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As in my other reviews on this site, I have written a detailed review on my experience over the years with the Rev 7 from its first appearance (when I first bought mine) to its usability today and how it has stood up against modern compatible reverbs.. as with all these things, some of which can be down to personal taste and different applications to which we use reverberation in music.

As time passes, I have seen a huge reduction in price and desirability in early hardware reverb units. This is now quite apparent with the big lexicons and certainly at the lower end of the market such as the SPX range and Roland’s early SRV range. Having used pretty much most of the reverbs on the market from the early eighties to the mid 90s, I now find myself buying the odd units that I don’t have because they are simply too cheap to pass by. The Yamaha Rev 5, now falls into that category and if you can find a good working one you can pay as little as $200 or less!

For this kind of money, I would challenge anyone to find better value for money. In terms of its usefulness, It needs no introduction or qualification but there are a few things that I would like to mention to anyone that is about to do the same as I have just done.

Most people that have used or heard a Rev 7 and SPX (I hope) will already know their sonic qualities. The Rev 5 (in my opinion) offers some subtle improvements in various parameters and better overall bandwidth than its predecessor. Moving on from the techie stuff, I’m still a fan of its predecessor rather than saying the rev five is an obvious replacement. To my ears, the later rev five is certainly cleaner, and the earlier reflections are somewhat improved, but it’s a personal preference as to whether they are better or not? I certainly am happy to have both units for different options.

From a technical point of you, one thing that I have discovered, is there is a definitive fault in the two digit LED failing on quite a few units that have come up for sale! Indeed, my own unit had a failed LED display and I managed to buy a complete unit that was already being scrapped on eBay and managed to salvage the parts to get mine going! If you can find a good working one, then they are well worth the money., but check out the LED and the LCD display (although that is very simple to replace) before you buy one.

I really liked my time with the Yamaha Rev5, it has many useful reverbs and the highly regarded Symphonic patch that is so revered on the SPX90. I probably should have kept it as I now miss it, so that has gotta mean something.

I bought one of these brand new back in the late 1980s and it was far better at the time than my trusty old spring reverb for percussion, but, even back then I found it to be quite noisy. By modern standards it’s quite harsh with a brittle sound. My favorite sounds was the flanged reverb, small rooms, and echo. These days I would probably not use one even it was given to me.

When I had my Yamaha Rev7 is was quite useful for snares and other instruments where a less than pristine reverb was required, I particularly liked it on brass and snares.

Do not forget that this is not only a reverb that goes well with a snare drum … I love the symphony patch on synths, guitars and voice!

Since the first day it came out, I have been a huge fan of the Rev 7. Back in 84, there was nothing in that price bracket and when it was released, it made a huge impact. At the time, I was working for a major music retailer in the UK and we had just seen the release of the Roland SRV 2000, and now Yamaha had brought out a “budget version” of their Rev 1.

In comparison to the Roland, I think the Rev 7 is better suited for percussive and gated Reverbs. This is not to say it cannot do beautiful vocal plates or be used to fill a huge string sound, but I use mine for shorter reverb effects. Naturally, with any multi effect unit, some effects are better than others, but I have to say, all in all, the Rev 7 isn’t bad at all.

Like most 80’s gear, its a little noisy, but nothing to get overly concerned about. You can find Rev7’s going very cheap now and most of them still work, but need a new EL backlight fitted which costs very little. I replaced all mine and it takes about 30 mins or so to do. Two of my Rev 7’s developed power supply issues with Voltage regulators blowing with age. Generally they are reliable, but don’t forget its 34 years old now !

Wonderful device, still relevant, still in service in the studios. Great for snare, brass and synths.

Grainy as hell and it has that typical 80s sound we all love to hate RRRrrrING.

When the SPX came out in 1985, I grabbed one straight away. It was roughly half the price of a Rev 7 and did a similar job, but with a few additions of pitch shifting and a crude short sampling mode that I can’t remember if the option to control by midi was available. The reverb and multi effects were the main attraction for me and it did those very well. Infact when put in comparison to the Rev 7’s reverb, it’s very close indeed. I still have two SPX’s in my studio today and occasionally they get used on percussion sounds, but are only relegated to secondary use because I have a lot of other reverbs to choose from. As a general summary, they are well worth the money they go for today.

My first piece of outboard gear was a Yamaha REV7, and the SPX90 was the second. The SPX I still have and use, and it has been at the heart of some of my best mixes. Sure some of the programs are “grainy” or “bright” but many of them sit perfectly and the Symphonic is worth the price of this unit alone. (The REV7 was traded to a friend for a 1968 sparkle-top Rhodes Suitcase, and while I miss the reverb, I was the winner in that trade, no question.

Lovely old-looking rack, it has a bunch of warm-sounding, old-school reverbs which, summed with its other delays and psychoacoustic effects make a good unit even nowadays, specially if you search those old ’80/’90 warm, soft sound. I recommend it for genres like Rock, Funk, Electronic and for some cool sounding Jazz; its too hot-sounding for stuff like metal. Overall a good fx (also cheap!) to have in your rack.