Lexicon MPX-1 Multi-effects

This is the second unit and an add on/update to my prior post of the MPX1, that I couldn't get to program. This second unit was programmable however it was noisy and it too was returned. The first one had programming problems but was dead quiet, this second one got noisy with the output volume set at the 1/2 point on the pot.

This second unit was programmable however it was noisy and it too was returned. The first one had programming problems but was dead quiet with both the input and output set at max, this second one got noisy with the output volume set at the 1/2 point on the pot.

I've had two units and both had hardware problems. "Zero for Two"

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With the unit being noisy, I didn't have it long enough to try out. Obviously I will not be buying a Lexicon again.

Very confusing Programming Interface. I was unable to program this unit. Any parameter that I changed had no affect on the signal. I went through the book several times. I'm an electronics/computer tech and also worked as a programmer so I'm not a beginner in this area. I sent it back after 4 days of disgust trying to program it to work with my guitar.

Sound Qality is very good, and should be for a unit of this type. There is no noise or distortion of any kind. This unit was bought to be used with an Evans SE-200 steel guitar amp and a Pedal Steel Guitar. Because it would have been used with a Pedal Steel Guitar, the effects would have to be modified.

Not Applicable, I didn't have it long enough to comment on.

No Comment, I didn't have it long enough.

Because of the poor programming interface and the fact it didn't work (or at least this particular unit didn't) Overall I would rate it Poor. I also own a Peavey Transtube Fex Preamp/Effects Processor and have had other units that will program (although the Transtube Fex tends to be a little noisy and the noise gate must be used).

very old interface.
not user friendly at all.
you get lost in menu and sub menu and then other sub menu
A Nightmare, the worse I own/tried
and THERE IS A 1-2 SECONDS DROP WHEN CHANGING PRESET...
Forget using that tool if you need to change quickly the preset.

Beautifull transparent sounding reverb, superb on vocal.
chorus is great too, delay as well, lots of filter and cool stuff.
so bad it drop sound when you change the preset !
I was hopping to use it for my guitar, but it's impossible...
so I now use it for vocal and am really happy with it.

It failed me one time in 3 years. (a cap in the power section)

it tooks two times for they to fix the problem.
first time I got it back, they put A wrong value for the cap
and it burned again. second time was the good one.

interface is Nightmare...
sound is a dream...
If I can live with the interface, I can't give an excellent mark, due to the drop sound problem when changing preset. they are other product way better now IMO like the TC M-ONE or TC G-Major which are not that expensive regarding to what you get.
buy that unit if you need a very good reverb/delay an that's it.

Just a comment, after reading all the reviews, I couldn't help but notice everyone who complained about this unit, tend to be guitar players, who were comparing it to a bunch of stomp boxes in a row.
Many of my guitar friends tell me they like even like noise, grit, and other sonic by-products. For you guys I suggest you go buy a Boss se-70, this will replace all your Boss stomp boxes, and if you let the noise gate open .. it will add some nasty dirt, crunch, distortion, and flange that you are missing.

Now for the acoustic, new age, pop, and ballad types. You will love this unit, and are the ones who typical rave on and on about the legendary lexicon sound. This will add swirl, lushness, ambiance, sweetness, and yada, yada. And you guys will actually appreciate its 18/20 bit quiteness. As for all the double talk about not pulling enough DBs, please forgive those metal head guitar players who have been playing too close to their tower speakers.

I have a Boss se-70, and a lexicon, and let me tell you don't want to confuse the two. I wouldn't try and serve the Queen tea in a beer glass, ... just like it's important one uses the right gear for the proper job.

This unit is not straightforward to use. I found it very intimidating to begin with, but persverance pays off. This is a great sounding unit. Lexicon have tried to give the user as much control as possible, but this has led to endless navigation through menus, though the main stuff is only a couple of button pushes away.

I bought this unit for the reverbs and I am not disappointed. I use it in my project studio all the time for mixing down Compared to a PCM 70 (the only high end reverb I've tried) this thing has so many parameters and choices. In terms of sound quality there's not much in it. The reverbs do sound fantastic. I've also used some of the other effects, all to good effect. I have not had to do any serious tweaking on this thing - the presets are good and can easily be fine tuned. For the price, this gets a high rating.

Had it over a year and still going strong.

Not needed.

For a mid - price multi effects unit you could do a hell of a lot worse. This machine will keep you in busines, so many presets so little time..........

