Lexicon MPX500 - Dual Channel Processor

v1.04 processor and manual very simple to understand.

overall,its great processor for all styles of music. good sounding with rich textures. has a strong collection of fx: plate,gate,hall,chamber,ambience,room,tremolo,rotary,chorus,flange,detune,pitch,delay-echo,etc.. I wish it had a distortion effect and a stronger flange, but overall its great for the price

solid and rack mountable. only problem is the jumpy program dial.

never had to call

overall,this processor is great for sound quality and affordability. it works well with all styles of music. only complaints are no distortion and touchy program dial

This is very easy to use compared to most rack effects.

I use this in a full rack setup it sounds great. This unit only uses two effects at a time but it sounds like it using six or seven at once. To sum it up the reverb is better than any other fx unit in it's class, easily. It truly has pristine sound quality.

yes, it doesn't get hot I have left it on for hours. You could easily use it on stage.

? dont know never used it

I play metal and soloing 80's stlye. I have been playing for 3 years.
this unit is bad ass get one.

This Machine is really easy to use, I was editing and storing patches within about two minutes. The display helps a lot.

Great, especially the ambience effects - I thrash these. They are subtle but powerful - you don't really notice them when they're there, but as soon as they're switched off the sound goes from 3 to 2D.

I have owned a number of Lexicon Products (including the Alex and LXP-5 and like those I have never had a problem with this unit)

Don't know, never called.

Great machine, sounds rich, subtle, understated, I use it all the time.

THIS UNIT IS VERY EASY TO USE. THE ONLY THING I DON'T LIKE IS THE PROGRAM KNOB IS VERY SENSITIVE.

THE REVERB IS THE BEST, ALL THE OTHER EFFECTS ARE GOOD TO I AM USING THIS WITH A GUITAR SETUP. I PLAY BLACK METAL/HEAVY METAL. BUT FOR ANY PLAYER THE SOUND IS VERY IMPRESSIVE

THIS UNIT IS PERFECT FOR STAGE PERFORMANCES.

DON'T KNOW YET? I HAVE HAD THIS UNIT FOR ONE YEAR. NO PROBLEMS YET.

THIS UNIT IS THE BEST FOR THE MONEY I PAYED,LEXICON MAKESTOP QUALITY PRODUCTS. SIMPLY THIS UNIT WILL WORK FOR KEYBOARDS/GUITAR/AND VOCALS PERFECTLY.

Regarding the distortion that someone else wrote about. In the manual, it tells how you have to set the Output level to match your system level. On the System edit page, you are supposed to set the output system parameter to -12db for a -10db type system. The unit defaults to 0db, which is too high for a -10db system, which causes distortion. I know, it happened to me as well.

this unit is very straight forward when it comes to getting a particular sound

I use a digitech 2120 and this lexicon mpx 500 for guitar. I play mostly black metal and acoustic styles. This unit is a lot better sounding than my digitech 2120. I only use the digitech for distortion the effects on the lexicon are far surpassing the digitech unit. The lexicon mpx 500 has no distortions so therefore this unit is good for adding effects to your desired tone.

It is fine to use in any application you want.

I have not had to deal with lexicon yet.

I would defiantly prefer a mpx g2 but for the price I paid its defiantly worth trying out.

This is the most interesting processor I've ever used!!
It has excellent sounding reverbs, delays, and the choruses sound superb!!
It has the best rotary speaker sound I've ever heard!
Patch editing is a breeze!!
The manual is of detailed, and easy to understand.

I'm using it with a guitar set-up, but I'm sure it would be excellent for PA use.
It has no noise!!
All effects are pro sounding, and excellent quality!
The reverbs and delays are great!!
This unit has pitch shift (harmonizer) and great chorus and flanger effects!

I would use this unit in a professional touring situation.

I haven't had to deal with Lexicon.

I think the Lexicon -500 is an excellent unit, with lots of great reverbs, delays, choruses, flangers, and harmony effects.
I've been playing guitar for many years, and compared it to other units before I made my purchase. It knocked me out, with true stereo reverb and delay effects!!

