Starting an out of box project with a friend and I need a couple cheap effect processors. No computer on this project and I have one effects processor I can use live at the moment. I need verb and slap back for sure and a third effect that would change from song to song. This is a fun project so nothing is critical, hoping to grab stuff under $200. Saw a lexicon lpx5 on Craigslist for $65 but honestly I’ve never had to buy an effects processor outside of plugins so I’m driving blind. Any suggestions?

You get a lot of bang for the buck with a low-end TC Electronics unit like the M300/M350. You could probably score two of them for $200, giving you four different stereo effects you can run in parallel or series. These cheap boxes really do sound good, even against their more expensive cousins M-OneXL and M3000 and I like the simple, knob-based, intuitive front panels.

Of course if you can stretch to an M-OneXL do so as it's ridiculously good for the money (used), and miles deeper/more programmable than the cheaper offerings if you are prepared to roll your sleeves up.

Not sure about the verbs, but more general utilities and effects maybe check out the Source Audio “one series” pedals, I’m really impressed with them. They are all stereo in out with a lot of utilities and routing along with their main effects. The Ultrawave in particular is a great multi effects unit that is labeled “multi-band distortion”, but it has a compressor, eq, noise gate, distortions (fancy wave folding stuff), modulation, filters. I got mine used ~$200.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear, appreciate it. Cheers.

Will keep an eye out for source audio stuff.

The Lexicon MX200 seems to fulfill most conceivable needs for the project you mentioned. It can be bought cheaper than most pedals these days.

Just to add to what I said... the TC gear is on the very clean side- nice clear delays and pure reverbs, extremely quiet.

If you want more grungy lof-fi 80s/90s sounds (with added noise for free!) then obviously multi-FX boxes like the enduring Quadraverb might float your boat more, and maybe some of the earlier Yamaha SPX stuff.

Someone mentioned pedals - obviously that opens up a whole other avenue these days, with so many modern pedals able to take line-level input.

Some of the old Zoom Rack effects were fun. The Zoom MS 70 CDR+ is also worth a look. it's a pedal but it can handle line level and they're very inexpensive.

Seconding the MX300. Used that for a while some years ago, and it worked pretty well. Easy to use, and sounds better than its price - at that time, anyway. Not sure what they go for now…