Alesis Microverb instruction manual c. 1986
Digital reverb became a big thing in the 1980s (actually, too big a thing – to the point of being a fad – so that many tracks from that period are to a degree ruined by excessive reverb on everything) but it was expensive. The state-of-the-art Lexicon and AMS reverb units cost a fortune and only professional studios could afford them. Home recordists were stuck with poor quality mechanical spring reverb.
Then, around 1986, the Microverb came on the market at £249. That might seem expensive now, when free plug-ins can do just as good a job, but the comparison then was with the Lexicon and AMS units that cost thousands. Unlike those, the Microverb is not programmable, so you can’t tweak the decay time, ‘liveness’ of the ‘room’ etc. etc., but the presets are quite varied, and the quality of the reverb is excellent. I bought mine in late 1986 or 1987 and used it for many years. In fact, I still have it, but I stopped making music and all my old hardware equipment is in storage.
