Alesis NanoVerb

No-brainer controls for the most part. Most of the effects usually come with multiple parameters, so you might be guessing at what the 'Adjust' knob will do, but when there's only one knob it's not hard to figure out what it does.

I've mainly used this live as a noise tool. Makes some great sounds, but def not made for live use. The knobs are stiff studio-style and it's impossible to tell what preset you're on if you're not looking straight at it. Depending on what you need to do with it, this may no matter.

I am looking into hacking a footswitch to the 'adjust' knob, which will greatly increase its versatility.

The unit paid for itself when I discovered the literally endless sustain you get by turning any of the hall/room reverbs all the way up. It's surprisingly thick and smoky, and makes the original instrument almost unrecognizable. Sounds as good as an analog synth for ambient/abstract stuff. A friend of mine also uses one live with his vocals and does amazing things by tweaking it on the fly. The cheapness of all the effects in general gives them a certain character that can certainly be exploited with a little creativity. Def worth the price if you're after more weird/obscure sounds.

That being said, if you're after studio quality sound processing, def do not expect it from this. There is also a fair amount of noise produced by some of the presets, and it's very easy to inadvertently overdrive the input.

Have only had it for a short while, and no problems so far. Seems fairly sturdily built in terms of case/knobs/TRS, but the power jack is a bit loose. Seems like the sort of thing that will end up being broken a year or so down the line if it's not looked after.

n/a

I've used it mostly with guitar for noise/electronic/ambient stuff so far, which is why I originally got it. It's good for anyone with some experimental curiosity in them and a thing for reverb-soaked ambience. not the most capable or great-sounding piece of gear, but its simplicity makes it an appealing part of a minimal setup where you need to be inventive and push your tools and methods outside of their comfort zone, rather than rely on the sounds they were designed to produce. I've been sampling the massive reverb tail with a Kaoss Pad on the fly, making chords that I can then play off the pads or build loops out of.. I can see a lot of ways it could be integrated with other gear as well. def going to continue messing around and seeing how much versatility I can squeeze out of it, for instance a pedal hacked to the 'Adjust' knob would allow those huge over-sustained notes to be utilized live as if they were coming from a keyboard. For the bargain prices you can find these at online, I think it's an excellent purchase, and kind of just a fun quirky thing to mess with.

Easy to control-what you see is what you get.

Alesis reverbs have always been my favorites, along with lexicon. yes, they are cheaper, but you will get a lot of nice sounds with some few extras.

Looks sturdy to me... with a nice metal case. The interface is plastic, but that is where they cut corners, The outputs are plastic.

NA

Total gig worthy! I always preferred a stand-alone gig ready reverb/modulation device, and I like the ease of the tweaking. The rest is on you-the musician..assuming you have some EARS. I believe that you can achieve wonders with these kinds of cheap gig machines, as long as you follow some good taste. I play jazz/funk and some classic rock, and it's always good to split my guitar into two amps (stereo), using the dual outputs of the Nanoverb, as well as a part of a daisy chain combo.

Adjusting the input and output knobs to match your original signal is tough. The Mix and Adjust knobs vary based on what effect you're using. And 12 o clock sounds fine at some reverbs, and waayyy too much on others.

I use Epi Les Paul Custom > Crybaby > Boss OC 2 > Tech 21 XXL > Green Russian Big Muff pi > Ibanez DE7 > Fender DeVille 410

I honestly can't believe these people are rating this thing anything higher than a 5. This thing is a noisy piece of crap tone sucker. The reverbs are OK at best, but most are useless. The delay adds so much noise which renders it compeltely useless. Literally, there is a metallic buzz on the delay setting. Also, you cannot set the repeats very loud at all, so they get buried under what you're playing. The Flanger is completely useless; forcing your signal to go into a really deep slump which will just make your speakers thump ever cycle. Not enough control over it. The chorus is halfway decent (literally halfway).

I don't use this thing in my live set up ever. I use an Ibanez DE7 Delay, and my amp's Spring Reverb. Bypassing this thing is a *****. With a normal single button foot switch connected to the bypass jack, you have to click twice to turn the effects on and off. Some of the effects don't turn off this way either. Naturally, it's not even close to true bypass.

I'd suggest getting actual effects pedals instead of this little piece of junk. Get a decent delay pedal or reverb unit.

I've had a knob fall off before, it popped back on, but it's loose now. not a big deal I guess.

i've tried to tell you as honestly as I can, how much this unit lacks. If you really want to go throw $100 away on it, it's your money, but I would highly recommend against it.

Do yourself a favor and use your money for something better.

I am writing a follow up on my review... check reliability!

