Roland SRV-330 Dimensional Space Reverb

I bought the unit with some other equipment, and I knew it was not working. Only the display's backlight was working. Checked the ground as described earlier here...that was not the problem. All voltages were there...only there was a huge "spike" at the 5 Volts! The "big" rectifier was broken (inscription 3B5-f, Japan): one of the four integrated diodes was blown away. I replaced it and now it works again! I hope this helps more people...

My 330 died for no reason. I checked the power supply and all voltages were in the ballpark. I gave it an extensive visual inspection and discovered that the power supply board establishes ground via one of the circuit board mounting screws. It's obvious which one by looking at the under side of the power supply board. If there isn't good contact, the unit goes dead. The fix is to make sure the copper trace is not oxidized by ruffing it up with some sand paper or steel wool and place a star washer in between the circuit board and the post where the screw goes in. This makes a better contact. It cured mine.

Selecting presets is easy. Editing is also fairly easy and the most difficult part is just understanding what each parameter actually means.

Very good sound quality for the money. I use 2 of these units, 1 for drums and 1 for vocals. Very natural sounding reverb.

I've had 2 problems with on of my srv-330's. First,one f the power supply connections was bad and cause the power to cut out and eventually stay off. I did fix this by cleaning the contacts and resoldering a connection. The 2nd problem is the unit went completely dead except for the backlight on the display. The power supply voltages are all ok and I suspect the eprom is bad. (contact me if you have any info that could help me please)

Don't know yet.

Manual is friendly.
Presets are awesome.
Easy to configure.

My setup:

Roctron Gainiac, Rocktron Intellifex (8 voice chorus), BBE 482i, Rocktron HUSH Super C and Furman RP-8. Guitars: Jackson, Gibsons, Fenders. Amps: Crate 212, Tone Works 212 7100.
No noise at all.
Best reverb effects ever under $1,000.
The most important piece in my rack.

I totally depend on it.
Never down.

Never dealt with them in person.
Got manual online super fast!

I play Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Latin, Funk, New Age. Perfect match for all.
Playing for 20 years. Own a lot of Roland and Rocktron equipment.
If my SRV-330 was lost or stolen, I would have to get a replacement right away. THIS UNIT IS THE CORE OF MY SOUND.
I love everything about it.
Best feature, LUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CRYSTAL CLEAR >100 db, no noise.
For me, ONLY the high-end Lexicon PCMs compare. SRV-330 is way more flexible and easier to configure.
This unit is the main ingredient of my sound, it is a treasure for me and I use it in my music (True Stereo).
I wish I had more money to buy 3 or 4 of this units extra to keep them as backups.
If you think you are picky with your sound, buy one of these!

Definitely easy to use, but editing can be tedious due to the small screen.

Lots of editing features.

Sounds superb. I've used quite a few reverb units, but this one sounds fantastic.

In my opinion, this unit is a little noisey, but that also depends on how you set up your mix.

I've had a problem with it which causes the unit to shut down on its own and turn back on sporadically. Just last week it stopped working all together, though I could see the screen slightly light up, but can't see any menus.

I had taken the unit to a music gear repair shop once, they charged me an arm and a leg, and the unit still had the same problem after a few weeks.

Today I swapped the power supply in the unit with the power supply of my SDE-300 (another great unit which I've never had problems with) and everything now works fine ... though I have no working power for my SDE now.

I will have to contact Roland to get a new power supply, though I don't know if they can help me anymore. This afterall is an ancient processor I doubt I can find parts for.

The SRV-330, a middle-of-the-road priced reverb processor that is actually a progression of the higher end Roland R-880 and RSS 3D reverb processors, is easy to use. Calling up patches is done with either the use of an alpha dial, or up/down buttons (you can scroll through patches quickly if you press down both buttons at once). Generally, right out of the box, the SRV-330 has a TON (300 preset and 100 user) of useable reverb programs, most of which sound really solid, detailed, and smooth. The manual is fairly well-written, although I should say since I bought mine used all I got was the "Algorithm Guide." This booklet had a very clear and concise description of all the effect parameters, etc. - especially considering that Roland is not known for writing (or translating) any manual or supplemental guide for thier products very well. Even better though, the SRV-330 has online help in edit mode that describes the parameters you are currently tweaking, which is a huge plus for a reverb processor of this caliber. Even better still, the user can arrange parameters in the order that he or she wants, you're not stuck with the way that the factory has arranged them - VERY cool!! One minor annoyance to the SRV-330 is most things require more than one keystroke on the front panel to accomplish. The software version in my SRV-330 is 1.03; I'm assuming this is the latest, I should also say I haven't called Roland yet to find out if there is a later software version for this machine. I can't comment on the MIDI functions as I have more effect processors than I can shake a stick at, and really don't have the need to MIDIize my effects. Other SRV-330 owners I've talked to said the MIDI implementation is good, and very flexible.

