Behringer DSP1000 Virtualizer

once you get used to it and read the manual, it gets easier to use and
with 100 presets, you wont have to keep on editing the same patches over and over anyhow
set up your effects before you have to play or practice its not easy enough to do on stage in a hurry

i find that it amplifies a hum from my amp's pre-amp, but not noticeable in any playing situation
the effects are pretty good quality and interesting
i use this in my guitar rack with a dedicated digital delay and only use it for chorus on about 3 songs, but have recently taken to using its reverbs just for a change from my spring reverb
it is a pretty good sounding unit and the only thing i would add are a phaser and a good noise filter(but noise filters should be added to every unit anyhow, not just this one)

effects should enhance your sound slightly and not become your sound!
if it ever broke down while i was playing, i would simply change to patch cords and bypass the unit completely, no big deal!

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i use this in my fender amp's effect loop, and play rock music
i use it just for a few effects(chorus,flanger and a kick-ass leslie cabinet simulator)and like the sound so far
for the money i paid, i can't complain even if i have to upgrade to a better unit in a few years, i will always find a use for this
it would be great for multi-track recording, i will have to try it this way

It's easy to get the basic effects going good, but like it was said before, anything beyond that is a bit harder. But I like the jog wheel, it makes it way easier to use.

I think this unit sounds really good. The reverbs are pretty smooth, the pitch shifter is cool, but I havent had a chance to use the vocoder yet.

Well, I havent had it for a very long time, but it seems sturdy enough. And so far, the effects are all pretty consistant.

The behringer site (www.behringer.de) was super helpful. They have all the manuals, presets, and a bunch of other information. They also have a remote program for the unit that lets you control it from the computer (but I couldnt get it working with my cruddy computer...oh well).

Overall I find it to be well worth the money I paid for it. It's a definate step up from what I was using before.
If I lost it today, I would buy a new one.
I wish the pitch shifter went up and down 2 octaves instead of one, like the digitech. But it's all good.

Very easy to use for the various effects (assuming of course you have the cheat card handy!). Have not yet started 'programming' it, so can't comment on that.

I did get a bit confused when trying to use the L + R channels individually though -- but then, I really should look at the manual I guess.

Purchased mainly for vocal processing and have found it to be rather nice. Compared it to the Lexicon and could not hear a justifiable reason for spending 120GBP more I'm afraid. Just using the Vocal effect with a judiscious amount of reverb is really rather sweet when using through the Aux loop of Behringer eurorack desk into a standard stereo amp. The gated reverb certainly gives a nice approximation of the quoted Phil Collins tune, just need to be able to add a little delay as well!

Have also used it on my Gibson LP->Marshall VS80R (via effects loop) amp and got some nice sounds out of it (*much* better quality than my Zoom 505 effects pedal, but obvious not as many possibilities). The vocal distortion is fairly ammusing if you use it on guitar. As for noise, well, I cranked up my amp and it was negligable, so I'd have to say again that it is *much* better than a Zoom 505.

I *will* gig with it once I've 'programmed' it and bought a MIDI foot controller, but am thinking of getting something else for guitar processing.

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Stuff like Texas, Corrs for the vocals really. If it went missing today, I'd buy it again, if it went missing in a couple of years, well, you know...

It certainly helps on the vocals front, so I can't complain really. Not great for guitar as only provides a few effects, but what it does do, it does well enough for home studio use (and live I hope to confirm soon).

Good value if you can't afford a 450GBP TC M-One unit (which I also heard in comparison to this unit, and if I had the cash, would have bought)

Wow the people that made these things pretty much put a whole computer in there. There seems to be millions of things you can do here, I mainly mess around a little bit with the factory preset effects but there is so much more that I really don't have time to dedicate to analyzing all the special functions in the huge manual. It's not to hard to use to get the basic effects but when it comes to all the editing and multiple button pressing I'm totally lost.

This thing sounds beautiful, 99% of the effects sound awesome, better than the pedals dedicated to those certain effects. I have never had a problem with noise, lots of feedback, buzz or hums! Another great thing is for a $200 or so rackmount multi-effects unit you get STEREO effects. I run it on my crazy guitar rig which consists of a Carvin DCM600 600 watt amp powering an Electro-Voice 30" speaker (yeah thats right a 30 inch speaker)to the left and a Peavey 18" on the right. Because of the difference in powering, obviously the EV 30" needs a good deal more power, you can use effects like "Magic Echo" to test out your volume output for each side to make it even.

As for the bads, some of the reverbs are just crazy, like getting a reverb pedal and turning it way past its limits, with these you can't hardly hear what's being played. A few of the effects don't seems to work when turned on, not any of the main effects just a few odd ones that don't allow any sound out (which might have something to do with my guitar setup, who knows) and a few of the effects like the oh so cool "Talking Dead" effect don't keep the regular volume. Before you put this effect on you better turn your amps volume down about 1/3 of the way cause this effect is LOUD!

Never had a problem, just about every pedal or processor I have bought has had a slight short or occasional shut down or something odd like that, this thing seems to be made to last forever.

E-mailed them once to get some basic info on the product before I bought it and they were prompt (less than 24hrs.) to respond with excellent information. The Behringer website is great too, more information on the products than you'd normally need.

I play lots of heavy music, good ol' KoRn and Deftones, Static~X etc. This thing is really cool, even with some crazy distortions, super bassy speaker, and a high powered amp the effects on this thing shine through. I got this thing at the end of my chain of crap, starting at a Samson Wireless receiver to an Art Xtreme Plus pedal to a Dunlop CryBaby Wah throught Arion stage tuner to Art stereo dual 15-band EQ and finally to the Virtualizer. Then as mentioned before it goes to my Carvin 600 watt amp head to a Peavy 18" and an EV 30"(check it out at http://hometown.aol.com/warezdeth/myhomepage/sale.html) I would recommend anyone without a ton of money to spend and looking for a great effects processor.

