GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN - Yamaha REV7

If you need a cheap reverb with quality, be sure to read this post further!

Despite you can find one for almost 100€ (I sold mine for only 125€), I think is a pretty nice sounding unit!

The best part is that it isn't just a reverb unit, it also features delay algorithms and several modulation effects (the symphonic algorithm is usually highly regarded), as well as the usual early reflections.


It isn't the most versatile unit, as you can only edit up to seven parameters for each of the algorithms (12 different ones).
You are also not able to consider very long reverb times (up to 10 seconds) or delay times (up to 1 second).

But on the plus side, you get a 3 band equaliser that you can edit very easily using the knobs available under the screen!
Not many reverbs feature an EQ that you can easily edit in the front panel, and that is definitely a nice plus (and actually one of the points that interested the buyer of my old unit)!

I know some people complain it has pretty metallic reverbs, but I never had problems with the sound of it and have always felt it was a pretty decent unit.

If you want to listen to how it can sound with a synth, I recorded some noodling I played with my Yamaha CS01II:

Demo 1

Demo 2

The Yamaha REV7 was the only effects processor used in each of those demos!


So, why did I get rid of it?

One of the main reason was definitely lack of space / use.

Despite I really like the sound, I felt it is a bit too noisy for the more ambient music I do.
It is perfectly usable (as I think you can notice in the demos, despite I mentioned noise in the title of one of them), you just have to play a bit with the gains, but that's one more thing you have to be careful with.

One other reason that made me sell this is unit is that, from what I could find online, the power supply can fail and it is really hard or impossible to repair...
My unit never showed any sign of problems with the power supply, and if it was being used constantly, I wouldn't really care about that.
But when you have the unit basically stored without getting any use for the last years, it starts making sense...


Would I get one again?

If I would have space available to put it and use it, definitely!

It's a great sounding unit and none of the issues I mentioned are really that significant when you take into account how inexpensive they are...

I'm not sure if it would get so much use considering the other reverbs I have (considerably more expensive units), but I'm sure it would still be useful once in a while.
It's still a classic unit, as you can check by counting how many famous musicians / producers have used them in the past (and probably still use them)!

So, if you need a cheap reverb, this is definitely one unit you should consider!