Best Reverb Pedals of 2024

 

 

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): All right. Well good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. Whatever time zone you're in to the fellow chairman and everyone listening.  super excited about this episode.  we're going to talk you know we we love doing these best of series because it really allows us to see what other people characterize as the best because sometimes there's stuff out there that we just don't know about.

Honestly there's a lot of times that people like Hey have you heard this? And with our track record of building rigs and doing rig demos and videos and talking with artists you would think that we would have seen and touched every pedal but that's pretty much impossible. So there's a lot of great stuff out there in the industry.

So I'm super excited to dive in. And I just want to welcome you guys today to the episode. So we're going to dive into the guitar. com best reverb pedals for styles and budgets from classic spring to stereo soundscapes. So going on down before we start do you guys have anything to add before we dive into this article?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): You know not really Brian. I am a big reverb guy. I don't know if you guys would be similar or not but  When I turn on a reverb I find it hard to turn off because it covers up some of my mistakes. And so  you know I've got I've got my favorite reverbs out there. And  I'm excited to be doing this.

This is the best of that I'm really excited about.  A lot of those other ones. It's just garbage. But this one I'm just kidding. You can really stomp your teeth into. I love chatting. I love chatting about reverb type stuff and the different ones out there. So this will be fun.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Now here's the controversial question.

Are you guys reverb or reverb? It is the kind of tomato tomato of  of tone I would say. I've heard people Refer to it as reverb. Namely my old pal Robin Ford will say I'm playing through a 65 Super Reverb. And

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): he did it with a

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): straight face. He did. And so you know I don't know if that's just a way to sort of make it a little classier.

Like a little a little more a little more European you know if you will. So I don't know but tell us in the comments are you a reverb or a reverb type of person? I'm definitely a

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): reverb like reverb 100%. I've never actually I've never had the guts to commit to a reverb. Right. I might try and I might try and sneak it in there.

Well if you were

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): you know put on an ascot and . I see it sounds more

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): sophisticated. It'll be obligatory. It really does. I need to I need a scotch and a cigar if I'm gonna commit to reverb and it's you know it's just a little too early for that for me  today so I might just stick with reverb. Yeah.

The old classic. Yeah. Super classic.

Or classless. You know it's just a working man. Well you could go there as well. Yeah exactly. You want to

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): be a blue collar guy you say reverb you know. Well

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): maybe and maybe we slowly transition how we say it depending on the cost of the effect. So if we're talking about a really expensive reverb Then that's how we do it.

But if we're talking budget meat and potatoes get it done reverb then we can do that as well. Facebook

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): marketplace reverb or you know 20 year old whiskey reverb. I think that's the way to do it. I think that's the way. Alright well let's dive in. Yeah what do we got today Brian? The first one We got is the best Spring River.

It's a game. But who wrote

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): this one? Is this because we've done a lot of  yeah. Guitar player ones but we've done some so this

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): one is guitar.com. All right. It doesn't

say who wrote it. Oh we don't know who who Pete Wise. Does it say Pete Wise? Pete Wise at the top right? Right below the

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): photo of the night sky.

This is looking good already. He he yeah. Wisdom is baked in. Let's see let's see if his if

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): his choices are wise. That's a lot of pressure to have. If you

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): have that last name I mean you've kind of you're setting yourself up. Yeah. You know that's that's that's something to that's something to get behind.

All right.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I'm excited. Maybe this is going to be the best one of all time. It says  best spring reverb is the game changer audio light pedal. Do you guys have any experience? I actually have experienced with this one. Yeah I do. So at the store  we had this one come in and it's a really cool you know I'm not much of a spring guy.

It sounds really good. You know it's we definitely did the like you shake it and you can hear the spring and everything. So I had you know we've had some people doing Oh yeah you know it's cool. I'll use the spring in my amp or whatever but like for being in a pedal it's like a really cool aesthetic.

The look of it is really cool. The different adjustments that you can do like seeing the spring is really cool.  but it's one of those things that it's it's. Very large for the size obviously because it's a spring. So I guess it's one of those things you have to kind of take it or leave it if you know for the size if it's very important to you.

And I don't recall that it being like a it's obviously not stereo because it's a spring.  I could be wrong though. What about you guys?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I and and shed some light if you guys have anything more to add on this idea. But   if you're using an actual analog spring not a modeled spring but a real spring in a in a pedal I get a little hesitant  because the spring unlike other areas in life size does matter with the spring.

