Chase Bliss Audio Dark World Reverb pedal

The Dark World is Chase Bliss Audio's first fully digital, dual-channel reverb pedal. Boutique pedal designers Keeley Electronics and Cooper FX had their hand in creating the 'World' and 'Dark' channels respectively, in one of the most exciting stompbox collaborations of the decade. All packed into the familiar Chase Bliss Audio chassis.  

Get lush, subtle sounds all the way up to glitchy, atmospheric shimmers, infinite freezes and broken video cassette style effects.  You have access to 33 distinct circuit configurations as standard. And that's without experimenting with the ridiculous range of dip switches, footswitches and parameter dials.

Hall, Plate and Spring

You get the familiar three reverb line-up at your disposal in the World channel. But as this is a Chase Bliss Audio pedal, nothing is ever as simple or basic-sounding as that. This was designed by Keeley to stunning effect. All are voiced with absolute precision to their real-life namesakes.

Use the dwell knob to set the intensity and the amount of time it takes to decay. The pre-delay dial controls the time between picking the string and the effect coming in to play. Change between a fast, responsive reverb or draw it out for more ambience. 

Mod, Shim and Black

Cooper FX''s input comes in the form of the Dark channel reverb. While the World side of the Dark World is your classic reverb settings, the Dark parameters are adventurous and atmospheric. Activate either or both at the same time to vary your effect.  

The mod setting is inspired by Cooper FX's own Loss pedal, which is a warbly, degraded VHS emulator. Shim meanwhile adds a heavenly infinite decay. In this mode, one of the two reverb paths is looped over the other.

A decay dial dictates the LFO rate, so you can get a classic smooth chime or a fast pulsing sound. Black mode samples and freezes the audio as you play. On this setting, use the decay to change the dynamic threshold, so when you play louder or more aggressive the previous frozen audio is overwritten with your new note.

The modify knob simply controls the intensity of the effect. The Dark World sounds equally brilliant on subtle or extremely wet settings.  

Insane Customisation

Recall two presets as you please - an extremely handy feature because of the amount of sounds you can coax from the Dark World. Leaving the switch in the middle position relies on the dial placement. Essentially you have three sounds to switch between from this compact, single pedal design.  

Even Chase Bliss Audio recommend changing the extensive dip switch settings once you have a basic understanding of the Dark World's abilities. Experimenting with these opens up another dimension of tonal shaping you simply couldn't get from any other pedal in its size or class. 

As with all Chase Bliss Audio pedals, the Dark World is MIDI compatible and can be controlled with an expression pedal to drop in and out of the effect at your will. 

Specifications

• Controls: Decay, Modify, Mix, Tone, Dwell, Pre-Delay
• Toggles: Mod/Shim/Black, Para/D>W/ W>D, Spring/Hall/ Plate, Preset switch
• Ins/Outs: 1/4" mono in & out, MIDI TRS, Expression/CV control
• Dip Switches: Mix, Dwell, Modify, Tone & PD x2, Bounce, MoTB, Buffer, Trails, Sweep
• Requires  9V DC 200mA centre negative adaptor