I really want a company to make a modern 1U rackmount effects processor

[Eagle]

a ‘drawer’ designed to pull out and tip down at about 45degrees with a pair of vp4’s would give pretty quick access and deliver more than any 1”or 2” rack piece ever did…and infinitely more than the one that will never be built

Just use axe 3

 

[GuitarBilly74]

a ‘drawer’ designed to pull out and tip down at about 45degrees with a pair of vp4’s would give pretty quick access and deliver more than any 1”or 2” rack piece ever did…and infinitely more than the one that will never be built

If you're going with the VP4, just put it on your board. You will need something on the floor to control it anyway, might as well just use the same unit to do both.

 

[Aleksi]

Just use axe 3

Not buying either at these prices though

 

[Desertdweller]

The Axe FX III is perfect, except it's 3 rack units. If I wanted to run that with a Fryette LXII, Synergy 5050, or Mesa 20/20, perfect, it's exactly what I'd want. Fractal absolutely makes insanely good products.

 

[Eagle]

This works for me;

 

[woody]

This works for me;
View attachment 40042

This looks so nice.
Picture me a tiny bit jealous.

 

[laxu]

This looks so nice.
Picture me a tiny bit jealous.

Until you go to lift it! Eagle's rack weighs probably around 30-33 kg / 66-72 lbs without the Axe-Fx 3.

So it's no wonder they're mostly popular in studios, or bigger stage productions where you have roadies cart a refridgerator rack on wheels from a truck to stage.

With digital systems being able to be quite small these days, it would be cool to see half rack width or Eurorack format units become a thing in guitar gear. Or even pedals with no footswitches, just jacks for MIDI control.

The rack format is easily the worst candidate for larger screens too. That's instant 3-4U.

 

[Jarick]

Single unit standalone multi effects don't really make too much sense nowadays. For things like compressors and preamps, sure that's easy enough. But for standalone use you're going to need a screen and that's likely going to make it 2U at least, otherwise the interface is going to be really rough.

@Eagle that's a killer setup! I've always thought my dream rig would be an Axe 3 + a versatile preamp like a Demeter TGP-3, but that Soldano X88IR looks like a perfect modern alternative. I can do a poor man's version with the Friedman IR-X and Axe 3, but that rack unit looks way cleaner.

 

[Eagle]

Until you go to lift it! Eagle's rack weighs probably around 30-33 kg / 66-72 lbs without the Axe-Fx 3.

So it's no wonder they're mostly popular in studios, or bigger stage productions where you have roadies cart a refridgerator rack on wheels from a truck to stage.

With digital systems being able to be quite small these days, it would be cool to see half rack width or Eurorack format units become a thing in guitar gear. Or even pedals with no footswitches, just jacks for MIDI control.

The rack format is easily the worst candidate for larger screens too. That's instant 3-4U.

A friend of mine's

It’s a struggle to put it in the pocket on his gig bag.
It’s easy to miss but the Mesa Formula above the Trio ( chrome limited edition). Is stunning good clean and mark low gain tones , hugely overlooked.

 

[laxu]

A friend of mine's
View attachment 40051
It’s a struggle to put it in the pocket on his gig bag.

It's honestly a shame that they didn't do a remake of that Soldano/Caswell unit. Modern motorized pots plus a better screen and you could easily do what the X88 does.

Also, Synergy really should do a SYN-4 like those Egnaters.

 

[Eagle]

A syn 4 with the ir section of the X88ir would be great.

 

[mavrick102000]

A friend of mine's
View attachment 40051
It’s a struggle to put it in the pocket on his gig bag.
It’s easy to miss but the Mesa Formula above the Trio ( chrome limited edition). Is stunning good clean and mark low gain tones , hugely overlooked.

2 Egnater M4's nice. Nice trip down memory lane.

 

[northern_fox]

The Axe FX III is perfect, except it's 3 rack units. If I wanted to run that with a Fryette LXII, Synergy 5050, or Mesa 20/20, perfect, it's exactly what I'd want. Fractal absolutely makes insanely good products.

I think they could make this 1U if they just removed the screen - I forget but I don't think there's much else inside taking up a ton of vertical space (I/O maybe)

 

[laxu]

I think they could make this 1U if they just removed the screen - I forget but I don't think there's much else inside taking up a ton of vertical space (I/O maybe)

It would need the back I/O reconfigured big time.

• Only 1/4" inputs.
• No back Input 1.
• No separate MIDI Thru jack. MIDI Out becomes Out/Thru.
• No 1/4" jacks for Output 1.
• Maybe only 1/4" jacks for Output 2.