And that's why if you have like an amp where you can have a big long spring in the amp just because an amp is so much larger you can fit a larger spring and that will affect the sound of the spring reverb. And so I would say for me personally  if you like the sound of a spring reverb from your amp I think that'll be harder to recreate in a much smaller form factor pedal.

Even though you're saying the pedal is quite large it's not gonna have the same spring size as something like a You know a Fender amp or something like that. So I think this is maybe maybe one of the rare cases where I would probably prefer to have a modeled spring reverb of an amp spring than I would to have an actual analog tiny spring.

And so this is where I would probably if I needed something on my board that was a spring and had a tank I would probably look to a company like Surfy Bear who does some really cool spring reverb stuff but their pedals are it's like this could fit in the back of an amp like they're huge. Oh wow. But if you're really into that and you want that analog approach then I would probably to the best of your ability for your context try and go for a larger spring if you're going to really rely on that sound.

I think it's such a cool sound though. I love spring reverb. I love the  just the glitchiness of it and how it's a little unpredictable but it adds so much character to your sound. So I'm I'm a big fan of spring for sure. But I think I'd if I was going for a compact pedalboard size I'd probably go modeled if I was restricted.

What do you think Mason? Am I am I just blowing smoke up into the air or what do you think? No I was going

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): to say a similar thing that you know in a studio context I think that you can pull off the the the true spring  based spring reverb pedals that are analog reverb pedals in this regard. I think the challenge especially live And we we ran into this with a few different players that if you are positioned next to a drmer and there's a lot of reverberation through the stage that it would crash the reverb.

Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects):  and that's just not a factor with with the digital reverb.  so so I think that there are conditions that that. lend themselves to making something like this more plausible. Now  I have played this unit.  and I I think that if your benchmark is a Fender reverb let's say and there's obviously different styles of Fender reverb.

There's you know the 63 style which is kind of designed to go in front of the amp. And then in the later mid sixties Fenders the those reverbs come. Later on in the signal path and they're not like the tank that goes in front of the amp. And so those spring reverbs have different sounds as a consequence.

Usually the pedal versions are kind of doing more of like the tank sound because they're presuming that you're running it in front of an amp. I think in most cases. If I had to go with the Spring River I think Surfy Barrier is a good choice. I think Crazy Tube Circuit also makes one called it's called like the whale or something like that.

I almost feel like there's an image of a whale on the front. And another one that is talked about less I just think it's older is made by Carl Martin and they have a reverb pedal that's actually quite wide  and so it does have a larger spring in it. And  that one also sounds good but again the challenge being if you're using it live or any place where It would be susceptible to any sort of vibrations.

It can be problematic if you want a really great sounding digital reverb. However that has really taken off in sort of the rockabilly  genre a lot of rockabilly guys use this because they find it to sound very akin to what they're used to from the spring tanks is boss did a collaboration for a time with   with  Fender.

And they had a pedal that was called like the 63 Reverb. And they are kind of this you know unattractive. Did that have the grill

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): cloth on it? Was it that look or was it something?

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): No no grill cloth. That sounds more like SansAmp.  or Tech 21.  but this was just like a It was sort of a brown powder coat and then it had a sort of a brown logo on the top.

It kind of looked like a brown face fender.  and it was pretty simple. I think there was just a couple of knobs and it they sound really good.  and they've kind of had like a cult following. I think that they're they're upwards of 200.  to  to to if you can find one they're they're pretty  they're pretty good.

Let's see if I have it on screen here. Oh yeah that's it. Oh nice. Oh

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): yeah. Yeah. So the

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): FR V1 he has the three knobs just like you'd find on a reverb tank. And that's it. That's a it's a good call. Yeah. It's a good pedal. So so I think if you if you're like committed obviously it doesn't do other effects.

So if you want you know spring and shimmer and haul and plates and all that stuff this won't do it. But if you just want a really great sounding spring reverb that's a great one.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Yeah. I mean the whole like is there I mean obviously there is a. I think it's a pretty big difference hearing a pedal like this that has a spring in it versus like I think the there's a Flint I think the Flint has a spring in it.

It has a spring in it. Obviously not an actual spring but it's model. Yeah yeah. It has a spring reverb. Yeah and I think depending on what you're doing and stuff you know obviously you You don't if you want spring it doesn't have to have a spring in it. I think there's a lot of really great options as I'm not a spring fan.

