The R1000 is Yamaha's first real entry into the market of digital reverberators. In 1983 analog reverbs such as springs and plates were still cheaper than digital machines, but didn't offer much customization at the lower end of the market. But this unit finally promised customizable digital echo at an affordable price (Roland presented a similar device in 1983, the SDE-2000, which was slightly more expensive).
Four reverberation modes can be selected, with decay times of 1.55, 1.62, 2.3 and 2.4 seconds.