Korg DRV-1000

I just got this unit on ebay for very cheap and it does some nice realistic warm sounding reverb. I don't have experience with reverb, but to my unexperienced ear it sounds perfect. The new stuff can have too much processing and sound "over the top" so it hurts your ears to listen too, but this vintage unit has a natural warm sound that's just perfect for drums and vocals. And it is really easy to use. I don't need any instructions. I bet if you blindfold someone and let him use the unit for his vocals, he would think this unit was brand new, not 20 years old! But who says a 20 year old unit couldn't do the job. The unit has absolutely no noise which is really good for something of the 80's era. This is because the unit has -20 db input and -10 db output so all noise is eliminated from the input and output. Only negative thing about the unit is if you change the delay time or change the reverb setting, you have to wait like 2 seconds for it to take effect so you can't change it mid performance except for maybe the long effects pedal.

I opened up the unit and did some research on the chips inside since I am a fan of old technology. The unit has three separate PCBs inside. One for power, one for digital to analog conversion and mixing and the last one is the reverb processing unit. The main memory bank has 96 KB of RAM (8 chips of 16KB) and that's all I could find out from the chip numbers. It has two separate CPUs; one for each channel, with a large removable ROM instructions chip in the center. Plus it might have a minor memory bank but I can't tell what those chips are doing there; some are swiching chips though.

I paid 45 dollars for this on ebay and it was a great deal. I doubt any newer unit would sound better.

This is the big advantage of the DRV-1000 --> you really do not need any instruction manual, even not for the parameter specifications, because the values will not tell you a lot about the real powerful professional and warm reverbs this great unit will offer you.
The reliable knobs easyly will give you access to most common reverbs - this is of course very usefull for life-events but also in my studio it helps a lot to quickly try with some alternatives to find the adequate reverb for each situation!

If you still can find a used DRV-1000 -- buy one!!!
TOP professional Sound and Top Quality, no noise, and warm sound!!!I was very much positively impressed when I heard the reverbs of the DRV-1000 for the first time. Very powerful and warm, no noise and flexible for a lot of different situations, e.g. very good for piano, voice and guitar. the sound is very close to my DRV-3000, which is one of my most favourite reverbs which I use parallel to any PC-plug-ins to get the warm vintage sound -- and the DRV-1000 is some better regarding handling, because the DRV-3000 needs to be adjusted by remote control only. Thats why I love the DRV-1000. I bought my DRV-1000 used for 375 Euro and I still love and use it's sound today.

This Unit definitely is very reliable, I bought 3 used DRV-1000 units until today and I usually have "a look" inside the units which I buy in used condition to see, if there is anything going wrong inside. There is no doubt, they looked and ran perfectly after decades and all knobs without any wear or problems. I bought one used DRV-1000 which was used for life performances every week for 15 years!!! It still is powerful working without any problem in my studio!

I know, that Korg is powerful supporting their customers but did not need them for this units!

Very recommendable to own a DRV-1000 either in studio or for life application. If you still can find a used DRV-1000 -- buy one!!! It hopefully will be cheaper today.
TOP professional Sound and Top Quality, no noise, and warm sound!!!

I am afraid, you will not find soon one of the rare DRV-1000 -- it is really best value for money!!!

This is the big advantage of the DRV-1000 --> you really do not need any instruction manual, even not for the parameter specifications, because the values will not tell you a lot about the real powerful professional and warm reverbs this great unit will offer you.
The reliable knobs easyly will give you access to most common reverbs - this is of course very usefull for life-events but also in my studio it helps a lot to quickly try with some alternatives to find the adequate reverb for each situation!

If you still can find a used DRV-1000 -- buy one!!!
TOP professional Sound and Top Quality, no noise, and warm sound!!!I was very much positively impressed when I heard the reverbs of the DRV-1000 for the first time. Very powerful and warm, no noise and flexible for a lot of different situations, e.g. very good for piano, voice and guitar. the sound is very close to my DRV-3000, which is one of my most favourite reverbs which I use parallel to any PC-plug-ins to get the warm vintage sound -- and the DRV-1000 is some better regarding handling, because the DRV-3000 needs to be adjusted by remote control only. Thats why I love the DRV-1000. I bought my DRV-1000 used for 375 Euro and I still love and use it's sound today.

This Unit definitely is very reliable, I bought 3 used DRV-1000 units until today and I usually have "a look" inside the units which I buy in used condition to see, if there is anything going wrong inside. There is no doubt, they looked and ran perfectly after decades and all knobs without any wear or problems. I bought one used DRV-1000 which was used for life performances every week for 15 years!!! It still is powerful working without any problem in my studio!

I know, that Korg is powerful supporting their customers but did not need them for this units!

Very recommendable to own a DRV-1000 either in studio or for life application. If you still can find a used DRV-1000 -- buy one!!!
TOP professional Sound and Top Quality, no noise, and warm sound!!!

I am afraid, you soon will not find some DRV-1000 -- it is really best value for money!!!

Very easy to use. basic settings.

The sound quality is good no hum or hiss.

I have used this reverb for live gigs for 14 years. although had problem with the output and input sockets getting loose and recently have stoped using this product as the one of the circut boards cracked although after 15 years with 4 gigs a week and has been droped a couple of times. this is still good

I'v always done my own repairs.

middle of the road pop. and rock /rock and roll.

very easy to use, however no midi

sound quality is very excellent considering i bought mine new in 1986. while direct signal has a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, the reverb output is only from 20Hz to 10kHz. For me this is good because the unit doesn't sound metalic, instead it sounds very warm.

i had some intermittent problems with one of the output connectors years which ifixed years ago with some electronic cleaner

never had to use

i just had to write write in when i saw this item listed on your sight. didn't think anyone else on the planet owned on of these. i went to the store to buy a midi-verb and liked this better. it was the first digital reverb which i bought in 1986 and i still use it every time i fire up my home studio. by the way i have 3 other digital reverb units

Execelent digital reverb unit, although limited by todays standards. A different patterns and times. Easiliy selected by two rotary switches. Includres two footswitch sockets to enable you to double the time or switch out reverb.

As used with my 4-track provides and excelent no-hiss, no-fuss digital quality sound.

Very reliable. No fuss although this one's second hand it has never been opened. I checked to see the quality of components. Very well built.

N/A

Very sound machine for use as reverb. Good with both guitar amp effects loop and the aux loop on my four track. A execelent buy for a budget home studio. Athough this unit in quality belongs in a recording studio.