I'm not springing towards getting that type of pedal pun intended.  but I just we need to have a pun count for this show man. We just need to have

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): a little ping ping ping

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): ping. Oh yeah. Yeah that's good. So I it's one of those things that like You know if I needed it I would definitely get it out of like the Flynn or something because of how compact it is as well as a good choice.

I think that that's a real

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): standard choice for like a digital reverb.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): I think the Flint is is probably like the most common application. And I think that the game changer one. It's impressive in its aesthetic and it's in its design. I think for people that really know that those sounds of a 63 reverb tank or or you know are used to the fender amplifiers as a benchmark it's not it's not going to to to represent that.

I don't think it's to the degree that those do. I think that that what you are paying for is like a really unique looking pedal that does do spring. Yeah. But I I think that That  it's a there may there it may err on the side of form over function. For sure. For

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): sure. Alright well we can move on. That's just

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): one reverb pervert's opinion.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): That is. Next is the best workstation reverb. What do you think

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): workstation means? Just like every reverb under the sun?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): If I can dream it this thing will be able to do it. That's what that's what I interpret.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah I would definitely say that is a good name for the Mercury X. Cause I've I have a couple I don't personally have them.

I have a couple for some builds that I'm doing a couple of racks and stuff. And they the amount of in depth like detail of like stuff that you can edit is pretty crazy. Like like if you if you open up you know if you get a big sky. And you start messing with that and you think you're overwhelmed by how many settings and functions you can go into when you get a Mercury X like the options it's I'm not saying it's bad I think it's a great reverb and it sounds incredible.

It's just one of those things that like I don't have the personal capacity or brain headspace to spend days dialing this in but I have people that will sit in front of you know their board. Every single night or whatever and dial under sounds and I have friends like yeah it took me a couple of weeks but I really got sounds and I've heard some amazing stuff.

So Maris makes amazing stuff. Their Mercury seven is amazing. So I knew the X coming out would be even better.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): And I think if you think about the. type of person that you know this might be targeted to. Obviously yes guitar players on their pedal boards we see it you know quite a decent amount. But I think I would also envision people as a like this is saying as a at a workstation either with their synth their guitar the bass acoustic.

Both you know what I mean? I think that you can come up with so many different textures. It'll do all the standard reverb stuff but I think where it shines is beyond the standard reverb stuff. Like some glitchy granular super decay spacey like there's so much that this thing can do. And so that's where I think personally you need to be honest with yourself if you need that.

And if you don't need all the crazy wacky stuff if you're after a long decay hall and a bit of shimmer this pedal is probably going to overwhelm you.  but if you want to have those backup options of layers and you're maybe into producing and recording your own tracks at home and multi-instrumentalist like this could be a really cool effect for you.

But it for me It would probably overwhelm me a bit because that's just not me.  but doesn't mean I don't want to have it but I probably wouldn't be my one choice of pedal if I had to have a reverb. You know like I would probably pick something I can just dial something up really quick and just get to playing.

Yeah. And  I don't know if that would be this.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): This is definitely too overwhelming for for me  but but I think that they make incredible reverbs. Like I think usually the the for kind of a little bit more interesting reverbs mercury seven for me is like I think about as. As out there as I'll get.  but this has all that and more.  so I'm always appreciative and love the stuff that they do at Marist.

And I think that the quality is very high. The the engineering acumen of Terry and Angelo is you know really I think  second to none  but just for me I wouldn't I wouldn't need that much but I think that anybody who has this and and they want those features and they are comfortable. Getting deep into it like it's an impressive unit.

Undoubtedly.  so I'm I'm I have nothing bad to say about it. I think I think from a like a workstation standpoint yeah. Like they're they're I think that they've they they've even exceeded I think what Strymon can do in in in the reverb world. Although I don't know I haven't messed with the new MX. MX.

One. Yeah.  but I I would think it would even challenge that.  even though the MX is is is newer.  so  I have no objections to this pick. And by the way I'm liking this article so far. I think that this seems to I like the format comparatively to kind of like how some of the other ones were their rank ordering.

Like this is just kind of giving overarching categories. And I think that their picks so far you know they haven't been like totally  divorced from reality. Some of these lists are.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Cause like the the last stuff the lists we usually do you know it's like best budget like their notes. It's always like the notes inside the thing is like why why it's number one or number two.

