so after 2 years with hardly any guitar time with birth of second child I am starting to get a little time again to actually turn on my amp and pedal board, and it's super fun I spent years as a pedal hound and have bought and sold so much stuff. Im pretty set on my stuff now but I don't really have a reverb. I'm using a seraphim not in shimmer mode as a reverb and it sounds good, but reverb setting wise it very limited . think I'm going to sell it and put the money toward part cost of a flexible reverb . shimmer thing is overdone anway and other multi pedals do it these days had some time yesterday and tried a Strymon blue sky in a shop . It sounded good , but Im just playing for fun these days, want something with more to tinker with . more reverb types I have a timeline and like it so big sky is a maybe , I also own a bunch of empress stuff so am a fan of them , so thats a maybe as well . I read good things about source audio reverb as well I owned a hall of fame v1 way back and it sounded decnet but I ended up selling it . never sounded as lush as I would like. Any other to check out in the higher end stuff recommended other than these 3, free the tone, Keeley , eventitie ?
Empress echo station Empress reverb Strymon bigsky Dr scientist atmosphere (smaller footprint, stupid powerful) Whatever chase bliss has done lately Eventide space Eventide H9 Off the top of my head.
Source Audio Ventris (Dual Reverb) Electro Harmonix Ocean's 12 @budda Chase Bliss has the Dark World reverb but it's pretty much on par with a Blue Sky in terms of options. There's a toggle switch for Spring, Plate & Hall and another for Mod, Shimmer & Black. Not even remotely close to as many options as the others you mentioned.
I have a chase bliss tonal recall and it sounds amazing. but its pretty crazy sounding . need some tame reverb too . its also out of stock till who knows when dr scientist is a good option to explore actually
I think you would be very pleased with an EHX oceans 11. Super under rated, super flexible, tons of “hidden” features and settings if you read the manual. Overall my favorite reverb to date especially for big-hall/cathedral type settings. I’m going to try a Neunaber Immerse next and if it doesn’t deliver in spades I’m going straight back to the Oceans 11.
Hard to go wrong with a Big Sky, especially since you already have a Timeline and want more flexibility than what the Blue Sky has to offer. The Cloud and Chorale modes are worth the price alone, not to mention how good the more traditional modes are. If you don't need midi, you might also check out the Flint. I currently own a Big Sky and a Flint and they're different enough than I don't feel like I have to "choose" between keeping one or the other. I've also owned a Blue Sky and the Flint has a better range of usable sounds IMO. 60's mode for spring tones ranging from subtle to radical drip, 70's mode for "normal" plate sounds, and 80's mode for adding just a bit of space or infinite ambience. As a bonus, the tremolo options are top notch too. I have no experience with any of the Empress/Source Audio/other high end options listed above, so I can't help with those comparisons. Have you spent much time dialing in sounds on the TC Toneprint app? It adds a lot of flexibility to the Hall of Fame, which already has a good amount of modes/options just on the face of the pedal. I've had the V1 and V2 versions and the Church mode can do great ambient tones as long as you don't need to go 100% wet. It may be worth trying out the HoF again if for no other reason than they're a great bang for your buck and you can try using it in conjunction with whatever "main" reverb you end up with too.
I've really been enjoying the boss RV6, so if you want more to tinker with and have the money for it then I'd recommend the RV500. Of course if you're after something more unique the the EQD afterneath is really cool and not nearly as expensive. I demo'd one and only went with the rv6 because the afterneath was more expensive and offered more than what I really need for my purposes. I'd say it's kinda a delay & reverb in one but the way the two effects interact with each other is really cool and can make some really crazy sounds. Hard describe so just check out some of the countless demos online. Edit: actually just found this so I'll post it here. Looks like they've made a new revision of the afterneath and added a new mode knob that lets you mess with the pitch of the reverb via the drag knob. The version I demo'd didn't have this so now I feel like I need to track down one of these new ones.
I shouldn’t have read any of this thread. My Yamaha magicstomp has some reverbs that work well enough, but hotdog! Now I want something more fancy. Been playing more clean lately. I need to sit down and research all of these now.
Lol, I am just happy with my Digitech RV-7, but I dont really use all these weird new synthpad Reverbs and such.
Of course after looking at quite a few of these—the Dr. Science Atmosphere is the one I’m leaning toward. The versatility is mind boggling, I like that you can save your settings. Why do I have such expensive taste?!? Oh well, might have to buy myself the Birthday gift that I really want. Anybody try the Walrus SLO?
thanks all. Been listening to demos and sound wise I think the empress has the edge . in the demos I've listed to i've always preferred it a tiny bit., seems a bit more lush or organic my 1 gripe with timeline is the bank switching .I have big feet, size 13, and even then pushing both switches with no shoes on is a pain in the ass. it's fine in the rehearsal studio or gigging when I have shoes on . but chilling at home with no shoes it's hard to push both for some reason. I usually end up bending down and using my hand. on the other side the screen is always a plus on the big sky . Makes editing and prest tracking easier. updating and saving on the empress on SD card seems like a PITA . already have the midi cable for my timeline updates . The Dr scientist atmosphere sounds really good and the features are great .But I have to admit , I hate small footprint ideas that have jacks at the back .They always fuck my shit up
I forget the name of the site, but someone is cataloguing new pedals and new brands. Find the site, find the reverb section and open some tabs .
I just picked up a Meris Mercury7 and it's super rad. It only does plate and cathedral type reverbs, but the quality of them is top notch, and there are so many adjustable parameters that the pedal is much more versatile than it appears. It also is midi-capable kind of like Empress and a handful of others that use a TRS type midi in.
damn. Last time I looked, which granted was quite a while ago the empress and the styrmon were pretty similar priced. The big sky is now $180 more than the empress looks like empress may win after all
