While demoing the SSL Duende X-verb I noticed the preset names seemed very familiar. I noticed the similarity to the Lexicon gear that i’m used to dealing with. That got my curiosity churning.Ā Time for a comparison I say. I pulled up some multitrack drum noodling & aĀ verb bus comparing both the X-verb & Lexicon m300. The result? It’s now of my opinion the X-verb team was influenced if not down right trying to replace the classic Lexicon hardware we know.
For the comparison I pulled up similar named presets on both the X-verb/ m300 & recorded the results @ 24/48.
MP3 Examples –
- 300 – Live Drum Room 300 – Live Drum Room
- X – Live Drum Room X – Live Drum Room
- 300 Studio A 300 Studio A
- X – Studio A X – Studio A
- 300 – Small hall 300 – Small hall
- X – Small hall X – Small hall
- 300 – Rich Plate 300 – Rich Plate
- X – Rich Plate X – Rich Plate
- 300 – rehearsal room 300 – rehearsal room
- X – rehearsal room X – rehearsal room
- 300 – large hall 300 – large hall
- X – large hall X – large hall
- 300 – Hanger 300 – Hanger
- X – Hanger X – Hanger
- 300 – Glossy Plate 300 – Glossy Plate
- X – Glossy Plate X – Glossy Plate
- 300 – Deep End 300 – Deep End
- X – Deep SpaceĀ X – Deep Space
- 300 – Dance Hall 300 – Dance Hall
- X – Dance Hall X – Dance Hall
- 300 – Church 300 – Church
- X – gothic Church X – gothic Church
- 300 – chamber 300 – chamber
- X – Natural chamber X – Natural chamber
- 300 – Brick Wall 300 – Brick Wall
- X – Brick Wall X – Brick Wall
Rough manual settings match –
After spending sometime with the inner control of X-Verb I feel one can re-create all of the āmagicā of the hardware we have come to expect. I didnāt find a āhole/limitationā of control or feature set. Good stuff.
original drum noodle. 24/48 .wav drum-noodle.wav
amazing!
thank you for this comparison!
They don’t sound much alike to me. The 300 has more air and energy.
i second doktorfuture:
they don’t sound much alike. and i agree that the 300 has more power and muce richer
you should have set up a blind test š
I think that while they don’t sound exactly the same (especially on the preset to preset comparisons, where the 300 usually sounds richer and fuller), they do sound remarkably similar, and most people would have a fairly hard time telling them apart in a mix – especially in light of the much closer sound of the “rough manual settings” matched comparisons.
I just wish I could use X-Verb in PTHD without it crashing it. š
Great work – thanks for these useful comparisons Eric!
Hey Phil, nice to see you around these parts. Yeah SSL is “working” on stability. We will see in June how well they deliver.
Thanks for posting the sound samples. I’m considering X-Verb myself after recently getting into the other Duende plugins.
I wonder how resource-hungry X-Verb will be when the Native versions are launched?
I’m impressed with the sound of X-Verb from these samples.
Thanks again.
IIRC, the algorithms for X-Verb were designed by Martin Lind (Warp69), who also did the algorithms for IK’s Classik Studio Reverb, and has released the LX480 through his own company, Relab. The other two algorithms were strongly Lexicon inspired – CSR by the PCM91, and the LX480 by the 480L. So my guess is that the X-Verb algorithms have a similar topology to the 480L era of Lexicon reverbs.
i am blown away by the work of said martin lind. x-verb, lx480, csr are my favourite digital reverbs. saved me a lot of money in overpriced lexicon hardware that i could invest in my EMT collection š – rhythm in mind, would you be so kind to compare impulse responces with the x-verb and the real 300? cheers!