Batverb#

Stereo experimental reverb and synthetic tail generator

Overview#

Batverb is a stereo reverb pedal unlike any other. Designed for experimentation, giant atmospheres, and tonal chaos, it's less of a room simulator and more of a synthetic tail generator. With features designed to respond to your playing, the parameters allow you to take the effect from a simple delay to a lush reverb to an unstoppable wall of sound in an instant.

Batverb features parameters to shape your atmosphere with reverb filters, chaotic suboctave and shimmering overtone generators, a proprietary dynamic distortion, and a regen control that goes from short echoes to infinite atmospheres above 100% feedback. Batverb can also respond to your performance: duck the reverb out of the way of your input signal, or make the atmosphere's dynamics match your playing. Add in a mappable expression input, full MIDI control with presets, and footswitches designed for the performer, and Batverb is the ultimate atmospheric tool.

Power#

To power your Noise Engineering pedal, use a 2.1mm 9 VDC negative-center power supply with a minimum of 250mA. For best results and lowest noise, use a dedicated transformer-isolated power supply.

Interface#

Time

Sets the timing of the delay lines used to create the reverb effect.

Doom

Adds a suboctave chorus that widens the signal and adds undertones.

Shimmer

Adds a slightly detuned octave-up effect in the reverb tank.

Regen

Sets the amount of feedback in the reverb tank, which controls the length of the reverb tail. All the way to the left, feedback is minimized. As you turn up to about 3 o'clock, Batverb generates shorter reverbs, emulating smaller synthetic spaces. Past this point, the reverb reaches 100% feedback, creating spaces with an infinite tail.

Input

Analog input-level control. This helps find the sweet spot for a variety of source inputs. For guitars with lower output pickups, you may want the Input set higher. For high-output pickups or line-level instruments, try setting the Input lower.

Focus

Changes the difussion of the delay lines. To the left, separate echoes can be heard, behaving more like a delay. In the middle and right positions, the delays are more diffuse, creating more reverberant effects.

Grit

A proprietary zero-crossing and soft-clipping distortion designed to work at any input volume.

• Left: Off
• Center: Distortion is applied only to the wet signal.
• Right: Distortion is applied to both wet and dry signals.

Duck

Sets the ducking behavior. When the Duck switch is set to the Left or Right setting, the left LED will display the duck amount.

• Left: The reverb signal matches the dynamics of the input signal, behaving similarly to a gated reverb.
• Center: No ducking is applied.
• Right: The reverb signal is turned down when a sound is received at the input, and is turned back up as the sound at the input decreases in volume.

Infinite (left footswitch)

Mutes the input to the reverb tank and sets feedback to maximum for an infinite atmosphere. Quick tap to latch and unlatch, or hold down for momentary-style behavior.

Bypass (right footswitch)

Engages or disengages the effect.

Blend:

Blends the dry input signal with the wet signal. All the way left is only the dry signal, and all the way to the right is only the wet signal. Unlike most blend controls, Batverb’s unique Blend knob applies some mild saturation to the dry signal as the knob is turned to the right. The saturation retains chord information and articulation, but allows the dry signal to mix in with the wet signal without sounding clean.

Input

¼” stereo inputs. For mono input, use the rightmost jack.

Output

¼” stereo outputs

EXP

Input for Expression pedal or control voltage. Use a ¼” TRS expression pedal connection jack or a ¼” TS connection for control voltage. If using control voltage, the input responds to 0 to +5V and adds to the position of the selected parameter. The expression input can be mapped to various controls on the Batverb by holding the bat button () and turning Blend.

9V

2.1mm power connection for 9VDC center-negative power supply, 250mA minimum.

Reset internal settings

To reset all internal settings to their factory defaults, hold down the bat button (), Infinite, and Bypass switches for three seconds.