...

YES! I took this unit out tonight for a noise performance and once I packed up my gear, I stuck the nanoverb in a plastic bag and as I was carrying it, it slipped and dropped HARD on the concrete of the loading dock I played from... I was worried, for sure... I examined it and it looked fine and all the knobs were great, it didn't even get any chips... I just tested it and it's still working great! Thanks, Alesis! This is seriously one of the toughest peices of gear I own right now. besides the crackling which has always been a problem with my unit (again, I thin kit's because I got it used) this thing works without a singal issue... this is about the 5th time I have dropped or banged it, and probably the hardest I've done it...

You probably won't need it...

...

It's easy to get a good sound once you've gotten accustomed to tuning in the right input/output volumes... the reverb mix and amount/effect selection are pretty obvious... I would like to have a button for bypassing on the box though (I don't own a remote bypass switch, but a they at least have an input for one).

I can achieve a nice reverb that reminds me of some My Bloody Valentine stuff, and it does a pretty good "standard" reverb... it can achieve pretty good hall and bathroom type reverbs, which are the kind I'm after... it can be set to have extremely (unrealisticly) long reverb, to short echoing and then nice and lush reverbs... it's a digital effect, but it does a pretty convincing job, especially for the low cost.

One problem I have is that one of the knobs sometimes pops and crackles, but I got it used so it may not be an issue with a new unit... (Mine had been pretty well-used when I got it)

It's well-built... the knobs feel really flimsy though... I have knocked it/dropped it a couple of times and it's still going.

Alesis (before they were bought out) were, for sure, a company that set out to make something good AND affordable, though sometimes this meant less-sturdy, sometimes "not the greatest" products, but for the most part they have been on target... I have not bought anything since they were bought out (actually, all my Alesis gear was bought second hand) so I can't really describe what they are putting out these days.

I've never spoken with them.

It's a nice, cheap reverb in a tiny package, great for musicians on a budget... there's deffinatley going to be better racks out there, but for the price, it's absolutely wonderful...

This unit is too easy to use and you can finely adjust the sound to suit your needs. I got this about three months ago and I didn't even need to read the manual! If you know what sound you want (and like) then that's all you need - let your ears do the tuning!

The drummer in the band wanted to test it out on his Electric Drum Kit. He now WANTS ONE for the simple reason that it is EASIER and QUICKER to turn a knob than to scroll through a piddly LCD screen on stage adjusting Reverbs!

I have used this on a Bass (with Bartolini PU's) and Acoustic Guitar (Ibanez Talman TCM50) and it sounds great in both applications through the mix. I haven't used it in the studio yet but live it holds up amazingly well.

I mainly use the Reverb sections and it shines on stage. I have not noticed any noise unless the output is turned all the way up on certain effects (the ones i don't use anyway) so I back it off a tad.

The drummer finds that it makes his sound FULLER and adds a bit of depth to an otherwise sterile sounding kit.

For the price it's SUPERB - a 10 in my books!

It hasn't broke yet so full marks ;o)

You don't have an excuse anymore not to get one. Who needs a rack full of gear when you can use a "Little Box of Tricks" instead!

For the price and what you get, THIS IS IT!

If it was to go missing, you can pick one up 2nd hand for around $50 and keep on playing!

Easy enough... set your levels, set the dial to the clearly-marked effect, mix the ratio of instrument to effect and tweak the effect. Done. Manual? What manual? I don't need no stinking manual!!! Especially one translated from Japanese into a bad version of English.

Sound quality is good to very good. The reverbs are all very true to their type, but some do sound better than others. I like to use Hall 2 and 3 alot. I'm guessing the pre-determined decay on the verbs is what seperates one from another. The chorus sounds are very musical. The flanger is fair. There are a couple of combined effects that are ok also. The delay sounds good but you can't control the feedback which is the number of repeats although you can control the length of the delay time. Each patch has one parameter that can be tweaked. I bought it for the reverbs. I use it in the stereo effect loop of my guitar amp. Adjusting the input is easy, there is a signal overload light that goes from green to red when you overload it. You just need to back the input volume down when that happens. The output knob is a little odd as most units do not use one. I happen to back it down alot because if you run it too hot, it will put unwanted noise into your system. I use it for live playing and it works very well. I like to tweak it as I go along. Its easier than bending over and adjusting a small reverb stomp box with those dumb concentric knobs and tiny little writing that I can't see.

No reliability issues. I don't anticipate any either. There are no internal batteries as there is no memory. The 9v adapter might eventually burn out, but as of right now, I don't carry a spare. It might be cheaper to buy another entire unit than an extra adapter anyway but I'll cross that bridge if and when the time comes.

