 George
Shilling reviews:
Lexicon
PCM90
Lexicon's top of the range 480L and its predecessor the 224X have
for over ten years been held in the highest esteem. No high-end
studio looks complete without the familiar LARC remote control on
top of the mixer. Studio owners feel obliged to equip with one or
more of these vastly expensive reverb units, which is perhaps due to
prestige as much as sound quality. With these points in mind, it was
very interesting to evaluate the PCM90. This unit, although
significantly cheaper than the 480L, is Lexicon's latest dedicated
reverb unit aimed at the higher end of the market.
Buy the new Lexicon PCM 91 in our studio shop
Yamaha popularised assignable controls with their DX7 synth. (Eh? I
thought this was a reverb unit review! <= editor's/reader's
voice.). Ever since the DX7 took off, equipment manufacturers have
not felt obliged to put more than one or two knobs on anything, from
synth modules to reverb units. This is understandable, from a cost
point of view, and also from a practical and technological
standpoint. More and more features are added to each new model,
which remains the same size or smaller than its predecessor.
However, there comes a point where the user says "Enough!"
This has already happened in the synth market, where Roland now
market synths with lots of knobs, switches and sliders alongside
their more "modern" units. This is also starting to happen
in areas of the outboard effects market, such as the profusion of
valve-based effects and other retro effects such as the Mutronics
Mutator. However, reverb and multi-effects units have yet to veer
away from their path along the road to assignability hell, and the
Lexicon's PCM90 is possibly the worst offender I have encountered!
There are two knobs on the front panel, labelled Select and Adjust,
and nudge buttons for going up and down in the menus. These are what
you use to do almost everything on this unit, and there is an awful
lot you can do.
The
operating system and layout of this unit closely resemble the PCM80,
which I reviewed in a previous issue. Since I reviewed the PCM80,
that particular unit has undergone some minor changes: the rear
panel now sports XLR output connectors, and combined jack/XLR input
connectors. The rear panel of the PCM90 is identical, and the only
difference at the front is a slightly different paint job. This deep
1U box has a sturdy feel, and is truly feature-packed. A PCMCIA card
slot on the front panel can be used to store edited effects if you
run out of internal registers (which have 100 locations) or for new
preset/algorithm cards issued by Lexicon. They have recently made
available a card which features split programs and Dolby Pro Logic
Surround effects. Cards issued for the PCM80 will not work.
Unlike
the jack-(and master?)-of-all-trades PCM80, this box specialises in
reverberation. Lots of it. There are, (like the PCM80), 250 presets
across 5 program banks. These are logically divided into Halls,
Rooms, Plates, Post and Splits. Each bank is then subdivided into
groups of ten programs for different types of application, such as
Live Sound, Vocal, Instrument and Spacial. In order to make finding
suitable programs quicker, Lexicon has introduced a new feature on
this unit which enables a "KeyWord" search. This appears
after the last program bank. The default setting gives you an A to Z
listing by program name. When you get to Z though, you cannot carry
on through to A again but instead have to wind the knob all the way
back. You can easily change this listing to one based on one of the
KeyWords such as Acoustic, Bright, Keyboard, Large... There is a
long list of keywords, and four spaces for user settings. Each
preset is assigned up to four KeyWords for this purpose, and of
course these are fully editable. Another feature not found on the
'80 is the History of Effects Loaded which memorises the last ten
effects loaded into the unit, useful for backtracking where you have
been.
There
are other small differences from the PCM80 operating system, such as
the way the programs scroll through the different banks continuously
instead of staying on the same bank. Also, the Adjust knob, (which
has been assigned one main parameter of each program) shows a
slightly more explanatory display when turned. There are still two
edit modes: Go and Pro, with Go mode controls chosen to be the most
useful for any given program. On the PCM90 some parameters are now
customised with the new Custom Controls with cute graphical displays
of their adjustments and amusing and helpful descriptions as they
change. Ranges of adjustment can also be defined to give, say, five
different filter frequencies. There is provision for four of these
Custom Controls for each preset..
