Cheapest Lexicon Rack - Any Good? Lexicon MPX -100

[@tomquayleguitar]

I had one of these back in the day! I loved it. All I cared about was having the word Lexicon somewhere in my rig! Haha.

[@rockstarjazzcat]

It did what was needed!

[@LeonTodd]

"I see you have a machine that goes PING!"

[@rockstarjazzcat]

@@LeonTodd 😂

[@Swanlord05]

Beautiful unit .. your video made me buy one

[@lore88824]

HW rack stuff will always be way more fun to play with than a plugin, no matter what the depth and complexity a plug in can offer. The feeling of twisting a knob and hearing a result is not comparable to mouse fiddling in my opinion. Although I do have and love many plug ins, for pure, straight up guitar tones it looks like HW gets you there faster (provided it's already hooked up and ready to go). Plus, there's something in those boxes (probably the AD and DA) that gives the sound a "feel" I don't get from plugins. Or maybe I'm just an old poser from the 90s :-)

[@Nightdare]

I have to admit, the most fun I had with 'plugins' was back a while when I handled a copy of Reason 4, to see what I could do with soft-synths The 'racks' being modelled as actual 19" units mad it good fun to 'wire up'

[@VitoVitali]

It always sounds better too. I used to think it was my imagination but nah. Truly the hardware is part of the sound and cant just be coded in. The mpx racks destroy the plugin.

[@Swanlord05]

This stuff rules over any crap they got today......not even talking about the eventide harmonizers from the 80s n 90s yet

[@Swanlord05]

Yeah ....I'm a hands on guy.....I love racks and how they look

[@MrHungryman69]

That brings back memories I used one in my rack for a while, I think it sounds great.

[@LeonTodd]

Did you use it in a guitar rig or a studio style rack?

[@MrHungryman69]

I used it in my guitar rack live stuff for a short while then went to a didgitech something 200 ,I just don't remember what it was used that for a while and then I got a g-major 1 then the g-major 2, then the gforce and now the axefx3. I totally forgot that I also had a intellifex in there after the digitech.

[@TVoltG]

​@@LeonToddI just dug out all my rack gear and this of course was in my rack. Lol.

[@theirritatedirishman5440]

@@LeonTodd: Leon the MPX200 or MX 200 strictly for warm simple reverb VS TC G Major reverbs? Any opinion? Thanks.

[@MoedaParalela]

Great job. MPX100 is a beautiful hidden gem that deserves space in the gear. Congratulations from Brazil!

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah it punches well above it's weight

[@kennyh5083]

@@LeonTodd Great demo Leon! Your playing has really grown in leaps and bounds as well.

[@VitoVitali]

If people knew how good the chorus is on these they would shoot up in value. I already have 4 of them so im set.

[@railinly610]

Sometimes less is more. Hardware forever. Excellent demo video, thankyou.

[@luminousswan560]

I like the small form factor. I have an MX200 mounted in the back of my Fender MustangGT-100 that's connected to the FX loop to take much of the DSP load off of the amp by using the Lexicon for delay and reverb. Couldn't do this with a rack-mount unit that has a "standard" depth dimension. The width of the Mustang just happens to be perfect for this hack ...

[@BishopEddie5443]

WOW! Love your Guitar playing! I think I will keep my MPX 100 after hearing you play like that. THANK YOU!!!

[@mfsoab]

Just got that thing for under 40 bucks and gonna bolt it onto my pedal board! Originally I was looking for some decent but affordable delay and reverb pedals that I could use with my new Midi controller footswitch... and the whole affordability part went down the drain fast. Then I found the whole range of Lexicon and Alesis rack gear with Midi onboard and finally sniped the MPX-100 on ebay. If you take a look at the manual and especially the FX tables you can see, that this thing is capable of replacing a bunch of pedals, if you hook it up to a decent Midi footswitch. You can also store 16 own presets and control basically anything the physical knobs do via a midi switch/expression pedal on on the fly. Putting rack gear on the pedalboard may be somewhat unconventional, but I can integrate it nicely into my board, without loosing pedal space, and since I am running a high gain preamp pedal into a clean amp, this is basically where it belongs anyway... and i hate running a gazillion cables back and forth just to have it in the "real" FX Loop.

[@spetersonmusic]

Too cool. Your friend with all these boxes is a legend. Goodness, a trip to his studio would be jaw-dropping!

[@stevenmgyori3826]

" Created for those who don't know what they're doing!" That's right up My Alley! Not a " Bad" piece of gear! Thanks Leon and Brian! Be Well All!

