Have you ever thought, “I wish I could have that distinctive Noise Engineering reverb sound in a compact, portable, stereo pedal package with full MIDI control and a mappable expression pedal input accompanied by a featureset designed to accommodate both the dynamics of guitar playing and the timbral range of any line-level instrument?"
If so, today is your lucky day!
Batverb, the stereo synthetic tail generator dreams are made of, is now available for preorder. It begins shipping on March 13th, so if you’ve been looking for a last-minute St. Patrick’s Day gift for that special someone, Batverb is the perfect choice.
There’s a lot to discuss when it comes to Batverb. In this post, we’ll chat a bit about its features and differences compared to other reverbs in our lineup, and how it sounds with a variety of instruments. We’ve got lots more videos and blogs coming soon, too. If you want to get an idea of exactly how it works under the hood, you can check out the user manual here. If you just need to get a Batverb into your life RIGHT NOW, place your preorder at your favorite retailer or at our webshop here to get one as soon as they fly out of the factory.
Batverb Batbasics
Batverb was designed from the ground up to be a performance effect. It features a configurable Bypass footswitch (want relay-controlled true bypass, or tails that trail out while you keep playing? The choice is yours!) and an Infinite switch that maxes out the Regen and mutes the reverb tank input. It also features an Expression input that can be routed to any parameter, and can be controlled with an expression pedal – or a CV signal.
Batverb’s timbre and style are easy to configure. The Focus switch makes the tail more reverberant or more delay-like, and Grit adds a bit of distortion to your sound (if you want it). Time sets the delay-line frequency, and Regen sets the amount of feedback in the reverb tank, going past 100% near the top of the parameter range. If you want some extra character, Doom and Shimmer add chaotic suboctaves and bright overtones, respectively. Duck controls the amount of feedback based on your playing: use the right setting to duck the reverb out of the way of your input signal, or use the left setting to match the reverb’s dynamics to your playing.
Batverb can be used as a mono in/mono out, mono in/stereo out, or stereo in/stereo out effect with 100% analog input and output gain controls: whether you want to use it as a mono guitar effect, a stereo widener for a monosynth, a stereo effects insert for your mixer, or something completely different, Batverb works for you.
Batverb also features full MIDI control: presets can be saved and loaded with MIDI Program Change messages, and the parameters send and receive MIDI CCs for full remote control with software or other controllers.
Batverb vs Desmodus
If you’re a fan of our Eurorack products, you may notice some similarities between Batverb and Desmodus Versio, our synthetic tail generator for modular synths. And it’s true: they share some similarly named controls, and a lot of their respective inspiration came from the same place. However, Batverb shares none of its code with Desmodus. It was completely written from the ground up as an entirely new product.
We’re close to Desmodus’s five-year anniversary, and in that time we’ve learned a lot about reverb. Desmodus is still one of our favorite products we’ve ever released, but the knowledge we’ve gained allowed us to design Batverb to work particularly well with dynamic, polyphonic instruments like guitars as well as synths and the occasional saxophone. One of the first tests we did in early Batverb R&D was to plug a guitar into Desmodus Versio. It sounded nice, but, just like Desmodus was designed to play off of Eurorack’s strengths, we knew we wanted things to be different for a guitar-focussed product.
One major change between the products is that Batverb uses no delay-line modulation, resulting in a sound that’s more transparent – if you want it to be. Timbre shaping is done with five parameters: Hi Pass and Lo Pass allow you to filter the reverb tail into whatever space you’d like it to fill, Doom and Shimmer add low- and high-end content, and Grit makes things as clean or crunchy as you’d like.
If you want to hear even more of what Batverb can do, check out the audio demos on the Batverb product page!
To the Batcon
Just like Desmodus, a portion of each Batverb sold will go towards Bat Conservation International, supporting their mission of conservation and habitat protection for our favorite furry flying friends. You can learn more about the amazing things they do at their website here.
