Empress Reverb Review – The Best Reverb Pedal Ever?

In this video, composer Benn Jordan shares his thoughts on the Empress Reverb, a high-end reverb effect pedal that he calls ‘the best reverb pedal in existence’.

Along the way, he demos every algorithm, with a variety of instruments, including guitar, percussive instrument and synthesizer.

Is it ‘the best reverb pedal in existence’. Check out the audio demos and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments!

12 thoughts on “Empress Reverb Review – The Best Reverb Pedal Ever?

  1. Is there one thing that I dislike the most about pro audio stuff,,,is reverb…im obsess with removing reverb…if you ask me what I want for xmas is not to get me a reverb…im developing algorithms ..so I what I like?…I like: expansion, notch filtering, and mono summation =P

  2. Def my most coveted pedal but can’t justify the investment just yet. At least it’s a little less than Analog Heat (another coveted item).

  3. had it for a while but didn’t like it very much. it’s really good but somewhat clean and characterless for my taste. love the oto bim.

  4. What a lush and musical sounding reverb box– even when pushed to extremes!!

    Algorithmic reverbs tend to sound better with long sustained tones. The “graininess” that is annoying with short attack type sounds gives more “texture” to sustained tones.

    When an algorithmic reverb has enough diffusion range, it can work really well for percussion, too. Lexicon reverbs are a good example of this.

    I prefer convolution reverbs for percussion because they can really create a nice 3-d feeling space without seeming overly “noticeable”. (do you know what I mean?)

    Reverbs are such an individual taste thing, and you can’t separate the sound quality from our personal history of favorite artists and recordings.

    I’ve sifted through lots of convo IRs and find myself drawn more to diffuse spaces than grainy multi-tapped algos, but that’s just my opinion and tastes.

  5. This does sound beautiful.I have a strymon big sky , which is stunning.I have yet to hear anthingbeer than the Sryon, but yes this is there!!!! I will look at one.great demo .

  6. How does it compare to the Boss RV-500? there’s not that many controls on this thing..

    I’d expect at least predelay parameter for every algo?

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