Lexicon MX-200. Opinions?

[gcoudert]

YouTube videos don't help much in appreciating how good or bad effect units sound so I was wondering if anybody here had any experience of working with a Lexicon MX-200. I mean, it's an inexpensive unit but it's a Lexicon so is it any good?

[BaconTastesGood]

Sound is decent but not awe inspiring. Big claim to fame is the ITB integration but I'm not sure if they maintain that still. The other big advantage are the knobs, which are a rarity on reverbs. MPX-1 sounds better and is more powerful but requires a lot more menu diving to tweak.

[tomorrowstops]

Funny, there has been one of these in the rack at the studio I work at for years, and I never played with it until the other day.

It was an 'out of pure boredom' moment - my friend and I had a a beautiful old marimba setup in our iso booth mic'd up with a pair of ribbons. We've been working on an ambient record and at this juncture had hit a wall inspiration wise. So I looked at the effects rack and decided, hey what the heck, lets turn on the MX-200. I sat down and twiddled knobs while my pal played the marimba.

Theres some pretty cool stuff in that box. The ping pong delay and reverse stuff is incredible. The coolest part is that you can have two different effects happening, one on each side. To be honest, I didn't spend too much time with the reverb side of things, but from what I did hear, it was pretty alright.

Of course, it all depends on what you're looking for. Its definitely the right price to have hanging around, even if you don't use it all the time.

[baz99]

MPX-1 sounds better and is more powerful but requires a lot more menu diving to tweak.

A second-hand MPX500 or MPX550 is the best option as it has the same sound quality of the MPX1 (much nicer than the MX200) with much easier editing due to the 4 knobs on the front.

The MPX500/MPX550 are very underrated as most people recommend the MPX1 not knowing that the MPX500/550 sound practically the same. The difference is that the MPX1 allows much deeper editing but that comes at the cost of loads of menu diving vs. the easy 4 knobs editing on the MPX500/550.

I have both an MPX1 and a MPX550 so my comments are based on my experience with them, not hearsay.

The MPX550 is identical to the MPX500 apart from improved firmware so there is no reason to buy a MPX500 if you can get hold of a MPX550.

[BaconTastesGood]

I agree if all you need is a reverb then the 500/550 is a better idea. It's smaller, much easier to edit, and reverbs sound as good. But the MPX-1 is more powerful as a multi-effects processor, but the UI is horrible.

[Stab Frenzy]

If you don't need hardware specifically for live use or with a hardware recording setup the Valhalla plugins are a much better buy than any non-flagship reverb out there. The UIs don't try to look like hardware but the algos are amazing and smoke most reverbs on the market.

https://valhalladsp.com

[piRoN]

I owned one of these for a while, and to be honest I can't remember a single thing about it. That's probably telling.

[tomorrowstops]

If you don't need hardware specifically for live use or with a hardware recording setup the Valhalla plugins are a much better buy than any non-flagship reverb out there. The UIs don't try to look like hardware but the algos are amazing and smoke most reverbs on the market.

https://valhalladsp.com

I'll second that - got both Vintage Verb and Room over here - love 'em! Only reverb plugins I current own and too be honest, I've never really considered anything else!

[ranzee]

I've got one - it is handy how you can chain two effects to craft up some interesting results.

The compression is quite good - but I feel that it doesn't handle too crazy inputs.

It also has two separate audio inputs and a stereo mix output - so you can get crafty with your desk sends with that too.

[ned-ryarson]

I found it a very nice multi-fx for post rock guitar sounds - much fun to be had with, for example, random LFO modulation / simultaneous echo patches etc etc

[ryryoftokyo]

I have two. Nice Lexicon sound on a budget. This isn't a damn PCM rack, but it will get you there in style. Nice clean reverb, delays, and echoes, useable modulation, I'll second the compressor being nice. It's a lot of bang for the buck.