Latest User Reviews

I have two of these, worth every dime…

I bought one of these when they first came out and loved it. As a song writing tool I found it incredibly useful. For its time it sounded great, the effects were brilliant, and the ability to use it as a recorder, although limited was useful for getting ideas down etc.  I also used it for sequencing the keyboards for my band live and it never let me down on stage either.

This was released in the early days of digital delays and it was a dream come true at that time. It may not stand up to some later models but if you are looking for a delay with Mojo, then look no further.

These things are rare as these days, but if you get the opportunity to try one, or even better buy one, do so. It sounds amazing, even today.

When this thing first hit the market, it was like something out of Star Wars and it got a lot of attention for its looks alone, but it is the sound quality of this reverb that cemented it in the recording world. It may have been the first digital reverb to hit the market, but they got it right on first attempt, beautiful reverb.

So, this was a bit of an impulsive/curiosity purchase for me, as I’d heard quite a bit about this unit, and low and behold, one was offered to me at a silly price, along with the remote. The word on the street, is the DN780 was designed to be a ‘poor man’s AMS’? Now whether that’s true or not, I’m not sure, but there are plenty of ‘similarities’ when you instantly take a glance!

I’m not exactly sure when the 780 came out, but I’m guessing around 1984-86? but that’s the general time that the digital reverb market became affordable and other companies could Compete with the big players that had already got well established but cost a small fortune back then! The design of the 780 is pretty straightforward and I would be amazed if whoever designed it didn’t look at how the front panel of the RMX 16 was set out?

Operationally, it is very similar in someways to the AMS and differs in others… The front panel is very intuitive and nicely laid out (although I’m not a great fan of the multicoloured LED numerals) But I understand why they did it. The build quality of the 780 is pretty good and although it was built to a lesser budget, I would have to say, for the most part, it has stood up well to the test of time. I bought mine about five years ago and it had been sat around for quite some years before I got hold of it, and a few of the buttons needed cleaning (as did all the remote-control sliders). On the subject of the remote control, it is A nice addition and is very simple to use. Like a lot of reverbs that were supplied with remotes, sadly, quite a few have been lost over time and they are extremely difficult to find on their own…Now onto the sound.

The DN780 Is a great sounding reverb. It has all the usual variations of hall, plate, vocal and nonlinear algorithms and is fully Programmable with plenty of user memory locations (which the AMS sadly lacks) As you’d expect, it is not an AMS (In terms of its sound quality) but being fair, a few of the algorithms are not that far off!

My honest opinion is that if you are comparing the two (as I am) Then you would automatically gravitate towards the AMS, but let’s also be fair and reflect on the fact that the AMS was over three time the price when it came out! As a general reverb around a budget, it really isn’t that far behind! And here in the U.K, a good DM780 will cost you about a grand, and an AMS £3.5-£4k! so value for money is open to personal opinion and preference? Considering how much they were when they were new, and how much they go for now on the second-hand market, I have to say that the DN 780 is excellent value for money and easily stand up to being a useful main (or secondary) studio reverb.

To sum up, I was very impressed when I got mine and I have used it on various things such as keyboards and drums, where I have actually preferred some of its algorithms compared to some of the bigger Lexicon and AMS rivals. If you can find one in good condition along with the remote, I would strongly advise buying one and adding it as a useful addition. They’re not that common here and seem to be getting more on people’s ‘radar list’ as something to try and buy.

Possible immediate attention may be needed to replace the ventilation fans inside, as they weren’t the best quality ones used, and they may all have noisy bearings. I replaced mine very easily and fairly inexpensively. Generally they are fairly stable and a lot less Intricate inside (compared to things such as the AMS) parts are fairly easy to obtain too, such as remote sliders, replacement fans and volume pots..

I bought one of these when they first came out in the early 80s and loved it. You have to remember the time this was, and in respect to that time, it was cutting-edge technology and total freedom for songwriters like me to start cutting demos at home. I thought the sound quality was excellent given the format being used, and sure a reel to reel sounded better, but the 244 was so portable and an all-in-one solution compared to the very heavy reel to reel options.

Ever wonder why these are still in use in most studios, or why they are being remade by other companies? They feature on thousands of records from the seventies onwards because they are great at what they are designed to do, and no plugin gets it right in my opinion.

I have had this thing for decades now, still use it on every mix I do. It has only let me down once during that time, but a quick trip to the service tech and it was back up and running like new. Could not live without it!

When these things came out, I was in a position to be able to use them for a number of recordings and have to say they sounded very good. I used two machines synchronised into a 24-track system and never had an issue. The tapes however are all but impossible to find these days so I would not buy one now, but in their day they were excellent.

The DBX 160SL has become a standard in our studio rack. From super smooth compression and limiting, to lightning fast, aggressive pumping and distortion. This box has it all. With the addition of internal switching to allow 2 different styles of compression, it is one of the most versatile boxes we have at our disposal.

While it isn’t the easiest box to dial in, after spending time with it, I have been able to use it on almost any source material, achieving near undetectable compression, to the most gritty / artifact sounds. The biggest drawback of these units are the main vca modules, the V8 VCA. Unfortunately, these modules tend to go bad, particularly in the early units, as the VCA’s ran at 24v. This, along with the power supply caused heat issues, eventually damaging the V8 VCA’s.

As the V8 modules are potted, this makes them unserviceable. However, there are companies (Van-Daal Electronics) who make replacement V8 modules that can bring these units back to life. If you happen to have access to one, I highly recommend taking the time to check them out.

We use this for our roots reggae sound system on our send controls. The unit clearly echo’s mid/high range vocals and instruments at the turn of one control once you have set the delay speed, feedback and output on the mix. It will oscillate when opened above 75% to recreate long delays through both music and mic line. A must have for anyone looking for an authentic rack mounted delay to compliment your preamp. We have two of these units after trial and era using Deltalabs, Maxons, Soundcraft and Roland Space Echo, the latter that everyone bangs on about. This unit in my opinion is the best I have used to date and if you get it at the right price, you’ll be laughing. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.