The Alesis Microverb came out about 1986/7, and blew people even further away than it's equally cheap parent, the strangely shaped table-top Midiverb. It's difficult for noobs, new to the home-recording game to fully appreciate the impact these early budget digital reverb had when released. Early budget digital reverbs were possible due to changing affordable technology and their sound was subjectively WAY better than anything previously available to the home recordist at that time. People went nuts for these and Alesis must have sold possibly millions of these Microverb 1's... certainly high hundreds of thousands found their way into home studios all over the world!
Personally, I disliked the Midi-verb, despite what it offered at the time... it's not so bad, I just think the Microverb1 is better... you'll pay about the same for each.
The Microverb1 is 1/3rd rack length x 1U high... and you could at one time buy a special rack unit to house 3 of the Alesis 'Micro' unit range, side by side.... In effect. the rack is a top & bottom sheet, that sandwich the units together between 2 end cheeks with rack bolt holes... I suspect they still sell the rack.
The humble Microverb1 belies it's reverb power... No editing, not even eq... but 17 very usable presets... 2 gated reverbs, one longer than the other... 6 small rooms from what sounds like a coal bunker, up to a small hall, 7 large reverbs... from small hall to the final 'Infinate' style reverb, with huge decay and size..... ideal for dramatic fx & sci-fi.
personally, i prefer this Microverb1, to the Microverb2... even tho the version 2 is supposed to be better algorithms.... i prefer the V1, because simply, the reverbs have more variety... so whilst the version 2 reverbs may be slightly richer (?).... the 'difference' between the version 1 reverbs is more marked, so you get a better pallette... The Microverb features plates, and varieties of predelay... overall, i prefer it.
There aint much else... a wall-wart power supply... sometimes these blow, and it's like 25 squids to get a new one... probably half what you paid for a secondhand microverb1.
When my power supply went, I bought another cheap one with the polarity plug & socket on the cable that is reversible.... I simply ripped the end socket off the power supply unit-end lead.... opened up the microverb, and soldered the bare wires to the circuit board, where the two terminals for the old socket are... passing the wire first thru the hole where the old barrel-type 12V plug used to go... it's more reliable than the old socket & plug which can get twitchy and cut out sometimes..... you can simply disconnect the mains power unit/plug from the actual Microverb, by simply un-connecting the polarity plug.
Apart from the 17 FX algorythms selectable by a dial... therE is simply controls for INput... OUTput, and wet/dry.... with a small 3 colour LED for the signal IN indicator... orange for off... green for drive.. red for peak.
and that's all folks... simple as pie... instant great reverb.. not too detailed so it sits in the mix just right where other more expensive reverbs seem intrusive... the perfect first reverb... GET one today .. they are a steal secondhand!
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