So what, exactly, does NuVerb do?

As Bob Riordan of Lexicon puts it, NuVerb "shares silicon and software with the Lexicon 300." Much of the signal processing algorithms and architecture seem to be derived from the 300, and so there is more than a passing resemblance. Keeping in mind that Lexicon was trying to create a different product, not one that would just steal customers from the 300, there are significant differences and NuVerb has some control attributes and behaviors that are entirely different from the 300. Nonetheless, if you know anything about the 300, it'll help you ramp up the ol' learning curve to the NuVerb.

There are three operating modes, and each have specific goody sets. Single Mode treats NuVerb as a single stereophonic device with four different program families: Random Hall, Ambence, Rich Plate and Stereo Adjust. The Hall, Ambience and Plate families are pretty much what you'd expect, big libraries of halls, rooms and plates. More to the point, they are the Lexicon sounds that we have come to know and love, and there is no need to spend time extolling their virtues here. They sound great and are quite flexible. The Stereo Adjust program is something else. It is designed to help you set levels, EQ and stereo balance in a mastering context. This one is a real sleeper, because it does a lot of little subtle things. You'd better be prepared to spend some time with manual and a lot of time listening and experimenting. Once you get the hang of it, you are gonna feel like Clark Kent entering the phone booth when you start making your final masters. Power!

Dual Mono Mode and Cascade Mode divide NuVerb into two separate effects boxes. In Dual Mono they are run in parallel and in Cascade they are run in series. The program families available in these two modes are Split Chamber, Dual Delay, Compressor and PONS (Psychoacoustically Optimized Noise Shaping). The split Chambers are reverb programs without stereo integration, the Dual Delays provide two channels of delay patches with pretty comprehensive feedback and all-pass filtering options, the compressor is a stereo digital compressor with both compression and expansion capability (simultaneously) and the ability to delay the audio relative to the amplitude sensing (they call it "look-ahead compression") so you can have moderate attack times that are already at work by the time the transient arrives, heading off some of the more offensive and violent behavior of conventional analog compressors. Be careful using this when you are mixing multitrack, because you are gonna be shifting the compressed signal in time, and you need to keep in mind that you might not want to slip the kick drum, for instance, no matter how cool it sounds. PONS is a specialty item ostensibly for use when you are converting 20-bit data to 16-bit. It adds a controllable amount of dither to help with low-level digital audio behavior, and is seriously useful for the classical recordists who are really engaged in dealing with signal content 40 or more dB down.