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha me too

[@dan_perry]

That ending analogy....nailed it! 👍

[@coalfacechris1336]

Great vid, Leon. Proves that with rack gear, there is something for everyone, at every level. Another underrated piece is the TC M-One XL.

[@jcugnoni]

About 1 year ago (following your video on the Yamaha Symphonic sound) I found one MPX 100 and a Yamaha SPX900 for less than 200USD all together.. Absolutelly great combo for the money.. And it is all your 'fault'.. Thanks!

[@T0n3zon3]

I have an MPX1 which sounds great but is a bit of a nightmare to program. I have just bought an MPX100 to try up against it as I like the simple functionality of this as I only use a handful of presets for rehearsal/ live so this may well end up in my main rig.

[@Milton_Andrew]

I still have one of these. Paid $49 for it on a trip to the USA once. I found it had major tone suck when I bypassed it but did like the delay sounds.

[@budharvey5873]

Used the mpx100 with Nord Electro 2 keyboard and organ sound jumped to astounding with settings on 10 and Hall Chamber.

[@coreybray9834]

The Lexicon PCM 81 is still one of my favorite pieces of gear. Plus, without needing to do a crap ton of deep editing, many Lexicon racks will provide even blind musicians like me with a lot of flexability to design our overall sound. Thanks for demoing this other piece of Lexicon gear. Might have to pick one of those up to mess around with.

[@LeonTodd]

yeah the presets in lex stuff rule.

[@rockstarjazzcat]

Oh man, more gear I own, purchased new, from rigs past. Wasn’t for simplicity. Couldn’t afford fancier. Traveling Lexicon rep was interesting to talk to. Taught me about using reverb to adapt different spaces. The different modes use different routings and splits. Kinda need the manual. Reverb gourmet all the way. ;-) Main rig reverb. Set and forget in the switching system. ...and Lexicon never asked me to buy the same thing every year like Waves does.

[@rockstarjazzcat]

We purchased it for the algorithms found in the more expensive units, repackaged.

[@LeonTodd]

"Reverb Gourmet" 😂

[@HumbleHeartMinistry]

I have a headrush and I spend more time trying to get the tones dialed in than I do playing. I am old now, been playing for like 45 years, I like easy, and this lexicon sounds great to my ears, (your playing is also great!), but ya found one for like $80 bucks. And this and a distortion pedal is all I need! Thanks for the great review of this!

[@Ed-yj8ts]

This is a terrific demonstration of the MPX-100 and tasty playing I might add. Were you using the unit as a send return effects loop, or as a serial device after the amplifier simulator?

[@busywl69]

I had a Vortex. What an incredible and ingenious reverb and effects unit. Lexicon always made quality at every price point.

[@LeonTodd]

I'm trying to find one of those. lex rule!

[@busywl69]

@@LeonTodd try reverb. plenty there.

[@Burkhimself]

I used to consider these type units as something I would put in my guitar rack....as either a “set it & forget it” (& leave it on)...or when I played in a band with another guitarist, I played dry and kicked something like this unit (or some delay from an Alesis nanoverb-similar unit)) for a solo.......🤟🏼

[@CowabungaSurfaris]

Todd, great review and run through. I just bought one of these, based upon your video. I am putting together an analog 24 track studio; the DAW environment to me isn't fun at all. Move a mouse around and click and hold and so on ad infinitum? No thank you.....a patch bay, a set of good ears, and turning the knob until it sounds good. :-)

[@CowabungaSurfaris]

P.S. You are a very, extremely, uber fine guitarist. Come for the gear, stay for the riffs......

[@LeonTodd]

Glad it was helpful! What are you going to use this unit for in that setup?

[@CowabungaSurfaris]

@@LeonTodd Hi Leon. Thanks for asking! It's a real pleasure to speak with you. Golly, how good some folks have gotten. :-) The MPX 100 will be sitting in an outboard rack ready to be patched in the signal chain wherever it seems to work. Probably mostly for reverb, on snare, vocals, final mix... Lexicon and reverb, right? Also on hand, old school ART Alpha Multiverb, 2 BBE sonic maximizers, Aphex Aural exciter, Digitech DSP 16, and TC Helicon Voice Works. Tascam 24 channel desk. Other outboard gear: 4 different compressors (one a tube unit), a parametric and a dual 31 band EQ, and 4 different sounding Mic preamp/channel strips (two of these are tube). Lastly, an ART Pro VLA II and a TC Helicon Finalizer Express for final mixes.

