Old Blood Noise Dark Star

When there’s truly nothing making noise, what do you hear?  Is it nothing?  Or is it the softness, the growing of a voice that resides below the normal hum and frequency of the universe?  The voice of the Dark Star and our Dark Star pedal is what we would use to create long reverberated pads. The noises underneath the lead and the mood setter – that’s the Dark Star. The way a song feels – that’s because of the Dark Star.

Features:

• Ambient Pad Reverb Pedal – perfect for endless ambient soundscapes
• 3 different texture modes – pitch, Delay and Crush
• Momentary Hold switch – for infinitely sustaining reverb pads
• Expression in – control either CTRL1 or Reverb Decay via an external expression pedal
• Made in the USA
• Powered by 9V DC PSU (9V DC, centre -, 2.1mm, ~60mA current draw)

The Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star is at its heart a reverb, but then that reverb is mashed through additional ambient effects, creating a new effect altogether. This is a long-form reverb intended to influence mood. To suggest a feeling, manipulate sentiment and to create something underneath what you’re creating – essentially to nuance your vibe.

The Reverb signal passes through three possible modes:  Pitch, Delay and Crush. CTRL 1 and CTRL 2 correspond with the selected mode.  In Pitch, you’ve got two independent pitch controls for + and – an octave.  In Delay, you’ve got the Delay Time and Delay Feedback.  In Crush, you’ve got a pitch control for +/- an octave and then a control for Bit Crush.  The Mix and Reverb knobs control the mix of dry/wet signal and the decay of the reverb, respectively.

The Dark Star has two footswitches.  The Bypass switch is your standard on/off True Bypass switch.  The Hold switch is a momentary footswitch that when pressed, will lock in whatever note is being played through the reverb effect.  This will sustain as long as the Hold switch is pressed.  If the Mix control is set less than 100% wet, you can continue to play over the sustaining reverb signal. You can also use the Hold switch as momentary expression for either CTRL1 or Reverb (selectable via internal DIP Switches).

Likewise, the expression input lets you take control over either CTRL1 or Reverb knobs (selectable via internal DIP switches) on the fly via an external expression pedal. Letting you go from for instance cascading high-pitched shimmer reverbs to deep rumbling sub-octave pads in seconds flat. There’s a lot to explore here and a lot of fun to be had.

The output level can be tweaked via an internal trim-pot for boost, slight drop, or unity gain.