Colin Fairbairn

Dynacord are perhaps best known for their vintage tape delays and the CLS-222 (which is considered to be one the best Leslie speaker simulators ever made). This still active German company actually has a much greater breadth of pro audio offerings from its history which deserve a look, the DRP-20 being one such piece.

The DRP-20 is a true stereo in stereo out digital reverb which debuted in 1989 at $2400. It features a distinctive white face place with some massive grey handles boldly protruding from the front. The handles alone are really reason enough to check this thing out as they makes any rack look that much more serious! Programming the DRP-20 is about as easy as it can get: there are large, clearly labeled buttons for all the primary functions and a very solid feeling knob for scrolling through parameters. The LCD readout is reminiscent of a Speak and Spell but it allows enough characters on the screen that nothing ever needs to be abbreviated and the font size is large enough to be clearly read from across the room, even in low light. There is the usual input meter as well as dedicated input and output knobs with an included “hi gain” input mode for plugging an instrument directly into the unit. The front panel features a dedicated “mono in” and “mono out” specifically for instrument use. This is a nice bonus for live use or if you just want to quickly audtion a sound with an instrument without having to reach around to the back of the unit to access the primary inputs and outputs.

The sound of the DRP-20 is truly unique. Users expecting something similar to the usual Lexicon or TC sounds will be pleasantly surprised by the Dynacord’s darker, smooth, and “moodier.” tone. The high end sounds like it starts to roll off quite a bit (but gracefully) at 10khz. The result is a decay that goes “chaaaaaa” instead of “ssssha” when you run a snare though it. All the expected ambience, hall, room, cathedral, and plate algorithms are present and each offers highly usable presets. The parameters are very intuitive to adjust and the changes that they make are obvious and powerful. The stand outs for me are the longer algorithms such as the plates and the cathedral as they provide a wonderfully rich decay which you can really crank up for Massive Attack-esque vocal effects. The character of the pre-delay on all of the reverb algorithms is one of the favorites of any unit which makes the DRP-20 a perfect candidate for blending sounds into another effects box. Also included are some very fun, but usable gated reverbs, delays, flangers, phasers, a beautiful chorus as well as Dynacord’s famous Leslie spinning speaker simulation.

In use, the Dynacord is clearly a “character” piece and not at all a “jack of all trades.” This does not mean that it isn’t useful, though. On the contrary, it excels on sibilant vocals and higher voices that would make other reverbs too shrill sounding. In a rock mix where you have the guitars panned out towards the edges of the stereo field, the DRP-20 provides a perfect ambience that helps tie the guitars down to the rest of the mix without making the edges of the mix overly bright. I found drums to really be hit or miss with the DRP-20. In some songs, it was just perfect on the snare, easily beating out other, more expensive boxes, while in other mixes, no matter what I tried, the Dynacord’s decay would just disappear in the mix no matter how I tried to “tweak” it. The unit’s self-noise also leaves a little bit to be desired, largely due to the fact that Dynacord didn’t feel the need to include balanced inputs (they later released the DRP-20x which would add balanced connections.) The chorus and Leslie algorithms are a great bonus and add a believable character to Hammond samples, electric pianos, guitars, and even vocals.

The Dynacord DRP-20 is really a “must have” for reverb aficionados. It’s distinctive sounds can really help add personality to a mix and certainly won’t fall victim to the “same old reverb” trap. While sort of a hit or miss type of piece, when the DRP-20 is the right box for a job, its really right and it easily deserves the same level of admiration that its German cousins have enjoyed.

Sound Samples:
Each sample features a preset with no parameters changed from the factory settings. Included are the dry sound sample, reverb return (wet signal), and the dry and wet signal combined.

Guitar Dry
Guitar Wet Only
Guitar Wet + Dry
Vocal Dry
Vocal Wet Only
Vocal Wet + Dry
Snare Dry
Snare Wet Only
Snare Wet + Dry

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.