The reverb pedal you’ve been waiting for is now here (no, not the big blue one that has to do with the Sky) – the Descent Reverb from Walrus Audio. This is a complex reverb on steroids, allowing you to access a ton of different tones and modes, most with a stomp of your foot, for easy use and brilliant sound. Let’s get to it, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

First off, it looks amazing coming out of the box (although, I wish there had been a little more inside padding for shipping, or a smaller box). The cool, deep blue color and (as always with Walrus gear) rad graphics stun you instantly, making the anticipation for the sounds it will make that much higher. Having a Stereo rig setup, I had to open it up right off the bat to access the Stereo switch located inside (another awesome feature, by the way). Plugged in my TRS splitter cable and the feed from my DD-20, and I was ready to go. Now, the controls are a little daunting, but a quick read-through of the short-and-sweet manual (thanks, guys!) explained everything you’d need to know about this multi-functional beast. The main thing you have to figure out is which control knobs do what in any given mode…are you lost yet? Don’t worry, it’s not too bad. The Dry Mix, Dry Signal, -1 Octave, +1 Octave and Wet Mix all do the same things for every mode, so you just have to worry about the other 3 controls, really (Reverb Time, Diminish and Tweak). Each of these has a different job depending on the mode you’ve selected, but once you find a sound you love, the Presets come into play and make it all gravy.

Being able to create and select from 3 different Presets (using the Preset footswitch) is key here, people, as it opens up the useful possibilities of this pedal (especially in a live setting) tremendously. Easy to set and easy to switch are the names of the games with the Presets, and how you could not find 3 settings you absolutely love is beyond me. Not to mention that they’ve added in an Expression pedal jack, allowing you to control one of ANY of the parameters you choose on-the-fly. Plus, you can use a Remote Switch to save space on your pedalboard, and move the Descent all the way to the back. The Remote Switch takes up a tiny portion of your board, but will control your Reverb just the same.

After you figure all these options out, it’s time to really HEAR this pedal…and it is beautiful. Deep, full, lush, echoey, spacey, cavernous…the list of adjectives goes on for miles. Pretty much any reverb sound your after can be found using the Descent, and you’re going to have a blast testing and tweaking it to get the right settings for your personal setup. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting via email with Colt from Walrus Audio recently, and he is a super-nice guy making super-rad pedals. Please go check out their site and see all the stuff they’ve done so far. If the Descent is the direction of quality and vision they’re headed in, me and a lot of other folks can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Specs:
Three reverb modes: Hall, Reverse and Shimmer
Controls include: Dry Mix, Wet Mix, Reverb Time, Diminish, Tweak and control of the signals feeding into the Wet Mix: Dry Signal, -1 (octave down) and +1 (octave up)
Three savable presets
9V DC
Mono input and stereo outputs, expression control out, remote preset out

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