The unit at first look seems easy to use, but the only way to handle it is to read the manual. The reason is because there are some button combinations that hallow you to change more parameter than the simple buttons. Even the display,in editingmode, does not help you to understand on which parameter you are working on. So without manual there's no way to understand how to set the parameter's sounds of the unit.

I use the DSP1000 with Marshall JMP-1 preamp, Marshall mosfet 9000 series p.a.(2x200W) and a Marshall 1960a speaker. It sounds good, with no noises and hum, even the factory programs can easily satisfy someone without addictional editings on parameters. Delays and echos doesn't give me much satisfaction but I think flanger,chorus and reverbs are pretty good. Using it on live stage, i have some problems on midi changing programs, because passing from one prg to another, in some case the unit have a delay of at least one second where no sounds is played. This mean that changing program with my midi pedal unit i have a relevant and hateful total lack of sound.

I don't have any problem about this.

never dealt with them..and I think I will never need

I play rock style such as Aerosmith and I think this unit can help my stratocaster to have a nice sound. The DSP1000 is a good unit if you don't need to use several efx simultaneously, is not expensive and give some nice tune to my global sound. I think nothing comparable with other multiefx like Lexicon, Korg, Roland or Alexis(even on programming and editing sounds) but, if you have not much money to spend, the DSP1000 it's ok!

Easy, actually too easy, just one or two parameter to edit with little results. The display is really poor. I'd prefer knobs instead of buttons.

I use it with keyboards, drum machine, samplers,... the unit is noise free but honestly reverb are not really credible, I never have the impression to be in real space. Delay is shit to edit. (value, feedback) only two parameters. Distortion is not that good, it sounds much more like an extreme EQ. Chorus -not good - no comment. Flanger not easily adjustable- rrgh. The only reason why I keep this unit is only because there is a Vocoder effect which is quite good as it depends totally from the sound you programm with your synth (not with the Virtualizer)

Yes it is reliable
Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
yes but i would not use it on a gig as I mainly use it for vocoder and disto.

never deal with them. I've sell most of my Behringer equipment except the Dualfex and the Mixing board.

I'm not sure you can really use it for professional project,
I'm seriously thinking of buying a dedicated unit for reverbs (lexicon,Roland), another one for digital delay (Korg,Roland)

The unit is pretty easy to get the sound you want. Just set what percent you want when you first turn it on out of the box, and fire away. Cahnging patches is easy, and the manual is well put together and helpful. Some people have problems with behringer stuff, due to their method of editign by pressing combinations of buootns, etc. However, I have always had Behringer stuff and am used to that by now. It is something that requires some adapting,but easy to get used to.

I used to have this in my guiatr rig, it is running in my PA system. It is run through a Mackie 32-8 board, two virtualizers, two feedback destroyers, an ultracurve EQ, and two autocom compressors, along with other misc. EQ's. It works exactly as it should. Some effects have a little noise, but my dbx noise gate takes care of that. The verbs are fabulous, the delays flawless, and the others are good, but mostly useless. The gated reverb is a great drum effect, and preset #6 is a great way to sound like the guy from the Poltergiest movies yelling 'Carol ann, lead us into the light'. Why that would be useful I don't know, but I like to play with it during sound check to drive my engineer crazy.

I never worry about this thing breaking down. We have no backup in our rig, and I feel no need for one. It has never given us any kinds of problems, and I don't know anyone that uses one that has any complaints.

never dealt with them... no problems with any of their gear

For the money, this is a great unit. The reverbs on the Lexicon MPx100 are a little better, but the other effects don't compare. A great value for the money.

Out of the box, the virtualiser has some great sounds, with only some changes needed to suit my application. It is however, quite difficult to edit patches - because there is only a 3-digit LED display - you have to keep your manual handy at all times (so you know what parameter you are editing).
The manual is one of the best I've seen in a long time. All featuers of the unit are well explained - apart from telling you how they developed there reverb algorithms, they expain some basics on digital to analogue conversion (in case you didn't know).

I'm using two of these in my live guitar rig, I've found them to be excelent in terms of sound quality and usability. The big plus with the virtualiser is transperancy - it doesn't kill the great tube tone of my fender prosonic. The tone is exactly the same as it used to be, but now I've got acsess to a bit of reverb, chorus, delay, etc if I need it.
Don't buy one of these if you want to get 30 effects at once, it won't do it. The virtualiser has either 1 effect in stereo or 2 effects in mono (one left one right). Thats why I use two - one for stereo chorus, flange, or leslie; the other for stereo reverb and/or delay.

I've been giging with it for about 5 months now, no problems so far. I'm not expecting any either - it's realy well made.
As with any peice of equipment, get a decent rack case, don't throw it around too much, - it should last for years....

Haven't needed any yet.

I've been playing guitar for about 10 years now, so i've played through a lot of different gear - these virtualisers are easily one of my better purchases. They do everything I need and more, I don't think I'll ever need to get rid of them.
One last thing - before you buy any effects, make sure you are happy with your core guitar sound (ie get a good guitar and a good amp), no amount of effects will make a bad amp+guitar sound good.

Once you read the manual, it's easy... can be a bit tricky at first... 2 buttons pressed together do something etc etc... but it's quite simple once you understand how it works...

Good cheap reverb... and alot of fx for the price... I'd recommend this unit, but I think people really should spend a few more $$$ and get the Lexicon MPX100 which is thousand times better!

reliable!

This is a good effect unit... altough I'm not quite sure I'd use that as a primary reverb... very useable tough! Get the MPX100 instead imho