Eventide DSP7000

Crank it up and read about two pages of text. Can't be much simpler than that. Plug up to the input/output, choose a patch, and play! Why do people make it sound so hard to use? Yes, it is extremely powerful and to get really deep you have to take your time, but it is usable right out of the box with delicious sounds. As for the first post about harmonizing with custom user scales, well, the poster doesn't understand the power of Eventide's customer support. Custom scales _is_ real and available this moment in an upgrade to the O.S.

The sounds quality beats anything out there. Period. The reverbs are a class of their own - nothing can touch them. Want to record guitars direct? You got a plethora of disortion sounds to choose from that will blow your mind. There is not much to say here. All the guitar gods use this machine to get that amazing sound.

I've had mine for 3 years. Back and forth between gigs. Only had one problem once where something got out of sync or something. Did a 'reset' and everything has been smooth ever since.

WOW. You will NOT believe their custom support. Like a previous poster said go to Yahoo groups Eventide Helps. A wealth of knowledge awaits.

Awesome!

I've said it before, the manual needs to be re written so it doesn't "scare" people off. Details of each parameter need to be written by someone who is actually a musician and not a technical employee. Eventide may have time control down but communication? you read the online manuals and you tell me. Even with the unit in front of you the manual is a nightmare that needs exact detail.

I will spare you all the comments on how good an Eventide product sounds, you already know this. But its functionality is another story.

This review is purely focused on the ability of harmonization from a DSP7000. I haven't seen too many posts on this and I want to ensure all existing and potential buyers are aware of its limitations.

As I write ALL current Eventide units CANNOT do "user custom scales"
This also takes their new H8000 model into account.

You will see the term Ultra Harmoniser from Eventide's marketing team in their ads and this leads people to believe that it does everything regarding harmony. It is incorrect and totally misleading.

Ultra Harmonizer is an algo optimised for vocal harmony ONLY.

Instrument harmony is totally lacking, the reality of Eventide today is that they have abandoned "creative" instrument harmonisation. In actual "fact" the H3000 performs harmonisation faster (better tracking) and more comprehensively than any unit after it from Eventide. This goes for user custom scales and fixed scales.

In practical terms a DSP7000 cannot even perform a simple harmony involving a pedal tone, whether this is done by a guitar, bass, vocal or whatever. The DSP7000's instrument tracking is poor and is a very pitiful second to a Digitech product. Yes, you are reading correctly.

A very clear and SIMPLE example of this would be trying to perform a song from Bad Company called "Feel Like Making Love" I give you the example below that can be played on a Digitech IPS 33B, it is the high voice that you would play whilst the harmoniser would perform the lower note.
(High note on the B string lower note on the G string)

F# F# E F# G G F# G B B A B A G
D D C D D D D D F# F# E F# E D

As you can see it doesn't get any more simple than this. For what you are paying for and the fact that the H3000 had this ability Eventide should be ashamed of themselves. Be mindful that they invented the Harmonizer. Progress with newer units means going forward and NOT backwards in functionality.

Also, with greater resources at its disposal than a H3000 the DSP7000 STILL has dropouts between program changes. More accurately the program changes fade in and out. Before anybody tells you that this will only happen if you are using a huge program string they are wrong. This applies even when you are using a single mono delay. You can perform workarounds to somewhat alleviate this but should you have to?? If you sit in a studio this may not concern you but for the live musician using a midi pedalboard or switching via the front panel watch out.

I believe that most people out there think that the Eventide brand is still king of the heap regarding creativity, sound and functionality. Without the ability to design custom harmonisation it is NOT. Programmable routing configs and pristine sound are available in other products for less money.

All is not lost however, with Eventide's open platform operating system they have the ability to correct the above shortfalls and release the necessary algos to users.

If Eventide ever do get around to addressing this let me make it clear that anything less than the H3000?s ability is totally and utterly un-acceptable. Given hardware standards and software routines available today it should surpass the older series in every way possible.

If you are an owner or a potential buyer of an Eventide product and you would like this functionality I strongly urge you to contact them voicing your request. This has been done to date on their "Eventide helps" board but still nothing has been done.

