Following on from our hugely popular article on the best music computer in the 1980s, I thought I’d move on to something else that exploded onto the music production scene in the 80s, digital reverb. However, the reverb that got everyone talking wasn't a Lexicon or an AMS!
The unit in question was the Alesis Midiverb. The Midiverb you say, surely there were better reverb units? Of course there were, from brands like Lexicon and AMS at the top end and Yamaha and Roland at the more cost effective (sub £2000!) range.
Context
However, some context. At this point, setting aside things like the Great British Spring, a reverb made out of a drainpipe (yes really!) and some other budget offerings, no one had created a truly cost effective stereo digital reverb unit for the home recording market. It was hard to justify spending a couple of thousand pounds on reverb unit when the 4 track you were using cost less than a third of that!
Writing in the March 1986 edition of Sound On Sound, Paul Gilby wrote;
“To service this demand, we've seen a variety of digital reverb units burst onto the scene. A brief retrospective will reveal that Yamaha's R1000 was the first budget unit at around £500 but it was mono and offered little variation amongst its four preset reverberation effects. Nevertheless, it was an important step. But if you were looking for a stereo reverb with programmable parameters that offered great variation and a maximum reverb decay time of around 24 seconds, then your only option was the MXR01 at £2000 - budget-priced when compared to the likes of the Lexicon 224 at £7500 and the AMS RMX-16 at £5000.
How times have changed. Both Roland and Yamaha introduced their stereo digital reverbs around the £1500 mark and for that price both units offered programmable memories and superb flexibility.”
The First BUDGET Stereo Digital Reverb
Then Alesis, yes the same people who bought you the ADAT machine, released the Midiverb. A preset only, but true stereo digital reverb with MIDI control. The price was £395!
As you can imagine the Midiverb had the same effect as the first Star Wars movie, with people getting in line desperate to be the first to get their hands on one.
Compared to what we are offered today the spec was somewhat wanting. The inputs were phono in and out and at the rear was a mix control. It had a 12bit sampling, offering 10kHz bandwidth and 80dB of dynamic range, specs today that would send the average forum user into an anaphylactic shock. As I have already mentioned the inputs and outputs were phono, not even jacks.
So Why Was The Midiverb So Great?
Quite simply, the Midiverb allowed those working on cassette based or even reel to reel home recording set-ups stereo digital reverb, without having to fork out the price of a small car.
In the summary of his review for Sound on Sound, Paul Gilby wrote;
“If you're on a small budget the MIDIVERB offers excellent quality, stereo digital reverb at the most affordable price yet. If your budget's a little bigger, you could probably hang one of these little units on the end of every auxiliary send on your mixer.
Finally, if there's one drawback with this unit, it's probably that you would never believe something could ever sound so good in such a humble black plastic case costing only £395.”
Paul White was at the time writing for a competitor publication, Home & Studio Recording, he was equally full of praise for the Midiverb.
“I could enthuse about this product for hours but the only way you'll find out how good it is is to go and listen to it or get the Sound Technology demo cassette. The fact that Alesis have really brought digital reverb within reach of the 4-track owner must make it one of the most significant budget recording products yet and the days of the spring reverb are now well and truly numbered. It isn't the best digital reverb that money can buy but you'll need a lot more than £400 if you are going to get anything significantly better.”
We Have So Much Now
It’s easy to forget the limitations places on many of us trying to make records in the 80s. We didn’t all have big studios with killer hardware, many of us couldn’t even afford access to them. The early days of home recording, or even equipping local studios, meant trying to make great recordings on a budget. The Alesis Midiverb was for many of us, to put it simply, a bloody miracle. It is perhaps for these reasons that many of us old farts appreciate the features and quality offered in even the most meagre software packages. After all we made some amazing music with far less!
The Midiverb was just the start for Alesis, setting aside all their other great innovations, the Midiverb created a long line of reverb products. I can’t imagine there’s a single person on the planet working in recording who didn’t own one of the Alesis reverb units in the 80s, 90s and even 2000s!
Did you own one?