What could possibly budge your favourite ‘big box’ delay off your pedalboard? Meris might just have the answer...
To some, ‘big box’ delay pedals can be mind‑bogglingly complex puzzles but for others, including me, they’re an essential component in their effects setup. A Strymon Timeline has sat on my pedalboard since 2013, and it has solved so many tonal quandaries for me over the years. I might supplement it with an analogue delay from time to time but, generally, it has covered pretty much all bases, meaning that while I do keep a keen eye on what else is out there, vanishingly few other contenders have really grabbed my attention. One that has piqued my interest, though, is Meris’ LVX, a stereo, digital ‘modular delay system’ with 24‑bit/48kHz A‑D/D‑A conversion and 32‑bit floating‑point processing internally.
On The Menu
Designed and built in California, the LVX is encased in a sleek, white box, its top panel adorned with seven knobs, four switches and a screen. I like the minimal look, which sees only the required information printed on the faceplate, and as well as looking spacious it feels so, with none of the controls being bunched up. Each main rotary knob is labelled and that’s it! Now, I know that this will have some users of Meris’ older pedals crying “does this mean the Alt controls aren’t marked again?!” Well, you need not fear. This time, Meris have opted for a menu system, on a well‑lit LCD screen placed front and centre.
Now, I do understand that people can be averse to ‘menu diving’ on a pedal, of course, but Meris have managed to make this side of things incredibly easy, and while the pedal includes a huge amount of options, surfing through them really does feel very manageable. It’s nothing like, say, the experience of programming an FM synth, and I’m of the firm belief that you could start using the LVX without so much as a glance at the manual.
Each collection of effect options is broken down into modules, which include Delay, Preamp, Dynamics, Filter and Modulation. Alongside new algorithms, Meris have included key features from pedals like their Polymoon and Ottobit Jr. There’s even an alternative text view option if the default graphical layout isn’t to your taste — although personally I found the graphic setting far easier!
The back panel has separate jacks for the stereo L and R inputs, full‑size MIDI in and out DIN connectors (there’s a full CC list in the manual too, which makes it clear how to control/capture which parameters), a quarter‑inch Exp jack and a USB‑C port, for connecting to a computer for firmware updates. Power (at least 300mA is required) comes in through a standard 9V DC centre‑negative connector. There is also a handy LED to indicate if the pedal is set to its instrument or line mode, something you can change in the global settings menu. The two knobs below the screen, C1 and C2, are your main editing controls: C1 is used to select parameters, while C2 edits them. These can also be used to adjust user‑assigned favourite settings for each preset. In short, it may add up to being slightly more involved than turning a knob on a Boss pedal with your foot, but everything does feel easy to access and edit, even on the fly.
The LVX caters for guitars, synths and line‑level signals, as well as mono and stereo sources, and MIDI and expression pedal control.
Designing Delays
The process of making a new patch starts with the Delay module. A central ‘bubble’ states the module name, in this case Delay. There are several more bubbles orbiting around it, selectable with the C1 or C2 control knobs below the screen that I mentioned earlier, and each one contains a sub‑menu for the module. For instance, for Delay you can access the Type, Time, Left and Right Time Divisions, Feedback, Cross‑feed, Mod Amount and Structure.
The three delay types are Digital, BBD and Magnetic (a slightly saturated tape‑style delay), and they all sound fantastic; I compared the BBD model directly with some of my favourite analogue delay pedals and it held up extremely well. Structure reorganises the delay lines, allowing you to add delay taps and filters, and twist the delays into the ‘dual poly’ structure that’s been adapted from Meris’ wonderful Polymoon delay pedal (reviewed in SOS May 2018). There’s a whopping 2540 milliseconds (2.54 seconds) of delay time available here, double what’s offered by the Polymoon.
To the right of the screen, the C3 control knob is used for cycling through presets or pages of modules. Progressing from the Delay menu, a variety of effects can be added to the chain. Let’s use the Preamp as an example: there are many preamp types to choose from, including transistor, tube, op‑amp and bit crusher. For each, there are options to change the EQ, the gain and the level. My favourite feature, though, and arguably the most important when it comes to creating your own patches, is that you can specify where the effect sits in the signal chain. It can sit pre‑ or post‑delay, obviously, be set to effect‑only or to include the dry signal, and be placed in the feedback loop. How’s that for customisation?
Not enough? Well, you can take the customisation further by adding a Modifier to the preset. Choose from the several available modulation sources (LFOs, Envelope Generator, Sample & Hold and Sequencer), assign a destination (any parameter associated with a knob), and you can then set the speed, note division, assignment, and the min and max knob scale values to taste. This opens the door to a world of sonic experimentation, and the sense of movement you can add has the potential to really bring a patch to life. And if you prefer manual control over such modulation, you can plug an expression pedal into the dedicated jack input — this can be programmed to control up to six parameters simultaneously, and the settings can be saved at the individual preset level.
