12/1/2023 0 Comments Eventide blackhole pedal vs space![]() ![]() ![]() The BigSky sounds deliciously 3D and wide for classic, low-decay plate sounds. There’s control over the pre-delay time and early reflection level, and it sounds clear and present. ![]() In Plate mode, the Empress again delivers highly realistic, high-quality results, with two settings: Classic – modelled on the EMT 140 reverb unit – and Studio. However, for our money, the BigSky sounds just a little richer and more appealing than the Space, and offers more versatility than the Empress. The Space offers even more room for adjustment, with not only the number of springs to the decimal point(!), but also spring tension, tremolo speed and interval and resonance controls – Eventide’s attention to detail is staggering. The Overdrive mode is voiced better than on the Empress, sounding a little like the gritty preamp of a tape delay. Under the Dwell sub-menu, we get the option to switch between Clean, Combo, Tube and Overdrive. Each time you add a spring, you hear a subtle noise a little like the sound of a spring-reverb tank vibrating. It goes deep, too, with low-end and pre-delay controls and the ability to select the number of springs – from 1 to 3. With the decay and mix up above noon, it’s a big, natural-sounding splashy spring. The BigSky held its own against the Hot Rod, and then some. It also has Dark – a Fender Deluxe emulation – and Overdrive, a cool idea that gets rather nasal with our Fender Hot Rod Deluxe after 2pm on the Mix control.Ĭompared to the Hot Rod’s onboard analogue spring reverb, in Dark mode the Empress sounds wetter and a little less defined. The Bright setting is an emulation of a Fender Twin Reverb, and it’s arguably the pick of the three pedals. The Empress has three Spring sub-modes, but far fewer tweakable paremeters than the other two. Traditional sounds Explaining each pedal’s plethora of modes would stretch to dissertation length, so we’ll focus on three here – Spring, Plate and Hall. The Space has a clever solution here – the Catchup feature, which means that turning the knob has no effect until you reach the point the preset is set at. ![]() So, for example, if you switch to a Hall preset which has minimal decay, but previously the Decay knob had been at max, when you attempt to tweak the decay, you will begin from the point of 100 per cent, causing a disconcerting jump. As all three units are digital pedals, the knob positions don’t correspond to the current values of the preset. Pressing down the Type knob reveals a range of sub-menus with mind-boggling options. The BigSky has a staggering 300 presets, with an understated display above the Type dial that shows simply the number of the bank you’re in or any parameter you begin to edit. The learning curve, however, is as steep as the manual is vast. The Space wins big here, looking like a device from a 1980s sci-fi film, with an impossible-to-miss, bright-red LED screen across the middle of the unit, and 100 appropriately named presets, including some from artists such as Sigur Ros. Remembering what bank you’re in, or what parameter its Thing 1 and Thing 2 controls relate to during the heat of live use can be confusing. Where the simple layout of the Empress loses points is due to the lack of a digital display. The Space’s operation is simpler still: the middle and right switches scroll up and down, and left selects the preset. There are two modes for preset selection – Scrolling and Bank, with the latter working in the same way as the BigSky – press the right and middle switches to bank up, left and middle to bank down. The Empress has the fewest presets – 35, although you can expand on those via firmware updates using an SD card. The smallest of the trio, the Empress has 12 reverb types, each with sub-modes reached simply by turning the Mode dial – a small LED shines blue, red, yellow or green to indicate which setting is engaged. Usability All three pedals offer buffered or true bypass, MIDI connectivity, tap tempo and an expression pedal input. ![]()
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