Into the night
It's probably funny. It's probably a funny feeling to be one of the effect pedal world's most prolific signature artists. If we ever had a chance to sit down with legendary guitarist Andy Timmons, that's certainly something we'd want to pick his brain about. You'd think that after years with the various Joe Satrianis and Paul Gilberts of the world blowing up your phone and so many prolific signature collaborations already established, you might slow down on playing guitar and designing pedals. By all recognizable signs, none the least of which the topic of today's conversation, this clearly isn't the case for Andy Timmons.
Prolific collaborator, session player, and overall guitar guru, Andy Timmons has quite the resume. Today the man himself meets up with Keeley Electronics once again for an incredibly impressive reverb primed for performance. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.
This is the Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb.
Because the Night
Introducing the Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb
Andy Timmons might not land among the flashiest guitarists of all time, but his work speaks for itself. Were there ever a list of "Guitarists Friendliest to Pedal Builders," you can bet Timmons would be on it. Timmons has a reliable lineup of pedal collabs bearing his name from drives to delays. He could have a pedalboard with his own signatures alone, at this point. Who knows.
Today, Timmons meets up again with Robert Keeley for a new, customized spin on a classic effect. The Keeley Nocturne comes together as an incredibly powerful and streamlined multi-mode reverb meant to be endlessly expressive and thoroughly modern. The Nocturne takes inspiration from one of Timmons's other popular signatures – the Keeley Halo Dual Echo Delay. A couple years ago, the Halo dropped in for a powerful dual-engine digital delay that leaned noisy, discordant, and ambient. Now, the Nocturne steps up with its primary, customized, ambient and modulated reverb and a backup of two other reliable reverb effects. We've got a good bit to get into, here. Stick around.
Night Flight
Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb Design and Tones
The main setup of the Keeley Nocturne is centered around a multi-mode reverb effect interface. Three reverb effects load in with the Nocturne with an incredibly intuitive and streamlined control scheme. Meant for establishing ambient reverb effects quicker or more easily than other ambient-leaning reverbs might be able to, the Nocturne is certainly a pedal to turn to if spacious soundscapes sound like your cup of tea – but without any menu diving or getting lost in the sauce. Let's talk about these effects.
Nocturne Modulated Reverb Mode
The first effect lined up in the Nocturne is its namesake modulated reverb. Inspired by Keeley's Halo Dual Echo delay, the Nocturne quickly gravitates toward smooth, modulated, slightly-off-kilter reverbs with a loving dose of modulation on tap. The pedal's Nocturne mode is a unique and expressive modulated reverb that utilizes its four front-facing dials to adjust reverb level, reverb decay, reverb tone, and reverb modulation*.
As Reverb Level, Decay, Tone, and Modulation on the dials, respectively
Across the whole pedal, but certainly most noticeable with Nocturne mode, the reverbs dished out can get large, cavernous, and overwhelming. At max Reverb Level and Decay, for instance, our Nocturne modulated reverb flirts with being an infinite reverb as it trails on and on and on – while it still stays within more familiar reverb boundaries. Once we've got our large reverb trails stirring, we can focus in on its Tone and Modulation controls.
Tone controls on reverb effects can really come in handy. Shaping the more outward frequencies of the effect, rolling the Tone control back gradually softens the reverb as it gets more subdued and undulating. This control flows pretty nicely into the Modulation control. With the Nocturne's Modulation dial, you get a wide sweep of pitch modulation that makes its sounds stranger little by little as it is increased. The pedal's Nocturne mode carries the most noticeable modulation effects as it creates washing waves of subtly pitch-bent reverb.
Spring and Plate Reverb Modes
Alongside this customized, modulated reverb, Keeley went ahead to load in two reverb classics. The Nocturne's Spring and Plate reverb modes seamlessly recreate analog, tube-amp-style reverb effects with that added bit of control over smaller frequencies and tonal peculiarities. Spring mode replicates the tones of a tube amp's favorite reverb with a splashy tone that matches the authenticity of real-world tubes. Capable of getting truly cavernous with options for rolling off higher frequencies and introducing more reverb drip that "blinks" more noticeably through the Modulation control, the Spring mode is a reliable standby. The third mode, Plate, emulates another classic amp-style reverb effect that produces a thicker, denser reverb that introduces some organ-like chorus effects when Modulation is turned up.
Symphony of the Night
Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb Further Functions
Like so many other Keeley creations, the Nocturne is fitted with ultra-modern features for playability, connectivity, and control. You could probably notice a couple of these features just by giving the pedal a once-over, but let's talk about some of the biggest ones.
- Presets – With the Nocturne, we're treated to a brilliant digital brain. One of the hemispheres of this brain is its preset bank. The Nocturne operates with two modes – Live and Preset. On Live, the Nocturne works as any other pedal might but on Preset, the Nocturne offers up to seventy-two programmable preset slots. These presets enable the Nocturne to be a quickly accessible library of your favorite tones and swap between them easily.
- MIDI and Expression – These days, we’ve got plenty of MIDI and expression-enabled digital devices. Nocturne follows suit with a dedicated MIDI and expression connection that enables external control over effect parameters through TRS expression pedals or incoming MIDI signals.
- Stereo Routing – Part of what makes the Nocturne ready for the stage or studio is its pair of stereo inputs and outputs. While the stereo connections pretty much speak for themselves already in utility, the Nocturne also offers different signal flow options for full wet output or dry/wet output for parallel performance or recording.
These features (and more) top off a totally impressive and expressive digital reverb. Standard nine to enhanced eighteen volt power operation means that there's even more opportunities to explore, yet.
Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb Final Thoughts
Andy Timmons doesn't have the reputation that he has for nothing. His takes on classic effects are quite prolific for good reason as he drums up really useful and expressive effects fit for anyone. Truly – check out anything with Timmons's name on it and you're sure to have a good time.
The Keeley Electronics Nocturnal continues in Timmons's tradition of exceptional effect collaborations. For wild, modulated reverbs, authentic, tube-style reverbs, and so many things in between, the Nocturne knocks it out of the park. “In brightest day, in blackest night...” You get the idea. You can't go wrong.
