100% agree on the midi and flexibility things - buying an extra box and cables for that is super annoying. Plus the midi takes up the expression pedal slot. I’ve got the Source Audio Ventris and the midi is great! If midi is useful, 2nd hand Nemesis go for about £200.
I’ve never tried one of those Pigtronix, but have heard good things.
No love for the Zoom Multistomps here? 
My advice is: keep the specialised pedal. But get another Vanilla pedal. If you have a few different pedals of the same effect and choose wisely you will have a great library of textures to choose from. Apprentice of all and master of none is fruitless in my opinion. I’m looking some super clean delays now as I have enough character ones now. (However I am going to get a real tape delay when funds allow it too…) Down the rabbit I/we go!
Re. the real tape delay, you won’t regret it! There’s just nothing like a real tape delay and I really love mine. Be prepared for whichever one you get to require regular attention though…!
+1 for tape. I have a Dynacord Echocord Mini that is just beautiful. I was using it on guitar and haven t used it a while, but won t get rid of it. Tons of character. The slider for delay time is instant dub…
More so than the Roland SRE555 that I also had. Could have been my specific unit but I didn t get better sound out of it than the simpler and cheaper Echocord.
big fan of the Digitech Rubberneck. great sounding analog delay for cheap. think I got mine “open box” (which was actually brand new) for $100. sounds excellent and the “rubberneck” feature and feedback loop are awesome. also huge fan of the Death By Audio Echo Dream. no tap tempo but that modulation and gentle bit of fuzz really lend some grit and depth to it. I like pedals that are simple with character though; not super deep with alternate universes to explore.
This! I share the experience about the Obscura, but i recommend it to use in a FX Chain. It might add this extra what is sometimes Missing.
If ones looking for that extra hands on controllable and versatile delay unit, i highly can recommend the Eventide Timefactor. I liked it a lot and sometimes i miss it.
Thanks to all for the advice. I have some options to explore, but in the meantime, I’ll keep the Volante and maybe pick up an Obscura as a cheap counterpoint to the Volante.
And Space. My secret sauce.
I sold my BigSky and TimeLine this last week, replacing them with the Source Audio Ventris and Nemesis. I am so impressed with both.
The Ventris, dare I say it, is actually more musical and clear than the BigSky… I never thought I’d play a ‘big box’ reverb that would outstrip the Strymon gear but I was wrong. Plus, < 300mA power draw and half the width!
Been said here a few times and tends to get passed over a bit, but the GFI Specular Tempus is a fantastic delay and reverb that also does a bit of harmonizing and other whacky stuff. Great computer editor to dig deep on custom patches too.
The Empress stuff is terrific as well. Still thinking a Volante might be in my future, but also looking into eurorack modules at the moment.
Does the Hall of Fame not have “proper stereo separation?” I mean can it not be used as a master effect for running the whole mix through?
I recently picked up an EQD Afterneath. Really great granular delay/ambience generator. Absolutely loving it on synths
I went with the Empress Reverb and I’m pleased so far.
Pros:
Cons:
The closed competitor was the Specular Tempus for me. But the Specular Tempus has parameters which can only be changed with its Win/Mac-based editor. How long will such an editor be supported? Can it still be used in 10-20 years? What’s with other platforms like Linux?
I also don’t get why they won’t document how the sysex communication for these parameters works. There is clearly one, because the editor communicates with the pedal via MIDI, but it is not documented (nor does their support react on my mail).
Whoa, there’s more to the Empress Reverb than meets the eye! Website doesn’t even mention the looper.
How’s the cabinet simulator?
Gotta love a reverb with a Beer mode.
…best pedals all over the place in years to come?
eventide is always the eventide hi end shizzel glance u can expect from it…space is still THE reverbpedal…
strymon reinvented the dust in their pedals…big sky and timeline are already modern classics…
and empress is the new school of cool…
can’t go wrong for real with any of these…and in case of strymon and eventide it’s a bit like with elektron boxes…u loose 15 % of it’s valaue once u bought one of those new…but then…u’ll never loose any cent again…and if u wait for ten years, u can even sell them for more later on…
so don’t be surprised if u can’t find any of those on the second hand market for further reasonable prices…these sonic tools are worth it…
I’ve never really bothered reverb or delay pedals as I feel I’ve been well covered by plugins such as Valhalla and more recently stuff like BYOME for getting more out there. But increasingly I’ve been considering get more hands-on tweaking as ultimately the plugins tend towards ‘set and forget’ even with copious midi mapping opportunities. So, this thread has been great but I’m unsure I want to dive in to high-end of the market just yet.
Been intrigued by the TC Electronic toneprint stuff and the new Flashback2 4x seems to tick a lot of boxes with having the likes of midi. But it seems you can download the toneprint editor but without having a pedal connected it’s not possible to dive into the editing to see what the range of parameters that are available. Anyone have any experience they’d like to share? Is it genuinely useful or is it a bit of a gimmick?
Cheers!
my tip would be spend once properly and be done with it. The Strymon BigSky, Eventide Space, Source Audio Ventris, Empress Reverb, Meris Mercury 7, GFI Specular Tempus, Neunaber Immerse Mk2, Boss RV-500 are all top notch reverb pedals well worth their respective prices. And if you’re a little patient, you can find great deals on any of these on the used market.
Can’t go wrong with any of these (I own a RV-500, Space, and Mercury7 - and they are all fabulous!) and they will blow a TC Electronic HOF2 or Flashback out of the water sonically speaking.
The RV-500 and GFI Specular Tempus have integrated delay algos also, so you get extra bang for your buck.
Soon the RV-200 will be out, too. [edit: nevermind, no RV-200 coming out]
I had a TC Hall of Fame and it was pretty meh. I only liked a couple of settings, and they really needed to be maxed out for my tastes. I never messed with toneprint. Mostly because the website seemed like a bear to navigate for patches. I have Mercury7 and it’s not going anywhere.
I didnt see this listed in the 200 series lineup? The DD has reverb options…