TC Electronic Reverb 4000 review
| Posted in Music Technology
The TC Electronic Reverb 4000 is by no means a new product, having been around since 2003. However, its longevity in a market where a lot of studio gear is consigned to the scrapheap after a couple of years proves that any product like the 4000 which builds itself an oustanding reputation amongst pro and semi-pro owners alike, will remain in use for a lot longer than that.
The Reverb 4000 features 24-bit AD/DA converters and sample rates from 44.1 to 96kHz, and has 134 presets and 100 user locations. On screen editing is possible with the incuded ICON software for PC and Mac. There is a comprehensive range of I/Os on the rear panel including analogue, SPDIF, ADAT, optical and AEU/EBU. An optional PCMCIA memory card will hold another 100 user locations. The 4000 includes true stereo reverbs from the TC System 6000 as well as presets from the M5000.
The display screen is large and easily readable and the selected patch is diplayed by name and number. The presets are arranged in four groupings – Hall, Room, Plates and EFX. Scroll through the presets with the large knob, press recall and wait for the new setting to come up. There is a very slight muting of the original patch while the change is taking place but I can’t see a problem with this unless it happens during MIDI commands.
Auditioning reverb presets can be a long-winded affair but I set up a drum loop – real drums mind – and went to work, returning the outputs to an auxiliary channel in my ProTools session. The four individual groups are numbered from 001, 100, 200 and 300 to make the presets slightly easier to find, and I discovered immediately that the editing process was totally intuitive. Apart from the pre-delay, decay and hi-decay control wheels which adjust the main parameters of the reverb patches, there are two up and down buttons which bring up further editable parameters like damping, EQ and hi-cut. With most of the presets, I discovered that there was an unpleasant ‘shish’ sound on the reverb tail but it could be cured by reducing the hi-cut – in fact this method made for a much cleaner effect altogether.
The reverb emulations are superb, there simply isn’t anything unusable here. I particularly liked the EMT140 and EMT250 plates and there are some excellent small rooms as well. If the reverb plug-in you presently use is soaking up your CPU power, the Reverb 4000 is now a seriously affordable alternative. Ready for the scrapheap? Not yet. Unfortunately, time did not allow me to load the ICON editor but from all reports this also gets filed in the ‘no problem’ drawer. If there’s a space in your effects rack, I’d recommend a serious look at the TC Electronic Reverb 4000.
Tags: tc electronic reverb 4000