All
of the effects are derived from one of four algorithms: Random Hall,
Ambience, Rich Plate, Concert Hall, and Chamber/Room which provides
two independent reverbs by virtue of the two Lexchip 2 processors.
Lexicon's designers have worked hard to make these algorithms mimic
the sound of the real space, and heard with a solo instrument in
isolation they are very convincing indeed, with all the smoothness
and lack of grain that you expect from a top-of-the-range reverb
unit. Although all programs are primarily reverb-type effects, the
algorithms include EQ, delay and modulation adjustments. The Concert
Hall algorithm includes a digital compressor, where, oddly, you set
a threshold level below which signals are boosted. You also have the
full Output Width control of the PCM80 which gives you infinite
adjustment of stereo image and phase. "Spinning Room" for
example modulates this control, rapidly inducing nausea(!), but
rather uselessly fading in and out when Mono'd. Not included on the
PCM80 but featured here is a corresponding Input Width control which
for example could be set to 90 to exclude any centre (mono) signal
from the reverberator.
Extremely
thorough Patching is implemented, which can give you many hours of
amusement trying to make the reverb brighter when the left input
level is higher, or somesuch thing. Does anyone ever do this? MIDI
implementation is very thorough, with all controllers received and
understood, and several SysEx options. Included are the Tempo
features of the PCM80: you can tap tempo in, or set it to follow
MIDI clock. The PCM90 will also generate MIDI clock. Like the PCM80,
S/PDIF digital input and output are available on the back panel.
The
unit comes with a shiny quick-reference card, and a handy fold-out
list of programs. This is repeated in the manual with longer
summaries which include a description of the Adjust Knob function
and a list of associated KeyWords. The manual is very comprehensive,
explaining every feature, although it can be hard to find something
quickly with no alphabetical index.
One
useful set of programs is of Outdoor effects, handy for dialogue
dubbing for TV and film. Although the unit primarily provides proper
"grown-up" reverberation, there are a few special effects
including ring modulation and odd multiple delays. Included are
Generic presets giving the user blank page versions of effect
algorithms (with no Go mode softrow or Adjust knob assignments) for
creating effects from scratch. It was a nice surprise to find a
re-creation of the PCM60 Room, complete with choice of four decay
settings! A recent re-acquaintance with the PCM60 provided a stark
contrast to this feature-packed marvel of modern technology and
assignability. There are many situations where when tracking or
overdubbing I would prefer to have available the quick and simple
'60 instead of this potentially time-consuming beast.
The
PCM90 is truly a high-end machine. It provides unequalled refinement
and flexibility. It is priced slightly higher than the PCM80,
probably because of its higher processing power - two Lexchip 2
processors. Compared to the 480L it looks like exceptional value.
However, at double the price of the MPX1, you really have to want
the best. Embedded in a track, who is going to notice the difference
in quality? The way things stand I wonder if I might prefer two
PCM80s and a set of algorithm/preset cards, rather than one PCM80
and one PCM90. However, we will have to wait and see what benefits
future expansion cards bring.
The
PCM90 is a complex piece of equipment that demands some study to get
the best out of it. It offers an alternative, and dare I suggest
equal to the 480L in terms of sound quality and effects. It
surpasses the 480L with many of its features. However, compared to
the 480L it is fiddly to use, with such extensive menus that a
novice may have trouble finding a particular setting. The Go Mode
feature compensates to a certain extent, but you still have to guess
where a particular parameter is, and of course the one you want
might only be available in Pro mode. For me, the PCM90 needs more
tactile control, a bigger display, and simpler menus. If you are
going to cram in so much, it is frustrating having just one adjust
knob and only one parameter visible at a time. People do not work
that way. There are many features included that I know I would never
use, or perhaps would not have time to explore in a time-is-money
situation. It is a very impressive unit, but I hope in the future to
see a Lexicon unit with more of a Fisher-Price approach to design
instead of the DX7s they keep producing!
Buy the new Lexicon PCM 91 in our studio shop
Reproduced
with kind permission from www.George.Shilling.Com. Copyright ©1997
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