The Walrus Audio Descent reverb pedal is a high-end reverb guitar effects pedal and one of the most versatile products of its niche. It comes directly from the workshops of Walrus Audio, a company known for being dedicated to its craft and placing the sound quality first at all times.
What makes this reverb stand out above the crowd is the amazing amount of adjustments and tweaks that it offers. You can keep adjusting it for hours, days, and months, and there’s a solid chance you still won’t be able to grasp all the details and minute features.
Therefore, this is also a product aimed at seasoned musicians. To utilize the Descent Reverb to its fullest capabilities, you need to have the skills, there’s just too many knobs and minute sonic adjustments at your disposal to go through with an untrained ear. Or at least that would be this writer’s humble opinion, you should still feel free to fiddle around with this baby regardless of your experience.
Controls, Features, Specs
Eight control knobs, one three-way switch and two buttons – that’s a lot of controls. The one that you should focus on first would be the three-way switch, the one that allows you to select one of the basic three work modes – Hall, Reverse, and Shimmer.
Hall – The Hall mode is as close to classic reverb as you can get – anything from smaller room echo to huge hall ringing.
Reverse – The Reverse mode adds playback unique responses and allows you to implement the pre-delay controls.
Shimmer – Finally, the Shimmer mode takes things to a new level by highlighting the octave features and inserting as much as two octaves, -1 and +1 into the reverberated signal. This creates a symphony of sound and a truly unique sonic experience.
The remainder of knobs includes Dry, Reverb Time, Diminish, Tweak, Wet Mix, Dry Signal, -1 and +1. As the titles indicate, these allow very precise control of the amount of dry and wet signal, the tone of both delay octaves and additional diminishing of the reverb signal.
The device allows you to memorize up to three different tonal presets and mark them with different colors. Finally, the Bypass button allows you to do just that – bypass the Descent Reverb.
Tones and Sounds
Reverb is one of those pedals that can be defined as more standard and common, so it is fairly obvious what this device does – it adds reverberation, or sonic reflections to your audio signal.
This pedal is one of the best units in the world to perform such a function. The sound is 100% organic, giving you and the audience a genuine impression that the performance is taking place in a large hall. The octave functions are also very natural sounding and perfect for solo sections that require a full sound.
Each of the three initial tonal options has something different to offer and allows you to travel from just slightly larger rooms to deep sci-fi spaces and uncharted waters.
This is also where another point should be made – consider your needs. Think about how much do you use the reverb effect. If that’s your thing, than Tones and Sounds is perhaps the ultimate goal. If not, and there’s nothing wrong with that either, then try the budget-friendly options first to see how it goes.
But tone-wise, the pedal can offer a majestic audio output that will make you float high above ground in your very own secluded sonic bubble of bliss. And if that sounds like exaggeration ,we dare you to go to your local music shop and test this baby out.
Road-Worthiness & Durability
The pedal has a very sturdy metal casing that can withstand more than a decent amount of abuse. If you manage to break this thing, chances are that you dropped it from quite a height, didn’t plug it in properly, or stomped on it with full-blown power.
But as far as standard use goes, the pedal can take all the minor punches during transport and run for hours without a hinge. The use of an isolated power supply is recommended for powering all Walrus Audio Pedals. Daisy chain power supplies are not recommended.
Overall Rating
The best reverb pedal on the market? Could be, yes. There are some strong competitors, since we are talking about a common guitar effect after all, but the Walrus Audio Descent definitely ranks up among the finest reverbs out there. As you might have noticed, the price isn’t cheap by any means, but is most definitely fair. You get what you pay for.
On the sonic side, nothing but kudos and thumbs up from here. Highly recommended for all the reverb-heads of the music realm.