Descent Reverb/Octave Machine Pedal Review

Great, but not for everything.

This is a great pedal. Definitely has a beautiful character. And the art perfectly captures the sound. It's very deep and cavernous. The reason I'm giving this 4 stars is because it's not a versatile pedal. I wouldn't even call this a reverb pedal. I think it's own genre called "washy cave delay". I was expecting something more like a Meris Mercury, but this is definitely its own… read more thing. Let's go over some different things that I've ran through it so far. Guitar sounds freaking great. You can create an amazing soundscape with great character. But this does not work with high gain stuff. This pedal cannot handle audio with high harmonic content. It just doesn't like it. But if you're into making really pretty sounding chiller stuff, this is what you're most likely gonna be reaching for 60% of the time. Drums are very tough. This pedal does not have the type of roominess you'd expect from a reverb pedal. It's nonexistent. You know how sometimes Hall verbs can sound like Rooms if you dial back the space and decay? This is not one of those reverbs. This is very unusable on anything with transients. I will never reach for this on anything drums/percussions. Synths. Meh… ok so my standards for synth effects, and guitar effects are very different. If I'm running a synth that I've spent hours patching/programming/automating into a reverb, then I'm going to want a reverb that I can control and tweak for effect. The separate dry/wet knobs are great, and they make it a lot easier to dial in your space, but this pedal does not want to be in the background. This pedal wants to be wet. So if I have some nice melodic bleeps and bloops creating a large soundscape, it's great! If I have an in-your-face synth lead, even one that's not high in harmonic content, I'm fighting an uphill battle. So all in all, this is a very specific pedal. This is not something you should buy if you don't already have a good reverb pedal. Even if you exclusively make ambient music. There are 10 other pedals you should buy before this one. But hey, I'm keeping mine indefinitely, so that is definitely a testament to its quality.

---

Cancel Comment

Take some time with it.....

Alright. I read about every review on every website that sells these and watched every video I could find. There were a lot of people complaining about the lack of "subtlety" From this pedal. It's all gas, no brakes in other words. I think for me, it all comes down to the manual, and taking some time with it. Read what each knob does with each setting. Also, if you feel like the… read more verb is too much for your liking, be willing to turn the wet mix down so you just get less of the pedal and more dry signal. It makes a huge difference. This pedal will take over your signal in the best way if you want it to but it does a nice subtle hall verb also. Its an awesome sounding pedal. The hall sounds great, the reverse is really cool to play with and the shimmer is just gorgeous. Tons of clarity and the octave options are out of this world. Also, it looks amazing. I'm so happy to support a company that wants their pedals to look as good as they sound. You won't find any better looking pedals on the market. The artwork on this is textured. It's really cool. If you need a few presets with your reverb and you need high quality reverb, get this one.

---

Cancel Comment

Amazing

Glad to see Walrus Audio Products at Sweetwater! I personally own the Descent and it's an amazing Reverb pedal with unique cavernous algorithms on board. Full on stereo and you got yourself ambient tones all day. I highly recommend this pedal if you're looking for that ambient tone on tap. If you're looking for basic Hall/Plate/Spring reverbs, this pedal is not for you. Although… read more on the Hall mode, you can get a very subtle algorithm for basic reverb, but once again, this pedal is not meant for that. 3 presets on board and fully tweak'able. Walrus Audio makes awesome pedals and awesome artwork!

---

Cancel Comment