MIDI Channel (Time + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and turning Time sets Batverb's MIDI channel. The LED will illuminate to show the selected MIDI channel:

1 ◼ 2 ◼ 3 ◼ 4 ◼ 5 ◼ 6 ◼ 7 ◼ 8 ◼ 9 ◼ 10 ◼ 11 ◼ 12 ◼ 13 ◼ 14 ◼ 15 ◼ 16 ◼

Hi Pass (Doom + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and turning Doom sets the cutoff of a highpass filter in the reverb tank.

Lo Pass (Shimmer + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and turning Shimmer sets the cutoff of a lowpass filter in the reverb tank.

Duck Amt (Regen + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and turning Regen sets the amount of ducking applied to the reverb when a signal is played at the input.

Output (Input + bat)

Analog output-level contrtol. To set the output gain of Batverb, hold down the bat button () and turn Input.

Modes (Bypass + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and tapping the Bypass switch sets the bypass behavior. The LED will illuminate a color to show the selected bypass mode, and when bypass is engaged or disengaged the LED will flash the corresponding color.

• Buffered ◼: A buffered bypass that immediately mutes the effect. This bypass mode uses a relay; input and output gain settings are bypassed.
• Short ◼ : Sets the feedback to minimum, fading the reverb as quickly as possible without artifacts. Input and output gain settings are not bypassed.
• Blend ◼: Mutes the input to the reverb, but allows the reverb tail to play out. Input and output gain settings are not bypassed.
• Buffered Gain ◼: A buffered bypass that immediately mutes the effect. Input gain setting is bypassed, but output gain level is retained.

EXP Select (Blend + bat)

Holding down the bat button () and turning Blend sets the control that the expression pedal maps to. By default, the expression pedal is mapped to Regen.

When a parameter mapping is selected, the LED will illuminate to show the corresponding control:

• Default (Regen)◼
• DOOM ◼
• Shim ◼
• Blend ◼
• Time ◼
• Regen ◼
• Hi Pass ◼
• Lo Pass ◼
• Duck Amt ◼

Settings Examples#

Secondary parameters are accessed by holding the bat button () and adjusting a parameter. When applicable, secondary parameter positions are indicated with a red notch on the corresponding parameter.

General Verb

Beautiful, luscuious decays incoming! In the rightmost position, Focus creates a smooth atmosphere, and the Hi Pass and Lo Pass parameters shape the tail into a focused atmosphere.

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Celestial Synth Shimmer

Batverb's Shimmer creates bright overtones as well as a reverberant atmosphere, the perfect addition to a synth or lead line.

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Pseudo Sub

This preset makes use of the Doom and Time controls to generate a sub octave version of the source. Playing percussive notes yields short reverberations, while sustained notes produce more of a droning sound.

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Action Hero

A big, cinematic reverb that starts as a long delay then blurs into obscurity. The slight addition of Shimmer really shines as the delays trail off.

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Gated Slap

With the Time and Regen parameters moderate values, we get a tight and shallow echo with a quick decay. The Grit switch in the middle position adds just a hint of breakup.

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Lo-Fi Shimmer

Glorious cinematic tails that wash out into a lo-fi shimmer effect.

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Lead Guitar Delayverb

A delay-reverb combo that’s perfect for epic guitar leads.

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Guitar Slapback Room

This setting creates a tight room sound to give a bit of space while accentuating transients.

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Slow and Shiny

Smooth, long, and bright atmospheres, perfect for a slow groove.

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E.T. Phone Drone

One of Batverb’s strengths is in its ability to drone. The Regen parameter reaches infinity near the top of its range, perfect for drones and background atmospheres. Since Regen allows the internal feedback to pass 100%, any sound at the input will create an infinite atmosphere. Try using the Focus and Time parameters to change the timbre of the drone.

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Chaos Drone

Try adjusting the Time parameter while an infinite atmosphere is playing to create some tonal (or chaotic) effects.

MIDI specification#

Batverb's controls can send and receive MIDI CCs, as well as loading and saving presets with Program Change messages.