[@LeonTodd]

@@CowabungaSurfaris that sounds like a fun setup. The verbs on this should sound sweet in a mix!

[@macabre2007]

The reverb was great for making programmed drums sound more realistic, just making it a kind of room reverb, so easy and professional sounding as well, yes now reverb pedals have evolved, but with evolution some values are lost, this reverb is like old studio deck reverb. it depends what other rack gear you had, but often just because it was so convenient the unit was and will have effects which users feel and felt proud of.

[@marktullo35]

I had one of these for years, then sold it...but just bought another one because of your demo, Leon. I never really got the full potential out of the unit but will be able to do so now. Thanks as usual my friend!

[@LeonTodd]

Cheap and cheerful little units hey!

[@marktullo35]

@@LeonTodd Just a simple, great sounding little beast...just adds a bit more to what my pedal board can give me.

[@burresseffects]

Mate...this thing sounds fucking awesome. Would love to hear its Van Hagar-era detune sounds!

[@theonlyegg]

I had one of these in High school in 1999. Wish I still had it!

[@harleyhexxe9806]

Good One Leon! I still have one of these. All of these compact rack Lexicon units came out when HARMAN bought Lexicon, and began changing things around. I believe you are right about this being good for a beginner getting into rack gear, and that was the idea, to streamline and simplify the user interface and let you dial in the most popular effects from much more complicated Lexicon processors. It's kind of funny in a way, because I used to talk a lot with Todd Langner when he was at ADA, and in the 90's, I ended up talking with him at HARMAN, where he was working for dbx! I ended up using a unit like this in my ADA rack, at Todd's advice, because it gave that rig the reverbs ADA didn't have. MIDI in all of those rack units is pretty lame though, You only have MIDI on channel 1, and you can't map it. If you're using a MIDI preamp, or any other effects in the rig, this would need a separate MIDI controller, or a controller capable of sending independent program change commands on several channels simultaneously. Loved the video! I could tell you're having a blast with that little box! I'd like to see what you'd do with an Alex, or Vortex.

[@RoyChartier]

It is a Lexicon. It also has the Lexichip3 which is the same reverb in the MPX110, 200, 300, 500, 550. Immense value for the price.

[@LeonTodd]

Hard to go past anything Lexicon with those specs

[@coldshotblues]

Still use one in our live set up for vocal verbs.

[@gizemkayhan9245]

i grab one because of this video it is exactly what you play here better than most individual effect pedals

[@leviathan0232]

A friend of mine just gave me one of these and I’m super excited to try it out now!

[@McLeanAB88]

I would love to hear the delays on this unit (which I owned for a long time) compared to the Eventide Rose (which I now have and LOVE). The Rose reminds me of the PCM 41/42 in tone.

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah the Rose is the closest thing I've tried to an old DDL like the PCM/SDE

[@McLeanAB88]

@@LeonTodd And by the way, thanks for all the vids... love 'em. You've made the Horizon Apex sound better than anyone else so far!

[@frankie_ghiloni]

Love the channel and you’re playing is phenomenal!🔥 Ive snagged a couple of the units you’ve covered!🙌🏻 every video I keep asking myself the same question... Whats the name of the song that you play often from video to video? You play it at 13:20 in this video… thanks and keep up the great work🙏🏻

[@LeonTodd]

Thanks mate! That's a Ragdoll song called Heaven Above

[@mrparkinson]

The MPX-100 is like a complex Lexicon Alex. Now that is a stripped down box... but once again, like the MPX-100 it sounds great too!

[@LeonTodd]

Been eyeing an Alex on Reverb funnily enough!

[@mrparkinson]

@@LeonTodd Id lend you mine (and my Lexicon Reflex), but its a long commute from Canada, haha.

[@christopherecatalano]

I still have mine. There is an amazing little 2 second looper that decays very slowly, so have to keep feeding it (it is under the special FX category). Many newer looping pedals have finally caught on and introduced the option to naturally degrade the loops so you are doing a sound on sound, Frippertronic thing in no time. I obsessed on looping that way for three years, tracking an entire album to an Akai mg614 4 track using the composite loops as my groove tracks. No way to quantize it, so I just went for it, building it all up until the inevitable train wreck🤣. There is also 1 modulated reverb in there that I have yet to find an equivalent in pedal form. Eerie surf perfection. It would have been better had if it had a little pre mojo built in…

[@CrowMagnumMan2024]

