). Let me learn something to you. to figure out what does these thing do you have to:

this example is for reverbs

1: Set all cool things to off and 0%, mix to 100%. this applies also
to filters, diffusions, swirls, predelays and gates.
2: Set decay to about 20 seconds.
3: have connected drum synth or microphone to input. the source you
use have to generate just a sharp click.
4: set all bypass (dry sound to off) on mixing console.
5: proceed with testing as follows:

play click. hear how it sounds. rotate interesting parameter to maximum. play click. see the difference. remember it. turn the parameter back off, and proceed with next.

about sound quality.

this device have to make NO NOISE at all. I have measured my own midiverb4 with laboratory equipment. over 96 dB s/n ratio is close to unmeasurable!
If You are having strong hiss.
> Make shure that You haven't too much of output and input.
> Make shure that You haven't burned adc. sometimes strong spike in input can no just kill the adc, but damage it makeing it unprecise.
> Make shure your cables are ok. use only low capacity, shielded cables. i prefer "proel".
> Read on below about power conditioning.

About FX Algorhythms.

they are way good. they are very powerful tools, till you can control them. i agree that presets are not the best... dont use them. try to make Your own reverb programs. reverbs can be made fantastically smooth and windy and also very rough and delay-like. this all is up to you - how you use it. choruses have to be used on soft pads and strings, in case you dont know.
About speaker burning.
hey, i dont think you have to keep it running at such high volume, while you test fx. i dont think that you are deaf, but it loox lyke. sorry.

Clicks between programs:
there are two cases:
1: old versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 of midiverb4 rom had this problem. this was solved in version 1.3. You can check version of your device just pressing [program] + [fx edit] and hold, while you are in program mode. rom updates (version 1.3) can be optained by contacting alesis. so visit alesis intenet site. also i can make a copy of this rom for you, but i don't know if alesis will permit me doing such...
2: Click between programs (where is performed dsp reset) may indicate a analog circuit or adc problems. this is because of a small dc amount in input.

Don't expect it to be a magic.
It is high precision very complex electronic device, which can be damaged by certain power or signal problems.

Device is very stable and in normal cases it have not to give You up.

some of you wrote having a lots of problems with backlight. there is no problem in alesis. there is problem in your power station.

backlight is way cool thing and is made up very cool way. some years ago this tecjnology would be called laike cosmic technology.
realy it is electroluminiscent pad. to make it light up You need having a high voltage e.g. about 400v. to have this done todays technics use system called impulse converter. it is used in lots of cases, where you have dc low voltage but need to have high. problem is that impulse converter make power noisy. thus it is not recomended for studio rack. therefore, if you have noticed. power adapetr for midiverb is AC/AC ! this makes easy converting ac to hi voltage ac with no noise. for this reasons there is a little trasformer inside mv4. so here it is: IF YOU ARE HAVING H/F NOISE OR L/F, DC IN POWER YOUR ARE HAVING IN YOUR SOCKET, THAN THIS IS THE KILLER...

ALWAYS USE SURGE PROTECTORS AND AC FILTERS. AND BETTER OF ALL
EACH STUDIO HAVE TO HAVE IT'S OWN POWER UPS (UNINTERUPTED POWER SUPPLY).

Power surges can damage also adc circuits and MEMORY. if dsp memory is not ok, dsp still works fine, as it is Convayer Processor. It dont care about what it is processing. so if low-bits chip (bits 12-15) is damaged it will make a quiet noise. if there is damage in higer-significance nibble - noise is more killing. If You ARE have a lot of noise and clicks give Your alesis to me of alesis sertified technican. he will easily check them. and can replace them too, of course.

email in alesis realy sucks. thats sad :(. read on my last submission.
i will tell somone in alesis to solve this. this realy frightens a lot of people. :(

Don't be angry to alesis if you are not shure about if you are not causing these problems yourself.

thanks for reading. cantact me if you want so.