Where this is just giving you what their option is and then giving some details because like the ones where it's like a negative side to the pedal and it's like might be a little too large I like that that might not be

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): your shade of blue

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): too dark for me.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Yeah. Yeah. But I will say while we're on the Mercury X I  just built a little demo board for a video I need to do in the shop last week.

And I was looking at my pedal shelf and I was like of course I need to put a reverb on there. And I grabbed the Mercury X and put it on the board and I was playing through it again for the first time in a year and a half two years something like that. And I was just reminded again why I love the Mercury 7 so much.

Like it has a little bit of that weird pitchy type stuff but then it also does some really cool stuff. normal sounds.  and it's  it's a really fun pedal in a decent size as well. Like it's not obscene how big it is.  so the Mercury seven I would  I would rate as well for sure.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Yeah. I remember the Mercury seven.

I did a build with  the this guitar is named Brian Carl from passion worship. And it was at the same time that the new PBC six came out and we were looking at reverbs and he kept you know we kept going back and forth cause he had. Some other reverbs and he's like I'm thinking about the mercury seven.

So we got it. And yeah it was it was one of those out of the boxes. Like it sounded really good. A lot of their stock presets because stock presets for companies sometimes are so hit or miss but it seems like Maris and even Strymon I do a really good job of that.  but yeah so that is the best workstation before we continue.

I do want to throw to our first ad from Mason to  talk about some of our sponsors that make the possible that make the podcast possible make the possible possible. So anything is possible.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Well I would firstly like to talk to you about our friends over at the Guitar Sanctuary. Many of the reverb pedals that we will be speaking of today are in fact available from them.

And you can find anything whether you're talking about reverb reverb boutique pedals boutique guitars and amplifiers they have it all there for you in McKinney Texas. You can go into the shop in person and tell them the chairman sent you or you can visit them online at guitarsanctuary.com. You can look through all the things that they have.

They have a lot of pedal board based accessories switchers and things of that nature that you can't find from other dealers in America. I highly suggest you check them out again. That is guitar sanctuary. com and go check them out in person. Should you choose in Bikini Texas? Secondly I'd like to talk to you about our friends over at Neural DSP.

Now you may have heard about the all new Nano Cortex which I'm holding in my hand. I know if you're listening you won't be able to see this but you can hear it as I'm clicking the switches. A S M R style into the microphone. This is a fantastic unit. I've been using it a lot because it is a capturing device that has profiled all of the amplifiers in my home studio here.

And I can in essence use those amplifiers in whatever venue I want. If I can't. And I've been traveling a lot for videos and various things and I've taken this with me and enjoyed it and been able to just plug in some headphones and been able to get some great tones in a small package. But not only Do they have the NanoCortex?

They've also done an upgrade to their software. And we're at what CorOS what number are we at now? 3.0.1? Newest upgrade you have the ability now to start to migrate some of the plugins to the QuadCortex if you own a QuadCortex. I believe right now it is only available for Gojira and for Plini.

But they are slowly evolving. But surely adding in more plugins as the months go by I'm looking forward to getting the Corey Wong one on there myself. Cause I use that one quite a bit in plugin format but speaking of plugins they also offer 30 percent off any of the plugins that are 90 days or older using the coupon code.

Chairman C H A I R M E N get 30 percent off think about this as 70 percent away from free for any of those plugins that you so choose. Really great stuff love what Neural is doing we I believe we all are using Neural in some capacity in our lives and we highly recommend that you check them out NeuralDSP.

com. Now back to the podcast.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Thank you. Thank you for those. Yeah I was super appreciative of those guys.  moving on it's funny enough. We were just talking about the big sky. The big sky MX is under the list as best ambient reverb that they that they have picked which I I would definitely agree.  I have the the MX and the parallel you know the routing everything

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): you own it.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I do. I own it. I own an MX and it  you know definitely you know if you're in the  the mood of something Stacking to cloud reverbs of theirs reverbs. I guess I would say reverbs for this one. Reverb. I'd call this one and the Mercury X definitely reverbs. For sure. So but if you feel like stacking two reverbs of cloud onto each other and really getting the layers bro vibe of having all sorts of reverbs  this is definitely one of those you know the I think they're still rolling out some of like the Nixie USB software features to do some editing of stuff that hasn't been released yet.

but for an out of the box type of pedal to try to dive into I think it's great. How much better

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Brian would you say it is within the the the original big sky? Like is there an appreciable difference that justifies the the additional money? Or like where do you kind of sit on that spectrum of Big Sky you know Version 1 versus Version 2?

