auxiliaryjoel's forum posts 3

OK cool, I ended up selling Descent. I almost bought a Zoom ms-70cdr purely for the reverse reverb, as I have a Keeley Caverns 2 that does some nice shimmering, but I ended up not buying the Zoom as it's becoming more apparent to me that harnessing reverse reverb would require my song writing to morph into such an exact replication of the "my bloody valentine" style that I would not be introducing new creative song-writing but instead mimicking MBV which I realised is not helpful as that's their sound and they do it brilliantly, no point in me trying to reinvent it. The Fathom does look amazing though - thanks for the heads up. If I get curious again that may be the answer!

let's say I was just using it in the studio - I'm still unable to get a good Reverse sound. Not just live, but in any way. Even for simply recording.

Are there any other pedals that provide Reverse, but with enough adjustment options to make it usable on songs of different strumming speeds?

The Polara doesn't work well in this regard due to it's lack of dry/wet control, and some of the smaller ones (Reflector for example) don't provide enough length, pre-, etc. settings for the Reverb to be usable to suit different timing. (I'm talking specifically about the Reverse mode here)

I have a Walrus Descent Reveb, I've had it for around 3 years now and despite it constantly being on my pedalboard, and me constantly tinkering with it... I still haven't figured out a usable way to incorporate it into a song.

On paper it sounds amazing,but I'm constantly finding myself being irritated or underwhelmed with it. For example the way the presets save seems to be random at best and often I find myself hand correcting knobs regardless as it never seems to recall settings 100% reliably at all times. The expression option seems fairly useless as the effects seem to go through a really unappealing digital warbling sound if you express from toe up to toe down. And particularly with the reverse mode - the expression always produces digital clicks when you get to 70% or more towards toe down.(which makes it an unusable feature for recording and live performance)

I also find the knobs to not have much variation from fully off to fully on.

And the washy Shimmer and Hall settings at first sound cool, but whenever you try and tame them into something that can be used in a song - the clarity is just not there.

My other big letdown is the Reverse reverb - I really wanted something that could emulate those MBV My blooody Valentine reverse sound that they had going with rack units. The demos and techs specs suggested this is possible but I find the control of the reverse to leave me never quite getting there, and if I overcompensate by going 'crazy/wet' to accentuate it - then the washy/indecipherable sound is all I get.

Don't get me wrong, it has a couple of good sounds in it, but I expected this to be way more versatile and user friendly than it is.

is this just me or can anyone defend this pedal in regards to its usability in song writing and recording/live music uses?

Oh another thing - regardless of whether it is in True Bypass or Trail/Buffer mode - the change from Engaged to Off never seems to seemlessly occur, there is always a change of volume and a slight audible stop/bump in sound.

(FYI - I'm using Fender Tele (CIJ) and Fender Jag (CIJ) into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III, and a Valvetone Impact.)