Enjoyed your demo of the MXP-100...trying to use a midi foot controller with mine but find the manual enigmatic on how to program the device for midi....any advice would be greatly appreciated......thanks

[@Widdy5150]

I've just purchased this because of this video & wanted to know how you connected it to your fractal? Cheers 👍🏻👍🏻

[@LeonTodd]

Just using out2/in2

[@everettemackdrew4146]

Back on the day, I bought this unit and a Tascam 424 mkiii. I miss it and thats why i searched this. Lol sounded awesome, still does

[@jamesprice6381]

My 1st run Intellifex does NOT do DELAYS like this one! Its an INCREDIBLE unit imho I had LXP-5s that died n i was n still am HEART BROKEN< this unit might make my day bro Todd!

[@robertlevasseur8896]

yes, yes it does

[@Widdy5150]

Great unit, great presentation. How did you connect it to Fractal? 👍🏻

[@whatsyours6059]

Who stayed for the guitar chops?

[@thefruitfarmer3000]

I used to have one and it sounded really nice, especially the small room emulations.~ I eventually sold it because it doesn't allow you to adjust the pre delay time.

[@waynegardner9487]

Tap is used to set the delay time of certain echo‑type effects or the pre‑delay time of some reverb patches.

[@edrei34]

Leon , what's your signal chain here, I got the same unit that seem to suck and loose definition in the FX loop, did you plug in to the front of the amp, is there a reset or Fx Loop program setup I need to do in the unit ? awesome videos by the way.

[@TheVanhelen]

Thank you for the review. Leon, have a nice day.

[@jcugnoni]

Ps: by the way you can also control the amount or some parameter of each effect in 'dual mode' with the effect lvl/bal pot

[@cliftonwright7081]

I found one of these in a bucket recently. Still trying to find a power supply.

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha bargain bucket

[@TVoltG]

Let me know if you can find two and pass one along to me. 😆

[@lundsweden]

Yeah, I got a Lexicon in my rack! Sound cooler than I have a Vahalla reverb plug in my DAW! (By the way, I have both)

[@jamescaldwell982]

Hey Mr Todd . Thinking of grabbing one of these units . Does $200 AU seem fair ? Rock on ! 🤘

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah that's pretty reasonable

[@TVoltG]

I have one of those that was given to me and I have never tried it. It's packed in my barn. Going grab a coffee and watch and see if I should dig it out. Thanks Leon.

[@RadOGuitar]

with one was be better for live playing ? MPX 100 or MPX500 ? i read MPX 1 have swiching lag ? MPX 100 and MPX 500 have it too ?

[@andrewsmall4865]

Shots fired at 12:00 - that got a good chuckle.

[@marekberanek3358]

Hi, nice demo and playing ;) Please, can you tell me name of the riff/song at 19:30? Thank you.

[@simonefalzetti]

I recently bought one for myself (used but in great condition box and all) and while looking around the internet i saw that some units came with a pedal. A Lexicon branded pedal. Did your unit came with it, mine didn't

[@stuartrouse7851]

please do an i depth run down on a Rocktron intellifex LTD and how to program a midi mate foot controller! because watching your video's made me go out and build a total rackmount rig!? all Rocktron of course!!!

[@markwarner2257]

I still have mine. It was in my live rig for a long time and is now is in my studio rack. BTW when you were trying the combined presets you may have overlooked that the Effect Lvl/bal knob was hard right? The knobs purpose is different between single presets and combined presets.

[@LeonTodd]

Aaaaaaah yeah I missed that! Makes sense

[@jesterraj]

How bout the outfield your love into was that a gated reverb?Caribbean viewer here

[@shckltnebay]

If you got a moment, did you plug straight into the unit or is there any type of pre amp?

[@spunkadellic]

You did it wrong. The “effects level balance “ blends effect 1 and effect 2 together. You basically only played effect 2 the entire time.

[@Bembrunt]

I wish I could play the guitar, the guitar is one of the most beautiful instruments... greetings from Germany

[@bazookahorse]

Came for the Lexicon demos but subbed for the stank face.

[@stuartrouse7851]

love your video's by the way!!

[@TempoDrift1480]

Fuck that amp is rippin at the 9:40 mark.

[@AngusClarkGTR]

As you said, this was Lexicon’s venture into the lower price points, which was driven by the success of brands like Alesis - who CRUSHED that segment of the market. So Lexicon actually had these made by Digitech. And consequently the build quality sucks. Digitech had a similar deal with dbx at the same time. I had a connection at digitech at the time and got an mpx (it had a display on it though). It sucked. It broke.

