empress reverb

Beexter

Maybe I need to listen again ' cos I'm not getting the love...the demos I've heard of the BigSky sound much more lush to me...

DesVegas

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JezWynd

Beexter said:

Maybe I need to listen again ' cos I'm not getting the love...the demos I've heard of the BigSky sound much more lush to me...

I've had a problem with every Empress pedal I've owned. They're very well made, professional bits of kit with lots of sensible options but they just sound a bit... bland?

Teetonetal

JezWynd said:

Beexter said:

Maybe I need to listen again ' cos I'm not getting the love...the demos I've heard of the BigSky sound much more lush to me...

I've had a problem with every Empress pedal I've owned. They're very well made, professional bits of kit with lots of sensible options but they just sound a bit... bland?

Hmm, 

I've owned most of the empress range at one point or other and bland is not how i'd describe them at all. 

The only issue I had was that the interface on the VMSD and Phasor were a bit cumbersome. 

JezWynd

Perhaps bland is a bad choice of word. Each of their pedals that I've tried (trem, phase and comp) had lots of options and nothing to complain about in any of them except perhaps a lack of excitement. I'm digging a hole for myself here. I'm going to put the shovel down. now. They're a fine company, even sent me a new baseplate gratis.

BumFace

I'm very impressed with the Empress Tremelo2 - not so much for vintage trems but for modern choppy stuff, and the presets thing works excellently for me. Well done the Moosef**kers I say.

Heartfeltdawn

Beexter;1094769" said:

Maybe I need to listen again ' cos I'm not getting the love...the demos I've heard of the BigSky sound much more lush to me...

Which is why I dislike the Big Sky sound. The Empress sounds more like the Alesis and Yamaha rack reverb sounds of the 80s/90s, the type that used multitap delays creatively. It's just another sound option alongside the Eventide and Strymon sounds.

stefken147

I'm also not blown away by the demos of this. Trying it out may be another matter!

kjdowd

JezWynd;1094843" said:

Perhaps bland is a bad choice of word. Each of their pedals that I've tried (trem, phase and comp) had lots of options and nothing to complain about in any of them except perhaps a lack of excitement. I'm digging a hole for myself here. I'm going to put the shovel down. now. They're a fine company, even sent me a new baseplate gratis.

No. I agree. Great company, fine pro pedals. Not a bad sound from them. But no wow. Then again, I have tried exactly the same ones as you, so maybe the drives and delays are different.

I'd still have the buffer+ on any board though.

preston61

Anyone got one of these yet?

For me the thing I like about the Empress pedals is the ease of use, sure the BigSky might be the best reverb pedal ever made but there are so many options and sub options that I would spend all my time twiddling and not actually playing. One of the main reasons I prefer the Superdelay to the Timefactor and Timeline is how easy it is to use, and I would imagine that the Empress Reverb would be the same.

Sound wise, my superdelay sounded every bit as good as the Free the Tone Flight time and all the other pedals I mentioned above for the way I use it and is the reason that no matter what pedal journey I go on I always return to it

Teetonetal

interesting as I hated the VMSD interface and found the flight time really easy.

BBBlues

At this price point you could get the H9 core with plenty of toys to play with on board.

Also, I've found these really expensive reverb pedals with loads of banks pretty redundant in live situations. All your stored patches that sound beautiful at home just end up getting lost in the mix, or don't work as well in a different room scenario. This is why I kept my Flint and sold my BigSky. I just adjust the Flint on the fly for what I need.

preston61

BBBlues;1099390" said:

At this price point you could get the H9 core with plenty of toys to play with on board.

Also, I've found these really expensive reverb pedals with loads of banks pretty redundant in live situations. All your stored patches that sound beautiful at home just end up getting lost in the mix, or don't work as well in a different room scenario. This is why I kept my Flint and sold my BigSky. I just adjust the Flint on the fly for what I need.

I found the BigSky overwhelming for live use, however I play at church and the current church music scene has lots of ambient stuff and so a good reverb has kind of become essential (I might add that that style of music is not something I really enjoy).

I currently use a Eventide Space, but the mix knob is broken and so I have all the buttons locked and adjust them via the H9 App, which is great for home use, less so for playing on stage (it's a pretty important knob on the pedal). I could send it back to Eventide to fix, but for the extra that would cost I could just sell the Space and easily buy the Empress, which would give me better board space and live functionality, and a bit of spare cash

Prymaxe have it for £295ish including shipping, which is only a few quid cheaper than a H9 core and then you have to pay for the verbs on top, so it's not really any cheaper.