Yamaha SPX2000 (Recording, February 2004)

When the Yamaha SPX90 hit the market in 1985, it made a very big splash. It was programmable, unlike many "preset boxes" of that era. It was MIDI-controllable for certain parameters, not just program selection. It had a lot more than reverbs in it: there were delays, modulation effects like phasing and flanging, crude pitch shift algorithms, and effects rarely if ever seen in the digital world of 1985: automatic and triggered panning, on-the-fly sampling and sample playback, digital parametric equalization, and even a digital compressor (!). And all of this capability cost $745 retail, less on the street.

Suddenly, starter studios with small mixers and cassette multitracks had access to real digital effects that were programmable, MIDI-savvy, and affordable. The SPX90 became a staple in these studios, and a handy tool in many more upscale rooms as well. It was so cheap and did so much, why not have one?

As a result, the SPX90 became a standard tool of the trade. Everybody had one or knew someone who had one; everybody knew how to use one for all kinds of little jobs in every style of music – it was the lingua franca of cheap digital effects, the language everyone spoke.You knew what someone meant when they said a string part could use some Symphonic, or a keyboard line could be thickened up a little with Pitch Change B.

Of course, as popular as the SPX90 was then and still is now, it was by no means perfect. It was a 16-bit machine, but its clock speed was only 31.25 kHz; its usable frequency response only went out to about 12 kHz. That made it sound, uh, warm. Yeah, that's the ticket. Warm. (As in, 'no high end at all.') And the noise floor was something you just lived with, even on 1985's cassette systems.

It also set a standard for interfacing and control that was impressive in 1985 but very limited by today's standards: only one or two parameters controlled via MIDI per patch, no tempo sync, no word clock-heck, no digital I/O at all!

Many old SPX90 users find themselves wishing for the ease of use and familiar algorithms of their old box, combined with modern power and audio quality. And that's the essence of Yamaha's new SPX2000; it is not only a leading-edge 24-bit/96 kHz stereo effects box with analog and digital I/O, astounding bench specs, and tons of power, but it can be operated as a 24- bit/96 kHz, virtually noiseless SPX90.

Front and back
The SPX2000 looks like an SPX90 that's been put through some sort of science-fiction time machine to bring it into 2004. The general layout is familiar, but the older controls have been replaced and augmented with modern ones.

There's still a two-digit LED for a program number and an LCD for parameter and program information, but there's also a Bank button for multiple types of programs (see below) and the LCD tells you at a glance what type of program you're using via a multicolored backlight scheme: blue for reverbs, white for echo, pink for pitch shift, etc.

The original flimsy input level knob has been replaced with a large, smooth dual concentric left/right input level control, with a large LED ladder meter (switchable to input or output level), a mono/stereo input switch, and LEDs for analog or digital input, clock rate (up to 96 kHz), and MIDI activity. The SPX90's familiar dual 'crosses' of up/down buttons with other buttons for Store, Recall, etc., are still there, with slightly different functions and added Undo and Compare mini-buttons. And the old Utility, Bypass, and Foot Trigger (now Tap) buttons have been augmented with Parameter and Fine Parameter buttons (see below). A footswitch for Tap Tempo completes the front panel; there's no more Bypass footswitch jack.

In the rear, the SPX2000 is all modern and all business: balanced XLR and 1/4" TRS jacks for stereo in and out, with +4 dBu or -10 dBu [sic] settings for input and output, AES/EBU I/O on XLR, BNC word clock input, a USB connector, MIDI I/O, and a standard IEC 3-prong power cord socket with a grounding lug.

Bank on it
Using the SPX2000 is straightforward for anyone, and only slightly confusing to the long-time SPX90 user; the positions of the program and parameter up/down buttons have been reversed from the original, for instance, and parameters now have Back and Next buttons to go in both directions through the list rather than a single button to cycle through in one direction. This last tweak is important when using the SPX2000's more complicated algorithms.

Programs are organized into three Banks: Preset, User, and Classic. The Preset bank contains 97 programs illustrating all of the available higher-quality algorithms in the SPX2000; you program the unit by starting with a Preset that uses the algorithm you're interested in, and then saving it to one of the User bank's 99 slots when you're ready. (The User bank comes empty from the factory.) Finally, the Classic bank contains 25 presets, lifted directly from the SPX90 and also storable into the User bank after the appropriate tweaks.

What's old
Note that the Classic bank isn't a complete clone of the SPX90, but the omissions shouldn't bother anyone. The original SPX90 had 30 algorithms; the ones that are missing appear to be things like the digital compressor and parametric eq, some of which are simply done far better in the Preset bank and some of which are built into other more complex algorithms. There are four Reverbs: Hall, Room, Vocal, and Plate. They range from dark and dense to ringy and metallic, just like the originals. There are also two separate algorithms called Early Reflection 1 and 2; these have dramatically enhanced early reflection activity to simulate very live recording spaces. There are two stereo delay effects, two stereo flangers, a stereo phaser, and three choruses: A, B, and Symphonic, a richer effect that was one of the real standouts on the original SPX90. There are three different combinations of reverb and gating (including a reverse gate) as well.

