Lexicon mx200

I'm fairly experience with keyboards and hardware so setting up the reverb wasn't a problem. I did the usual - look for the factory reset method and then experiment, reset, experiment, reset ...

I should mention that I prefer PDF manuals over the real thing because they are easier to search.

I'm a one man band and this is my systems reverb. It works. I'm not an expert on reverbs, but to me it sounds good and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I haven't had a problem with noise.

Here's my main reason for posting. There is a problem with the rotary encoder.

When depressed the shaft of the rotary encoder (knob furthest right)is about 1/32" short of bottoming out. The encoder is held together by four "forks" that come up from the bottom and go into slots in the top assembly. The unit is held together by the tangs of the fork being pushed apart. As you might guess, there's not much strength there. At the same time the nearest PC board mount is about 3.5" away. In other words, it can bend.

The result of this is that if you push too hard too often you'll push the back of the rotary encoder out that 1/32" and split the rotary encoder's back from the front. When that happens the contacts become intermittant and the push switch will no longer work.

The symptoms are lots of blinking of the numeric display, as if someone was rapidly spinning a pot, and, as mentioned, the inability to select a patch. In my case, the behavior was intermittant.

Repair was relatively simply. Note that all the voltages are too low to shock you and you don't need to do any soldering, but if you are not mechanically inclined, don't try it.

Warning: There are at least two dozen plastic parts between the front panel PC board and the front faceplate that will fall all over the place when you remove the rack faceplate. Make sure you have them all before proceeding.

Remove the phillips screws and hex screws that hold the front panel on. Keep the unit face up and photograph or take a good look at the panel. Turn it upside down over a towel so the pieces don't fall on the floor. Remove the knobs - pry up between the chassis and knob with a flat blade screwdriver to get them started. Remove the nuts on the pots and encoder. Remove the two screws that hold the PC board to the front panel and carefully remove the PC board. Grab a small flat blade screwdriver and while holding the top and bottom of the rotary encoder together, spread the "Y" part of the four forks apart. When you're done, wiggle the shaft. It should feel pretty solid. Pull the board out in front so it can't touch the chassis and check the unit out. You don't need to hook up sound, just make sure the LED's are stable, the rotary encoder works when you turn the shaft and selects when you push it. Remember that the "Input" knob has two washers ON THE INSIDE and reassemble.

Haven't needed their support <g>.

I own two of these. It it was stolen I'd be really pissed because it's in a rack with another $2k worth of gear. Yeah, if I had to rebuild I'd buy another one.

Had no problem getting great sounds from this unit. Mainly use it for my vocals when recording to the computer. Very simple to edit either from the software or manually. As far as the manual goes its very simple to comprehand.

I am useing the MX 200 with Logic Pro 8 and I have not had one single problem. It runs beautiful and sounds just awesome in this set-up. I see some other users have complained about the sound and say its noisy. I really have no idea what they are talking about, maybe they should learn to how to set it up properly. The tales are warm and lush and remind me of the old lexicons units from the mid 80's. I also like the delays they mix well with the reverbs when needed. I will give the unit an 8 only because there are so many more high end units out there that will outdue the MX 200 in build quailty and sound.

Never had a problem in the 2 years that I have owed it. I dont gig out, its used in the studio only, so its never moved or tossed about. So I will rate it as a studio unit only.

Never delt with Lexicon and never what to. Did one update and the unit had no problem with the new software.

No its not the reverb of your dreams, but it works quite well and has a wonderful sound to it. If your just doing demo's or writing some new tunes the MX 200 will get the job done without to much of a fuss. I have been playing a recording now for 30 years and I like what I hear with this unit. The price cant be beat for what you get, and yes you will have to tweek a little here and there, but in the end its worth hitting that store button for your efforts. Oh sure if I had big bucks I would definitely get something other then this unit, but for now its a keeper that keeps doing the job well enought to stay in my rack.

It took me some time to understand the routing options (dual mono,
cascade, and all that stuff.
Since I'm only a mixing engineer and not a reverb designer
the few parameters to handle are the only ones I really need
(pre delay, reverb time (decay), and liveliness, regarding reverb.)
saving a program is fairly easy. a good thing about the delays
is that when you store a delay program, it will store the
delaytime you manually set as well.

It's a bit noisy, but I generally don't care about that, since
I use a very low effect level, just to flavor the sound a bit to
place it well in a mix.
When not overused you will get THAT reverb you expect from
a lexicon, meaning it will not mask any of the sounds you recorded or
created. Just for fun we compared the thing with an Altiverb (which
is spectacularly good, considered as the BEST REVERB IN THE WORLD nowadays.)
we found out that the mx200 was just as usable, but for
diffent things (the lexicon plates are great, even on the mx200!
you get THAT sound, heard on many recorings)

Regarding the other effects, I particularly LOVE the chorus on
synthesizers, especially because it gives that right stereo-feel
you need on pads. Delays are crap; when turning the
delayTime pot, you expect to pitch you delay reflections,
it will destroy your sound insted.
since the delays seem to be fed back
into the delay (this is UGLY).
As you can see my emotions are very mixed about this device,
but I'm happy about it, because LEXICON means REVERB,
and they don't let down here, and frankly... for only 200bucks/euro's !?