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I think I'm a little bit 50 50 or sometimes 60 40. With the OG Big Sky honestly they're like the MX is really great I think there are some features of like when you turn up the mix knob Like it only turns up say say you're running a dual preset. So two different algorithms And you turn up the mix knob you have to select which preset or which algorithm you're adding the mix.

It's not like a global mix. So I think there's some stuff like that. You have to like it's just like your work like you know your work rhythm of messing with the pedal especially if you're playing live you have to just remember some key steps sonically. I think the newer reverbs obviously sound a little bit they sound they sound really good but they have the option for you to use their old school stock sounds from the  the first big sky.

I like them both. I think if it was me I probably would stick with the first picks guy because I'm more familiar with it if I had time to sit down but I say that for a lot of this stuff is like I'm so used to these pedals. I want to be able to sit down and just play or practice or whatever I do. I don't want to have to be menu diving for stuff.

And I also only used like two sounds on it. So for me it was like stacking a hall reverb and a cloud reverb. That was it. I think that's helpful though to people out there

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): because I think sometimes there's a there's a thought that that there's an improvement in in sound or there's some significant palpable difference.

And maybe there are maybe there are you know improvements of sound. But I think there's also like the element of. If the speed limit is 65 miles an hour and your car goes 200 miles an hour these features are not realized  practically.  and so it's always I appreciate that that because I'm always curious when I look at stuff like I say Oh well is it worth it to get this other one?

Or you know will I be happy with you know just getting my room sounds or my hall sounds or my plate sounds with the original.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean  when it first comes out you know it's the big bang everyone is excited about it. All of the YouTubers are posting their review videos of and they're all talking about how amazing it is.

And while it is amazing I do think there are generally you know it's definitely that that FOMO the fear of missing out type of thing. When it comes to a new pedal where you're like Oh well everyone else has it. I'm always been that guy that like yeah when a newer pedal comes out. Like I typically don't at first because sometimes you know there are little bugs or glitches and I also I can get the older that other pedal for a discounted price which is super super fun.

But just like yeah I definitely don't think you know it's something that's going to make you like you'll be missing out on. I think that having the option of stacking another reverb is really cool. I just don't think it's for everyone. But what do you think Grant?

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I haven't spent much time with it to be honest.

So I'm mainly going by what I see on the spec sheet. A couple new algorithms. One thing that does catch my eye about it and I'm curious what you think about it is that you can run the two algorithms in series or parallel. And I like the idea of running you know a bit more of a drier less affected reverb in parallel with quite a saturated one and messing with the two mix levels.

So And then the other thing is the  being able to load in your own IRs. I thought that was kind of a cool add on. Especially these days where IRs are kind of the thing to have and the thing to be familiar with. So I'm curious about it but I'm also again Probably in a similar camp which I understand probably comes across as being quite boring of the old one works great for me.

So you know I don't think I'd be rushing out to spend another however many hundreds of dollars to sell my old one and buy a new one and put the new one on my board just to find out I'm using the same sounds as the old one. Anyways you know what I mean? So similar to you guys I think in that regard. I definitely am curious about it.

I have no doubt it's incredible.  but whether or not it's worth the price jp probably for me it wouldn't be.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah I mean especially because like the convenient thing is this when this one comes out a lot of people that were wanting just the Big Sky in general Maybe can't afford a 479 price tag but people were offloading them for 300 bucks this first one because they so they wanted to get the new one so bad but like for like for 300 I would go pick up another big sky like just and the new one

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): the MX for reference is 679 on Sweetwater right now brand new.

So almost 700 and then you could get a big sky for three if people are selling them still right price. You know it's pretty crazy.  yeah no

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I think it's a cool pedal. It's just you have to weigh your pros and cons. Like if you're if you're a one that's stacking reverbs. And you want to run them in parallel or series like if that was a thing for you like the big sky MX and the mercury X I see on a lot of like keyboard synthesize like synth rigs and stuff like they'll use it for like their crazy sense stuff which is really cool.

But yeah I definitely think you have to weigh the pros and cons. Of if it's like realistic for you  speaking of synth which is ironic because this is also I did a board for a client who had it was a 32 by 16 pedal train and it that the sucker was packed. I would say it probably had 30 something pedals on it and it had a bunch of these like Strymon's and Mercury.

