New Music Gear Monday: Relab Development LX480 Reverb Plugin

If you were involved in any part of the analog recording age you know that Lexicon was the king of reverbs and that one type or another of the company’s hardware products would be found in any studio. The top of the line product for the company was the 480L and it was the standard in high-end studios everywhere. When mixing went into the box, the 480 was one hardware piece that everyone struggled to emulate. Now Relab Development brings the 480 back to life with its LX480, giving mixers not only the look, but the sound of the old standby.

First of all, the Relab LX480 recreates all the reverb algorithms of the original unit, which includes Random Hall, Hall, Room, Plate, Random Ambience and Twin Delays. Lise the original unit, the LX480 also has dual processor engines, which allows for 4 different routing possibilities – single unit operation with both engines working on the same algorithm; cascade, which routes one engine into the other; mono split allows each engine to run a separate algorithm in mono; and stereo split which allows each engine to run a separate algorithm but the inputs are routed to both engines.

The 480 was known for a couple of parameters that made the unit sound more realistic called Spin and Wander. These add modulation to the tails of the reverb algorithms to keep the resonances from building up, which means less of that metallic sound with pitched instruments. The LX480 also has these features, as well as all the other parameter features of the original, along with that familiar display (which can be user customizable).

The plugin does manage to improve on the original in a few ways as well, with higher density algorithms, continuous controls, additional filters for tonal shaping, more delay lines, and 96kHz support.

The Relab Development LX480 comes in two versions – the complete version which has everything described above, which is priced at $299, or a Hall-only version that has all of the hall algorithms, for $179. It will work on just about any type of computer with a minimum amount of horsepower and recent operating system, and on any DAW platform. You do need an iLok for the authorization though.

For more info, check out the dedicated page here, or the video below from Julian Rodgers at Pro Tools Expert.