expensive reverbs

[Woolworm]

Has anyone tried the Walrus R1 reverb? BFR, Refract and Air modes seem interesting.

[Dandolin]

indeed they do, but i'm on the outside looking in

[Woolworm]

What exactly makes them high fidelity? Or is that just marketing speak to overcharge normies?

[Dandolin]

Porque no los dos?

[resincum]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol. found it for a "deal" so I thought, fuck it let's try it out(was not a deal after taxes and shipping). looks beautiful (reminiscent of the pretty years), but that's about where the good things end. at the price they're asking you can find a bad ass reverb with presets and legit tweakability. or just something truly gnarly. the sounds are kind of gimicky. you can definitely find some always on/set and forget reverb settings; but I think you can do the same with a mxr reverb or any other reverb, really. it gets loud, sure. and the time knob goes hella long but on most settings, after noon everything becomes a mess. no high cut, low cut, bla bla.. i hate this thing. at $250/300 it'd be pretty cool, I guess, but I really wish I got a context instead >_< and I know you can get the gist of this through reviews/demos, but I just had to hear it for myself. meh

[Dandolin]

interesting - that's the first negative review i've seen, though the praise has been pretty thin on the ground.
i definitely have felt it was overpriced given the lack of control/presets etc., but wondered if the sound made up for that - apparently not....

[raj007]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol. found it for a "deal" so I thought, fuck it let's try it out(was not a deal after taxes and shipping). looks beautiful (reminiscent of the pretty years), but that's about where the good things end. at the price they're asking you can find a bad ass reverb with presets and legit tweakability. or just something truly gnarly. the sounds are kind of gimicky. you can definitely find some always on/set and forget reverb settings; but I think you can do the same with a mxr reverb or any other reverb, really. it gets loud, sure. and the time knob goes hella long but on most settings, after noon everything becomes a mess. no high cut, low cut, bla bla.. i hate this thing. at $250/300 it'd be pretty cool, I guess, but I really wish I got a context instead >_< and I know you can get the gist of this through reviews/demos, but I just had to hear it for myself. meh

I’m with you. Didn’t like it at all. But...the Context 2 also very meh. I really liked V1, too. Context 2 sounds so damn sterile to me.

[The Eristic]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol.

This is how I feel about a lot of DBA tbqh. I play them and think this cool but ~$300?

[manymanyhaha]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol. found it for a "deal" so I thought, fuck it let's try it out(was not a deal after taxes and shipping). looks beautiful (reminiscent of the pretty years), but that's about where the good things end. at the price they're asking you can find a bad ass reverb with presets and legit tweakability. or just something truly gnarly. the sounds are kind of gimicky. you can definitely find some always on/set and forget reverb settings; but I think you can do the same with a mxr reverb or any other reverb, really. it gets loud, sure. and the time knob goes hella long but on most settings, after noon everything becomes a mess. no high cut, low cut, bla bla.. i hate this thing. at $250/300 it'd be pretty cool, I guess, but I really wish I got a context instead >_< and I know you can get the gist of this through reviews/demos, but I just had to hear it for myself. meh

I’m with you. Didn’t like it at all. But...the Context 2 also very meh. I really liked V1, too. Context 2 sounds so damn sterile to me.

[coupleonapkins]

DBA took a long while to tweak and release the Rooms, but had they released it five or six years ago (or when Oliver had it on his live board, whenever that was), it probably would have been too much for anybody not already a member of APTBS. Also, DBA doesn't do subtlety, so it was kinda inevitable that the murkiness inherent in reverb schmear past a certain point was gonna be a problem (see also: the EQD Transmisser, et al)....and there is simply too much competition that offers way more on the technical front for the price tag to make sense (the same might be said of the Ghost Delay, which tended to run away from itself/the user with jacked frequencies, but that's what happens when you have three delay lines at once in a single box that isn't computer controlled, maybe?). I honestly had a better time with ye old Boss RV-5, but I always tend to, either way.

But would I keep one for half the money and on a desktop setup? I absolutely would.

[gila_crisis]

Yesterday a friend invited me at his place for a monstrous reverb shot out/comparison test!

