Poly Effects VERBS Convolution Reverberator brings something genuinely new to the Reverb Workstation Genre
Like many I was entirely captivated by the Andertons demo of this pedal (as below) - and was fortunate to be quick enough off the mark to snag one of from the very first edition. My good friend Joe Halliday of Hello Sailor Effects obviously came across the demo just a little bit after me - as I surely snagged one of the last ones from that small initial Andertons batch. The fact that there is an Icelandic Space featured (my country of birth) on the VERBS - was also instrumental in my rapid decision-making process!
Seems like the units that ended up at Perfect Circuit in the USA were set to ’read-only’ mode and those customers were unable to save any presets until Poly Effects’ Loki released a quick fix update within a week of the issue being reported.
Note - that as a digital pedal - in very similar way to the Eventide H90 - it goes through a start-up routine every time you power it up - which yields a beautiful cascading multi-coloured LED display pattern - which takes nearly 50 seconds to settle / switch to the default preset (H90 takes 30s). I’ve had a couple of instances when on startup - it never finally resolved from the cascading stage - but generally it seems to start up pretty consistently - just takes a while!
It’s quite different to all the Reverbs I own already - where before the Poly VERBS, my current Reverb Capsule collection / lineup consisted of 12 very fine specimens :
ALABS Audio Cetus, Boss RV-200, Boss RV-500, EHX Oceans 12, Empress Effects Reverb, Eventide H90 Multi-FX, IK Multimedia AmpliTube X-Space, Neunaber Illumine Reverb, Source Audio Ventris, Strymon BigSky, Strymon Cloudburst, and Strymon NightSky.
I’m still looking to add the Meris Mercury X and Red Panda Context 2 at some stage - which with the Poly VERBS would take that capsule collection to 15 - which is surely enough! I kind of still quite want the Chase Bliss CXM 1978 too - and am also awaiting the new version of the GFI System Specular Tempus - which I understand is fairly imminent. So we shall see where I’m at in a couple of years’ time!
The Poly VERBS really is quite unique compared to each of those - and far less granular - where each of its convolution Reverb IRs does most of the heavy lifting - and you have only 4 parameters that you can adjust - Onset (PreDelay), Mix (Reverb Level), Low Cut (HPF), Smoosh (Intensity). In fact the Onset control is so subtle and minimal that it really didn’t do anything for me - so just 3 proper controls then that impact the nature of the output.
What seems to be particularly smart is that most of these reverbs sit under you main signal - and don’t interfere too much with the key melodies - while a few here are a tad more prominent. The very first default Reverb Preset is actually fairly subtle for regular use - while the tail of that reverb is pretty long - but it never gets in the way of your playing - and so is a favourite of mine.
In fact I’ve asterisked all my own favourites in the below listing - leaning mostly into those that are best for always-on playback - while there are some more flavoursome choices in their too - for more incidentally play - and especially the very unique Irregular Reverbs.
The beauty of this device is that you can create 8 of your own Reverb IR's by 'recording' a space or object as an IR and uploading that via flash memory stick - to one of the 8 Adverb Presets. Loki details in an earlier video how you capture an IR - via popping a balloon in your space of choice.
"The easiest way is to put a recorder like a Zoom H5 in the middle of the room then walk back a little and pop a balloon. Trim silence from the resulting file using something like audacity and import it."
Operating the VERBS could not be simpler - and you can cycle around the presets by press-holding the right-hand footswitch. Press-holding the left one yields a Crescendo / Max Out for that Reverb.
Here follow the key controls and ports :
Controls - Spaces / Devices / Elements (groups of 8) : Pool of the Blackstar (≈Hall), Capricornia Caves (≈Cavern), Santa Lucia Basilica (≈Cathedral), Echo Plates (≈Plate), Analog Devices (≈Spring), Irregular Reverbs (≈Oddball Reverbs / Shimmer), Adverbs (≈Rooms / User IRs), Onset (Predelay), Mix (Reverb Level), Presets 1-8 (per Category), Press-hold number to save Preset), Low Cut (HPF), Smoosh (Intensity / Spreads and Expands Sound Particles to fill Void), A Footswitch = Hold for Reverb Crescendo, B Footswitch = Bypass / Hold to scroll through Presets.
Rear Ports / Connections - Output : Mono / TRS Stereo, MIDI Mini TRS In / Out (3.5mm), USB C (for flash drive / memory stick / updates), 9VDC [-] 500mA, Input : Mono / TRS Stereo.
