JUST when we thought we'd got used to the name Vesta Fire — presumably a very hot boil-in-the-plastic curry derivative — we get thrown some new gadgets with "Vesta Kaza" on them by those ever-changing chaps at the Shi-ino Corp in Tokyo who make all this stuff. God bless 'em — where would we home recordists be without the most important bit of ancillary equipment, the lovable reverb unit?

But what's in a name? We're keen to hear this apparently much-improved stereo spring reverb that sits before us.

Name-changers they may be, but Vesta (better) have evidently had their ears open for criticisms of earlier reverb devices. The two areas of improvement most obvious on the RV3 are the eq knobs for each channel of reverb, and the built-in limiter to stop you overloading the inputs.

A slim panel greets us as we gaze at the colourful scheme of the RV3, all blues and reds and yellows. But first we should plug a few things in to hear the noises that are possible. And here we find a common problem: all the ins and outs — two of each — are jacks. How handy, in terms of using existing leads, it would be to be given the option of jacks and phonos on each interface.

A designated "mono" takes a single-source signal, or there's two for stereo ins — either "out" jack can be used for mono, or both for stereo, natch. That concludes the intercourse.

The limiter comes in automatically on high, spikey signals and did not seem to affect the actual quality — booting in a big fat snare from a drum machine had the limiter light coming on to show it was working, but the sound was unchanged. A good facility, then, as any wild noises going into a reverb can cause the results to be messy. Nice to be kept in line when it suits you.

Setting up the balance of your reverb sounds is controlled mainly by three knobs on each channel: Input level, Output level, and a Mix control for the balance of dry (unaffected, normal) and reverbed sound coming out. There's also an overall on/off switch for the presence or absence of reverb — it was silent through amps and not violent enough to crash the reverb spring. In fact only very rough shaking of the box caused the spring to undulate noisily.

The Mix and Input controls worked together in an interesting and slightly curious way. You can affect the "spread", as it were, of the mixture: with input right up (and its operation doesn't seem actually to affect input level), the speed with which the reverbed sound comes in as you turn the Mix knob from Dry slowly clockwise into Reverb seems much sharper and quicker. With the Input knob backed off more, reverb starts to come in at a similar point on the dial, but much more gradually and with less attack, around the sweep. This is useful in controlling the precise nature of the sound, but as far as the Input knob is concerned isn't what you'd immediately have expected, and isn't mentioned in the instruction sheet that comes with the RV3.

You can also be more precise in the sounds you end up with by working the three-way eq offered on both channels. This is extremely effective and, up to a point, lets you be much more creative (yes!) and, if you wish, outlandish with the effects generated by the RV3.

The eq is split at 100Hz, 800Hz, and 6K, plus-or-minus 10dB in the 800 and 12dB on the two extreme frequencies. Bass, middle and treble, effectively. But what does it do to the sound? Back to our trusty snare drum — how does the eq deal with that oft-used example? Flat, the controls have the RV3 dealing out a very fluttery reverb around the edge of the snare when you listen to the solo'd reverb sound by pushing the Mix knob fully clockwise. Not really what you'd be looking for if you wanted to give the snare a little "air" and less of a "close-miked" feel. 6K isn't helpful on boost, underlining the metallic ring of the drum machine, but cut helps tone things down, including the flutter. Boost at 800 brings out a chesty tang to the snare: again cut is more helpful, smoothing out the sound effectively.

And 100Hz boost gives a pleasant boominess in moderation. So a more useful reverb sound results when mixed back with the dry snare. The range of eq knobs is well chosen, and the facilities useful.

But, getting back to our snare for one last time, I couldn't really remove the fluttery element mentioned just now. The eq controls would not remove it entirely, and varied dabblings with Input, Output and Mix levels would not totally exclude it. It's a shame, because it meant that a subtle reverb, intended to give drums that airiness needed, was less than realistic. Admittedly, this is about the hardest test you can level at a reverb unit, but it's the sort of hard test you'd be wanting it to cope with. For more severe, less subtle and generally wilder reverb effects the RV3 coped admirably, in mono (source and out) and stereo (ditto), spreading a mono-in across the outputs effectively when asked to.

It also sits on top of your instrument amp if you want and gives your guitar or keyboard helpful wodges of reverb. Remember the sockets for ins and outs are on the back, though, if you want to swap around much. You could have two different reverb sounds set up for guitar, say, on each channel and leave a jack dangling out front to plug and replug your guitars as needed.

The RV3 packs in some good sound manipulation in a small, neat box, and is helpfully uncomplicated. You'll be well rewarded for all but exceptionally subtle reverbs, even if you throw wild inputs at it. But what we'd really like to know, of course, is what Kaze means.

VESTA KAZA RV-3 reverb: £215

CONTACT: MTR, (Contact Details)