Like the Mercury 7 and Autobot all that stuff from them. But this one is the best synth style reverb the Strymon Nightsky. Strymon Nightsky. What about  initial

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): thoughts? I again I'm going to sound like an old man. My biggest struggle with this is that it's a complex pedal with no screen. So I really I do struggle with that.

I'm not a synth guy though. So maybe synth players maybe this is their playground and they just understand it more.  so yeah that might be the case. But I look at a pedal like this with this many options. And tricks and all that. Favorites MIDI all this stuff that it can do. And I need to remember what lights light up and what buttons to hit without screen feedback in front of me.

I find that intimidating before I've even seen the pedal first hand.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. How about you Mason?

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): I I have never I've never seen this pedal in person.  and I don't think it would it again my reverb needs are very simple. I think I have like three sounds. I have like a hall a plate. Maybe a room in in a spring that's kind of like all I use.

I was

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): like we could talk be talking about the real estate market here. I just need a hall a plate and a room and then I'm a happy man you know. You got a house. 500 000 and you got your house. Yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Well it's it's  it's it's  something that that  a much smaller  reverb can take. Like like definitely a flint.

Especially with MIDI could could more than exceed what I need. And I almost never even use MIDI on reverb because usually the setting that I would use would be like This is the setting and it would be like this the entire song. Yeah. And you know I don't I hope this isn't revealing too much but I use pretty much I have two different reverbs that I use.

one of them is the  The Digitech and I've talked about this before the Digitech RV7 Hardwire. They Digitech had like a what they called a boutique brand for a while.  where all of the  pardon me all the pedals kind of looked like Optimus Prime.  Oh

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): yeah yeah.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): And and so I have the Optimus Prime signature reverb the RV7.

And  that's a fantastic. Reverb and it has a lexicon chip in it. So it has a very very cool sound but no MIDI but stereo in and out. And they also have like a smaller version of the same thing that a lot of people don't know called the Polara. And that one's also very good.  and has. Ostensibly the same algorithms.

But another one that I really like that I use a lot is the UA reverb pedal. It doesn't have MIDI. The golden? The golden. Yeah. Yeah. So so that one is also very nice and I've used that one quite a bit as well but that's kind of like the extent to which. I need  I like the flint too. I I don't  I don't own one but  every time I use it I'm always like yeah this is a nice nice pedal.

This is sort of more my speed. Reverb wise.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Yeah. Yeah. And the flint I find has quite a cult following. If you  if you love the Flint you love the Flint it would seem and  but yeah all those pedals you mentioned are great. Yeah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Yeah. This I've never I've I've I've done a lot of setups for this one.

I've never had it but typically when you see the nice guy you also see the person has like the Volante like they always go fine for the same  enclosure. And you know messing with this pedal like this pedal came out when I worked for the guitar sanctuary and anytime something new came in we had a demo station or they still do they still have a demo station.

And  they'd always put like a pedal up on the demo spot and we would mess with it for a little bit. You know the videos are cool but it's always fun to get the mess with it. And within a couple of minutes like we had some cool sounds and pushing the buttons. I'm the same way with these buttons these push buttons and stuff.

Like you have to remember what some of these things do. Like that's where like the screen coming in is really hand is really handy. So I think it's a great reverb. Even the definition like the definition the description it says  an uncanny drones and complex synth voicings. It's that's a very accurate like depiction of the pedal because that's very much what it's doing.

Moving on  the best utility reverb is the Earthquaker devices. Let ledges edges ledges ledges. I mean if you're on the ledge for a reverb this is the one. This is it. This is going to do it.  I've never played this one. I actually didn't know that this one existed from them. Earthquaker makes some really good stuff.

It's definitely very budget. I don't know. I can't zoom in. I mean I can kind of zoom in without messing up. They've got it looks like

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): room hall and plate. RH and P is what I'm going to guess. Oh Mason. A preset button.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Preset button. Oh wow. Okay. Cool.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Damping which is cool. Mix. And then a preset rotary knob.

That's cool. And then length which I guess would be decay. But it does look like it's mono. Yeah

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I don't I don't know. Yeah I I I personally I'm a big fan of the earthquake or stuff. They make some really good stuff. There are some stuff I don't I don't use.  but there are some of their drives I've I've used in the past.

I'm funny enough. I've never even heard of this one.  I'm curious on the price of it. Under 299. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Under 200. Yeah. So for something that's like really compact like I said room what room haul and plate. You got a house right there. Mason done. Steal the deal right there.  but yeah I I definitely think this is a very compact.

