Hi
I have the chance to buy cheap a lexicon reflex and/or a yamaha rev500 but i don't have the opportunity to test any of them.
I already own a pcm 70,a roland r880 ,ensoniq dp2 and many really nice reverb plugins (uad emts-akg bx20-224,vsr s24,blackhole,valhallas,lx480,r2 and phoenixverb,2016 eventide,lexicon vst verbs )
Do you think that it is worth buying yamaha rev 500 or lexicon reflex ?do they have to offer something different or better than the hardware amd software i already own?
I don't want to spend money (even a small amount) to buy something inferior that i already own...

You already own a collection of much better Lexicon algorithms than the hardware you're looking at if I'm not mistaken. The Yamaha will offer you at the very least something different. I have a Yamaha Rev500 but I haven't used it yet. I got it for $100 or something and figured it can't be that bad if it has balanced connections considering when it was released.

Lower-end "Prosumer" gear rarely had balaned XLR connections at the time and it must have been somewhere around $500 new, at least, which was considerably far above the "Mickey Mouse" and "My First Sony" price tier up until around 2012; so I'm guessing it has to compete with some of the TC Electronics and Lexicon 1ru boxes of its time. And knowing Yamaha they loaded it up with everything they could as an inexpensive way to compete.

I'm actually going to integrate my new Vari-Mu into my drum chain tonight, so I'll probably test out the Rev500 as well. I'll let you know what it can do and if my playing is decent I'll post it for you.

Nice,thanks!is it easy to pass a small vocal section thru 2-3 presets?

Does Anybody else has an opinion for those 2 reverbs?

Not worth it. If it was a Yamaha SPX900/990, it would give you something extra. Especially for guitar.

Finally set up the REV500 as a -10dB to +4db "preamp" and effects box for my Roland Alpha Juno 1. Have to say, it's almost as though they were made for eachother. The "tunnel" preset on the Yamaha makes the polysynth "prophet-esque" sounds of the Roland become MONSTROUS. Very cool little reverb box. But I could see why it wouldn't be so great for live acoustic sources. It's very lush and the tails are smooth, but certainly not realistic. Probably why it works with analog polysynth tones so well.

Have a first edition Lexicon Alex on the way as well. Probably going to pair it with the Roland MC-505 or maybe use it dual mono with the Moog and Doepfer bass boxes; until I get a patch bay set up.

See post above. :-)

FWIW there were a few bits of prosumer kit that were in even the highest end studios in the 90s that were there because "yeah we use it all the time": Rev500, SPX90 and MidiVerb. If they are still working and cost peanuts, why not?

I have written an editor for the Yamaha REV500.

Free download.

Windows10/MacOS VST/AU Standalone.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/yamaha-rev500/

I have 2 Alex, 2 Reflex, and a Yamaha D1500. They all have usable patches and things they do well. I use them for subtle effects. I’m hybrid and will put a software verb in front of them or even a short delay to spice them up. A trick I read about engineers doing with lower end spring and plate reverbs in the 80’s. You have a nice collection though so keep your expectations low. You can get an Alex or Reflex for $50 if your patient. I pod $100 for the Yamaha. I was tipped off to their usefulness by an accomplished engineer on these pages.

Nice!

Hi firstly it's great to find an editor for my Rev500! I've been trying it out and just wondered if the following was a known issue or not. Sometimes a saved editor pre-set (json) when loaded in the editor doesn't fully change the settings on the rev500, sometimes it works other times some parameters don't update on the rev500 any ideas thanks, Matt

Awesome !!! thanks for your work and sharing.!
I would like to have your skills for that!

I bought one new years ago when they were $350. It's built like a brick ****house and has XLR ins and outs as well as 1/4". Also an internal power supply. But I only used it as a stereo reverb for a few years and it got moved to a live rack. Like most Yamaha reverbs the sound is a bit "metallic"; not harsh per se but not syrupy smooth like a Lexicon.

If you want a cheap, single rack space F/X processor that is built like the Yamaha, I suggest the Lexicon MX-300. It's not gonna sound like a PCM but sounds way better than the REV 500.

It also has the four knob "quick edit" feature the REV 500 has but a much deeper interface. The really cool thing it does is "ducked delays" like the old TC stuff. I used a MX-300 live in a cover band and it was PERFECT for doing stuff like U2. The delay gets ducked until the end of a phrase (we used it on vocals) and then you get the full, lush delay. Let's you run long delay times without stomping on the vocal or guitar.

Not sure if the editor works on later versions of Windows but it was super slick and easy to use.

For the cover band I had set up a separate preset for every song, and named them with the song title. I usually had to run sound myself from the stage (while playing bass and doing backup vocals LOL) so I would just step on a footswitch for the next song.

The editor was great because whenever we changed the sets, I would just take it out of the rack, bring it home and reorder the presets to match the new set lists.

It also has S/pDIF digital I/O which can be handy in a studio situation (I think it only does 48 khz though).

I've got two of them, one in a small live rack as an only F/X processor, the other one in a larger live rack with a MPX-1 and the REV 500.

Analogeezer

Hi MattJW,

Only just noticed this message well over a year later, because I can't log into that original account so was never notified.

Will look into this issue and try and fix the problem.

Better late than never, right?

Thanks for using the editor.

Well my sincerest apologies.

Somehow your request slipped my mind and embarrassingly I am addressing the bug about three years later.

Not only that, it was a simple fix.

There is a new version (version 1.0) that should fix the problem of the loaded json file not updating the unit.

Files are now saved with the .json extension, so you just need to rename your .txt file saves to json and they should now load properly.

Regards and thank you for using the editor.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/yamaha-rev500/

Hi firstly thankyou for letting me know you made an update to the editor! but for me the same problem is happening, Loading the JSON file doesn't update the Rev500 reliably it sometimes works sometimes only certain parameters and sometimes none at all, yet all the reverb controls on your interface adjust the Rev500 perfectly so it is communicating. Maybe something is wrong with my Rev500. But thanks again, Matt

Hi Matt - so you still are around! lol - well maybe your MIDI interface is transmitting too fast or something? Can you write to me privately and then I can send a version with the option to slow down the MIDI transfer. If it works, I can then make it part of a new release.

John