This thread was ambivalent-and-yet exciting enough to me to force a dig out of my forum password… Reverb is something I am very passionate about, and I would love to have an Eventide stompbox that could replicate my favourite rack-reverb sounds. If there were three units I'd love a reverb stompbox to be modeled on, it'd be the Lexicon 960L, Lexicon PCM70, and the AMS RMX-16 – legendary reverbs! Something that could truly replace those racks on the road in a travel-friendly size would be the ultimate (I am on the road 10 months of the year, and baggage allowance is always a consideration as a guitarist – I make do with a pair of Line 6 Verbzilla's when touring). To have something that could emulate the high quality and thick texture of these reverbs would be stunning – I'm yet to find a stompbox that TRULY sounds as good as the reverb I add in plugins and rack units when recording, whether in the studio or just on my laptop.
One of the reasons I stack two Verbzillas are the "special" reverb effects – mostly the Octo, and also tricks involving going from 100% wet to just a regular slap, with the 100% trailing over it. The ability to have a regular verb running, and then add a pronounced "effect" as well is and important trick for me as a guitarist, and gives me some of my more unique sounds. I play everything from fast paced Smiths-y pop to straight-out shoegaze with the bands I tour in. With that in mind, here is my wishlist for the inevitable "Verbfactor":
a) Ability to run two seperate reverb presets at once stacked, activated by the left and middle "___factor" chassis' footswitches, OR
b) Have a seperate section dedicated to "trail effects" activated by the middle footswitch. So, left footswitch engages the reverb, and then the middle one adds a modulation of some sort – octave up trails, chorused trails, reverse, hold, crash, etc, or a mixture of all of them, whatever you have selected…
I want to be able to get everything from Ennio Marricone guitar lines, to Phil Spector rolling reverb, to full on ambient-gaze wash out and reverse reverbs (ie Blonde Redhead, My Bloody Valentine). I don't doubt that in any half-decent reverb pedal I pick up I could find something "serviceable" to get me there live, but if you really wanted to take it to the next level, then I would "ditto" the request for an algorithm editor for Mac/PC – and a couple slots allocated for user presets (or perhaps the ability to completely re-organise all presets as the user sees fit, and a factory reset for when we mess it up…) When using software plugins, I've most liked the "Waves" plugin reverbs for the sound quality and UI for tailoring the reverbs (though admittedly I haven't tried as many software plugins as I have racks) – if it could be as functional as this, then you would be one more step of the way to having a hit on your hands. (The ability to get into the frequency multipliers, predelay, cutoff, EQ of the reverb's freq. response, control of the shape of the onset of reverb, size of space, diffusion, modulation, etc via a software editor OR the pedal itself would be the ideal here – obviously, the software option being more in depth for the advanced users who really want to get their sleeves rolled up.)
There's a really great post in the Gearpage thread about this too, from user "echo unit" – he's onto the same sort of buzz that I am regarding this, I think. I know it sounds like we want the world from an Eventide Reverb Pedal, but the thing is… we wouldn't be asking if we didn't think you could deliver, and weren't absolutely agog at the possibilities. Practically spagging for it, even… I really believe you guys could do it, too. Whilst there are plenty of competitors for your Timefactor and Modfactor currently in the market, nobody in my mind has truly nailed a great rack-quality reverb yet – if you could pull this off, you'd make a ton, I honestly believe that.
So, best of luck with it, and feel free to ask us anything more you want to know as far as focus grouping is concerned. I for one plan on popping back to this thread very regularly. 🙂
Warm springy regards,
Jonathan
