OR-0039
Yumeo
Japan · 1985 – c. 2005
Ser. R-0412783
1993 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2026 from 1993 hardware.
Yumeo RV-1 — PureDigital Reverb
Yumeo RV-1 · digital reverb unit · restored from unit no. R-0412783 · Yumeo, Japan, 1993
The restorer's note
The reverb baked into a consumer deck's chip — short, sparse, metallic, the unglamorous grit the expensive boxes spent fortunes to avoid. Which is exactly why it sounds like nothing else today. Restored from an unremarkable, and therefore perfect, unit.
Acquisition
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The plate
The controls
The controls.
- Program Hall as issued
- Chooses the cheap-chip room — topology and density together: Hall, Room, Plate, Stage, or Vocal.
- Decay 0.20–5.00 s · 1.50 s as issued
- Sets how long the tank's feedback rings on, from 0.2 to 5 seconds, the short range of the original box.
- Tone 1.0–16.0 kHz · 5.0 kHz as issued
- Sets the high-frequency damping inside the feedback loop, from 1 to 16 kHz — the metallic colouring of the tail.
- Density 0–100 % · 40 % as issued
- Sets how many combs and allpasses run, from thin at 0 % to the fullest this chip allows at 100 % — it stays sparse throughout.
- Grain 12-bit as issued
- Chooses the delay memory's word length: 12-bit, the grittier original, or 16-bit, a cleaner alternative.
- Pre-delay 0–100 ms · 10 ms as issued
- Sets a silent gap before the tail begins.
- Input -24.00–24.00 dB · 0.00 dB as issued
- Sets the level going in, in decibels, before the signal reaches the restored circuit.
- Output -24.00–24.00 dB · 0.00 dB as issued
- Sets the level coming out, in decibels, after the restored circuit and the Mix blend.
- Mix 0–100 % · 30 % as issued
- Blends the restored circuit against the untouched signal at equal power, from the untouched signal alone at 0 % to the circuit alone at 100 %.
- Bypass Off as issued
- Takes the restored circuit out of the path and passes the untouched signal, delayed to match the circuit so nothing shifts in time.
A stored setup is a memory, shown where a track title would sit; the tray reads 03/12 ARCHIVE. The skip keys ◂◂ ▸▸ step through the memories without changing the sound, and PLAY loads the one shown. REC, then PLAY, opens a new memory's name, which starts as USER NN; TITLE EDIT renames a user memory. The skip keys change the letter, TITLE EDIT moves on, and PLAY stores it; the computer keyboard may type the name instead, Return storing and Escape cancelling as STOP does. ERASE clears a user memory on a second press.
Listening
Listening
Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.
The hall, plainly
Sticks and hits, dry, then into the Hall program at the factory Mix of 30 % — raised to 80 % at eighteen seconds so the tank itself can be heard. It is small, the tail is metallic, and neither is an accident.
0:00 / 0:30
Five programs, one chip
Program walks Hall, Room, Plate, Stage, Vocal — the same sparse chip wearing five names. On Vocal, Decay snaps to 0.2 seconds and then opens out to the full five.
0:00 / 0:30
Dark, sparse, twelve bits
Tone at 1 kHz, Density at 10 %, Pre-delay at 60 ms — a dark, clangy, deliberate space. At fourteen seconds Grain drops from 16-bit to 12-bit and the tail picks up its grit.
0:00 / 0:30