Lexicon MX300/MX400

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GrooveNinja
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Lexicon MX300/MX400

Post by GrooveNinja » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:10 pm

Are these units any good? I am considering a hardware reverb to free up my CPU, but I really can't afford one of the PCM boxes. How do these compare to Live's reverb in terms of quality? Are there any viable alternatives?

sublimelobc
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Post by sublimelobc » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:34 pm

I have the 400.....totally love it, they finally added AU support for universal binary, before they released that I was frustrated to not be able to use it as a "hardware plugin".

The reverb is excellent, I just wish there was a larger user base to swap custom settings with others, but the factory presets are good. With the plugin it's quite easy to configure....plus live 7's external effects make it work great within live.

I might not be the best source for opinion, I don't have experience with tons of hardware and end up finding most things I buy pretty useful somehow....but I use the MX400 on all my vocals, and running a softsynth through it is always fun.

Hidden Driveways
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Post by Hidden Driveways » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:50 pm

sublimelobc wrote:I have the 400.....totally love it, they finally added AU support for universal binary, before they released that I was frustrated to not be able to use it as a "hardware plugin".

The reverb is excellent, I just wish there was a larger user base to swap custom settings with others, but the factory presets are good. With the plugin it's quite easy to configure....plus live 7's external effects make it work great within live.

I might not be the best source for opinion, I don't have experience with tons of hardware and end up finding most things I buy pretty useful somehow....but I use the MX400 on all my vocals, and running a softsynth through it is always fun.
Same here. It doesn't have a ton of presets, but it sounds good. You don't notice it immediately, but when you use it for a while you notice it sounds different than software reverb. It sounds more like a record.

Nick the Zombie
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Post by Nick the Zombie » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:59 pm

Another + 1 for these units. I have access to one (but don't own it) and have used it extensively. Great fx, fun to use, and well-priced.

- Nick

Sibanger
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Post by Sibanger » Thu Oct 16, 2008 5:58 am

Has anyone used the vst function with Live? Or are you guys using it as a hardware plug-in?

GrooveNinja
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Post by GrooveNinja » Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:58 pm

Ok, then does anyone have any idea of why I would want to pay $500+ for a CPU-hogging software reverb plugin when I can get one of these for $300-400?

sublimelobc
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Post by sublimelobc » Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:11 pm

Sibanger wrote:Has anyone used the vst function with Live? Or are you guys using it as a hardware plug-in?

I use it as a "hardware plugin" in the sense that I can access the hardware via the AU plugin within Live, it works quite well that way. There is a VST version of the plugin that will control the hardware, but not for the version of OS X I'm using (Leopard)

GrooveNinja- The only other option I might recommend for hardware reverb in the price range would actually be a little unconventional, since it is found in a guitar fx unit. The Line6 X3 Live has some great sounding effects, quite configurable....if you also play guitar this might be an interesting option. You can use it as an external fx unit, like the Lexicon, and it also has XLR mic input.....and some good sounding vocal settings and reverb. I prefer the sound of the Lexicon reverb, but if I had to live with ONLY either the Lexicon or the X3 I would choose the X3 because of it's versatility.....the X3 has great guitar tones/fx and is has more routing options and more I/O. (including USB streaming)

If it's just for vocals, go for the Lexicon for sure...but if you play guitar you might want to look into the X3 as another option to boggle your mind.

GrooveNinja
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Post by GrooveNinja » Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:31 pm

I have discovered the ArtsAcoustic reverb plugin, and it sounds really, really good in the samples that they provide. How does this plugin compare with these Lexicon units in terms of the quality of the reverb?

mathh
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Re: Lexicon MX300/MX400

Post by mathh » Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:23 pm

My mx400 au plugin crashes upon opening live 8.3.3.I'm using the dual stereo versions. Does anyone else have this problem?

Ben Gunning
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Re: Lexicon MX300/MX400

Post by Ben Gunning » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:41 pm

mathh wrote:My mx400 au plugin crashes upon opening live 8.3.3.I'm using the dual stereo versions. Does anyone else have this problem?
Hi mathh - I am having the same issue and in the middle of a not-so-promising email exchange with Lexicon tech now - did you ever sort this out by any chance?

thanks,
b

joshuagoran
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Re: Lexicon MX300/MX400

Post by joshuagoran » Mon Mar 17, 2014 6:02 pm

Add me to the list of folks having problems with the MX AU plug-in running in Ableton Live 9.1.1. In my case, I am using an MX200 but it seems the problem is between Lexicon's plug-ins and Ableton and not isolated to specific models.

I have dozens of sets with the MX200 AU working perfectly, but every few sets will somehow crash every single time I try opening until I disable the MX200 AU.

I just tried the MX200 VST and it crashed Live immediately when I added it to the set.

Unfortunate, as I really like how the 'hardware plug-in' works...when it works.

Anyone have any tips? I've sent crash reports in for some of my crashes to Ableton, BTW.

rosti
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Re: Lexicon MX300/MX400

Post by rosti » Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:15 pm

Does anybody know if there is any difference in the sound/effect quality between the mx200 and the mx300? I can't find any information about this from the internet. Except one post telling mx300/400 has better DSPs and better effects, but is this really true?

The mx200 seems to have more intuitive user interface and the mx300 has XLR inputs (won't be needing those..) and a menu-divy screen UI. The price difference is just 30€, but the mx200's "just knobs" interface is just more appealing to me.

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