The SDR1000 may represent Ibanez's first foray into the land of digital reverberation but it's a model that the market will have to take seriously.

Digital reverbs are no longer big news. Many are now so good that it is arguable whether any further technological improvements will yield any improvement in the subjective quality of the effect due to the inherent limitations of our hearing mechanism. Nevertheless, reverb does hold a unique position in the world of studio effects as it is one of the few effects that everyone experiences naturally every day of their lives. Reverberation should not therefore be considered as simply an 'add-on' effect. Because it's an inseparable part of all that we hear naturally, any artificial substitute must be utterly convincing. Anything less our ears will reject for the imperfect forgery that it is. It has taken several decades for the original theories on digital reverberation to be realised in a practical and affordable way but now the floodgates are open, digital reverb has arrived at a cost many can afford.

This model from Ibanez is very reasonably priced considering the facilities on offer but bear in mind that it isn't aimed at the very low budget end of the market. Instead it's targeted towards the more serious enthusiast and the smaller professional studio. The 1U rack format is obvious, and the fact that it is equipped with MIDI should come as no surprise, but it does have one or two tricks up its sleeve. The first is that it's a true stereo unit; both channels can be used independently if needed and there are facilities for setting up different parameters for each channel so that the unit can be used as two mono reverbs rather than a single stereo one when the need arises.

Secondly, Ibanez have to some extent followed the precedent set by the Yamaha SPX90 in that there are delay and autopanning facilities which may be called up as an alternative to reverb.

Reverberation makes heavy demands on computing speed due to the sheer amount of computation required to realise an effective reverb algorithm and so Ibanez have had a custom designed digital signal processor (DSP) specially built for them to cope with the problem. This is a 16-bit LSI (large scale integration) chip and has enabled them to keep the cost low at the same time as providing the basis for a professional quality system (and perhaps for future systems). Before ploughing into the heavy stuff, let's take a general overview.

Basically Speaking

The SDR1000 follows the currently accepted trend of offering one set of preset effects that we can't erase plus a set of user-programmable memories that can be filled with modified versions of the presets. In this case there are 30 presets and 70 user-programmable memories, which should be enough for most people. All the effects include a programmable 4-band EQ facility and the memories may be directly selected via MIDI, called up from the front panel controls or stepped through with a pair of footswitches. Furthermore, there is a DIN socket to take a more sophisticated footswitch selector unit but this was not available at the time of the review.

The reverb treatments include rooms, halls and plates with the addition of the obligatory gated and reverse effects. On top of this come the delays, which include multi-tapped options, autopanning and of course the intriguing possibilities opened up by programming the two channels separately. However, there are restrictions on just what you can set up in the two-channel mode, it's not quite the free for all that you might at first suppose. Also the system bandwidth is limited to 10kHz in all modes. The manufacturers argue that real life reverberation doesn't extend further than 10kHz but since when has real life had anything to do with what goes on in the studio? Also, extra bandwidth could come in handy when using the delay programs and I would have thought that autopanning could use all the bandwidth it could get.

All the controls are on the front panel plus an illuminated plasma readout and a dual LED ladder meter for the input channels. Most of the controls are in the form of push-buttons which incorporate some useful built-in LED prompts as we shall see later. Even on the rear panel there are options. The twin ins and outs are duplicated on both jacks and phonos and there's a push button choice between -20dB and +4dB operation. There are jacks for Program Up and Program Down footswitches as well as a Hold socket and a Bypass socket. Bypass is simply an effect defeat facility whilst Hold lets you freeze a reverbed sound indefinitely. All these accept fairly conventional footswitches and full details are provided in the manual. The remote DIN socket however only accepts the Ibanez foot controller.

As for the ubiquitous MIDI, there is In and Thru. No Out is necessary as the SDR1000 has nothing to say!

Parameters

Many of the controls used in setting up a reverb treatment can be set differently on each channel and the first of these is Early Reflection time which is similar to pre-delay except that it refers only to the early reflections. This is the time taken between the start of the dry input sound and the start of the following reflections. In nature this corresponds to the time difference between the direct sound reaching a listener and the first of the following reflections from walls and other reflective objects.

