Lexicon MX400XL 4-in/4-out Reverb/Effects Processor with USB "Hardware Plug-In" Capability and XLR

Lexicon. Just that one word says it all. Lexicon. The best in the business. As a professional musician and sound engineer for over thirty years, I have never heard a reverb better than or equal to Lexicon. Often, when a company invents something (in this case digital reverb), another company comes along at some point and either improves or equals the product. This can not be said for Lexicon. There is a specific depth and clarity to Lexicon reverbs, and I'm pleased to say they can be found within this incredible unit. The chorus effects are outstanding also. I could go on and on with praise. I've worked with a couple of the PCM units in the past so I'm very familiar with the Lexicon sound. In short, if you want the most incredible lush reverb on this planet, get a Lexicon. You will absolutely not be disappointed with the MX400.

Ok, so you're looking for a reverb/effects unit but don't necessarily want to step up to the $1000 price range for a spx2000 or similar units... Well, look no further. The sheer flexibility of the MX400 is pretty astounding at this price point. You are essentially getting 2 stereo processors with a great range of reverb, delay, phaser, detune, de-esser, etc. options at your fingertips. It really is a very intuitive menu setup if you have worked with other outboard gear before, with a fairly mild learning curve if you haven't. Parameter editing is right there for you with the A/B/C knobs affecting the most common parameters of a particular effect, and further detailed editing is 2 clicks of the page/select button away. The in/out setup and mix routing offers a way to really blend all kinds of different effects together, do 4 channel surround, or even run 4 mono effects. Now I haven't delved into the usb portion of the unit itself as I run Protools, and would prefer to set it up as an "analog" in/out for my purposes, but if you're running a VST compatible DAW then it might be something that helps sell you on ease of use for the unit. It does only accept 16 or 24 bit 44.1k or 48k digital signals, so if you normally "oversample" to a 96k or some such this might be cause to run it as analog in/out only. As most home studio users do 24-bit 44.1k or 48k in their sessions nowadays anyway, it's not that big of an issue. With all that being said, this unit is GREAT for adding space or mild effects, but not something to create wild affectation of the original audio. Factory programs are decent but not pro studio amazing, however user programs are very easily stored and brought back with just a few button presses. I do wish it had a few more LED's for input monitoring, but at this price not something to complain too much about. Overall, best unit for sub $1000 money (blows out TC Electronic units for sound quality) and fits a ton of uses in your rig! I highly recommend checking out the manual at http://www.lexiconpro.com/en-US/products/mx400/downloads_and_docs for a real look into the huge amount of options this unit will give you!

I've had this about a month now and I love it. I use it for home recording and primarily use the reverbs for vocals and electric and acoustic guitars. I mess around with the delays and other effects but I love the reverbs. The reverbs and delays do not produce any feedback or noise which is great for recording. Phaser and Flanger has a little "phasing" noise but I guess all phasers and flangers will have that. Overall, I love it. You can use two effects at once which is nice, hence the term "dual effects processor". I thought it had two inputs but it only has one. No biggie, I'm a solo musician anyway. I do not record on a computer so I can't comment on USB connection but there is one so this could be a great plugin for PC recording. Good buy!

Primarily used as a reverb unit , i find this unit to be really worth the asking price.Good points :1. Many different kinds of reverbs hall,room,chamber,plate etc(all of them with pro sounding reflections , not the tinny metal-can effect found on most guitar reverb pedals)2. **quick access knobs** to tweak the reverb sound without any menu diving. This unit is designed to be hands-on musically inspiring. for example, when i am recording a guitar track , i have direct hands on control over the reverb parameters - all of which give an immediately noticeable effect.3. lexicon has intentionally kept the controls to a minimum so that u can get a reverb sound going without wondering what the hell do the controls mean (hey wait, what the hell is a low freq cutoff , diffusion etc) - u control only the pre-delay, decay time & bright/darkness of the reverb. u can find the reverb u want for your vocals or guitar ,with a few turns of the knobs.4. I actually find this unit to be better sounding & cheaper than most guitar reverb pedals. most guitar pedals offer just 3-4 reverb types & ask almost $150 for it. This unit at $200 has many many types of reverb+ loads of other fx like delay,chorus etc. Even the compressors are reasonably good & musical sounding.5. Nice build : in fact the blue color of the casing looks better in real life than in the photo.6. many routing options for serial or parallel fx, mono & stereo.why 4 stars :1. this unit is packed with all kinds of fx , except an EQ (!) i personally think lexicon intentionally left it out since they did not want u to have deep control over the reverb sound. some experts can finely EQ the wet part of the reverb sound to get exactly the sound they want. probably lexicon wants this kind of editing options to be available only in their higher end units, so they left it out. mind u, the reverbs sound good enough for many recordings, but if u were wishing : i just want to roll off a little bit of the bass/mids from the wet reverb sound, u cant do that !Overall, really happy with the performance for the price. sure there are better sounding reverb units at $500+ , but this unit really shines within its price range : the quality of the reverbs should be good enough for all semi-pro to pro level studios, other than the top studios who spend $1000+ on higher lexicon units.