Old Blood Noise Endeavors has unveiled a reverb pedal with a difference, and if you've got the holy trinity of hall, plate and spring covered, if might just be the device you need to transition into a more ambient realm of electric guitar.
Inspired by OBNE's Dark Star reverb and designed as an early chain pad reverb, the, the Sunlight Dynamic Freeze Reverb is described as an 'envelope triggered multi-mode reverb" that allows you create soundscapes of infinite range.
The typically cool enclosure features knobs for Rate, Depth, Mix, Decay and Input, with a three-way switch that selects between three sonic modes – Tape, Pass and Comb – that foreground modulation, comb filtering and resonant bandpass filtering.
How Rate and Depth respondent is dependent on which mode you are in, adjusting the modulated warbles of the Tape mode, setting the timing of the sample-hold and the range of cutoff frequencies in Pass, and in Comb, you have a quartet of delay lines placed after the reverb, stacking short delays to create comb filters that sound like a fixed flanger.
In Comb mode, Rate sets the time of the four delays, while Depth sets the feedback of the delay section, allowing you to dial in some heady resonance.
Mix, meanwhile, acts is your blend control, effectively setting how loud you want the effect in the signal. But it's in the relationship between Input and Decay that you can really go to town on your sound. Decay adjusts the reverb's sustain, and ranges from subtle ghosting to infinite reverb pads.
Input, meanwhile, controls out how much of your signal enters the effect and to what degree it feeds back within the reverb. Says OBNE: "At zero, no new input will be added to your reverb, but as you increase it, more signal is let through, letting you create gently evolving ambient textures or drastically changing synth-like pads.
The pedal's functionality can be extended by an external expression pedal, but you might not need that with the onboard Alt switch on hand. This lets you alternate between momentary or latching controls, and can be assigned to any or all four of your Rate, Depth, Decay or Input parameters.
The Sunlight Dynamic Freeze Reverb features soft-touch switching, true relay bypass and takes a 9V DC power supply. Its enclosure art was designed by Jon Carling. It is priced $209, available now, and with all these features, definitely check out the demo videos for an idea of the unit's potential. Even then, it's quite possible that they are only scratching the surface.
See Old Blood Noise Endeavors for more details.