We also have the Early Reflection Level control. Any sound created in an enclosed environment will be followed by reflections of that sound as it bounces around from one wall to another and, if the room is large enough, these reflections may be heard as distinct and separate echoes before they rapidly build up into a complex mush. We define early reflections as those first few distinct reflections and these give the room most of its acoustic character. In a digital system, these may be controlled separately - from the following body of reverb, the latter equating to the sonic mush that I spoke of. In the treatment of vocals, it may be useful to increase the relative level of these early reflections to add presence and body without losing clarity. Depending on whether you choose a room, hall or plate, and depending on the size of the environment you are trying to simulate, these reflections will follow different patterns and will be differently spaced. Again the system is a little like the one adopted by Yamaha where the very first of these early reflections may be programmed to have its own amplitude and delay setting and is quite independent of the other early reflections. In practice it behaves just like a single delay added to the rest of the effect. The early reflection parameters are independently variable for both channels.

Reverb Time is straightforward, and this may be varied from a minimum of 0.3 seconds to a maximum of 99 seconds though these limits do depend on what reverb type you call up.

Pre-Delay Time determines the time between the original sound and the main body of reverberation and this is independent of the Early Reflections Delay time. In nature, these two parameters would be interlinked but having the option to change them separately adds to the creative potential of the unit, you also have the option to vary the way in which the high frequency component decays relative to the lower frequencies, because in most rooms, the walls and furnishings absorb high frequencies much more readily than low ones. This is electronically synthesised using a filter which modifies its response as the level dies away and 99 levels are available to choose from.

Phase is another parameter that you don't find on other digital reverbs. It gives you the option of inverting the phase of the Early Reflections relative to the main body of reverberation and leads to a different colouration.

Size is Important

The next parameter, Size, is very important as it determines the apparent size of the simulated environment and there are 16 levels to choose from. This modifies several parameters including the early reflection spacing and is a feature normally found only on high priced machines.

Both the Gated reverb and the Reverse effect are variable in duration and pre-delay may be incorporated as may the first early reflection. Again both channels may be set up to have different pre-delay values and different early reflection times and levels.

In the delay mode we can also treat both channels in different ways. It's possible to assign anything up to 23 taps and vary the feedback to provide multiple echoes. The delay time available is up to 1 second and you can do some useful things with pre-delay, but the multi-tapped function provides only equally spaced slots into which to program repeats which may be somewhat limiting. This feature might be handy for setting up a sequencer-like echo but the effect is otherwise pretty ordinary as there is no modulation facility so that chorus and flanging are impossible. This is a pity because although chorus units and flangers are quite cheap, it is possible to create some quite spectacular effects using multi-tapped delays for this purpose.

Used as an autopanner, the SDR1000 may be set to give a sweep rate between one sweep every ten seconds and 20 each second which is plenty. The depth too is variable from zero to full but there is no triggering facility, the sweep is free running only.

And finally, all these effects may be further modified by the action of the programmable 4-band equaliser which allows upto 12dB of cut or boost. This operates at centre frequencies of 100Hz, 400Hz, 1.6kHz and 6.4kHz. It's not possible to run any two different effects simultaneously except within the limitations of the dual reverb mode. You can't for example set one channel to reverb and one to delay or use the autopanner to process the reverb.

In the dual reverb mode, you are confined to a plate simulation but the other parameters may be set up as you need for each of the two channels. This could be used to add a really oddball stereo reverb to a mono input or could be used as two quite separate mono reverbs. I'm not convinced about mono reverb in the studio as it sounds so lifeless when compared to the stereo version but it may have more applications in live work where the room acoustics will add a bit of depth. Nevertheless, there are occasions when recording where you have to compromise and, in these circumstances, this is a valuable facility.

In Use

It is difficult to assess a unit such as this because there are so many parameters you can adjust that it's difficult to comment on the basic sound. It is however not a difficult machine to use as the programming buttons have built-in LEDs which illuminate at those times when pushing them would cause anything useful to happen. This saves you vainly prodding at a button that is currently asleep! Parameter values are displayed on the plasma readout as you adjust them and the operating sequence is very logical. The only daunting thing is the sheer number of parameters. A stereo reverb can have up to six different pre-delay values which is completely over the top. You have the initial early reflections, the later early reflections and the main reverb to think about, and these may be different for both channels! To be fair though, the operating system does make it easy for you to program both channels the same without punching in all the values twice, the logical programming saves a lot of frustration. Also it is nice to have the option to conjure up some really unusual treatments such as moving the initial reflection to the end of a reversed reverb pattern or leaving a gap between the end of the early reflections and the start of the main reverberation.