The Classic bank is rounded out with four pitch change programs labelled A through D (A and D are single pitch shifts in mono, B is a dual pitch shift in mono, and C is a dual shift, hard panned L/R), an auto-panner, and two Freeze programs, A and B. Freeze A can manually or automatically capture roughly 3 seconds of mono audio, then play it back when triggered by a loud input signal or a MIDI or front-panel switch; Freeze B takes the captured audio and plays it at higher or lower pitch according to a MIDI keyboard input.

The 25 effect types in the Classic bank will thrill old hands with the SPX90.With few if any exceptions, they come up with familiar settings and sound very much like the old unit did. Well, with a lot more high end and a lot less noise, but we're not quibbling…

What's new
For people without a lot of loyalty to the old SPX90, the Preset bank will sell the SPX2000 on its own with no trouble at all. Here, the same general types of algorithms are available as on the old unit, but with more parameters to control and tweak, more options for external control, and way better sound quality all around. Since these programs have a lot more parameters than the Classic ones (including tempo sync and a lot of internal eq), they're broken into two sets: Parameters and Fine Parameters, accessed by two different buttons. In this way, more common parameters are grouped into short lists that are easy to navigate, and less-used ones are put elsewhere until needed. The algorithms in the Preset bank start with a wide assortment of reverbs: halls, plates, rooms, gated programs, even some special tweaks for use with drum machines. Some of them use conventional high-quality algorithms, but many are based on an entirely new reverb type that Yamaha calls REV-X.

The REV-X algorithm appears to offer more density and richness than the conventional programs, at the (minor) cost of more restricted parameter ranges. For example, a regular Hall can have a reverb time of 99 seconds, but a REV-X Hall tops out at (only!) 26 seconds or so. Since a 99-second reverb time is the stuff of science fiction, most users will happily accept the REV-X's 'limitations' in order to get at these amazing reverbs. They sound really, really good-a departure from Yamaha's usual bright, somewhat belllike reverbs, they feel heavier and more richly textured, tending to get out of the way and be "the room the instrument is in" rather than "the reverb added to the instrument."

Delay and modulation effects abound on the SPX2000. There are single, stereo, and left/center/right ping pong echoes, all manner of flangers, phasers, and choruses (including an updated Symphonic that will sell the SPX2000 all by itself!), and even a dynamic flanger and phaser whose parameters react to the level of incoming sounds, so the effects follow incoming transients. Tempo sync (see below) is available on all of these programs.

There are single and dual pitch shifters with 2-octave range vs. the Classic's single octave, and a huge number of filter algorithms. Here's why you won't miss the parametric eq of the SPX90: these filters sound great, and offer various combinations of peaking and shelving eq with resonance/Q adjustment and a wide variety of control from input signals, MIDI, and tempo sync.

There's a Freeze algorithm combining all the parameters of A and B plus a few extras, and a fantastic multiband dynamics processor with three independent frequency bands, each with its own series of compression, expansion, and limiting – unheard of in an affordable processor even a few years ago, now a lovely extra in a processor that wouldn't normally be purchased for dynamics control.

The Presets also include a ring modulator, a great rotary speaker simulator, gritty distortion and amp simulation, and a variety of combination effects, usually reverb and a delay or modulation effect either in parallel or in series (sometimes with the reverb first, sometimes with it last).

Utilities
The SPX2000 offers a very easy to use and powerful tempo sync feature set.You can tap a global tempo from a front panel button or footswitch, use MIDI Clocks, or use a MIDI controller to dial in your tempo. Each program stores a note value for synchronizable parameters to follow once they have a tempo, from 32nd-note triplets up to two whole notes. Delay times or modulation frequencies automatically track these note values as the tempo changes; some programs have more than one sync parameter, to create polyrhythms within a single effect.

The USB jack on the SPX2000 isn't for audio I/O, but for communication with a host computer; a free downloadable editor is scheduled for availability on Yamaha's website in March 2004. The editor isn't needed to save your work on the SPX2000, which has MIDI bulk dump capability built in.

Other safety and convenience features include an Undo button for reversing the most recent Store or Recall operation (with Redo), and three levels of security lockout to prevent anyone tampering with the unit's operation. Individual programs can be memory-protected as well to prevent editing or overwriting-a nice touch.

One is silver and the other is gold
Make new friends and keep the old, as the old song says. The SPX2000 allows you to do both. If you owned or still own an SPX90 and wish you could bring it into the 21st century, now you can. But you mustn't neglect the wide variety of incredibly good effects processing options the SPX2000 provides in its more modern algorithms.

We used the SPX2000 on vocals, string instruments, percussion, keyboards, and drum machines, and were simply stunned by how good everything sounded. If we have any warning at all where this machine is concerned, it's that you'll be tempted to overuse it on just about everything. Perhaps the biggest win is on old keyboards. If your synths have cruddy built-in "stereo" effects that turn everything to grainy mush and lack mono compatibility, send them as dry mono signals through the SPX2000 and breathe new life into them.

Yamaha hasn't released a rack effects processor in a while, but this one was worth the wait. Thumbs way up.

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Yamaha Corp. of America
6600 Orangethorpe Ave.
Buena Park, CA 90620
(714) 522-9011