by Jerry Vigil
After looking at Sony's PCM-2700 DAT machine last month, we were told about Sony's new DPS-R7 Digital Reverberator. "Sony makes reverb units?" Without further delay, the unit was delivered and the Test Drive began.
Installation of this single rack space unit was a snap with the option to use the balanced XLR inputs and outputs on the rear panel or the unbalanced quarter-inch jacks. A glance at the front panel offered a simple, easy to use layout that was very welcome. The large, 40-character by 2-line, backlit, LCD display was another welcome feature - the more information on the screen, the better! To the left, next to the power switch, are the input level controls for channels 1 and 2 of this stereo processor. Next to these controls is a knob labeled "DRY," and next to it, another labeled, "EFFECT." Great! No manual needed so far! Over to the right of the display are six buttons: LOAD, EDIT, BYPASS, HELP, SAVE, and ENTER -- self-explanatory enough, and, needless to say, the HELP button was quite interesting, having not seen one of these on a reverb or effects box. Finally, one last control, a data wheel to the far right of the front panel.
Give me some juice! The POWER button was pressed. The display lit up with extra large characters declaring, "DPS-R7." After a couple of seconds, the display read, "Good Afternoon" complete with a smiley-face character to the left of the screen! No kidding! The little guy's ears wiggled, and his mouth moved as the display unfurled copyright information and the software version number! After this little display of "user friendliness," the screen switched to one of the internal preset programs. (By the way, the unit was turned on again on Christmas Day, and, instead of being greeted with a "good morning" or "good afternoon," the greeting was, "Merry Christmas." Believe it...or not!)
A large "P" to the left of the screen indicated we were on one of the one hundred Preset programs in the unit. (When a user program is selected, a large "U" displays to designate a user memory.) This seemed like a good enough time to press the HELP button. The display scrolled the message, "Turn the dial to select and load the memory number." (Still no need for the manual!) As the one hundred preset programs were each checked out with a microphone for input, we came across reverb effects that this user has not heard from any other effects box before. Not only were there a number of very interesting effects, but they were extremely clean.
Beyond the one hundred preset programs is room for 256 User programs. Fifty of these slots were already occupied by additional programs we assume were provided by the factory. Again, many of these fifty programs offered effects not encountered before in other effects boxes. This is not to say that other effects boxes cannot create the same effects. Rather, it is the factory programming of the presets that is most unique.
So, what is the DPS-R7? Is it a reverb unit or an effects box? Well, you don't get 2-octave pitch shifting, sampling, distortion, and extensive delay programs; so one might classify the DPS-R7 as a very elaborate reverb unit.
Once the analog input signal is converted to a digital signal, the digital information is passed through what are called "processing blocks." The first block is the Input Block. The second is the Pre-Effect Block. The third is the Reverb Block. The fourth is the Post-Effect Block, and the final block is the Output Block. Each of the three effect blocks between the Input and Output Blocks has its own set of algorithms. The Pre-Effect Block has six algorithms which can be assigned to it. You get a Phase Shifter, a Flanger, a Stereo Equalizer, a Stereo Exciter + Stereo EQ, a Monaural Exciter + Monaural EQ, and a Gate. Each of these algorithms has their own set of parameters that can be adjusted. The algorithms containing EQ offer two, three, and four band EQ, depending upon whether or not the EQ is being used in the stereo or mono mode.
The Reverberation Block is the most extensive of the three effect blocks. This block can be divided into four "sub-blocks" defined as REVC (Reverberation Common), REVS (Reverberation Stereo), REV1 (Reverberation Unit 1), and REV2 (Reverberation Unit 2). There are ten algorithms available in these sub-blocks, and the algorithms can be classified into two types: Stereo In/Stereo Out, and Mono In/Stereo Out. The Stereo to Stereo algorithms are handled by the REVC and REVS sub-blocks. The Mono to Stereo algorithms are dealt with by the REV1 and REV2 sub-blocks as well as the REVC sub-block. Don't worry if this is getting a little confusing. The main point to get is that the algorithms use combinations of the four sub-blocks to achieve their basic effect. So, when you enter the edit mode of a particular program, you'll be exposed to parameters from one or more of these four sub-blocks.
Here are the ten algorithms available in the Reverberation Block: ("ST-ST" indicates a Stereo to Stereo algorithm, and "MONO-ST" indicates a Mono to Stereo algorithm.) Hall Reverberation (ST-ST), Room Reverberation (ST-ST), Plate Reverberation (ST-ST), Gate Reverberation (ST-ST), Early Reflection (ST-ST), Plate Reverberation (MONO-ST), Gate Reverberation (MONO-ST), Early Reflection (MONO-ST), Delay 1 (MONO-ST), and Delay 2 (MONO-ST). While the DPS-R7 does not have an extensive set of delay algorithms, the 2-tap delay utilized will provide a variety of mono and stereo delay programs with a maximum delay time a little over 1.5 seconds.
From the Reverberation Block, the signal then travels to the fourth effect block, or the Post-Effect Block. Here you have seven more algorithms to play with. They are: Phase Shifter, Flanger, Stereo Equalizer, Stereo Exciter + Stereo EQ, Monaural Exciter + Monaural EQ, Gate, and Auto Panner.
Basically, the DPS-R7 has three Effect Blocks or processors which can be used individually or in combination with each other. The result is the ability to have a program that provides one, single effect, such as gating, a delay, or a reverb effect; or you can combine effects and get several effects going at once, one or more from each effect block, depending upon which algorithms are used. For example, you could use the Flanger algorithm on the Pre-Effect Block, followed by the Hall Reverberation algorithm in the Reverberation Block, then add Stereo Exciter + Stereo EQ at the Post-Effect Block.
