Sony DPS-V77 Multi Effects Processor

I’m still getting to know this unit. I recently changed the battery and capacitors. It’s remarkably clean sounding with good headroom. It has a handful of excellent presets but the rest are sort of snore boring. I was hoping this unit would have similarly cool and useful presets like its brother the V55 but unfortunately not even close. The V55 had stellar presets IMO but its quality doesn’t even compare to the V77. This is light years ahead sonically in every regard. Clearly I need to dig in and create presets I like but out of the ones I have taken a shine to I can say that they are splendid. There’s obviously a great deal of power inside this box and I can’t wait to unleash it all.

I’ve had mine since the early 2Ks and am still finding uses for this machine, live and in the studio. I used to carry it around to gigs, as my main (and sometimes only) FX unit. The 2 machines covered my basic FOH FX needs, and it provided me with a consistent and repeatable drum and vocal sound, no matter what the P.A. Cos. would provide. I‘ve used it as digital hardware plugin via S/PDIF in a DAW. I‘ve made digital IRs of my favorite presets, which gives me multiple virtual V77s. And tomorrow I‘ll be using it as master P.A. processor with a total of 8 bands of stereo parametric EQ and a final limiter for speaker protection. The 75% for mojo/funk aren‘t a negative thing…I just find this unit very clean, serious and professional.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.