Delay or reverb suggestions for live sound (vocals)

[Five9teen]

Hi guys,
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments on what they use for delay or reverb for vocals in their live sound set-up? I'm putting together a small sound system and just looking for some ideas on what you guys use. I'd like to find something used to keep cost down.

[doncolga]

Hi guys,
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments on what they use for delay or reverb for vocals in their live sound set-up? I'm putting together a small sound system and just looking for some ideas on what you guys use. I'd like to find something used to keep cost down.

I use the effects build into my board. I use just three. A short room, a long reverb and a short delay. Compression is super handy. If I had to go with just one thing on vocals, it'd be good, tasteful compression. Compression is not really heard the way other effects are. The result of good compression is that the vocals should be really smooth and even level-wise. Use a hi pass filter on all your vocals too at about 75-80 hz.

[Five9teen]

Thanks for the quick reply Don. I don't have any built in effects on my board so that's why I'm looking for something external. Compression is definitely on my list as well.

[Five9teen]

BTW I do have a 75 hz HPF on my four vocal channels.

[doncolga]

I've got an older Lexicon MPX 100 unit that sounds really, really nice, but I don't have it in my rack at the moment.

[Five9teen]

There's a local guy selling some delay units on C-list but they seem like guitar FX. They are: ART FXR Elite, Delta Lab™ ADM-256, and Digitech™ RDS-1900. Any thoughts?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

There's a local guy selling some delay units on C-list but they seem like guitar FX. They are: ART FXR Elite, Delta Lab™ ADM-256, and Digitech™ RDS-1900. Any thoughts?

If it's rack mounted it's PA.

[Gregory East]

The ART fxr elite has a bunch of guitar fx, doesn't mean you can't use it for PA as your reverb or delay.

I use an old Alesis multiverb.

[SeisTres]

For general compression i preferred to use my yamaha built in compression. But for gating and more complex compression, i ran two behringer units. They get the job done, but don't expect anything fancy. There's plenty of other brands that basically will do the same thing.

However, as far as effects go, the ones built in into the behringer mixers are terrible. But if you can get your hands on the v-verb pro (old behringer rackmounted effects) it has some REALLY good effects for vocals. The multieffects is terrible, the v-verb was one of my favorite gear. Has plenty of features and the effects sound exactly as they should.

[BoostFab]

I have two Alesis 3630 dual channels compressor with gate, and one Alesis MidiVerb4; each takes 1U rack space.
Let me know if you're interested.

[Five9teen]

Any thoughts on which of these might give the most bang for the buck?
The asking price on each is as follows:
ART FXR Elite $50, Delta Lab™ ADM-256 $30, and Digitech™ RDS-1900 $40 or both the Delta and Digi for $50 package deal.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

Boost, maybe you could pm me with what you'd need to get for the MidiVerb. That looks like a pretty nice toy.

[Grant Bunter]

Lexicon IMHO are great effects.
Good enough for soundcraft to use them in their desks for onboard effects.
The lexicon MX-400 gives you 4 ins and outs and you can get them much cheaper than we can lol.

I get by with an Lexicon MPX100 and a Behringer DSP1000p at the present time. $ being saved for builds instead and these both work fine.

I use them for vocal reverb and ambience, , with the "subtle is better" mentality, sometimes for delay...