Empress reverb

The Lounge Other Gear
#64

Digital reverbs are the best thing that happened since the churches, I’d say.

But I do recommend a good recording session in an empty church!

Empress Reverb is a very good reverb.
Eventides Space is more an impressive special FX (very good too)
I haven’t gelled with Strymon Big Sky, it just wasn’t my taste.

The Analog vs Digital discussion is a bit pointless in 2021, you can make decent warm sounds out of a computer. But the debate about Analog Reverb vs. Digital Reverb is lost from the start ^^
Unless you own a big church :yum:

For your information, even the sweatest DSI synth, among the cream of modern analogs, embed digital FX.

Sometimes you have to judge with your ears I guess.

5 Likes
#65

To my ears i’ve never noticed. My Nord Lead 4 sounds Analogue but is VA. Makes a bit of a mockery over Analogue as a selling point though.

Thinks its a coinflip between Eventide or Empress.

#66

Then I recommend Empress for the small form factor :slight_smile:

BlueSky is also an option, as well as the most recent Eventide.

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#67

I do like the colour coding. I think that makes it easier on the ol’ grey cells :slight_smile:

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#68

I use the Empress Reverb (and Echosystem) with my Vermona Perfourmer. Both are fantastic with it.

#69

anyone have experience comparing the empress reverb with CXM 1978 and/or UAD golden reverberator? curious to hear your opinions!

#70

i was asking myself the same and found this yt series about it …

#71

yeah I found that too, nice guy, but I must say not the best comparison videos…

#72

i got a zoia and wondered how the empress reverb compares. never found a convincing comparison … maybe the best way is to just buy used and resell if you dont like it.

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#73

I bought a Zoia for a few weeks, ended up selling it because it was a workflow killer for me. Compared with the Empress Reverb, yeah, you can do more things with Zoia and probably there a few patches already made that will sound like some algorithms of the Reverb. But the lushness of the Empress Reverb just does it for me, and it has still much variety that in a year I haven’t explored all the modes yet. Also, I don’t want to loose time with FX I want them to be ready and easy to play. EV does just that, you turn it on and have a gigantic playground at your disposal, all ready to tweak in a few seconds.

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#74

Here’s another video of one of my favorite combos: Waldorf Iridium in combination with the fantastic Empress Reverb. They make such a great pair! Well, Empress Reverb might be my favorite external reverb pedal so far and the Iridium is just such a great and versatile synth.

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#75

I just watched this video earlier today. Didn’t realize this was you! I love your patches – really great! I appreciate all of the videos and sound demos you upload.

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#76

Thanks! There will be more in the future, for sure. I’m also always open to suggestions of some great pedals/synths.

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#77

Exciting news for Empress Reverb owners. The following news was shared with me and I understand will be posted on the Empress Effects blog shortly.

The Reverb and Echo System "are based on the same DSP platform, and either pedal can run either firmware. If you have one and would like to try the other, we recommend that you back up your presets and perform a factory reset, as described in your product manual. Then, follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest firmware for the pedal that you’d like to try.

  2. Rename the firmware so that it follows the naming convention for the other pedal.

  3. For instance, “eees0214.bin” would become “eerv0214.bin”, and “eerv0609.bin” would become “eees0609.bin”.

  4. Copy the firmware to a supported SD card, and follow the standard firmware update process for your Echosystem or Reverb.

There will be a few limitations because of the different interfaces. For instance, the Reverb doesn’t have a button to switch between the available delay engines (single, dual serial, dual parallel, left/right), and doesn’t have a light to show the currently selected time base (global tap, local tap, knob)."

I’d say try it at your own risk, but if you’re bold post your experiences if you try it!

Update: I’ve tried to load the ES firmware into my Reverb but so far no luck. Maybe I need to try a different SD card. I’ll report back on any progress.

7 Likes
#78

Wow, that’s huge!! Very surprising news!

#79

Wow, that’s awesome news! Just yesterday I thought that I preferred Empress Reverb algos to those on my Specular Tempus and wished for a reverb+delay box from Empress. Having to perform a reset isn’t too practical for switching often, but it’s definitely a great move to give people the option instead of letting them pay twice.

Wondering if Echosystem doesn’t sell too well overall and they’re hoping to get some people to buy it this way.

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#80

I don’t think they anticipated that someone would figure this out. It seems that some curious user had the idea, tried it and managed to get it to work. I saw this posted somewhere and I decided to personally contact Empress to see what they would say.

Having said this, I still haven’t managed to get it to work on my Reverb.

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#81

Good news, I got it to work! My approach was to:

  1. Did a factory reset on the Reverb
  2. Downloaded the earlier Echo System firmware file eees0100.bin from this link
  3. Changed the name of the file to eerv0100.bin (changed the es to rv)

When I did the firmware update on the Reverb it took. My plan is to play around with this early version for a while and then start trying to add the newer Echo System firmware files one by one.

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#82

Pretty interesting. I wonder if Empress will come out and approve of this or if there is any danger? Also would like to know exact differences/functionalities (what knob does what/what doesn’t work, etc.)

#83

In my communications with Empress it sounds like they are testing things to ensure it’s safe before suggesting anyone try it. So far it’s been working fine for me, but haven’t been able to upgrade it to some of the newer firmware versions that introduced more delay algorithms.

You can compare the knob functions of the Reverb vs Echo System on the Empress site, including what the Thing1 and Thing2 knobs do for each delay type.

1 Like