AMS RMX16 – It has remained an essential piece of kit for any self-respecting world-class studio ever since, and the units sell today for a substantial proportion of their original cost due to their great desirability.
Designed from the outset to be musical rather than simply implementing mathematical algorithms, each program was tuned and re-tuned to provide as wide a “sweet spot” of settings as possible by means of “carpet graph” parameter tables, interactively linked control by control. It was designed by ear over an extended period of time and from first principles and this is what has made it a classic. Despite its longevity, there is little more any present-day design could improve upon and its sound is unique and instantly recognisable.
In addition to the 9 programs that the AMS RMX16 has as standard, there are a rare series of 9 aftermarket programs that were made available to AMS RMX16 users if they could get their hands on the unique and now elusive RMX16 remote control with bar code reader input.
The AMS RMX16 500 series use premium quality, high-performance 32-bit DSP processing and 24-bit, 48KHz sampling with premium A/D and D/A converters that achieve over 100dB dynamic range with +22dBu of headroom. These high-performance specifications make the AMS RMX16 500 series the best platform possible to perfectly recreate the iconic sound of the original unit using the very same algorithms.
For ease of use a large, high contrast 2.4″ OLED display is situated in the top right-hand corner making it easy to quickly see an overview of all the currently selected settings and parameters. Each parameter is awarded its own key to avoid complicated menu interfaces and each value can be adjusted using the keypad, nudge keys or the new endless rotary encoder which replaces the rotary pot found on the original units.
This flexibility allows the precision of entering exact values when desired settings are known as well as the ability to easily find the best settings by ear when using the encoder. A setting not found on the original unit is the addition of a Mix control that allows the output to be comprised of any amount of the dry component of the input signal and the wet component of the reverb output.
New to the AMS RMX16 500 series unit is also a system for saving and recalling user presets. There is now the ability to save and name up to 100 user presets using the encoder or alphanumeric keypad. These are safely stored on integrated non-volatile memory and are not defendant on an internal battery. Presets can be deleted or overwritten when they are no longer needed or more space is required.
The unit is a 500 series rack mounting module, in a 3-slot wide format. The input connector used in the slot one position is the master mono input for the unit while the output connectors in the slot one and slot three positions are used as stereo output from the device.
The input/output connectors in the slot two position and input connector in the slot 3 position are not used.
Features
- An 18kHz bandwidth, allowing it to also be used as a high-quality digital delay line.
- 90dB dynamic range and 0.03% distortion in delay mode.
- Adjustable input and output levels for optimum signal to noise performance.
- Low power consumption (and therefore cool running).
- Independent control of each program’s fundamental reverberant parameters.
- Nudge Buttons to increment or decrement data for all selectable reverberation functions.
- Alphanumeric program descriptions for ease of use when storing or recalling information for the unit’s memory.
- New rotary push encoder enabling all parameters and settings to be adjusted by ear.
- New wet/dry mix blend function.
- New save/recall feature with 100 user-defined memory slots.