I wish it had an output trim knob on the front panel, but it's still the best multi-effects processor out there!

The unit is impossible to work with!!
As soon as I hooked it up there was a great deal of noise.
I tried using it with both PA, and guitar applications , (before the pre-amp, in the effects loops etc.) but couldn't get rid of the noise.
The Choruses and flangers totally suck, thin and weak sounding.
The reverbs and plates are good, (over a third of the factory programs seem to be reverbs.)
The pitch shift, and detunes are useless, It has no intellegent pitch shifting.
Editing the patches are difficult compared to many mult-effects units out there. There are no references in the manual, or on the lexicon website regarding parameters, so you don't really know how the tweak the unit. The manual is vague!!

This is the noisiest unit I have ever used!!
Only the reverbs are useful, and Lexicon's higher end pieces surpass the MPX-500's reverbs!!
Again Choruses and Flangers are terrible!

I wouldn't use this unit in a pro situation.

I have e-mailed Lexicon three or four times with questions , and have gotten little help!!

The one time I got a response, I was told you have to basically use the factory programs, my questions were about tweaking your own programs.

I'm a Rock musician, I've been playing over twenty years, I own a lot of pro effects units. In my opinion, Digitech's Studio 400 is a far more useful unit, easier to tweak, and better sound quality for the same price. It has a better harmonizer, and much better choruses and flangers.

DON'T BUY THE LEXICON MPX-500 IT'S A PIECE OF !@#$%^&*!@#$%^&!!!!

A lot of thought has been put into the user interface. The edit knob system works very well and the midi program change was easy to set up with my Promix. The one parameter "master tweak" knob for each patch is a great idea and works well. Simple but concise manual - however lacks info on the actual editable parameters... you can work out most of them but this info is a glaring omission from the manual.

I've never spent a great deal of time comparing effects but I'm pleased with the sound - some very natural reverbs. Most of the default settings are quite tame but by editing paramiters you can get plenty of strange sounds, I have already stored more patches than I planned because it's so easy to tweak.

No problems yet. The edit knobs seemed a little flimsy to start with but they appear to be getting better with use. I have a Roland TD-7 which has a very small edit knob... it feels good but everytime you try to advance 1 notch slowly it often goes in the wrong direction... very annoying. I've only had the MPX500 a couple of weeks but I haven't noticed this problem... but I'll be watching. Everything else seems quite solid.

I use the unit for home recording. I prefer the acoustic styles - you can easily reproduce some convincing rooms. It has the the best user interface I've used for a product like this. Unfortunately the manual lacks some detail on the parameters but 95% of the functions can be worked out very quickly. The display can be a bit chunky but they've done a good job cramming the info into the limited space.

Presets are easy to use.
Programming it is easy, BUT, there is NO description of the ANY of the editable parameters in the manual or on Lexicon's website. Furthermore, if you call them and ask them about the parameters, they are relucant to spend time with you, and you actually feel like you know more about the unit than they do anyway.

It sounds fantastic, which is why the rest of this is so frustrating.

It has bugs, for real. If you change programs via MIDI program change, the tap tempo value stored with each program is not recalled along with the program. The tap tempo value is only recalled when you change programs from the unit itself. I called Lexicon, they said it was a bug which they have re-programmed, but not implemented yet. So, they will not say whether it will be a free fix, or what. It could be that after a certain time, they will sell ones that work and the current ones never will. If you ask me, anyone who doesn't like the unit has grounds to return it, wherever you bought it. It doesn't do what it is advertised to do.

Poor. I called them and they wouldn't explain how they plan to fix their bug, and they wouldn't go over the editable parameters with me (since there is no description anywhere). Best bet is to e-mail them with questions. They will probably only partially answer them, but when you call them, they don't have the unit in front of them and basically can't explain anything. I felt like I knew more about it than they did.

Should be a 10, but with the bug, the poor manual and poor support, it only gets a 4. Oh yeah, one other thing, if you are used to a processor which works instantly upon changing programs, this one takes 3 seconds, which sucks live. The best it can do is provide a dry bypass.