Adventure Audio Dream Reaper
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:09 am
So my Dream Reaper came in over the weekend. This is my first AA pedal, and I am thoroughly impressed. More words about it below, but a TL;DR is that it's fucking killer for all things fuzz, scuzz, crackle, squeal, and feedback.
I'll go ahead and say I didn't mess with low gain very much, so I'll have to check that out later when I'm back home. However, I spent a lot of the time I wasn't in Dream Mode playing with the Sense knob (activated by the 'Force' toggle - basically I think this adds resistance to the input signal as you roll the knob back, so you can send hot line signal in and create impedance to emulate guitar pickup signal) and the Bias knob. These both can achieve similar sounds, but with different flavors. My only other experience with a bias knob on a pedal is with my Pretty Years, and this one served up a lot more gated, lo-fi, blown out, and flubby/farty sounds with ease (maybe because the PY's bias is to the 4th microtube, so there's typically more signal hitting it before the bias control?). Certain combinations would permit some really nice very quiet, undistorted signal to pass through when playing quietly, but a glitchy sounding gated fuzz blast would peep its head out every now and then, kind of like there was a dying pedal in the chain. Cool stuff, and lots of nice textures to be found there.
The magic, of course, is when you click on the Dream mode. This mode really brings the filter (which does have some effect w/o Dreaming) to life. Dream mode is where the screaming filter comes into play, and where some strange crossfades between active playing and squealing feedback are achieved. You typically need the 'Reap' knob dimed for this if you have the Sense rolled off, but at that point all the controls become very interactive - a little change in the Sense, bias, gain, or filter/cutoff will change the feedback pitch or just totally change the character of the effect. Definitely one of those things where a slight turn of a knob can take you from a screaming oscillation and thick wall of fuzz to another gated, ultra-saggy crunch. Getting the feedback right to the point of audibility without being overly imposing is surprisingly easy, and adds a totally new dimension to playing. It's like a drone that can fade into the background - super inspiring to write along with. From my brief experience keeping the rest of the controls stable and only playing with one knob at a time, I have to say the filter is not your normal filter, and sounds nothing like the one found in the Happiness (based off the microbrute filter) or the Pretty Years (Wasp filter).
The signal would totally change when I ran different pedals into it (mainly Pretty Years or Happiness), but that's probably because of input level, which seems to be very important for the Dream Reaper.
I don't know how many other folks besides Eivind got one of these, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts or questions about the Dream Reaper. I'd be happy to hear any signal chain or input suggestions & report back findings. You can find a couple clips on my instagram (@EvanGordon) for now - I might try and make this my first pedal demo youtube video if time allows.
I'll go ahead and say I didn't mess with low gain very much, so I'll have to check that out later when I'm back home. However, I spent a lot of the time I wasn't in Dream Mode playing with the Sense knob (activated by the 'Force' toggle - basically I think this adds resistance to the input signal as you roll the knob back, so you can send hot line signal in and create impedance to emulate guitar pickup signal) and the Bias knob. These both can achieve similar sounds, but with different flavors. My only other experience with a bias knob on a pedal is with my Pretty Years, and this one served up a lot more gated, lo-fi, blown out, and flubby/farty sounds with ease (maybe because the PY's bias is to the 4th microtube, so there's typically more signal hitting it before the bias control?). Certain combinations would permit some really nice very quiet, undistorted signal to pass through when playing quietly, but a glitchy sounding gated fuzz blast would peep its head out every now and then, kind of like there was a dying pedal in the chain. Cool stuff, and lots of nice textures to be found there.
The magic, of course, is when you click on the Dream mode. This mode really brings the filter (which does have some effect w/o Dreaming) to life. Dream mode is where the screaming filter comes into play, and where some strange crossfades between active playing and squealing feedback are achieved. You typically need the 'Reap' knob dimed for this if you have the Sense rolled off, but at that point all the controls become very interactive - a little change in the Sense, bias, gain, or filter/cutoff will change the feedback pitch or just totally change the character of the effect. Definitely one of those things where a slight turn of a knob can take you from a screaming oscillation and thick wall of fuzz to another gated, ultra-saggy crunch. Getting the feedback right to the point of audibility without being overly imposing is surprisingly easy, and adds a totally new dimension to playing. It's like a drone that can fade into the background - super inspiring to write along with. From my brief experience keeping the rest of the controls stable and only playing with one knob at a time, I have to say the filter is not your normal filter, and sounds nothing like the one found in the Happiness (based off the microbrute filter) or the Pretty Years (Wasp filter).
The signal would totally change when I ran different pedals into it (mainly Pretty Years or Happiness), but that's probably because of input level, which seems to be very important for the Dream Reaper.
I don't know how many other folks besides Eivind got one of these, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts or questions about the Dream Reaper. I'd be happy to hear any signal chain or input suggestions & report back findings. You can find a couple clips on my instagram (@EvanGordon) for now - I might try and make this my first pedal demo youtube video if time allows.