Once a few typical reverb simulations are set up, it is easier to comment on the subjective sound quality of the unit. The reverb decay doesn't have that metallic ringing common to less well designed units and the decay tail is very smooth; it doesnt end with a fizz. By varying the pre-delay slightly from one channel to the other, the stereo width can be artificially enhanced and the EQ makes it easy to tailor the sound to specific requirements. However, I do favour EQ with knobs to twiddle as messing about with up/down buttons is slow and frustrating.

The delay effects work quite straightforwardly as you might imagine but even with the limitations of a 10kHz bandwidth, they still sound pretty bright. The multi-tapped delay effects are really what you make of them and can be effective if you sync them to the rhythm of the piece of music you're working on. To this end, Ibanez have very thoughtfully included a conversion chart from tempo to delay time. In fact the whole handbook is far better than we have normally come to expect from the Japanese; being very informative and easy to understand.

The autopan section works perfectly well in so far as it goes but I have always found that the best panning effects are the ones triggered by sequencers or drum machines. There is no trigger option to allow that kind of experimentation but there are still some useful effects to be had such as rotary speaker simulations.

Then there's MIDI. The SDR1000's programs may be accessed by MIDI patch change information in the range 0 to 127 on anyone of 16 channels. Recognising the fact that the effect that you want for a given MIDI patch is not always stored in the location of the same number, you have the option of assigning the SDR1000's memories to specific MIDI patch numbers so that the right effect turns up to accompany the synth patch that you have just selected. If you want to operate the SDR1000 in Omni mode for any reason, simply select 0 as the MIDI channel, otherwise it will only respond to data on its appointed channel.

Conclusions

This is an extremely sophisticated reverb unit and one that incorporates some pretty advanced technology. It is to the designers' credit that they have paid attention to keeping the control sequence as logical as possible and the prompt LEDs built into the switches are a good idea.

The multi-effect approach I feel is a little half hearted though as much more could have been made of the delay function by allowing the user to vary the spacing of individual taps and I'm sure that a modulation facility wouldn't have overtaxed the designers. Likewise the autopanner would have been so much more useful had it had been made triggerable and the facility to pan the reverb treatments would have been most useful.

Comparisons are bound to be drawn between the SDR1000 and Yamaha's SPX90 but that wouldn't be entirely fair as the Ibanez's reverb quality is somewhat superior, even before you consider the extra flexibility offered by the sheer number of user variable parameters and the 2-channel operation feature. Some may ask whether there is any point in making reverb this variable as a lot of the more subtle differences are lost once the effect is incorporated into a mix. To a large extent that is true but I can think of a lot of novel uses for the extra parameters and of course you don't have to use them all if you don't want to. It's better to have a feature that you don't use than to have a use for a feature you haven't got. The limited 10kHz bandwidth may put off some serious users because, though high enough for the reproduction of virtually all natural reverberation effects, it is still on the low side for some specialist reverb tratments and certainly too low for serious delay and autopanning.

In the end, it all boils down to what is on offer for your money and there are more expensive reverbs on the market with similar bandwidths that have far less in the way of facilities. Beneath all the user options and programmable EQ, the basic reverb character is good with none of the vices that mar the performance of less well designed units and perhaps the presets could have been better chosen to demonstrate this. The only worry is that with so many parameters to vary, the less experienced user may find it easier to create bad sounds rather good ones. Mind you, this is of course where the generous selection of presets comes in because although they might not be quite what you want, they give you a good starting point and working from some sort of base is so much easier than starting from scratch.

The SDR1000 is a very impressive first step into the reverb market by Ibanez and it will be interesting to see what they come up with next. I've a feeling that a lot of SDR1000s will be bought in the very near future.

The SDR1000 costs £850 including VAT.

Further details are available from: FCN, (Contact Details).