Holding down the bat button () and turning Time sets Batverb's MIDI channel. The LED will illuminate to show the selected MIDI channel:

1 ◼ 2 ◼ 3 ◼ 4 ◼ 5 ◼ 6 ◼ 7 ◼ 8 ◼ 9 ◼ 10 ◼ 11 ◼ 12 ◼ 13 ◼ 14 ◼ 15 ◼ 16 ◼

When a preset is saved or loaded, the LED will illuminate to show the corresponding preset slot:

1 ◼ 2 ◼ 3 ◼ 4 ◼ 5 ◼ 6 ◼ 7 ◼ 8 ◼ 9 ◼ 10 ◼ 11 ◼ 12 ◼ 13 ◼ 14 ◼ 15 ◼ 16 ◼

To reload the settings for the last used preset, quickly press the bat button () twice.

SysEx#

To dump the Batverb presets to a SysEx librarian, send the following message:

f0 00 02 44 42 7f 08 00 00 f7

Design Notes#

From our very first experiments with guitars and synths, doing a reverb pedal similar to Desmodus Versio was at the top of the list of products we wanted to make.

The first problem was developing the hardware. The Batverb hardware was developed in parallel to what would become Dystorpia (our first guitar pedal, a mono distortion), and shares a tremendous amount of circuitry. Most of our hard lessons were learned on Dystorpia, so Batverb was a lot less troublesome. We had a couple of requisite noise and interference issues that are so hard to avoid when doing high-performance digital work in a guitar pedal, but those were relatively easy to solve.

The firmware was in development for over a year and we have had more than 20 phenomenal people test some version of it. We are so grateful for every bit of feedback from these folks. Batverb is conceptually very similar to Desmodus Versio, however it shares almost no code. Batverb was developed using new code and techniques that are based on knowledge gained about our DSP platform (the Daisy Seed) as well as just DSP in general. Desmodus Versio was our first digital effect so we have learned quite a bit since then.

In true Noise Engineering fashion, setbacks were had from a mis-manufacture of PCBs that delayed the launch by a few months to a last-minute minor panic when we thought we had a hardware bug three days prior to the public announcement. The culprit fortunately turned out to be the result of a different pedal in the chain malfunctioning, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

A few important technical differences between Batverb and Desmodus Versio:

• Batverb does not use delay-line modulation either for effect or for feedback stabilization. This signifcantly reduces both filtering and distortions associated with delay-line interpolation and thus greatly increases the transparency.
• The pitch shifting used for doom and shimmer are improved granular pitch shifters vs the ones used in the Desmodus and Electus modules. Like most of the DSP, it is both faster in CPU time as well as better sounding.
• Grit is a distortion specifically developed for dynamic signals that produces a distortion effect but is mostly level dependent so that it sounds great on a long reverb tail.
• The limiters used in the reverb tank were also completely redesigned to be faster and have less distortion.

Enclosure Dimensions#

Imperial: 4 3/4" x 3 3/4" x 2 1/2"

Warranty#

We will repair or replace (at our discretion) any product that we manufactured as long as we are in business and are able to get the parts to do so. We aim to support pedals that have been discontinued for as long as possible. This warranty does not apply to normal wear and tear, including art/enclosure wear, or any products that have been modified, abused, or misused. Our warranty is limited to manufacturing defects.

Warranty repairs/replacements are free. Repairs due to user modification or other damage are charged at an affordable rate. Customers are responsible for the cost of shipping to Noise Engineering for repair.

All returns must be coordinated through Noise Engineering; returns without a Return Authorization will be refused and returned to sender.

Please contact us if you think one of your pedals needs a repair.

Special Thanks#

• Eric Merrow
• Brian Watson
• Giordan Postorino
• Ryan McCambridge
• Jeff Schroeder
• Ian Pritchard
• Terry O'Brien
• Tim Young
• Nick Reinhart
• Jon Button
• Rusty Logsdon
• Anton Sanko
• Jack Waterson
• Eric Stollsteimer
• Wayne Faler
• William Faler
• John Vorus
• Matt Lange
• Broken Circuits
• Brian Douglas
• Brian Wakil
• Vice Cooler
• The kind folks at Cream City Music, WI