Only e-mailed them once and got a prompt response. Their website is excellant. You can download manuals and instructions from the website for free for any units they make, even the discontinued ones.

I am a guitarist with a wedding/club date band. I bought this unit because I'm a stomp box kind of guy and the spring reverb in my amp died. I hate manuals and hate programing. Frankly, there's nothing worse than spending hours programing and finding out that all your pre-sets suck when you get on a gig. Trust me, the gig is not the time to be screwing around with gear. I like to spend my time playing. This device is simple, sounds good and since it is discontinued you have to buy them used, usually around $50.00. They were around $100.00 when they first came out. Still, thats about $100.00 cheaper than a new Boss stomp box reverb. It has a lot going for it. I wish it had a switch on front to shut the effect off but you can buy an un-latch style footswitch or just turn the mix level off completely. I do recommend this unit. Its clean, musical and professional sounding. Its not a Lexicon but you can buy this toy, sound good, and save your money to buy yet another guitar.

Couldn't be simpler to use. Set the levels, dial the effect and tweak.

Sound quality is... variable. It's doesn't anything like a spring reverb to my ears, and the abrubt decay is a little jarring. The echo is good, and the various modulation effects aren't bad.

Don't know about reliability as I've never gigged with it. No problems at home.

I play a wide variety of styles with a wide variety of guitars. I bought the Nanoverb to add some Leslie type effects for my guitar playing, and to add reverb to a good but reverb-less amp. It's not bad, but it's not as good as other, seperate pedal effects I've tried. If I lost it I think I'd go looking for a real spring reverb. I've already found better modulation effects. At the usual used price it's not a bad deal for someone on a budget.

This is an update to my previous listing (right below this one.) Seems I spoke too soon - - skip down to reliability.

Well, damn. This little guy decided to join the dreaded "Intermitent Failure" club, which makes me crazy. It worked well a few times, then decided to cut out on me mid-performance. Sure, you can unplug it, utter a few magic words and it'll eventually come back on, but by then you've missed your solo! . . . and your big shot at riches and fame! . . . because Mr. Wilson Pickett just happened to come by the club at that very moment! . . . and, well, you get the idea. (I need to quit watching reruns of the "The Commitments".) Anyway, it's back in it's little box again. Maybe I'll find some other use for it someday. Sigh.

Didn't bother. The curse of buying on eBay is the waranty is history.

Nice try. Still on my endless quest for a Leslie solution under 100 lbs. and $300. Next Attempt: Another run at an XP-200.)

Pretty dang simple dial-and-go set-up for the effects. When your signal is too hot the little light goes from green to red, which is kind of nice. Deduct two points for not being rack-mountable, though.

I bought it to add a some more reverb/delay options for my rack, but decided to stay with my Quadraverb and ART FXR choices, so it sat for a while. But when I got tired of lugging my Leslie 147 to gigs, I noticed that this NanoVerb had a Rotary Speaker preset, so I gave it a try, and to quote the late, great Gomer Pyle, "Su-prise, su-prise, su-PRISE!" - - it's actually usable under live band conditions. I run my keyboard into it, then stereo output to two opposite-panned channels on the mixer. I own a Hammond A-100 and still have my Leslie, so I was able to do some side-by-sides. Does it pass the blindfold test? Well, no. And I don't think I'd use it to accompany a real good Gospel choir, but in a blues/rock/Motown type setting with my quintet (read: noisy band), it works great, and my back thanks me. I mounted it under the keyboard, so it's a quick left-hand tweak to change speeds. Like other reviewers, I damped down the mix to about 3 o'clock on the dial. One reviewer said it sounded too fast, but actually it's about the same as my 147 on the middle spool. The speed-up and slow-down sounds are pretty close as well. I've listened to some bad Leslie simulators, so I know what bad sounds like as well. Again, not perfect, but if you're a dance band looking for some rotary on your organ patches, it's worth a listen.

So far, so good. But I treat my equipment right, as all of us should.

Never interacted. Nice little box, though.

For the bucks, it's a terrific option for what I'm asking from it. If it was stolen, I might try to get a Digitech XP-200 Modulator for under $75 that actually works for more than 10 minutes (arrggh), but this little guy is a nice solution for the songs that I want to do a passable impression of a Hammond-Leslie set-up. Sure, it would be nice if you could control a bunch of variable on the Leslie effect, but then it would cost 3 or 4 times as much. Keyboardists, give it a try. You just might like it, and if not, just sell it on eBay like everybody else. Price-to-Utility index is very high on this one.