I don't undestand how a thing like that could ever fail, unless
you start smashing recording gear around, like Pete Townsend
did with his guitars. The power supply is a bit cheapo, but you can
hide it well (since power supply's have a psychological effect
on customers. be carefull, you might lose money there, unfortunately)

I tempt to buy stuff that's meant for doing a job,
so I'm not busy dreaming about the colorcombination of
my rack featuring big brands. This thing is fine.
But always remember: Lexicon means REVERB and they're making
it accessible to the common man !

ok so this is an appendage to the last review i wrote. I traded the mx for a tc m350..... well i went right back to the music shop and got the mx200 back because it sounds way better. so read on

for the money the sound quality is very nice and has way less background noise than the tc m350. I can't even hear any. the m350 buzzes like a bee.

well i got it to respond to midi clock... my fault.... as i assumed my DSI prophet 8 transmitted clock to the mx200. a quick parameter change solved this. I still have not figured out why the mx200 "freaks out". i've narrowed it down to this: the program knobs seem to get stuck in between parameters thus locking it in edit mode therefore not allowing you to change programs. delicate tweaking seems to correct this. i've emailed lexicon regarding the problem. so i'll let you know. As far as reliability. it's got a 1 year warranty, hey it's made in china so what do you expect for a bottom of the barrel priced processor. you get what you pay for.

lexicon returned my email regarding the supplied software problem, and they said...."there is no software support for the mac leopard yet, but is in the works" so i'll give them a 10 to offset my previous rating

there is no other hardware effects processor currently available with this kind of power or sound quality for the money, so i'll live with it for now. Hopefully lexicon releases the software for Mac leopard sooner than later. Once again i'll give it a 10 to offset my previous
rating

once you figure it out its pretty ez

sounds pretty good

heres were it gets ugly, sometimes when you power it up it freaks out eg: led's flash uncontrollably( it has to "load it's software") and there is nothing you can do unless you power it down and power up again. lotsa fun without a power switch
supplied software does not work with mac. there on-line download does not work either.
only one of the 2 processors delays will sync to midi properly. and with the one that works, it doesnot indicate it the way it is supposed to. oh yeah and it's sync is intermittent.

customer support sux. i emailed them and got no reply

the mx200 is a pile of you know what. i'll be taking this one back to the music store. thank the gods they have a 1 month return policy.
hopefully a tc electronic m350 will fair better.

* How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?

i use the unit almost exclusively for delay and reverb. the reverbs are great, from minimal to massive. the delays are generally ok but here are my major gripes with the unit. first, the internal clock is not stable. when using "tap tempo" it drifts out of sync fairly quickly. i prefer to use the midi clocking but here's gripe #2; the internal clock seems to be constantly adjusting the delay time to be in sync with the midi clock. this is good because it DOES stay in sync, however whenever the clock is adjusted it causes clicking sounds which are of course introduced into the delay creating a horrible racket of clicks on the output. and finally gripe #3; the output is noisy, tons of hiss unless the input level is dept down very low.


* How about Editing patches?

not bad, it would be nice if they used some sort of logical delay time values like (1, 4, 8, 16 etc) when syncing to midi, instead you are stuck with bizarre values like 38 that you can never remember.

* How is the manual for it (if there is one)?

it's pretty good, unfortunately i have to use it a lot.

* Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?

no and not sure.

* Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad?

as i mentioned above, the delays are pretty much not syncable to a clock source, which almost entirely ruins the whole thing for me. the reverbs are nice for a $200 unit. the pitch shifter doesn't work on short transient sounds like drums.

* What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?

i use this as a reverb/delay unit for an alesis ion in my studio.

* Is it noisy? On what settings?

yes, it's very noisy.

* Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?

if this thing would sync to midi keep a constant time when using "tap tempo" i'd be writing a glowing review.

* What amp are you using it with?

amps are for guitar players, why does everyone assume you're a guitar player?

* Can you depend on it?

to be a total PITA when using delay, absolutely!

* Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

i wouldn't gig with it.

n/a

* What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

electronic, industrial, prog house, trance....

it would be a great match if the delay worked properly.

* If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

i'd buy a TC.

* what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?

i love the reverbs. i hate the delay and noise.

* Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?

i chose it because it had the vst option, which i later found out wouldn't work on my OS anyways. a month later TC came out with the VST option and i wished i had the TC since.

* Anything you wish it had?

a stable clock.

* Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?

a little of both. i won't record it, but it works for writing.

