Let’s hear it for reverbs you can play, morph, squash, and swell — not just set and forget. That’s Intellijel Swells, the “Multi-Model Reverb Module with Swell Generator,” or perhaps more aptly, “a lush reverb with a bunch of faders you can jam on.”
I’m all for reverbs that work as instruments everywhere, as anyone who talks to me about reverbs knows. That’s in contrast to the conventional reverb — so much as sneeze on something called “size, ” and you cause horrible warping effects. So you wind up ducking the decay and… that’s about it.
This is different: make swells with an envelope follower, get your hands on parameters like ebb and flow, and generally tweak and patch control for everything.
This is one powerful module:
- Nine stereo models: Fog, Blur, Shadow, Velvet, Asterion, Deadspace, Buckets, Ritual, and Gaze
- Pre-delay, size, decay, hi/lo damping, and EQ
- Specific EBB and FLOW controls are tailored to each model
- — and so is the envelope follower, aka the SWELL Generator, which you can sidechain or route from the input or internal output, with its own gain and high cut
- Freeze, reverse, burst (noise/feedback to add energy at input), lo-fi effects each assignable to a trigger input
- Nine (!) CV ins with their own attenuverters
- …plus a Drive option
But SWELL is just what I described at the top, right, just a way to automate simple control over the decay? Well, no, in fact: it’s normalled to all internal reverb parameters, so you can use it on anything, or patch it how you like, or route it to other gear (via its dedicated CV output).
It’s Intellijel, so you can trust it’ll be nicely built and engineered in Canada. Modules with noise floor and build problems, you know I know who you are.
20HP. $499 US.
Available from Perfect Circuit:
Swells Multi-Model Dynamic Stereo Reverb
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I do kind of dream of a mini version of this same idea, in 1U, called… Swill? Smalls? Dunno.
Oh give me a home where the models can roam / and there’s faders for stuff like decay / …where seldom you’ll hear / some big glitch in your ear / and a freeze can just linger all day. Pell-mell with my Swells… oops, sorry, accidentally set the oxygen mix wrong on my spaceship and hallucinated I was Gene Autry (it fits, you can sing along). I’m fine now.