To contact Eventide do so by e-mailing them at rcf@tide1.eventide.com or rcf@eventide.com and remember to put in the subject line DSP7000 as this ensures they don?t reject it as SPAM mail.

For the record I did own and use an Orville & Eclipse but have since sold them due to the above reasons.(I demoed the DSP7000 for a week)

I hope this inf

As you would expect.

See above issues. You be the judge on the rating.

If you want a Harmonizer the rating is a NEGATIVE 5. Read the top closely.

If you want other sounds it's a winner.

I'm giving ease of use an 8 only because when it comes to programming the vsig files, that's way out of my league. Also, the manual is a little complex at some places. But if it were not for that, I'd be giving this unit a 10. I had a Digitech as my first processor. Total junk compared to this and actually harder to use. For example, changing parameters with the Digitech was like working in the dark. Not so with the Eventide's large and well lit lcd display. I got the Eve/Net remote to go with the unit. So I plugged it all in and had it running with only reading the manual for about 15 minutes to make sure my setup was done properly and to learn how to navigate the menu. I highly recommend the Eve/Net remote but if you use it with the 7k, you will need to make sure you get the Eve/Net kit. The Oroville doesn't require this kit but the 7k does need it. But having the ability to sit across the room and control the processor is well worth the cost of buying the remote when you consider how long you are going to own this unit once you buy it.

Total 10. The effects of this unit are incredibly precise. I got the GTR4000 PCMCIA card to go with my 7k and all the effects sound great. Some of the effects, even with adjusting the parameters, I'm sure I'll never use but that's just a style issue. But you won't believe how tight the effects are.

Who knows. It's totally electronic so I can't imagine any reliability problems. No tubes, no moving parts other than the parameter adjustment knob. Can't imagine that failing. The Eve/Net has more moving knobs but again, I don't forsee a problem. Bottom line, it works perfectly every time I turn it on.

Man, if you could give a 20, you should! These guys are the model for every company on the planet, including the one I work for, just don't tell my boss. Not only is Italo, (see the Yahoo Eventide user group), solid but the company itself is incredible. When I was purchasing my equipment (I bought the dsp7k, remote and gtr 4k pc card all together), the dealer was telling me some stuff that I wanted to check out. I emailed Eventide hoping to get an email reply sometime in my lifetime. I actually got a phone call at work within a few days. And in no time, the whole matter was straightened out thanks to the company paying attention to an unknown guitar enthusiast in a small town of 15k people, in the middle of nowhere in Washington state. Man, you would have thought I was Clapton or Santana or Satriani himself or something! The people at Eventide are outta sight!

I play a little of a lot of things. I have a PRS Santana II and a Hughes and Kettner Triamp. The tone I get from that combo is perfect for me. But there is just a lot of music where I need effects at some point or other in any given song. The digitech was junk. I ended up giving it away to a friend. The eventide? Well my friend would have to hire some of Tony Soprano's boys to wrest it away from me. The effects are broad in scope and tight in their implementation. Modifying the parameters within the presets is a piece of cake. Programming is not something I intend to try but I'm sure that is a lot more complicated. But I have so many presets with the 3.0 software which adds more presets from previous versions and the GTR 4000 pc card, and with the ease of adjusting the presets, I can't see any reason to spend time learning to program new effects. But again, that's just my needs. In any case, if you're trying to decide between an Eventide and something else, get the Eventide. If you get the dsp7k, you won't be disappointed.

first of all, the dsp7k is not as difficult to use as you may have heard. this is my first processor and the most difficult part of getting it up and running was soldering the xlr-1/4" cables. within 5 minutes of having it plugged in, i was scrolling through patches, loading, playing, tweaking, and saving edited patches. for plug-and-go, it gets a 10. the manual is descriptive and extremely useful (read: vital), so take the time to read the darn thing. this having been said, i have yet to actually build my own patches with vsig. this is certainly more involved, having played with the editor and read through the modules portion of the manual. flexibility is inversely proportional to ease-of-use...the more flexible, the more you need to know to utilize said flexibility. i'll abstain from rating this category because it's at once very easy and very daunting.

