Boss RV-1000 Digital Reverb

I was a young kid looking to make sick beats in the early-mid 1990's on a super shoestring budget. A little Mackie mixer, a few cheap Radio Shack mics, a 386 computer to store tiny samples, a DCC (Yes! A DCC!), and a DA-88.

In that pile was the BOSS RV-1000 reverb. A little store had this on clearance for about $100 around 1995. I grabbed it, and was very happy with it. It was straightforward, easy to use, and saw a lot of use.

It also had its serious downsides. The presets were just that. No tweaking, etc. What you selected, is what you got. The wet/dry knob was nice. The pre and db switch was helpful, too. Lots of my very horrible recordings utilized different wet/dry settings with lots of left/right sweeping panning. Apparently, wild left right made it better, lol

I also discovered why it was on clearance. It saw better days, and had horrible background hiss. Some presets were worse than others. The hall was less noticeable than the plate setting, for example. I have no idea why that was. Either because it was lower end, my gain was too high, or something was wrong with it. I am sure it was the latter. Again, that thing must of been kicked around a lot.

I am surprised to see this unit on here. That takes me way back. Such good memories.

- What are the effects or types of effects available?

Reverbs, reberbs / gate, reverse / gate delays and it does just that.

- What technology is used? (Analog, digital, lamp ...)

Digital DSP.

- Are they edited? Via an editor Mac / PC?

Front, with a few knobs well screwed.

- What is the connection? (Audio / MIDI)

Stereo inputs, stereo outputs.

- Is this a rack or rack-mount model?

Rack.

UTILIZATION

- The general configuration is it simple?

Breeze.

- The edition of sounds and effects is it easy?

Fingers in the nose.

- The manual is clear and sufficient? ...

Flew, nothing more.

SOUND QUALITY

- Effects are they effective, responsive and realistic enough?

The beast has two knobs Direct / Effect, akin to a wet / dry, allowing the back right mix of reverb on the sound, and even delete the incoming sound to keep only the reverb and vice versa , just that it's magic.

There is also a two-band equalizer Low / High that help clarify or darken the effect, we can say that it is versatile.

My personal impression? Very nice reverb, you can go to a warm reverb delay turning cold and snapping a few knobs.

There is also a bypass button (in case it slips) and a button Unigain, I did not really understand what it is (it looks like a sort of limiter to use) but I'm sure it is cool.

- Which instruments do you use?

I think it's versatile enough to stick with just about everything, making sure his slight background noise can be annoying in silence.

- Which ones you prefer, you hate?

I love them all because they are modifiable, so if it sounds bad, it is not that much tampered with. (I still admit a preference for the reverse / gate, the rendering is superb).

OVERALL OPINION

- How long have you been using?

As of today, I just plug my machines.

- What is so special that you like most and least?

The +
- Sound
- The editing options
- Simplicity
- The input / output stereo
- The Wet / Dry
- The equalizer

The -
- No MIDI
- No patches, turn a knob and you lose control, but hey, I compare it to analog synths, it's part of the thing.
- A horrible glitch when you select an effect (knob), which prohibits any change of reverb on the way.
- A slight breath (perhaps partly induced by my installation).

- Did you try many other models before buying it?

A Midiverb III alesis full of Vst.

- How would you rate quality / price ratio?

30 € for a reverb that quality? Nothing to say, at the top.

- With experience, you do again this choice? ...

No problem.