This is a follow up to the previous review. The unit failed again in the same manner as before. The repair dept had it for three weeks and sent it back not finding anything. The suggest keeping it powered up all the time using a supressor. If you can find a unit with the same features as this model of Lexicon I'd stay away from this one, at least for PA applications.

I would have expected them to replace the unit just to protect their reputation. If we pay $200. for it they must get the mother board for considerably less.

Not being a musician I found I had to find more expanded explinations of the functions included in the unit.

I have had no complaints from the musicians I work with in a contemporary worship setting.

This is the point of the review. I experienced a software lock-up making the processor unusable. The displays just flashed uncontrollibly and no settings could be adjusted. The analog audio output from the unit was "interesting" at best. Lexicon support gave me a software reset procedure not shown in their manual that appaered to clear up the problem. After four weeks of operation the lock-up re-occurred and now has become a hard problem.

Support was quick to email me the above mentioned reset procedure. After that I had no audio output from channel 2 so I requested they look at it. Within 4 hours I had an RA number. Within three days of their receiving it at an authorised repair facility I had a call from the tech saying they could not recreate the failure. They tested it for an additional week and then returned it to me. I have contacted them about this problem again and expect to get the same quality of support, but I'm out of luck without a spare unit. For the cost of the processor I would have hoped that they would have just replaced the unit. We'll see what happens.

The Jury is out on this. It depends on the additional support I get.

Easy if you take time to mess around w/ everything on it, yet MUCh easier than the TC Electronics G-Major. But also the G-Major has many more options.

Effects are good, but not as good as the G-Major. Great price tho, and also MUCH easier to edit/adjust the effects compared to the nightmare G-Major. Just depend son what you like the most. Only other thing is you can only have I think 2 or so effects on at the same time only which isn't as good. Just depends what you use it for.

Yeah probably as long as you don't toss it across the room or something.

?

Greatunit for effects but limited on a few things.

I play bass guitar and for me, one of the MX200's best features is the straight-forward, almost analog pedal-like controls that make it easy to dial in during live use. I also like how you can have two different or even two of the same effects at the same time and you can store the settings, including mix, bypass, and routing for each patch. Then there is the digital recording output and USB for studio use. Versatile, as a rack unit should be, yet as easy to use as a pedal!

There is no menu to have to scroll and page through and as someone else mentioned, there is no EQ to mess up your tone, just the effects, straight up. Also, the compressor is dbx design; nice touch!

I particularly like the chorus, which I find to be very transparent with my bass, yet can get real liquidy if I want it to, and the reverbs and delays are the best in this price range thanks to Lexicon quality (though Lex's higher end are going to still be better, but for a price). These suit me more than fine for bass guitar. Speaking of the delays, I like the fact that the Mod and Tape Delays work like an old analog, allowing you to do the "UFO landing/taking off" effect by turning the delay time knob!

It's been several years since I used a pitch-shifter and I was never satisfied with past efforts in this price range, but the MX200 is quite an improvement - not an Eventide, but still quite smooth and useful, much better than in the past.

The flanger and phaser, etc. modulation effects are basic, nothing special. I do wish the flange could do "zero-through" jet flanging, but you find that on more expensive designs...

I also find that I don't lose any bottom end with this unit, but I do use the effects loop on my SWR head and keep the mix at 1/2 to 3/4.

Sure there are better sounding analog pedal effects, but I wanted my mod, reverb and delay effects to be post preamp, so that meant rackmount for me. No other unit comes close in both sound and ergonomics. My bass is happy and so am I.

I keep mine in a rack, so I haven't had any problems, nor do I fear any down the road. The knobs and jacks are plastic, but in this price range, what unit doesn't employ plastic to cut costs?

I made myself a two-momentary button footswitch to control the bypass of each effect section from the floor and that is working well.

Seems to be a very reliable unit and I use it without a backup.

I dock two points due to plastic instead of metal jacks, but that is the norm for the price...

I haven't had to deal with Customer Support, but they do provide the user manual online as a downloadable pdf file.

I play gospel hymns at my church and outside of that, I play funk, rock, fusion, etc. I have played electric guitar for over 25 years and switched to bass two years ago.

My gear consists of: Warwick Corvette $$ 5-string; Warwick Corvette Standard 4-string fretless; Squire Vintage Modified Jazz bass with Bartolini pickups, Leo Quan bridge, and Hipshot D-Tuner; SWR Interstellar Overdrive preamp; SWR WorkingPro 700 head; SWR Goliath III 4X10 cabinet; Aphex Punch Factory compressor; Dunlop Crybaby Bass Wah; Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah Filter; Boss OBD-3 Bass Overdrive; Samson PS9 Power Strip; Korg DTR-1000 rackmount tuner; Lexicon MX200.

The MX200 is a perfect fit for me and I love being able to dial it in like a pedal, with all the power of a Lexicon! Definitely worth the money and more!