Ok, first, my review is from the point of view of a guitar player. I wanted a rack-mounted, midi-compatible unit that would handle all of my effects needs. I hate stomp boxes, and after reading several reviews I opted for the Lexicon. I have no interest in being a technical guru or studio engineering God in order to make my effects unit work, however...

This is the pits. The MPX-1 might have the most beautiful textures of any multi-effects processor, but I can't get at them. Editing patches is like trying to figure out how to launch the space shuttle.

And no, I'm not a dumbass. For those interested, I'm actually a professional computer programmer (and have, in the past, wored on communication satellite systems, and nuclear missiles). Part of my job is to build applications that are intuitive to users who don't have a clue. My company spends a lot of time (more time than most) researching user-interface design and making sure our products are usable by complete computer novices.

The guys at Lexicon obviously didn't do any of this kind of work, because this unit is as non-intuitive as they come. I don't think you could make the editing process any more complicated. Not only is the process complicated, and non-intuitive, but dialing-in the sound you are looking for can take WEEKS. Not minutes, not hours, not even days.. but WEEKS of tweeking. You literally need to be a complete expert on the unit in order to get the full benefit from it.

I feel pretty confident reading the other reviews here that this unit has some great sounds, and I'd love to be able to get them out of my unit, but the fact is this: I'm a guitar player, not a studio tech. I don't want to have to spend WEEKS to get the sound I'm looking for, and I shouldn't need to be an expert technician to be able to get the sounds I want. I mean, Lexicon includes the schematics for the signal routes in their manual. Why do I need to have the same level of intimate knowledge with this unit as the people who made it?

This is just bad design. A person shouldn't need to know *how* the code to a computer program operates in order to use the program for its intended purpose. Likewise, I shouldn't need to know every single freaking detail of this unit, down to the wire, in order to turn some knobs and get some tones...

My Setup:
Mesa Boogie Traixis Pre-amp
Mesa Boogie Simuclass 2:90 power amp
Rocktron Hush II-C Noise Gate
Rocktron MidiMate footpedal
Alesis Microverb IV
Lexicon MPX-1
Ibanez Guitars
DiMarzio Pickups

My system is as quiet as I've ever heard for a tube-amp setup. I've been amazed. Unless I'm playing outside in a loud venu, the noise gate doesn't get used because it's completely unnecessary. If I could get some nice textures from the Lexicon, I'd be in heaven. Since I can't, I don't think it's fair to rate this catagory.

Who knows? I can't get what I want from it, so I always go back to my Alesis, which doesn't color my sound, but isn't very fleixible or programmable.

Never called them - no rating

I play mostly progressive rock. I use effects to create textures, like a keyboard player uses different sounds to emphasize a particular mood or emotion. I try and do the same with effects. I wish I could give a A+ for this unit. But the difficulty in programming it just doesn't make it worth my time. I want to sit down with an effects unit and play, and create textures. With the Lexicon, I sit down and create frustration.

This gear was NOT intended to be the easiest to do editing. Lexicon tried to give the users a decent amount of control over it, but not as hard as other high end stuff. Whenever you get a gear, it is always a good idea to go through the manual once trying to get the general idea of what the gear can do. Then play with it, and whenever you wonder how you can do what you want to do, go back to the manual. Otherwise, it would be such a waste of money and time. It is when you finally feel pretty much comfortable using/editing it that you get the most of it, and can really decide whether the gear was really for you or not. To be fair, I don?t think editing this is that messy, obviously they tried to be logical when they wrote this program. But ?logic? depends on the person. That?s another reason why it is important to read the manual first and try to get the basic picture of it.

