guitar rig part III:: lexicon mx400 , mpx1,mpx550,mx200,digitech s200

guitar rig part III:: lexicon mx400 ,mpx1,mpx550,mx200,digitech s200

digitech s200

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well, after fighting and fighting with the digitech s200 to try to get them to sync to midi clock,I finally got rid if them.Did I mention that I sold 3 then bought 3 more because I missed the sound and ended up selling those 3 as well. the digitech sounds good but doesn't sync to midi and for me that is a deal breaker.so, out the door they went.

lexicon mpx1, mpx550, mx200 and mx400

I tried  a bunch of the lexicon processors and each one sounded dated and needed a true bypass loop because it introduced a coloration of you tone when inline. the exception to this was the glorious mx200.the cheapest of the current lexicon processors at $199 new $100 or so used.yet, magically clean and doesn't color your tone.

lexicon mx200

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the beauty of the lexicon mx200 is that it is so simple to use and is perfect for a guitar rack. it has a mix level knob and 3 edit knobs, syncs to midi, fantastic sounds and looks good.

finally, I found a great sounding lexicon processor that didn't destroy my guitar rack sound. it added to it and it sounds amazing. the delays were every bit as good as the tc.electonics d-two I tried. so very clean and clear sounding. Now it only does 2 effects at one time,but it does them well. I really love it. sounds as good as and in some instances better than the digitech s200 and works great for guitar.

lexicon mx400 [see the next guitar rig part iv blog: new updated blog for the mx400]

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So I thought I would get its big brother the mx400, to complement the mx200, which is a 4 processor (2 mx200's in one box). well, that was a big mistake as well.

its just a poorly designed product. first off, for guitarists, its just a bad design. all the presets are 100% wet which sucks. you want a 50/50 mix,well,you have to go into each patch and changing the mix/routing,there is no mix knob. then the input volume is hard to setup and either at +4 or -10 it seems to overload/distort,unlike the sw200 which is perfectly happy with line level or guitar signal it seems. then, the manual says hey it can be configured three ways as it has 2 input and 4 outputs (hence dual stereo. well, how deceiving, I discovered that 1 stereo input doesn't access the 4 effects at all,it just disables 2 of the effects, so you paying for 4 effects but only have access to 2. the only way around this is to wire output 1 into input 2 and then use output 2( all in stereo) which works but is a clunky mess. so, the idea that the mx400 is 2 mx200's in a box is bs.Also, on the mx400, obvious items such as setting the dry/wet mix is buried in heaps of menu's. I loved the mx200's simplicity and it just works well,designed well where as the mx400 becomes a complex mess even with its lcd readout.

oh yeah, I almost forgot, the sound quality of the mx400 is decent. I prefer the mx200 sound quality though the 400 is supposed to sound better . but after hearing all the presets 100% wet while I tried to figure out how to change it to a global 50/50 mix [which doesn't  exist on the mx400 what an oversight?!] it kind of ruins it even when set for a 50/50 mix for guitar. so, its going back in the box and will be sold.

conclusion

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well, my quest continues. I think I see another mx200 in my rack soon and hope it works well with my existing mx200. I will also give the mpx550 another try and if that fails as well, then perhaps a tc elecronic m-one xl (even with just xlr and no 1/4" in's and outs).

guitar rig part II:: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,digitech s200 ,disaster designs smartclock

guitar rig part II:: lexicon mpx1,mpx550,mx200 ,digitech s200 ,disaster designs smartclock

In my quest for better tone,I had sold all 3 of my digitech s200 processors because they did not sync to midi.I replaced them with the lexicon mpx550,mpx1 and mx200.Slowly, I re-bought 3 digitech s200 processors as I had sold my old ones and regretted it.I suspect that someone is cornering on the market on these as they were very hard to find and expensive.All of  sudden, that really smooth feel and sound was back. I don't know how to describe the digitech delays for instance as they have a pleasing grittiness,but ultra clear sound that sounds so very good and you cant find it in the lexicons or any other delay .

 When you play a processor and it make you smile you know you are on the right track. now , its one fatal flaw,syncing delay times to midi!! now, I researched and researched,even called the companies to try to solve this problem. I then discovered this tiny company called disaster designs who claimed they made a pedal that would take midi clock and convert it to tap tempo which the digitech s200 would sync to. Is this possible?I was So suspicious, but if it could it would be amazing. the pedal itself  is called the smartclock and its really expensive approaching boutique pedal prices a $179.00. I have not tried it yet but the potential of this pedal if it does what it claims to would be amazing .

I also discovered that no digitech pedals from the s100 top the digitech quad and 400 sync to midi, So we will see how the smart clock solves this problem.

More digitech s200
The digitech s200 has just a great sound , the kind that just being plugged into smooths out your guitar sound and even feel. Its the kind of processor that doesn't need to be in a true bypass and can stay in your signal chain all the time. The same cant be said of the lexicon processors except possibly the mpx550.The mpx1 has a great tone,but it has a glassy effect on the tone which doesn't work for distortion all that well and would benefit form a true bypass when not used in your guitar signal.

mpx550

mpx1

 Now, what happens when you combine the power of the lexicon with the finesse of the s200  in one guitar sound. you get heavenly bliss. The kind of tangerine dream gilmore type delays you only find in high end delays like the strymon timeline, tc 2290 and eventides for example.Just a solid delay with an ambient sound complementing it. AMAZING. It seems the lexicons and digitech's together seems to work wonders.

Be back soon with part III.................