What Does a Reverb Pedal Do?

Every building, hallway and room has its own acoustic signature. When a sound bounces off the walls and surfaces of a space it creates a myriad of tiny echoes that combine to create natural reverberation, or simply “reverb.”. As musicians, we often harness the pleasing characteristics of a room’s reverb to our advantage. Even outdoor spaces like well-designed amphitheaters can have a pleasing reverberant character that leaves sounds that enter it trailing on and on. When crafting a musical experience, the space in which music is played often matters as much as the music itself.

Because we experience reverb everywhere we go, often we miss these sonic characteristics when plugging into a guitar amp without reverb.

Now we no longer need to use reverb chambers, spring tanks or huge steel plates as methods of adding reverb in the studio. Through the use of digital signal processing we are able to meticulously recreate the sounds of real sounding spaces such as large concert halls, small rooms, even spaces that seemingly defy the laws of physics, all through the use of digital reverb algorithms.

The Immerse Mk II, Neunaber’s current flagship reverb pedal uses proprietary algorithms to recreate the characteristics of these spaces in a small, convenient stompbox format. 

You can alter your sound using the spring mode to emulate an amp spring reverb, recreate that studio plate sound or even make your guitar sound like it’s in the back of an enormous concert hall. Reverb pedals give your guitar a pleasing and natural sounding ambience that helps you create a “live” sound even when playing in your bedroom.

By using the depth knob, you change the “size” of the space the reverb pedal is creating. Higher depths feel more like large halls and cathedrals, where lower depths feel like a small room. By changing the tone of a reverb you can change the acoustic response of this space. Recreate the sound of a tile bathroom with a bright reverb or a treated studio with a darker reverb. 

By using a reverb pedal you can create a "live" sound for your playing and even use it creatively as an effect to add beautiful layers of ambience to your playing.

Learn more about the Immerse Mk II here.

 

(Originally posted by John Bleeker 05/25/2021)