Keep an eye open for a Lexicon MPX500 or 550. You can upgrade a 500 to 550 (adds a digital compressor) with a ~$20 ROM that you could still get from Lexicon a few (ten) years ago.
eBay prices are far too high, but if you can find one in a local second hand shop for $50-$150, it is a good buy.
If you went for a Strymon Nightsky, not only would it give you a much better reverb than you have on the SP, but it would also provide with a nice experimenting playground.
For a good emulation of Lexicon reverbs, with no bells and whistles such as MIDI or tons of presets at all, UAFX Golden Reverberator is a great one, albeit not a good value for money option.
Btw beware of lower budget guitar pedals because you will probably have to reduce the volume on the source to avoid distortion if the pedal does not adapt to line level.
If your looking for a Madchester sound, you could try one of the Alesis. It’s not what they used, but the Midiverb 2 and Quadverb got that nice characterful verbs and the best bloom verbs for the money. Joy Division used the reverbs that were on sight at the studio, so big old tanks and rooms. Maybe you can experiment with doing the same if youve got the time and energy. Take a speaker that you can use like a portable bluetooth one or boombox if youre that old, and find a hall/church that isnt occupied. Even a tunnel will work. Play the stems on one side, and record the reverberation from the other. Adjust as needed. Might be a fun little experimentation that yields cool results.
Or look to see if the 404 offers a plate type verb or room verbs, I can’t remember off the top of my head. Youve got the four bnanks, so try to layer them in different configurations to achieve something close to what youre after. Who knows, you might stumble across a sound thats even better than what you were after, or one of them happy accidents that has been apart of the music making process since music recordings conception.
Valhalla has been mentioned, as they have great sounding verbs that are capable of achieving a wide variety of sounds. Their plate verbs are cool too.
I don’t know that I have any “this is how you get an amazing reverb sound” tips, but I generally think that putting a subtle delay or ko-do-ma in bus 1, with a high feedback (around 60-70) but low send (around 5-15) to get a bit of an echo, followed by bus 2 with either the Reverb (if you don’t mind that you can never go full wet), or SX Reverb (so you can adjust the reverb mix), helps get a really nice and fuller effect for the reverb, and you can more or less dial in what you want.
Obviously you could drop these two effects into bus 3 and 4, and have tons of space for performative and more destructive changes to the sound in bus 1 and bus 2.
I suspect you could get a bit more out of running bus 1 and 2 in parallel to each other, copying a sample to two pads and route one copy to bus 1, and the other copy to bus 2, which would likely open up a pretty vast array of additional sound design options.
I’ll take a few notes and see if there’s something I feel like working on for a session in the future.
I love the Eventide SP2016 reverb. It’s probably my main reason for getting an H90. Although I love all the clockworks effects, I use the plugin 100% of the time in the box.
That being said, I actually really dig the Roland reverb on the SPmk2 and V-Synth. I hate it on the TR8s. 
Try running the reverb into an amp or some drive. I think tone shaping is critical. I’m a resampling kind of SP person.
I don’t think a lot of people realize how much the Roland sound dominates or at least dominated electronic music. As you said in another thread, it’s Roland’s world and we’re just living in it.
Thanks so much!
This is already helpful, even as a proof-of-concept. I haven’t tried the ko-do-ma at all yet, but I’ll see if it adds some character. And I forgot there’s also an SX Reverb! I’ll try adding that to the chain too, or maybe running both in parallel to each other.
In this technique, I’m trying to use the 404 as a send/return effect (“EXT SOURCE”), not for a sample on a pad. I think the method works the same either way, though putting the vocal on a pad is probably easier to A/B test. Here’s what I’ve experimented with so far:
Method 1: Linear “A”
Bus 1: EQ --> Bus 2: Reverb --> Bus 3: EQ
Method 1: Linear “B”
Bus 1: EQ --> Bus 2: Reverb --> Bus 3: Reverb
Method 3: Parallel (also kind of an A/B test)
Bus 1: Reverb A
Bus 2: Reverb B
—> Bus 3: EQ
I’m also mixing the 404’s output with the clean vocal, so it’s just some ambiance I need from the 404, not the whole vocal in one signal.
Thanks again!
I’ve been running the 404 reverb through an EQ pedal, which helps a bit. Maybe I’ll try running it into a mic preamp to give it some fuzz around the edges, knock the shine off so it’s not to squeaky clean and “Rolandy.”
But your amp idea makes me wonder if I should just re-amp my vocals through my trusty Traynor YCV 40 guitar amp with the reverb knob cranked all the way to 10.
Why model at all when I have a real, physical spring sitting right next to me?
Note: I have no idea if this would actually sound good at all.
When in doubt, trust your ears over the internets.
I have this exact same amp, funnily enough. The reverb on it is not great, IMO. Plus a spring reverb on a vocal is going to give you a very different result than say a hall or plate setting on a pedal. Much more 60’s-y rather than a modern (or even 80’s) sound. Going to suggest again the HoF v1 pedal. It’s very versatile and pretty cheap used.
That’s funny, I love the reverb on mine, although it is an extremely specific sound. Very Venturesy.
Also, a little kick at just the right time creates a wonderful dubby thunder peal.
You’re right though that it may not sound great on vocals. I imagine it’d give my voice a real Lux Interior vibe, which may be fun I guess but probably not that useful.
Really, even if it sounded amazing, there’s no way I could track my vocals through an amp on the reg. What a pain! The thought of me of all people trying to mic it the same way every time . . . but maybe I’ll see how it sounds as a special effect.