It's the size of a I guess a morning glory enclosure. If you're familiar it looks like a one 25 B Yeah so if you're listening  you're you're like I don't know what a morning glory enclosure looks like. It looks like a Lightspeed enclosure or any of these. If you haven't heard of any of those pedals then you might be living on that rock.

So we might need to fix that issue.  but yeah no I would I would say for that price I mean without hearing it it's really hard to say exactly what to pick it what it is but it's saying it's the best utility. But

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): this would be a reverb. This would not be a reverb.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): No this is a reeve. This is a reverb.

Definitely a reverb.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Do you have a better choice for that price point of a reverb that you would say like RV7. This is the

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): boss RV7. I don't have it. I've played the hardwire. I like that one as well. But when my when people ask me what's a simple cheap reverb that will just work well boss RV7. Or the 200 series if you want to go a little bit more crazy.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Wasn't wasn't that like the James Duke and like Nigel Hendroff? They used like early like RV3s or something like that for like all the kind of like the iconic tones. Yeah like a couple. I think

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): is James Duke has like two of them.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Definitely the DD5 for delay. DD5. I'm trying to remember if I saw if I saw RV3.

Threes and fives on their boards. Not not for Nige that I remember although. What was he using for

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): what was he using though for reverb? Like cause a lot of this stuff wouldn't even have been out. Early

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): on it might have been RV series but quickly he moved into Strymon.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah I I remember When I first started playing he had a boss to you too.

I remember this because I based my entire first board off of this. It was a T two or something a full tone OCD an Ernie ball vole pedal a Nova delay and like a RV. So it was a it was a boss RV and I bought all of those. And I was like I'm going to sound like Nigel. He did but I heard that he didn't run his

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): OCD at18 volts.

So can you really trust the guy? Yeah. .

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah. Yeah

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): yeah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): No I would say haters will say no. I would say  new neighbor stereo wets.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Oh there we go. Are are the how much are those? Let's see if I can find it.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Well I know that they have a newer one. The immersed where you can Right. Change all the different dials.

So I think that one is.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): I think that one's more than 200.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah it's definitely more than 200 but the stereo wet one like I can't remember if you could change the sounds or load sound I can't remember it's been so long since I've had

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): stereo wet was just the sound it's whatever it was. Just the sound. It was

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): just wet just water.

But they had

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): or have the slate and the slate you could preload four different sounds on it from their library. That was like an early early thing. I can't find anything on Sweetwater but

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): . Yeah I don't think they're still at Sweetwater. I think they're just direct now.  or maybe not. I don't know.

Cause they got they're they're part of QSC and  or or part of  Quilter. In Quilter Amps  is the Pat Quilter is the Q in QSC. Maybe people didn't know that

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): it is the stereo wet is version five is two to 19 on Quilter Labs website. But if you search on like reverb that's a reverb for sure. Reverb.

The old school the version like three and four and five those are all like. 150 160 a lot of the monos are 150 160 I don't know what a stereo would go for. Good sounding reverb though but also

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I would say this reverb is is very basic. As in if you're getting an early version you basically have like mix and decay.

You don't even get to choose your reverb type. But it sounds really good. Yeah it's a good reader. It'd be more of a hall sound. Yeah.  yeah. I would also

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): say you know a lot of guys use this and it always actually to me sounds good is the TC Hall of Fame. And and Robin Ford uses this a lot Mark LeTiri was using this a lot we we we did a a video with him and I think I think it's algorithm specific I don't think every one of the settings is good I think the only problem with them is is that they're not made as well as they used to be made I think in in you know in like from like the Nova  Or before days and so I've I've had a lot of issues with like  jacks on them would just go bad and stuff like that.

and they're not really that serviceable the way that they're built. So it's kind of just like. You know there's not really much you can do but there are some good sounds to be had in in the Hall of Fame in my opinion. I just think that like the the reliability aspect is kind of like

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): I had a Hall of Fame II for a couple of years.

This would have been a while ago.  and it was okay. Like I I felt if I could s it up it would be to me it felt sterile. It just it was like yeah that's a hall sound but it just kind of it just kind of feels like it makes everything sound just a little bit more drab. Like it just didn't quite liven things up like most of the other reverbs that we've chatted about today ultimately would.

so I would probably still pick. Either one of the RV 7s Boss or Hardwire or I would honestly just go with the stereo wet over the over the TC. I think for an individual

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): sound I agree that the stereo wet is better sounding overall. But if you needed like because I think  I think a TC reverb is like under I think it's maybe 150.

