Latest User Reviews

INCREDIBLE MACHINE – GET ONE IF YOU CAN

By TJC

Sound Quality 95%
Build Quality 80%
Usefullness 100%
Mojo/Funk 95%
Reliability 80%

I have this, the M7, the R7 and the HP5. All are fantastic but this is a great all in one box that is more sophisticated than the HP5 but easier to program than the M7 or R7. Sound quality is superb and the effects are spectacular (easily in line with a top Eventide or Lexicon). The M7 is a real fave of mine but the V77 gives you a lot of its presets, plus a bunch of other goodies and the ability to combine two effects at once (in addition to EQs and gate etc.).

Issues with the display are common (missing lines) but they can be easily fixed. The style of LCD in the V77 (which is different to other Sonys such as the HP5) requires that you use a soldering iron at around 300c (that’s what I had it set to on my Hakko) with a 3mm tip on the top part of the plastic ribbon running from the display pc board to the glass. Essentially what you need to do is reflow the very fine solder connections under the plastic and bind them to the connections on the display again.

The contacts in question (from memory) are on the top of the LCD unit at the rear (just before the cable folds over on to the main PC board on the back of the display). You obviously need to remove the faceplate to gain access, but this is very easy to do if you have taken apart studio gear before. Do not overheat the soldering iron and make sure you keep it moving. There is a very good video by a young guy on YouTube showing how to fix this very same problem with a Nintendo Gameboy. You need to be patient. I ran my iron over the connections continuously for around ten minutes. If you are concentrating, you should be able to feel the iron running over the traces (although they are very fine).

When I first plugged the LCD back in the five or six missing lines were still missing. Then after a few seconds the LCD kicked into action and each of the missing lines permanently disappeared and is perfect now. This is a very common problem on these types of displays from this era and can be fixed to get the V77 working like new again. It’s an incredible FX machine and deserves to live on!

INCREDIBLE UNIT, A SECRET WEAPON

By Sneaky Beans

Sound Quality 90%
Build Quality 85%
Usefullness 90%
Mojo/Funk 80%
Reliability 85%

was thinking of blowing money on an Eventide H8000 at first but after coming across this website, I learned of the Sony DPS-V77 and it’s capabilities. Fast forward to actually owning one, I must say that The Sony DPS-V77 embodies everything that I needed and then some! Honestly will never get rid of this unit. Somewhat of a secret weapon as not many people are hip to it. Uniqueness over popularity, Sony DPS-V77 is it!

NOTHING BEATS THIS UNIT!

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 95%
Build Quality 85%
Usefullness 95%
Mojo/Funk 80%
Reliability 85%

This box does many things pretty well, but the Crystal keys preset sounds like nothing else on the planet. This is the perfect sound for picked electric guitar, offering a unique stereo spread that lifts the guitar in the mix really nicely. Someone needs to make a plugin that emulates this preset, I have tried to emulate with the SoundToys suite and failed!

MORE USEFULL TO ME THAN THE EVENTIDE

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 100%
Build Quality 90%
Usefullness 95%
Mojo/Funk 85%
Reliability 75%

I have had a lot of multi-effects boxes from the likes of Roland, Yamaha, Sony, Lexicon and Eventide. I have to say, this Sony DPS-V77 is for me, the most useful. If you put aside the incredible pitch effects that the Eventide can do and look at things like chorusing etc, I prefer this Sony to all others. Crystal Keys preset is what did it for me, it is something like micro-pitch and chorus in one effect and is incredibly useful on guitar for stereo spreads and to simply add movement to a track, nothing else beats this for me.

This is a ‘best of Sony’ box and it is a real shame that Sony pulled out of the market as the DPS-V77 shows just how good they were at taking on the likes of Lexicon and Eventide at their own game and coming out the other end standing tall. So, if you can not afford an Eventide, get this Sony as I believe you will find it more useful.

A BOX FULL OF THE BEST OF SONY

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 95%
Build Quality 95%
Usefullness 100%
Mojo/Funk 90%
Reliability 65%

I have owned the DPS-R7, DPS-D7 and DPS-M7 previously but sold them all because of their nightmare interface that made tweaking the presets difficult. The DPS-V77 addresses that problem and combines all three of those effects and the DPS-F7 into one box, with greatly improved AD/DA conversion and with lower noise floor.