Once you’re happy with a patch, saving it is easy: press and hold the C3 knob. You can then name your preset and save it to a specific preset number. You can also add it to a favourites bank (a shortcut that provides direct access to three presets without you having to surf through all the banks) by holding down footswitches 1 and 2.
Loop The Loop
Of course, delay pedals don’t only do delay these days. Looping seems to be more popular than ever, and we’ve seen more and more delay pedals include this functionality. The LVX is one of them: it features a 60‑second stereo looper. Newcomers to looping needn’t fear: again, it’s really simple to operate, and users of devices like the Strymon Timeline or Line 6 DL4 will feel like they’re talking to an old friend. To enter looper mode, hold down the tap footswitch. Your footswitches now control Rec/Overdub, Play/Stop, FX 1 and FX 2. FX1 and 2 can be programmed in the Looper menu, with useful effects including reverse, half speed, retrigger and expression pedal warp. That last mode is, I think, unique: you can use an expression pedal to scrub through your loop, in forward or reverse.
You can also set the position of the looper (pre/post effects, within the feedback loop, and dry in/out). The looper is available at all times, so you can still move through your delay presets, though as the looper settings are tied to each preset you must make sure you have your effects set how you like them while cycling. Also, the LVX won’t remember your loops if a power cycle occurs, so if using the looper to write a song, you’ll want to record the results externally before switching off.
On Test
I’ve been using the LVX, both on my pedalboard and my desktop, for a while now, to process all sorts of sounds including guitars, synths, drums and vocals. Although it’s easy to get good results quickly, it’s a really deep tool and I’m still finding myself appreciating new nuances and stumbling across cool settings. To some extent, this comes with the territory; any ‘modular’ effect makes it possible to conjure up countless combinations. But even with that in mind there’s something really fresh and exciting about the LVX, because it never seems to get in the way.
On an active tracking or rehearsal session, I could create everything from simple delay lines to more eccentric stereo setups without ever needing to refer to a manual or search for a how‑to video. And on mixing or writing sessions I could happily lose myself in the creative side of the programming because I wasn’t getting lost in the menus! For instance, I was mixing an LP for American emo band Mush, and one song had a middle section where the band broke down to just electric guitar and vocals. During the tracking sessions, we’d recorded a decent guitar tone, but come mixdown it wasn’t ticking all the boxes we wanted in terms of ‘atmosphere’. Within minutes, I had the LVX hooked up to my patchbay and set up as a stereo send effect. I pulled up the Echo Cassette preset, made some quick edits to the modulation section, altered the delay divisions and tempo to suit the track, and printed the result into my DAW session. I then used the preamp section to apply a tube‑like saturation in the feedback loop, to keep the main effect clear but the repeats dirty. The result? Gorgeously spacious, stereo, warbly cassette delay that ticked that atmosphere box beautifully, and I’d achieved it in no time at all.
Every effect excels in its purpose and it’s quick and easy to tweak any of them to taste...
Years of careful work must have gone into the LVX’s development, inside and out, both on the audio side and the graphical interface. The feature set is certainly impressive, but really it’s going to be the LVX’s overall sound quality and ease of control that will earn it the most praise. Every effect excels in its purpose and it’s quick and easy to tweak any of them to taste, so the whole package can cover pretty much all your delay needs. With a stellar build quality to boot, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the LVX being the centrepiece of many pedalboards soon, as well as in studios and on synth rigs.
Effects Modules
All the processing modules in the LVX (with the exception of Poly Chroma) are stereo and can process the left and right audio signal completely independently. The elements can be placed before the delay lines, after the delay lines, in the feedback of the delay lines, as well as in the pre+dry path. These modules are:
- Dynamics (Compressor, Swell, Diffusion, Limiter)
- Preamp (Volume Pedal, Tube, Transistor, Op‑Amp, Drive, Bit Crusher)
- Filter (Ladder, State Variable, Comb, Parametric)
- Pitch (Poly Chroma, Harmony, Micro Tune, Mono Chroma, Lo‑fi)
- Modulation (Chorus, Flanger, Dynamic Flanger, Cassette, Barber Pole, Granulize, Ring Mod)
Pros
- Highly configurable modular patching.
- Easy‑to‑use menu system.
- True stereo processing.
- Works as well on a desktop as on a pedalboard.
Cons
- Worth it, but it’s a step up in price from other ‘big box’ delays.
Summary
A beautiful‑sounding, wonderfully versatile delay that can cover all bases and is mercifully easy to use.