[@LeonTodd]

"It sucked. It broke." would describe A LOT of gear from that era I imagine.

[@AngusClarkGTR]

@@LeonTodd see if you can find a Digitech IPS33 (maybe its IPS33B?) The intelligent harmonizer.

[@LeonTodd]

been eyeing for one, heard some clips that sound really good

[@AngusClarkGTR]

@@LeonTodd it was amazing for it’s time. But it was a nightmare to control.

[@tuneroneff]

This!!!!!! Is what hapend when people KNOW how to use units like this one.😮😮😮😮😮 Thank you so much for sharing your knowlege. Gladly suscriver.

[@jacobvddoes4121]

You can find the mpx 500 for about $150 on reverb

[@ian1eh944]

There is a cool 6-bit delay in that unit that is very grainy..... Cheers! :)

[@MarkSobkowiak-tk8up]

I had a 110....Hated it. spend another c-note & get an Intellifex

[@yuliang1229]

Hi, i own a FX3 . Even a MPX-100 can do something specially beyond FX3 ? Like sound,etc

[@LeonTodd]

Nah

[@donaldfewell8908]

I miss my MPX-100.

[@scotttower5115]

I bought this unit for $80 from a church that went all digital. Lexicon is classic.

[@jelledevries1201]

Nicely played..! 😃

[@mikeolson4645]

I'm going to borrow one to clown around with thru my studio amps. best way to hook it up to an amp effects loop?

[@mikeolson4645]

Ok, sorry I asked.. :(

[@drummer4hire12]

Great video, great talent, great personality!!!

[@LeonTodd]

Wow, thank you!

[@wakjob961]

I think we all had one of those at some point...mine fried.

[@aleksandrlevterov8385]

Спасибо за видео! Очень интересно было

[@dstrats]

That is very similar to an Alesis Microverb III

[@Swanlord05]

We have fingers....we love hardware ....period

[@djdrummernick]

do a lexicon 300 old one for us see get one mind-blowing still beats out fm3 reverbs

[@LeonTodd]

Oh man the 300 would be a dream to demo

[@johnsaras1]

When auditioning a chorus one must always play Rush. It is written.

[@travisrusselldc]

Ha! Plate and gate, a gourmet Denny’s... 😂

[@Yupppi]

Nothing to write home about, simple and basic. Some sounds were fine but a bit bland, some were kinda bad, but not in the same way as some classics that it turns into an interesting effect. Certainly affordable in price and sound, they're a bit (a lot) sterile. Basically the stuff that created the image of "the multieffects sounds" for the 2000's. Nothing that makes you excited, but does the effect without issues. I'd assume that at this point Lexicon was just a name on the front panel. Tough to say if a multieffects pedal was a better decision, there's still some heritage in what kind of sounds they put in this, that don't necessarily appear in multieffects pedals. If it had the same menus as the previous units, I bet you could force some fancier sounds out of it. And pay a lot more for just a decent unit. Although a couple of good old stomp boxes of choice might be a better purchase, like Boss, MXR and EHX. A couple of really good affordable sounds and the ability to tweak them. I can now see what people meant when they said that if you can't get a PCM, get MPX1 (or G2) but don't stray any further into MPX/MX. Not for magical sounds on guitars that you can't get elsewhere. You tend to see a lot of these or the MX series units on sale today for pennies, from the home studios and PA racks, and this unit gives me just that vibe. For someone who needs those sounds in their work, but doesn't really nerd about the sounds. Just needs to get the job done.

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah MPX-1 is a real ripper

[@donlee5722]

Kiss and Pat Travers!? 👍

[@bigstick5278]

Lol.. Love your Stank Face!!

[@RyanAmplification]

Woah are you a coffee guy?

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah the last few years I've really been into it

[@RyanAmplification]

@@LeonTodd nice man me too. James Hoffman got me started and I have been exploring the world of coffee with my wife for the last year or so!

[@LeonTodd]

@@RyanAmplification yep, another Jim Hoff acolyte here!

[@RyanAmplification]

@@LeonTodd hell yeah man! If you ever want to try locally roasted coffee from Phoenix AZ I would send you some!

[@RockmannMusic]

Might be kind of OK-ish on guitar . .otherwise, no, not "any good"

[@VitoVitali]

I knew quite a few pro producers who used the mpx line on all sorts of stuff.

[@letch1529]

plugins require cpu cycles. i'd rather have cool old hardware.