I have Yamaha MU90 sound module, which has 5 effect blocks including reverb. This is not a high end stuff, let alone an effect box. This is just ?by now already cheap? ?sound? module for desk top music. But I was very impressed with the effect quality of it, especially reverb. ?Early Reflection?(This is like ?Ambient? in Lex I guess.) ?Small Room? ?Chamber? ?Plate? and ?Hall? all sounded good to me, with a very smooth tail and everthing, right? So I was thinking, ?man! if this cheap, not even an effect box, can do such a good job, a dedicated effect box, especially if that?s a Lexicon, it?s got to be so good.? So maybe I was expecting a ?magic? out of it, probably. So my initial reaction was not that big. But after a while, I realized that it did not produce any noise at all, if I can hear some hiss noise, they are coming from either my Mackie or POD, (I have been testing the presets with my guitar in ?serial? connection.)
but that?s when I turn the volume up so meaninglessly high, which one would never have to do anyway. So it?s dead quiet, very good resolution, clean sound. Those who think it?s noisy, be careful with ?Balanced/Unbalanced? switch button, and clip. Once it reaches its clip point, suddenly the sound becomes distorted. The presets are just for ?Showing off? what it can do, and they are for everybody, all type of music. So don?t complain if they suck when you are only interested in, say, ?Death metal? and looking for a particular good effect. They are a good starting point and good indicator what sounds you can produce out of it. Just one concern. Depending on the preset, there is some latency, there is a slight gap between the time I play and the time I hear the sound, which makes it a little hard to play. I am not really sure if there were created that way or it depends on how many effects I use at a time. Well but the bottom line is its sound quality is pretty good and definitely better than using software reverbs I have tried. (Logic, Sound Forge, Wave etc. Too much CPU usage!)

Haven?t used it for a long time myself but looks pretty good. Definitely more ?heavy duty? gear than just a toy(of course). I am more worried about its software than the hardware. Hope it won?t crash or anything.

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Overall, it?s a pretty good, decent gear you can expect from a mid range priced gear. ( but I geuss $700 new is kind of expensive for this, isn?t it ? when you can get pretty comparable boxes from others, like Yamaha or Roland etc.) Just because there are so many parameters available doesn?t mean you ALWAYS HAVE TO use them all. I like to have many parameters, so that I know there are there when I need it. In that sense, MPX1 is good. Balanced I/O and gold plated SF/DIF make this a lot more attractive. I am thrilled to explore more and find out more goodies on it later.

OK. The panel has a learning curve to master in terms of shaping all of the paramters. The left right arrow buttons the rotary knob, and the sublevels simply take time to master. It is not strictly intuitive. I think the engineers did the best they could with this type of interface, but, it is hard to treat the parameters for all the different effects this unit supports in the same manner. That being said, if you take the time to learn the interface, you have almost total control over each effect and where it sits in the chain. There are limitations on how many of different types of effects can be combined, but, it does come with 2 dsp chips, so its really not that much of a constraint imho.

The reverbs are not at the level of their higher end unit, but they are pretty damn good, and infinitely tweakable. I don't use phasers and flangers much, so I can't really compare, but the pitch shifting and EQ is great, and the modulation effects are also pretty good. All in all, if you take the time to shape the effects to your tastes, it is hard to be unhappy.

Fairly standard construction for a rack mount unit. I've had it a couple of years and take it here and there and never had a problem.

never needed em

I play edgey, ambient jazz influenced by a variety of sources, from film scores and spaghetti westerns to surf music and rockabilly. If you are going to perform with it, you pretty much need the fancy pedal, or at least a momentary footswitch and your patches laid out in a linear fashion. That way you can advance through the patches and reset for the next piece.

The editing absolutely SUCKS! I ditched mine because of this alone. The sounds are good but if it ain't easy to use it's not worth buying and this thing got me real pissed!

Very good sound quality. The verbs are nice.

No problems while I had it.

Never dealt with them.

Bottom line...the programming and editing of this unit is complete crap. If you are looking for something easy to use and program like a BOSS/Roland effects processor is, then this damn thing is not for you. I had this thing for a year and wanted to throw it out on the freeway and watch it get smashed to pieces. This friggin' thing is an absolute nightmare to work with. I don't recommend it!

Quoted from a review below :
"The reviewers who claim that 24 bit conversion is not necessary and 18 bit does just as well for guitar are mistaken. 24 bit conversion yields significant increased resolution in the digital reproduction of your tone over 18 bit conversion. People who say otherwise don't understand digital audio basics. "

I work as a signal processing engineer (aside from playing guitar of course). The guy quoted above must apply his own statement to himself : HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND DIGITAL AUDIO BASICS. 18 bits resolution enables more than 100 dB dynamic range and an electric guitar CANNOT produce at all such dynamic range. If you set the input levels properly on your sampling unit (MPX-1 for example), your guitar producing a dynamic range more in the region of 50 dB, the resolution offered by 18 bits sampling is already overkill.... It is widely different with a whole studio mix, but we're talking here about guitar tone, right ????