Even then I think it would be a very tight squeeze if the premise is not losing any of the existing features. Those AES and FASLINK XLR jacks especially take a good amount of space.

Otherwise most of the inside vertical space is taken by the front panel and the fan/heatsink mount over the DSP chip. The fan/heatsink thing could be a lot more elegant honestly.

 

[newpedals]

I know that I am young. Curious to see these vintage racks. These are like multi effect units, right?

Wondering how non-famous musicians who don't have access to a truck move them.

Do they only need 2 or 3 of these while performing live, so that they can be disconnected and carefully placed on the backseat of a sedan as an example?

 

[Eagle]

I know that I am young. Curious to see these vintage racks. These are like multi effect units, right?

Wondering how non-famous musicians who don't have access to a truck move them.

Do they only need 2 or 3 of these while performing live, so that they can be disconnected and carefully placed on the backseat of a sedan as an example?

Most vintage pieces only did one effect. As for size and weight; most delay pedals were very limited and there wasn’t any reverb pedals at all.
Also your rig was already huge and heavy so it didn’t really matter

Some of the best vintage pieces still hold up in sound quality because they often had analog dry and good tone even if very limited. Old Lexicon PCM units still set the bar for natural sounding reverb. 2290 is still a great delay so is the SDE 3000 . H3000 SE sounds better than the H90 to name a few old favourites.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Most vintage pieces only did one effect. As for size and weight; most delay pedals were very limited and there wasn’t any reverb pedals at all.
Also your rig was already huge and heavy so it didn’t really matter

Some of the best vintage pieces still hold up in sound quality because they often had analog dry and good tone even if very limited. Old Lexicon PCM units still set the bar for natural sounding reverb. 2290 is still a great delay so is the SDE 3000 . H3000 SE sounds better than the H90 to name a few old favourites.

Absolutely love my PCM 91. Still pissed that Lexicon's PCM Bundle (was $1400!) didn't include all the same algorithms. What were they smoking? The plugin's 3/4 the price of the hardware and it doesn't include everything?!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Absolutely love my PCM 91. Still pissed that Lexicon's PCM Bundle (was $1400!) didn't include all the same algorithms. What were they smoking? The plugin's 3/4 the price of the hardware and it doesn't include everything?!

The Lexicon PCM bundle is based on the PCM96, not the 91. The plugin version actually has an extra algo vs the HW, Vintage Plate.

IK’s CSR plugins are based on the 91 but you only get 4 of the algos. PCM91 is pretty great but IMO the PCM96/Native sounds even better.

 

[Digital Igloo]

The Lexicon PCM bundle is based on the PCM96, not the 91. The plugin version actually has an extra algo vs the HW, Vintage Plate. PCM91 is pretty great but IMO the PCM96/Native sounds even better.

According to Lexicon, it's missing the critical pitch engine of the 91 (which then must also be missing from the 96?) that made some of its classic presets so ubiquitous.

Huh, I've never been able to get the plugin to sound as good as my 91. (And it wasn't the A/D/A conversion; it was always connected via S/PDIF or AES/EBU.) Still use the plug for that Lexicon sound, but only for bog-standard reverbs (mostly orchestra or drums and sometimes vox), nothing unique or special like what we could coax out of the 91. Have switched to Valhalla and FabFilter Pro-R2 (and believe it or not, Helix Native) for more interesting spaces.

EDIT: Rackmount effects owned over the years: Lexicon PCM 91, Lexicon MPX 1, Ensoniq DP2 (vastly underrated, best phaser ever), Eventide Eclipse, TC Fireworx, Sony DPS V55m, Roland SRV-3030, Alesis MIDIverb 4, Alesis Quadraverb GT, Alesis Wedge, 2x Line 6 Echo Pros, Line 6 Filter Pro... Probably a few I've forgotten.

 

[Eagle]

According to Lexicon, it's missing the critical pitch engine of the 91 (which then must also be missing from the 96?) that made some of its classic presets so ubiquitous.

Huh, I've never been able to get the plugin to sound as good as my 91. (And it wasn't the A/D/A conversion; it was always connected via S/PDIF or AES/EBU.) Still use the plug for that Lexicon sound, but only for bog-standard reverbs (mostly orchestra or drums and sometimes vox), nothing unique or special like what we could coax out of the 91. Have switched to Valhalla and FabFilter Pro-R2 (and believe it or not, Helix Native) for more interesting spaces.

Is there any reason that those classic rack units can’t be replicated in modern hardware?