SPACES / DEVICES / ELEMENTS
The VERBS has 7 Sections / Categories of Reverbs - with 8 Presets in each, and the final category where you can replace those 8 factory presets with your own IRs - which a lot of people are loving - and is a main reason for why Joe Halliday wants one of these - as he has recorded some really cool hangar spaces while on operations with the Royal Navy. And musicians about to play in a particular venue - can record the venue's Reverb Acoustics for in-studio practice sessions - just really clever all-round.
I may have done a couple of things differently here myself - make the Onset a little more pronounced - and possibly have a Tilt EQ in place of the the single Low Cut parameter. While I can't fault the core functions of this device.
It's not the most granular as noted, and there are certain of my favourite Reverb types that this does not cover - yet it's pretty much brilliant in every other way - and sounds truly magnificent.
I will still be mixing things up fairly regularly as I like so many of my other Reverb pedals for their particular algorithms. For e.g. the Sci-Fi Reverbs on the AmpliTube X-Space. In fact I would quite like to acquire a Reverb Workstation that just covered Spacey Sci-Fi Soundtrack and Special Effects Reverb sounds - no one has properly made one of those yet - at least not a dedicated workstation to that art form. The Meris Mercury covers a tiniest subsection of that, where the AmpliTube X-Space is currently the one closest to give me what I want in that area.
The Poly VERBS is very organic though - and quite ingenious in how it covers all those different notable and historic spaces! I can imagine some enterprising individuals doing brisk trade in recording IR's for the world's most popular concert venues - for loading up as Adverbs! Madison Square Gardens, O2 and Wembley Arenas, Royal Albert Hall etc!
Here are the 7 categories:
POOL OF THE BLACKSTAR
Spaces famous for their unique audio character, including the longest reverb in the world, a masonic accoustic lens and a sound sculpture.
- *1+2 : Pool of the Blackstar, Winnipeg, Canada.
- 3-5 : Tvísöngur Sound Sculpture (5 interconnected Domes of different size), Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
- 6 : Inchdown Oil Tanks, Invergordon, Scotland - longest reverb in the world.
- *7 : Hamilton Mausoleum, South Lanarkshire, Scotland - longest echo in the world.
- 8 : König Otto, Expressionist Brewing Hall, Berlin, Germany.
CAPRICORNIA CAVES
Caves and cavernous industrial structures, including a nuclear reactor hall, cooling tower and railway tunnels.
- 1 : Capricornia Caves, Cathedral Cave, Rockhampton, Australia.
- *2+3 : Innocent Railway Tunnel, Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 4 : Poly HQ, 10x15x18m empty cavernous warehouse, Coburg, Australia.
- *5 : Abandoned Cooling Tower with amazing complex inner reflections, Charleroi, Belgium.
- *6 : R1 Nuclear Reactor Hall, Stockholm, Sweden.
- *7 : T2 Metallic Hangar, Yorkshire Air Museum, UK.
- *8 : Civil War Bunker, Menorca, Spain.
SANTA LUCIA BASILICA
Religious buildings including the almost 2000 year old Pantheon of Rome.
- 1 : Santa Lucia 17th Century Basilica, Sicily, Italy.
- 2 : The Pantheon of Rome AD126, Rome, Italy.
- 3 : 12th - 15th Century York Minster, York, UK.
- 4 : Knights of St John's Hall, Valetta, Malta.
- *5 : St Alban's Cathedral Day Chapel, St Albans, UK.
- 6 : St George's Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg, USA.
- 7 : St Patrick's Church, Patrington, UK.
- 8 : St Matthew's Church, Walsall, UK.
ECHO PLATES
Vintage analog reverb plate devices including the famous EMT140.
- 1+2 : EMT 140 Plate - 1957
- *3+4 : EcoPlate - 1980
- 5+6 : Lexicon 480-L - 1986
- 7 : EMT 244 - 1978
- *8 : Bricasti M7 - 2007
ANALOG DEVICES
Vintage analog reverb spring and oil can devices including amp style and outboard studio gear.
- 1+2 : Fender Brown Face Reverb Tank - 1962.
- 3+4 : AKG BX20 Spring Reverb Unit - 1968.
- *5 : Fender Adineko Oil Can Delay - 1966.
- *6 : Fisher K-10 Dynamic Space Expander - 1960s.
- 7 : MicMix Master Room MR-II Reverb - 1974.
- 8 : Roland RE-201 Space Echo - 1974.
IRREGULAR VERBS
Bubbles, rain and unusual IRs that generate granular sounding textures.
