In comparison to the Dark World, the Keeley “World” reverbs were outstanding. The BFR and Refract were kinda cool to a degree, especially in utilizing the stereo field, but the Air/shimmer algo was ruined by a poor balance of white noise mixed into the signal. The Hall algo was actually really good, but I was disappointed in the spring and plate which just sounded dull to me (especially the spring). I really struggled to get a workable sound out of most of the algos. If you look online there are a bunch of complaints about a certain resonance in the DSP filtering that sort of dominates every reverb algorithm. I don’t think I have been more disappointed with a pedal’s sound though considering how much potential it has. It also had a freeze function (as did the M7, which still allowed fresh use of the reverb while freezing a signal) and most importantly the swell function was dope - no signal loss and it swells the entire signal and not just the reverb. It has 6 interesting and varied algorithms, works in stereo, midi I/O, 9 on board presets (the lack of easy preset access on the M7 was also irritating), and a bunch of modulation options. So I really decided to try the Walrus Audio R1 which I got new-used for a handsome price under £200, and I LOVED the design/form factor. Truthfully, it complemented the Dark World quite nicely in my chain as it worked with my gear at line level/in stereo, but I wanted to see what else was out there. But the reverb only gets gnarly when the space decay is really pushed, otherwise it’s all fairly tame.
The biggest selling point of the pedal for me was actually the level of control in emulating basic room treatment using just the mix knob. The pitch vector can actually be used to colour the two algos quite nicely at low mix levels but I didn’t find myself using it much. Now all this could be due to my setup but I am using an Arturia Fuse Studio interface at both line and instrument levels and in stereo and I’m yet to really notice much change when using the Density setting. Personally I also found the modulation super muddy and ill-defined, though the vibrato was pretty tasteful! The EQ is fine, but not quite as broad as I would have liked, and though the predelay range is fine, I have not found much use in the density adjustments. Also a common complaint is that there is a slight volume drop when Swell is engaged. I emailed Andrew at Meris about all that and he said there were no internal trim pots on the M7 to adjust this. For me, the dry signal was too salient until the mix was near maximum at which point the wet signal can be adjusted to match the dry in the last 1/8th of a turn before I goes fully wet. And sure, it absolutely sings and soars and all that, but I still found myself wanting every time I used it. Every review I have read of the M7 suggested it was THE reverb pedal to get (that wasn’t Big Sky or whatever). That might be enough to discredit my findings, but tbh if a pedal NEEDS to be in stereo to sound good then it is probably not up to snuff. I was actually pretty disappointed that Dark World is mono (like almost all CBA pedals) considering it’s a “dual” reverb engine, but nevertheless didn’t use the Mercury 7 in stereo too much. I also don’t really use stereo effects in my setup, but I did test that feature in my comparison. First thing to mention is that I primarily play guitar but ideally enjoy the versatility of having line level options in reverbs and delays.
I had some disposable income to splash on a new reverb pedal, so I ended up bouncing between the following for a little home shootout: Walrus Audio R1 and Red Panda Context V2 to challenge my two existing reverbs.
I already had two of the “heavy hitters” in the boutique reverb pedal game: Meris Mercury 7 and Chase Bliss Dark World (also the MOOD but that’s in a league of its own and I wouldn’t dare categorize it as a reverb). I’m not usually one for posting pedal reviews but I’ve spent the past couple of weeks looking for a reverb pedal I could fully get behind and wanted to share my findings (as they seem contrary to the online consensus).