TC M-oneXL - Sweet, but not too sweet - just right

[T-rex]

Got this last night and ran it through the paces. I am really happy with it. I had two M2000s at one point and really loved them not to mention that you can get them for around $350 - $400 used. I went with some Lexicons this time around and they are nice, super lush but I missed the realism of my TC's, especially the rooms, ambience and the Medium Gold plate; well its back, for half the price of a cheap used M2000.

I felt immediately at home with this unit, it sounds pretty damn close to the M2000's I have used for the last four years precisely in the areas that the XL is supposed to excel at - namely small rooms, ambience etc. The plate is nice and there is a Gold Plate preset but its not as nice as the M2000 Gold Medium Plate. However I haven't tweaked it yet. Some of the combined presets are absolutely stellar though, right off the bat you get some nice sounds and nice combinations. It's not nearly as tweakable as the M2000, but I really don't think I will miss that. It has all the tweaks I ever used; pre-delay, decay etc. but I was never one to get knee deep into menus. Plus you can use it as two totally different engines which I can't with my MPX 550, except for certain presets - which is lame.

It looks a little cheap compared to the M2000 with its bright orange screen and the power button feels like an afterthought but this is primarily a low budget/live box. However, it totally has that nice but not too nice (hyped) TC reverb sound.

Anyone feel otherwise? I thought I would romanticize my M2000 and this wouldn't really touch them, but I got to say. I think this fills that hole completely.

[mjau]

I've had both the m2000 and the m-One XL and I totally agree - the M-One can get pretty close to the m2000 in certain areas. I really like both. I even like TC's cheap one - the m300? - as long as it's not doing too much heavy lifting.

[T-rex]

Cool, good to know that I am not totally crazy. I am having a really hard time getting the Lexicon reverbs to work. I am not sure whether I just prefer the TC sound or whether I just haven't had enough time with the Lexicons yet.

[joel hamilton]

The old TC boxes like the M2000 kill for short reverbs. I used "tiled room" on mine or "gold plate" like on EVERYTHING for years...
I have been using some bizarre roland and yamaha boxes lately for verb and delay and totally LOVING them. Both are inexpensive and both are totally kicking my butt... even with a plate in the house and a chamber and a bricasti and all that type of snazzocaster action... the old digital boxes are kind of rocking it for me right now. I have one up on the EMT140 just to make it widen out a little!!! HERESY!!

[T-rex]

I really wanted to buy some weird or crazy reverbs but I never found anything cool except a valve verb I missed out on. I still plan on getting a cool springs at some point.

[joel hamilton]

I really wanted to buy some weird or crazy reverbs but I never found anything cool except a valve verb I missed out on. I still plan on getting a cool springs at some point.

To me its the combination that matters... like an old SPX 90 into a pair of speakers in the live room as a "chamber" of sorts... or a spring INTO the SPX90... or a memory man into an MPX100... whatever. I have used the most ridiculous chains of diffusion/decay based FX to get a certain tone happening, and the added complexity of each box really made things get interesting...

[T-rex]

That's a great idea. I need to do that more, I have a couple of extra channels of reverb / efx now so I will have to try this more now.

Anything in particular you are looking for when you stack effects? Just more diffusion? Any tried and true points you usually start from? I have done this a few times in the past but not much more than the standard delay into a verb for some puffs of verb or verb into a delay. There are just so many options when you start stacking stuff like that, the options are endless. . .