The SRV-330 plain sounds fantastic. 2 minutes after I had mine plugged in I knew this was a very serious and great sounding processor. As stated before, the vast majority of the patches are good, and of course there's the usual complement of stellar and even a couple of stinkers. Even the stinkers could be made to sound good, it was just a matter of increasing the density and diffusion some. The SRV-330 is also a VERY QUIET processor, by far the quietest in my studio. For studio applications of any kind, the SRV-330 is useful, especially if you're using it with a recording console and that sorta thing. The SRV-330 not only offers just about any kind of reverb effects you can imagine including plates, halls, stereo reverb, ambience, non-linear, gates, etc., but it also has a fairly flexible digital delay, chorus, and even a phaser. There are 22 effect algorithms in all, reverb dominates most of these, but there are also a couple of algorithms that have just delay and chorus, or delay and phasing, so you could use it without reverb at all if so desired. Finally there are 3-dimensional effects, which are taken from the RSS, and are supposed to enhance the reverbs in such a manner to surround the listener. Primarily 3D effects cover the early reflections with plates and the basic reverb algorithm, plus you also get 3D non-linear, ambience, and stereo non-linear algorithms. Now while this sounds like it might reach out and grab your ears through your near-field monitors, the 3D effects aren't so drastic as Roland makes them out to be. The 3D effect is certainly there, but much more subtle, and in some cases hardly noticeable at all. I found that using headphones brought out the 3D effects a lot better, but still it's not anything to write home about. The cool thing about the 3D effects, however, is you can place them anywhere in the stereo field (this is most effective with early reflections and little else). I would suggest that the 3D effects merely provide a slightly fuller and more detailed reverb, but without headphones it's very difficult to tell the differences between 3D and non-3D. Finally, a three-band parametric EQ is provided inside the effect algorithms, further allowing you to shape the sound of the effects, and it's actually quiet, which cannot be said about most EQ's found inside FX processors on this level and below. By and large, everything found inside the effect engine is very useful - I found very little that sucked. All of the reverbs, basic and 3D, sound very good, and the other effects are nice as well. I give it a 9.8, had the 3D effects really done what they insinuated, it would have been a solid TEN.

The build quality is very typical Roland - that is to say, well built and solid as a rock. I own a lot of Roland gear and not a single unit has failed me. The SRV-330 follows the same tradition.

Have no idea, as I said, I've never had to call Roland in the decade and a half I've been using thier equipment.

If you are looking for a solid reverb processor for your system, but can't afford higher end units like the Lexicon PCM-80, TC Electronic M-2000, or Roland RSS-10, then look no further. I got a lucky deal and paid $350 for my SRV-330; I would have paid double for this processor, no questions asked. I don't know if retailers are still selling the SRV-330 new, but if you find a used one it's well worth the average $500 asking price. I've used virtually all of the Alesis processors, the Lexicon PCM-41, LXP-1, LXP-5, LXP-15, PCM-60, Korg processors, lower end Roland and Boss processors, and by comparison, none of these have reverb that can stand up to the SRV-330's. The only multi-FX box truly comparable is a Lexicon MPX-1, and it costs more. The Yamaha REV500's reverb compares fairly well, but the SRV-330 is way more flexible, and sounds better. The SRV-330 isn't quite as good as the higher end Lexicons, etc, but it's not that far off either. I would definitly buy the SRV-330 again, without any reservations. It's a truly professional processor. The reverb effects are some of the very best I have ever heard for any processor that originally retailed around $1000. The SRV-330 is useable for anything, ranging from drums, to vocals, to pads, you name it, it does it. A perfect solution for someone who needs great sounding reverb at a middle-of-the-road price.