From my side I brought these devices to the test (and these are all the reverb related units I own):
Line6 HX Stomp
Meris Mercury 7
Zoom MS70CDR
Elektron Digitone

My friend's ARSENAL:
Empress Zoia
GFI Specular Tempus
Red Panda Context
Eventide H9
Neuenaber Immerse
Meris Polymoon (yes it's a delay, but we faked a reverb with, wwhich worked out very well in this context)
Cooper FX Arcades
Korg Kaos PAD Mini
Deluge
Alesis Midiverb2
Lexicon LXP1
Yamaha A3000

We did record few quick dry loops (guitar, bass, calimba, noise/drone synth, deluge synth sequence), and run these loops thru all the reverbs.
We tried to keep all the devices on the basic side without going to much into details and deep diving setups...

Most reverbs were setup like this: mix 50%, decay 75%, no modulation, 0ms pre-delay, and no filtering/damping.

We focued mostly on Plates, Halls/Cathedrals, since these kind of reverbs are available more or less on each unit. But we did try also few springs and mod/glitchy ones too.
All devices were recorded/played as Mono In > Stereo Out (but the Arcades which was the only mono in/out unit).

What did I learn from this test?
Something I already knew: I don't need more reverb pedals, as for my needs the devices I already own covers all the sounds I might ever need and in some cases (HX Stomp and MS70CDR) these give me the possibility to create/mangle/taylor my own sounds or work-a-like of other units, etc..

My top 3 (based on sound quality/detail, without a particular order): Mercury 7, HX Stomp, Specular Tempus

But... Also cheap units like Zoom MS70CDR and the Korg Kaos Pad mini turned out to work very well and deliver some very good, solid, and interesiting sounds, when compared side by side with higher grade units.
And of course, I always forgot about that Digitone reverb, which in it's simplicity is very funcitonal and sounds very well indeed.

A cool surprise from the past was the Alesis Midiverb2! It's not as high end and pristine as morden units, but it has it's own caracter, a wonderfully full and lush reverb!

We were a bit surprised by few devices like Red Panda, Eventide and Neuenaber. These sounds good indeed but compared to other devices. I think we would have expected something more peculiar/lively/detailed.
Red Panda Context, being introduced by my friend as his favorite 80s style reverb in pedal format, turned out the be the one my friend was most dissappointed with when compared to other units.
Eventide to me are still very good algorhythms, maybe they didn't aged so well? Or maybe is the H9 hardware which doesn't give justice and shine, as I did remember ages ago when I tried a Space?

Arcades to me is more of a special effect, something I would use at the beginning of a chain (and note for me a reverb must have STEREO in/out, mono is a no go).
The Zoia reverb blocks used stand-alone are ok, but I think the strength of this unit is that you can create your own patches by combining these together with other effects/artifacts/blocks, so I think these could actually develop into something more complex.

[Christophe]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol. found it for a "deal" so I thought, fuck it let's try it out(was not a deal after taxes and shipping). looks beautiful (reminiscent of the pretty years), but that's about where the good things end. at the price they're asking you can find a bad ass reverb with presets and legit tweakability. or just something truly gnarly. the sounds are kind of gimicky. you can definitely find some always on/set and forget reverb settings; but I think you can do the same with a mxr reverb or any other reverb, really. it gets loud, sure. and the time knob goes hella long but on most settings, after noon everything becomes a mess. no high cut, low cut, bla bla.. i hate this thing. at $250/300 it'd be pretty cool, I guess, but I really wish I got a context instead >_< and I know you can get the gist of this through reviews/demos, but I just had to hear it for myself. meh

Hi there. This is a bit harsh I think.
I agree with you, it is way too expensive, and maybe it lacks a couple of settings/features for more tweakability... It should have more options for that price.
But the Rooms has some pretty unique features, starting with the hugeness of that reverberated sound, especially in stereo. I mean, appart from the Bigsky, I still haven't played a reverb that sounds so epic when keeping most of your dry signal at the same time. (it is more "aggressive" than the Bigsky). You just play a single note and you sound like a band. I haven't played the Meris though... The MXR 300 feels like a toy, like a holy grail, in comparison. Flint, Avalanche Run, Blue sky, and others sound small once you've heard the Rooms.
The wave mode is just gorgeous, like any pedal featuring vibrato, but maybe that's just my taste.
So I'd say, yeah, the pedal feels like it could have been so much better, and it's overpriced. But still, it's in the category of pedals that offer "a" sound, and you won't find that same sound with another pedal on the market. That makes it worth something I guess...