What's what's the what's the Hall of Fame II go for? Let's see if we can look that up real quick.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): If I'm selling it on my Instagram stories it's going for like 80 bucks. I'm always I'm always selling off pedals that I get in and stuff. And I I just sold a couple of those.  but I don't know what the new price is.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): 159

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): new on re release. Yeah

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): that's hard to compete with for the amount of things that it does. Yeah. It's true. And with the

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): stomp feature right? It's stomp feature can like be programmed to like do other I don't know. I

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): messed with that but

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah no it's like their newer version. Yeah well we have a couple more left in the article but before we move on I'm gonna break for an ad to talk about our last two sponsors that make the podcast possible.

So I will throw it over to you Grant so you can talk say some good words about them.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Thank you Brian.  firstly I want to tell you guys about almost a chat and tell I'm going to tell you guys about Mono Creators. Now I have recently decided it's not quite in my will yet but I think it will be soon that I will be buried.

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We were big fans of model creators and their soft bags and the gear they put out are always quality long lasting and if you need a pedal board gig bag for your pedal board as well. or the surface itself the power supplies the accessories that go along with them. They also do a great range of pedalboard accessories as well that you need to check out.

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BTPA is the place to go.  Brian Mason myself we kind of just chat to Brad. Probably on a weekly basis. How's your day going? How are the kids? He's way cheaper than a therapist. Exactly. He just he knows what to say to make you feel better. Usually starting with yes and finishing with no. I have that in stock and Brad just makes your day that much better.

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I'm going to throw it back to you Brian. Right. Awesome.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yeah no that was great. We love Brad. And it's like having a therapist about gear without having a tone therapist. He's a tone therapist. As long as you buy some connectors.  no my favorite thing is when I get that notification where it says your item is shipped.

And I'm like God bless you Brad. Yeah. So anyway moving on.

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): D series  prophylactics that go over the back of the  yeah.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): Yep exactly. I get those those ones in the power cons. Best Shimmer Reverb is the Earthquaker Devices Astral Destiny.

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): Does anyone else have a little bit of a negative gut reaction when you hear Shimmer Reverb?

I mean I feel like nothing against the Astral. Again Earthquaker is such a great company. I feel like shimmer came and when it came it was overdone within two weeks and it just stuck around. The decay has the decay is still going in my brain with shimmer. I'm just so over the sound of that effect. Yeah. It just kills me.

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): I I almost never use shimmer. So okay. So I you're going to laugh at me for this. So I have the we all have the quad cortex and  I jokingly enough have four reaver blocks and it's like a hall there cloud mind hall whatever it's called a shimmer. And then I think I have another thicker reverb so I can stack stuff in like my swell preset.

They're all engaged. I'm super like super over the top for that one. So you're running four at a time? Four at one time. And the DSP is very very low shockingly.  it's because I'm also still running one overdrive block. So even on a modeler I'm only running one overdrive. One overdrive

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): and four reverbs.

Literally literally. And one

Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio): delay digital. But I use I use the shimmer. I've only ever used shimmer for swells. But yes I think it was one of those things that people used to lit a lot of. And then now it's kind of like it's like in the back. It's like in the back of my mind when it comes to how often I use it.

I don't use it on its own though. Definitely. I would say like

Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio): if you're going to use shimmer especially with the parameters that you can tweak these days if you're going to use shimmer don't do it with all these fifths and high octaves and all that like do a shimmer in the lower frequencies and just get a bit of a pad.

But the high the high pitch shimmer stuff I just it It just kills me. It absolutely kills me. I don't want to be that guy but I'm that guy right now. I'm just I'm trying to bring the conversation down. And I Mason I need to pick me up. Can you just rescue this for a second here?

Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects): Well  I'm not a shimmer guy.

So  And then that's not to say I don't like ambient textures but I usually just find like you get your delays and then I like using things like the Boss VB2 and the latching feature to get some movement and some other obviously I can see where the reason why it's lingering is because if you're playing in a worship context in particular a lot of the songs that you're being asked to play included this in the original recording.

And so and so there there are these cases if you're playing you know a certain hill song or elevation or whatever it is It's sort of obligatory that you recall a setting you know th