Lexicon PCM-81

I wanted to submit an early review. I just started using the unit and I agree that the presets are great, and the quick adjust is cool. Have not gotten into deep editing yet. We will see, so far so good.

Running it through a roland 18 track. Sounded fantastic with vocals, and just getting into guitar sounds. This is really a step up for me. Quality is great. Very quiet and just plain good sounding.

Hopefully good

Have not tried yet. I will give them the benefit as of yet

I play rock, jazz fusion, and some acoustic stuff. this will certainly help out my cause. Very excited about getting this thing. I will get creative with this and utilize many of these quality effects.

The presets sound great. Editing is parameter based intensive but logical and straight forward. Manual is excellent with a bit of repetition, repetition, oh yeh I said that. Version 1.0. I believe that is the latest as of 6-8-2001 (the day I'm typing this). There are a billion parameters. I don't think that makes the unit complex- just deep.

Studio use - lots of vocal, synth, and drum tracks. Adds what I need.
Very quiet operation. A little noise on intense flanging and corusing. Beautiful shimmering reverbs whose tails fade into nothingness. No harsh or brottle textures, unless I want them.

If you buy one, get the Dual-Effect alg card - worth every penny.

I've only had it two weeks, and I only buff it with a diaper.

Never dealt with Lexicon. Their web site is easy to get around, unlike Roland's whose web site crawls even with my DSL connection.

Bought my unit used for an incredible price including the dual-effects card - right place at the right time.
Using it on pop and country recordings I've always wanted the older pcm 70 I wish I hadn't waited so long. I now see how the other processors I have (Digitech TSR24S, DEP-5, and Quadraverb) color my sound. I wish I had three more - it's really quite amazing.

Straight out of the box, you can get a great sound just by scrolling through the presets. However, many of the useful, everyday effects are pretty basic. To get a truly extraordinary sound you must learn to edit, and there's a pretty steep learning curve involved. Once you learn your way around its easy.

I cannot find any fault with any of the effects, they are universally good. This is a professional effects unit and it sounds that way. I have owned a Lexicon Alex, and an MPX1. While these are both very good and some reviews say they are comparable, make no mistake, this unit is on a completely higher level and it makes a dramatic improvement to your "sound". The reverbs are just breathtaking, very ethereal and majestic.

Haven't had this unit long, but I've never had any problem with any Lexicons before and Lexicon is certainly a respected name. I am using this strictly in a studio and I wouldn't dream of using it on a live gig--I would use a cheaper alternative

If you can afford one of these it is definitely worth every penny. Unlike other equipment, this makes an immediate and audible improvement to your music. For a truly professional sound, you MUST have good effects and this gives me everything I can imagine I'll ever need. I love that I can get that HUGE mind-blowing vocal reverb that I've always dreamed about (think anything by Journey). It does take a little time to get used to navigating it but its not really any more difficult than anything else I've ever used. I'm trying to be critical here but there's not much to fault in this unit. The loading time when switching programs kind of sucks but its nothing I can't work around. What a beautiful piece of equipment.

Very easy to get good sounds out of. Anything from all reverbs to delay's to crazy space sounding effects

I use this unit mainly for sequencing with synths. The unit has a little noise but only if you crank the input way up. The effects always sound lush, especially the reverbs although I haven't really been able to get a good sounding room reverb out of it yet.

Hasn't crashed on me yet (fingers crossed)

Never needed to.

I do mainly dance stuff so this unit is perfect alhtough it would be nice if it had more than 1 output, especially for the price. Being able to only use 1 effect at once for this kind of money is a bit hard to swallow. I wold also like to get some of the additional ROM cards for it. I think I would buy it again if I had the choice.