There are some excellent presets in the V77 from the simple to the bazaar. Often referred to as a poor mans Eventide, it certainly fills the void in my rack for lush choruses and stereo effects suitable for widening vocals, guitars and snare etc. and lets not forget the excellent reverbs which are smooth and lush also. The bonus is the digital in and out, provided via an 8 pin micro DIN connector unfortunately, but it can handle 24bit/44.1kHz and 24bit/48kHz signals only.

COOL AND HOT FOR ELECTRO MUSIC

By Rene Kirchner

Sound Quality 90%
Build Quality 90%
Usefullness 80%
Mojo/Funk 90%
Reliability 90%

Had the Unit in our studio. Very wide reverb sounds and somewhere between the Sony R7 and V77! So, some sort of secret weapon in a half rack car radio size. Our unit needed some service on the display.

THE SECRET SAUCE FOR ELECTRONIC MUSIC

By Governor

Sound Quality 90%
Build Quality 80%
Usefullness 100%
Mojo/Funk 90%
Reliability 90%

Got mine for dirt cheap, fitted a new Battery holder and did some general minor maintenance. It sounds great and weird if you make it, works great in Techno and Jungle/DnB settings. The presets are rubbish with the exeption of a few though.

LEGENDARY

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 100%
Build Quality 80%
Usefullness 100%
Mojo/Funk 100%
Reliability 80%

Who haven’t seen the video with the Juno60 hooked up to one of these? Made me buy a mint condition Juno60, and a Sony HR-MP5. Actually: 2 of them. Battery holder soldered, LCD backlight replaced, DC-DC fixed, EEPROM flashed with latest firmware, this unit is for eternety. It’s one of those miracle machines that should not be outstanding based on the parameters, but it does something to your brain. Forget the DSP-V77 — this is the stuff dreams are made of.

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 75%
Build Quality 80%
Usefullness 75%
Mojo/Funk 50%
Reliability 85%

Good but not great, if you are looking for a cheap DSP series unit, this is not it, save your money and buy a Sony DSP-V77, it is still the best of the bunch.

GLORIOUS REVERB

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 90%
Build Quality 90%
Usefullness 95%
Mojo/Funk 80%
Reliability 90%

I have owned this Sony for about 6 years now after having many ‘big’ name reverbs from Lexicon and EMT etc. Of all my hardware reverbs this is the one I choose to keep because the reverbs are so smooth and realistic.

GREAT SERIES OF EFFECTS

By Anonymous

Sound Quality 100%
Build Quality 100%
Usefullness 100%
Mojo/Funk 90%
Reliability 90%

I have all four of the Sony “7” series effects boxes, and I love them all. Wonderful clean sound, incredibly deep parameter control (some would say TOO deep!) and very simple to set into a mix. I love each of them: the R7, D7, M7 and F7.

MASSIVE MODULATIONS

By Stephen Parsick

Sound Quality 95%
Build Quality 80%
Usefullness 80%
Mojo/Funk 100%
Reliability 70%

Like all units from the DPS 7 range, the M7 suffers quite a bit from the over-indulgence of Sony’s engineers — it’s nice to have the option to tweak 300 parameters of a preset but is it really useful (or helpful, for that matter)? For this very reason, I stick with the numerous well-programmed presets on board which are truly impressive (the “Black Coral” chorus is one of the most useful and impressive-sounding choruses on synthesisers) and tailor them to my needs.

There is plenty of other useful stuff to mine it for and I’d be surprised if even the most demanding user wouldn’t find something to suit his applications. The build quality is very decent although huge LCDs, encoders, switches, and some electronic components might not exactly be built to last. It produces a lot of heat when in use so make sure there is ample space between this and the other units in a 19″ rack. I had some component part die on a D7 which resulted in ugly noises, and it was quite costly to repair. Also, the 7 series seems to eat away on CR2032 cells so be prepared to have a battery holder clip installed rather than the type of 2032 that is soldered to the main PCB directly.