it's in a rack after the preamp. no extraneous noise. rig: guitar > alembic > eventide > echoplex dp > vht 2/90/2. the sounds are FINE. there is such a diverse palette of sounds and every one is top-notch. sampling rate is variable but most of the patches operate at 48khz, although 96khz is available.

we'll see how reliable it is. i can't afford a backup!

join the eventidehelps group at yahoo. italo is super. he can answer just about every question you pose. if he can't answer, somebody else on the list probably can.

the eventide is very versatile. i've seen them in the rigs of country session guys, studio guys, rock guitarists, and everything in between. this and my echoplex digital pro are the most useful tools i've ever owned. compared to the other processros, there's no competition power-wise. no other manufacturer offers the flexibility and potential to literally create your own patches from the ground up. the eventide stands a head above the rest. i do wish that you could link multiple patches together without having to use vsig. if you're not very creative, this will help hide that. if you are creative, this will only enhance your creativity, literally giving you vast new sonic territories to explore. the only valid reason for hesitating to invest in an eventide is the price, but rest assured that you are getting what you pay for and much more.

Be prepared to learn. This unit has everything and the possibilities are infinite which requires one to get some education about DSP before deep diving. But on the higher level I found it easy to call upon the large library of presets the unit comes with to get the parts I wish to assemble into a custom patch. Getting around patches and parameters with the front display and buttons is easy. The number pad is great. I have always disliked turning a knob to adjust a parameter from say 20ms to 2500ms which is what most processors only give you for an input method. Programming patches definitely requires the use of their program for the PC called VSIG; I found it almost impossible to do the task from the front panel. Not to be mistaken, the VSIG program is a BIG PLUS. I have yet to see any other brand processors give you as much specific control over developing a patch like what is given with this piece of software.
This box is extremely powerful. So powerful, scratching the surface of using it has a learning curve. Don?t get discouraged, be patient and take time to understand how things work. You will go further than you could with any other brand of effect processors known to man. For the understood and practiced user the ease of use is a 10 but reflecting my beginner experience I give it an 8 because for a beginner getting around and doing things appeared clumsy.

I use this unit both in my home studio where it is connected to a Mackie D8B via AES/EBU (digital) and in my guitar rig where it is (analog) between my POD Pro and Marshall 9200 amp. Having the unit for a while, I have come to rely on it for countless things; obviously for vocal pitch correction, incredible reverbs, smoothest modulation effects (chorus, flange, etc.) and million tap delays and surprisingly for dynamic shelving, sampling and even spectrum analyizing. Given its open ended development ablilities I keep finding more and more things I can do with it and all with no compromise of sound quality.
On a scale for 1 to 10 hands down this thing is a 200. The most purest and lushest sounds I have ever heard. Over the years I have owned many processors by many different manufacturers. Among those and the ones I presently own I can credibly say nothing can touch this box in sound quality.

Things work quite well. I have never had it where in realtime use, recording or jamming, it failed to perform. In programming it though I have had a few bad experiences with the VSIG program crashing losing my life's work or misconnecting signals on the Ultrashifter resulting in the box acting haywire till I did a system reset. The physical box is very heavy duty; the buttons and dial knob seem rugged and able to handle zillions of pressings/turnings. Despite the software glitches I feel Eventide still outweighs their competitors in this category.

The company is most helpful and they made great attempts to help me in all ways when I was first starting out. I found their tech support to be very informative. They even have a company supported mailing list which has been a big aide in my learning about DSP thus enabling me to tap the awesome potential of the unit. My feeling after talking to the people at Evenitde is they have got to be world's biggest DSP brainiacs.

This review system has no point value high enough for this product. It is far more superior in design and functionality then anything else out there. For those feeling like they need to graduate from their current effect units to the realm of high end and unlimited ability this processor is what you are looking for. Understand though you are getting a very complex and powerful unit. Compared to the conventional effects unit the difference is like that of driving a car compared to flying a jet for what is required of you. It takes time to learn to fly but once you got it, you will never want to drive again.
Aside from guitar preamp needs, I dont think I will buy anything but Eventide for an effects processor in the future.