- *1 : Bubbles
- *2 : Rain (Shimmer)
- *3 : Spinning Coin
- 4 : Train Whistle
- 5 : Cymbal Pattern (Shimmer)
- 6 : Piezo AutoHarp
- 7 : Metal Bathtub
- *8 : Slinky Toy
ADVERBS
This collection holds imported reverbs and by default includes Maeshowe, a neolithic monument built around 2800 BC. Any of the default reverbs can be found on our website if you save over one that you really like.
Adverbs can ne overwritten with you own Reverb Space IRs.
- *1 : Maeshowe Neolithic Chambered Cairn, Orkney, Scotland.
- 2 : RCA Studio B, Nashville, USA.
- 3 : Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, UK.
*4 : Nokia Concert Hall, Tallinn, Estonia. - 5 : Eleven Hall, Suffolk, UK.
- 6 : London Palladium, London, UK.
- 7 : Ursina Del Arte Symphony Hall, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- *8 : Ostia Antic Theatre, Rome, Italy.
Key Types of Reverb Covered : Room, Hall, Cathedral, Cavern, Plate, Spring, Shimmer, Swell, EchoVerb, Irregular Reverb.
Also Oil Can Delay, while Space Echo is just the Reverb side of that unit.
What we don't get are - Gated, Lo-Fi, Modulated, or Reverse Reverbs.
General Feedback
I'm hugely impressed by the Poly VERBS. It doesn't cover me for all my preferred / favourite Reverb algorithms in the same way that some of my other Reverbs do - but how it works is pretty exceptional.
It's not a totally perfect pedal - and for sure it has a few niggles - while nearly every IR / algorithm here is usable in some way. The only one I didn't really get on with was the Train Whistle - where for me the constant fixed pitch of the train whistle is somewhat annoying - and makes it rather minimally useful for me. Everything else has legs - and some of these are incredibly pristine and natural sounding - just amazing really.
It has all the same pros and cons as its Poly Flat V sibling - which I have and love also - and has been on the board since launch. While I feel I will be mixing up my Reverbs rather more. As an example - the Empress Reverb, Neunaber Illumine, and AmpltiTube X-Space are bound to get a look-in - while the Alabs Cetus, Boss RV-200 and Strymon Cloudburst will see a lot of action too. The Boss RV-200 has pretty much the perfect mix of algorithms - and covers off all my favourites in a suitably simple but granular style.
I would say the VERBS is rather more of a tabletop type experience than a floor-based one - but the fact that you can scroll through the presets with the right-hand footswitch makes it usable enough for my purposes. Bending down to make slight adjustments can be slightly annoying - as for most other pedals - I can tweak things with my toes - but here you need hands-on manipulation for the touch-controls to work. I'm not sure if Loki has tweaked those since the Flat V - but the VERBS does seem a little more responsive and consistent on the touch side of things. A really neat and intuitive interface - but one definitely honed rather more for a tabletop environment.
I personally don't feel the need to use MIDI for this pedal as the Preset scrolling works so well for me. I will definitely be hunting down the best MIDI controller for some of my other pedals - and the Kernom Moho in particular!
The Poly Verbs is just beautifully usable and fantastic sounding overall. And perfect for those who want to load up their own Reverb IRs - which functionality I know many of you like.
My one petty annoyance is that the pedal isn't stateful - so unlike most of my Reverb Workstations - which remember where I left off - this VERBS pedal always starts up with the very first Preset!
I'm very glad I got my hands on one so quickly - this will surely be a long-termer for me - while it doesn't cover off all the avenues to make it the only Reverb pedal you ever need. So it's going to be somewhat in rotation with some of my other favourites which better cover and supplement the full spectrum of Reverb types.
I feel that the $399 / £399 price tag is really very fair for the nature and quality of this pedal. All the batches are selling out very quickly - so you need to exercise some patience if you want one - as it's very much in high demand at the moment. I think we're on batch 3 by now! Henning Pauly talks about the first convolution reverb Sony made in 1999 I thin he said - that was going for 20 grand at the time and utilising a far lower resolution - so we've definitely come a long long way forward since then.
You can pre-order from the Poly Effects Webstore, and from Andertons - where I got mine from.
Demos
![First-hand Impressions of the Walrus Audio Mako Series II [M1] High-Fidelity Modulation Machine](https://d6a2e7ghqts3o.cloudfront.net/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/556/2024-GPX-Walrus-Audio-Mako-II-M1-Y-7001.jpg "First-hand Impressions of the Walrus Audio Mako Series II [M1] High-Fidelity Modulation Machine")