[Toropicana]

Still hesitating between the empress or the rooms… I guess it's either tweakability or crazyness.

[frodog]

I'm not a big reverb user, usually keep the mix at minimum while still having it audible. At the jam space I use a Sunn Solarus that's super sensitive to the Ghost Echo (still my only reverb except sometimes BitQuest, which I do like a lot) but then it has a great spring tank of its own. Running in stereo I prefer to keep one (usually the solid state) amp wetter, but not really looking for the big, modulated, washed-out sounds, that's the other guitarist's domain.

So, while my experience with expensive verbs is limited, I have occasional GAS for things like the Poly Digit/Beebo. Bit out of my budget but that seems to be the ultimate in terms of fidelity if you want to simulate a realistic space. I searched so I know some here have had the Digit - ever try on stuff like vocals or drums? Or just how good is it vs frustrating to use? I can't afford this now anyway but curious.

In the meantime I might buy a regular pedal like the OBNE MiniM, but for the reverse function, not super stoked on the verb in it tbh.

[resincum]

so the dba rooms reverb ...... shit feels like a fucking scam, lol. found it for a "deal" so I thought, fuck it let's try it out(was not a deal after taxes and shipping). looks beautiful (reminiscent of the pretty years), but that's about where the good things end. at the price they're asking you can find a bad ass reverb with presets and legit tweakability. or just something truly gnarly. the sounds are kind of gimicky. you can definitely find some always on/set and forget reverb settings; but I think you can do the same with a mxr reverb or any other reverb, really. it gets loud, sure. and the time knob goes hella long but on most settings, after noon everything becomes a mess. no high cut, low cut, bla bla.. i hate this thing. at $250/300 it'd be pretty cool, I guess, but I really wish I got a context instead >_< and I know you can get the gist of this through reviews/demos, but I just had to hear it for myself. meh

Hi there. This is a bit harsh I think.
I agree with you, it is way too expensive, and maybe it lacks a couple of settings/features for more tweakability... It should have more options for that price.
But the Rooms has some pretty unique features, starting with the hugeness of that reverberated sound, especially in stereo. I mean, appart from the Bigsky, I still haven't played a reverb that sounds so epic when keeping most of your dry signal at the same time. (it is more "aggressive" than the Bigsky). You just play a single note and you sound like a band. I haven't played the Meris though... The MXR 300 feels like a toy, like a holy grail, in comparison. Flint, Avalanche Run, Blue sky, and others sound small once you've heard the Rooms.
The wave mode is just gorgeous, like any pedal featuring vibrato, but maybe that's just my taste.
So I'd say, yeah, the pedal feels like it could have been so much better, and it's overpriced. But still, it's in the category of pedals that offer "a" sound, and you won't find that same sound with another pedal on the market. That makes it worth something I guess...

heya, I'll admit I hadn't ran it through it's paces in stereo before my rant. just had over an hour with it in stereo and it's definitely dope when using it like that. kind of like snorting heroin instead of banging it. I don't hear anything that you can't find in a Space, tho. except maybe the gong mode? but I bet you can get there with a ring mod/bitcrusher in a reverb loop. and it fucks with your clean tone big time. for better or worse? depends, but I can totally hear a difference when using distortion. I might not be explaining it right, but it sounds like a lot of highs are cut and it comes out super mid focused. it sounds kind of thick n muddy and I bet it cuts through the mix better like that. like a rat. but it legit pisses me off. the magical chime from my distortion/guitar is kind of lost. I'll post a clip comparing the dry and bypassed sound.

bummer to hear about the context sounding thin I'm not too big in a hurry to get rid of it anymore. only when I compare the bypass tone. going to keep a look out for a black hole for sure tho lol