Using the DPS-R7 right out of the box is easy. There's no need to consult the manual just to select the programs and use them. The DRY and EFFECT level knobs do just what you'd expect them to, as does the INPUT level control. However, if you want to edit any of the programs, get a cup of coffee, grab the manual, sit down, and prepare for a little time getting to know your way around. Many abbreviations are used on the screen to indicate what algorithms are in use. If you don't know what these abbreviations stand for, you'll be lost. Also, if you don't understand the signal flow from Pre-Effect block, to Reverberation Block, to Post-Effect Block, you'll have difficulty understanding many things in the edit mode.
Once you've achieved a basic understanding of the abbreviations and signal flow, you're ready to look at some actual parameters in a program. If you like to play with parameters, you'll love experimenting with the DPS-R7. If you're not the type with the time or the inclination to delve into digital effects programming, the parameter section of the DPS-R7 will be a little more than you can handle. For example, Preset Program 1, "Brilliant Hall," has 108 adjustable parameters, and that's counting only those in the two Reverberation Sub-blocks and the Post-Effect block in use. The Pre-Effect block isn't even used in this program. And there are even more parameters in the Input Block and Output Block. Sure, there's the usual Reverb Time parameter, and it's easy enough to locate and adjust. But are you ready to deal with Time Scale, Cross Predelay Level Sync, Cross Early Reflection Phase, and Rotate Bass Frequency? How about Presence Control, Spread, and Reverb Phase Sync? Once again, this is an elaborate reverb unit. You'll need the manual and a good understanding of digital reverb units and how they work if you want to know exactly what you're doing in the edit mode. Then again, there's always the "creative radio production" method of editing digital effects boxes: Find a parameter, mess with it, and see what happens. (If you like this method and you change a setting and nothing happens, it's a good idea to return the parameter to where it was. If you don't know what it's supposed to do to begin with, chances are you probably don't know if adjusting it will affect another parameter.)
The extensive parameters don't stop in the reverb algorithms. Are you ready to play with the Hysteresis Level of the Gate algorithm? Or the LFO Start Point of the Autopan algorithm? Okay. You get the idea. Most radio producers won't ever find the time, let alone the need to mess with a large number of the parameters found in the DPS-R7. Fortunately, the 100+ programs in the unit provide such a wide variety of effects that editing may never be necessary. But should you decide to, editing is easy enough once you understand the layout of the unit.
Part of that ease comes from the "on-line" help function accessed by the HELP key. At any point in the program, pressing HELP will display a message explaining what you need to do to get to the next step. The help function can be set to automatic or manual. In the automatic mode, help messages constantly appear, telling you what to do next. In the manual mode, you have to press HELP to get the message.
Switching the help function between manual and automatic is done in yet another block of the DPS-R7 called the System Block. The System Block accesses fifteen parameters that control how the unit operates. From here, the unit can be set to accept a mono input or a stereo input. The unit can be set to load a program automatically as soon as it is selected, or by pressing ENTER once the program is selected. How quickly it loads the program in the "autoload" mode can be adjusted from 200ms to 1000ms. This is where the internal clock is set so the unit will know when to say, "Good Morning" and "Merry Christmas." You can also enter a user name and date of birth so that when the unit is turned on, on your birthday, it will display, "Happy Birthday (Your Name)." A "protect key" can be turned on that disables all controls and prevents use of the machine by anyone not knowing the "unlock" sequence. There's even a battery tester in the System Block to let you know when it's time to replace the battery to avoid losing user memory. What can one say? "It's a Sony."
And let's not forget the Memory Block. (No pun intended.) Parameters in this block control memory functions. Turn Memory Protect on to avoid overwriting an existing user program. Move programs from one memory location to another. Copy programs. Delete programs. Customize how the unit's "compare" function operates when comparing edited programs with the originals.
For you MIDI buffs, the DPS-R7 has a Local MIDI Block and a System MIDI Block that offer MIDI capabilities as comprehensive as we've seen.
Finally, there's the Block Load Block. This block lets you load blocks from other programs INTO the program you're editing. You can load just the Pre-Effect Block of another program, or just the Post-Effect Block, or both. You can load any one of the four Reverb Sub-blocks individually, or all of them at once. The Block Load function greatly speeds up the editing process when you want the reverb effects of one program combined with, let's say, the "Pre-Effect" settings of another program.
All program selection and data input is done with the data wheel. As you turn the wheel, you can feel subtle "notches" that are helpful when slight movements of the wheel are made. On the other hand, using the indentation on the wheel for your index finger, it's very easy to quickly "spin" your way from program 1 to program 100.
The DPS-R7 incorporates recently developed, 32-bit signal processing technology which results in high quality, high-speed effects processing. To the ear, this processing translates into very clean and very realistic reverbs. The sound of some of the various "hall" and "room" reverbs in the unit comes as close to the real thing as you can get.
The DPS-R7 lists for $1,295. For the ticket you get true stereo processing plus the ability to use the unit as two separate mono processors. You get a piece of digital equipment from a respected name in digital technology. The overall quality of the effects is superb, and the on-line help screens get a big plus.
Reported specs of the unit include 18-bit, linear quantization. The sampling frequency is 40kHz. The frequency response is 10Hz to 22kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 94dB as is the dynamic range. THD is less than .0035% (1kHz). An optional remote control, the RM-DPS7, is available.
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