Shine a little light
In March of 1966, Marvel Comics writer-editor Stan Lee and penciler and co-plotter Jack Kirby released Fantastic Four #48. The issue debuted the character of Norrin Radd, more popularly known as the Silver Surfer.
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Now a long-standing character in the Marvel canon, the Silver Surfer is a unique intergalactic being, herald to the planet-devouring entity Galactus, imbued with the Power Cosmic. Normally a supporting character in Fantastic Four and other Marvel mainstay chronologies, the Silver Surfer's origin and standalone stories commonly address his struggles with the burden of phenomenal cosmic superpowers, his yearning for his lost home world, and the solitude and vastness of deep space.
Decades later, a group of Oklahoman effect pedal wizards, Old Blood Noise Endeavors, released a series of reverb pedals seemingly entertaining some similar sentiments – power, longing, loneliness...
Today's pedal in question is a culmination of years of work with ambient, introspective reverbs. We've babbled enough about Marvel we think, so let's get into it, shall we? This is the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light.
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Introducing the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb
When it comes to groundbreaking effects, there's few that do it quite like Old Blood Noise Endeavors. As one of the boutique effect pedal world's main movers and shakers, Old Blood is a pillar in the community. Their reach spreads far and wide and only extends further with each ensuing release.
Old Blood is not without their backlog of classics. After years at the forefront of boutique effect design, their catalog is pretty stacked. Among this catalog are two pedals that serve as the basis for the double-barrel reverberator we see before us today. The first, the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star – the second, the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Sunlight.
The Old Blood Dark Star is an effect that shines among the brand's top-tier fan favorites. Originally assuming a more modest size and three-way reverb effect mode switch before being sunsetted in 2024 in favor of the upscaled and upgraded Dark Star Stereo, Old Blood sought out a way to preserve their ambient effect as it first existed. Last year's first limited release of the Dark Light fulfilled this vision as the original Dark Star shared a space with its spiritual sibling, the Sunlight. The Sunlight, itself an ambient reverb effect with leanings toward the lighter persuasion of ambience rather than the dark, joined in on this equation after originally debuting in 2021.
2024's Dark Light coupled the ambient reverb powers of both the Dark Star and Sunlight into one holy grail of a reverb unit primed for the ambient musicmakers of the world to click on and slip away. Today's Dark Light follows in the same example with a change in aesthetic design being the main differentiating factor at play. This limited edition Dark Light release retains the same righteous reverberating power as the last limited run with its only difference being the color of the pedal casing and the design of the control knobs more easily distinguishing each effect's parameters. The color-coordinated controls and enlightening reverb effects at hand make this a limited edition release simply not to be missed. Let's talk about it.
Dawn to Dusk
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Design
With the Dark Light, we're treated to two exceptional reverb effects in one. The main makeup of the Dark Light joins the Dark Star and Sunlight together in one harmonious pair. On your left, you have the original Dark Star ambient reverb. On your right, you have the original Sunlight dynamic reverb. In the middle, we have a footswitch that can be set to affect either pedal or both at the same time, but we'll get to that soon. Let's get into these two effects.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Dark Star Ambient Reverb
The Dark Light captures the essence of the original Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star right before the effect evolved into the Dark Star Stereo that we know today. With this, we're met with some déjà vu.
The Dark Star ambient reverb aligns itself with a three-way effect mode control that swaps between three distinct modulated reverb effects that range from subtle to sinister. Onboard, we have a pitch-shifted Pitch mode, an echoing Delay mode, and a bit-crushed Crush mode. These three effects can be clicked between to achieve different ambient effects that are then harnessed by the pedal's two Control dials and one Decay dial. The Dark Star side's Control knobs alter different parameters for each reverb mode as they affect things like bitrate, pitch, distortion, and delay time.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Sunlight Dynamic Reverb
On the pedal's opposite side, we have Old Blood's Sunlight dynamic reverb.
The Sunlight dynamic reverb bases its effect around what Old Blood calls "dynamic hold," where reverb trails are created note by note. This kind of effect algorithm enables the Sunlight to fulfill one of its intended use cases: infinite reverb. For creating vast trails of a reverb effect, the Sunlight latches onto notes and uses its marvelous digital superpowers to weave intense tapestries of reverb which are then shaped by its own three-way effect mode switch. Sunlight's three modes – Tape, Comb, and Pass – all dish up different modulated flavors with delay, vibrato, and band-pass filtering artifacts bringing intriguing characteristics to each sound.
These two distinct effects, served in tandem, act as a unit that is very much powerful enough to act as your sole ambient reverb sonic engine. This is not yet even concerning its added features.
Twilight to Starlight
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Further Functions
For discerning players who demand all those fancy routing and control options, oh boy, does Old Blood have you covered. The Dark Light lines up a number of options to route in interesting ways along with deeper means of controlling the Dark Star and Sunlight effects on-the-fly. Let's talk about routing.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Routing
The Dark Light features four in/out connections allowing the pedal to be run in true stereo, series mono, mono-to-stereo, and parallel mono. With two effects at the helm, Old Blood recognizes the desire for a variety of routing options when funneling these ambient reverbs out to a variety of locations simultaneously. The main draw of the Dark Light is its ability to use its two effects in parallel. Even if you're running the pedal with a single pair of cable connections, we're welcomed to work some stereo-minded magic with a key addition, the Spread control.
Spreadin' OutAs a control, Spread enables players to shape the output image of the two simultaneous reverb effects, if they have both effects engaged at once. Simply, the Spread control works to enable stereo separation by increasing or decreasing the overlap of the Dark Star and Sunlight in their output sources. Turning the Spread control down will decrease the separation of the effects as they cross over and blend together in their sound. Moving upwards on the control, the two effects will move apart as they become more clearly delineated. Where some of the magic of Spread exists in the in-betweens where both effects can get their time in the spotlight, they can still retain those charming peculiarities from their intersecting.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Control
As with so many other Old Blood creations, additional control capabilities are brought in to expand the functionality and playability of the pedal exponentially. Where both the Dark Star and Sunlight enjoyed the company of a second footswitch for auxiliary functions, the Dark Light features a third footswitch that enables infinite effect sustain. This function, bolstering interactivity and playability, can be worked through latching or momentary footswitching on top of its capability to be locked in on one effect, the other, or both at once.
The third footswitch's three-way switch can be used to enable infinite sustain on the Dark Star or Sunlight at one time. Where this lands us is with an infinitely-sustaining effect on one side, frozen in time, and another effect actively at play about the reverberating ecosystem. It's through playability like this that the Dark Light can become one's sole ambience machine as both effects produce their sprawling, reverberating wonderworlds with deep control and extensive routing options. Couple that with Old Blood's standy expression support and the world's your oyster. Your sprawling, ambient, introspective oyster.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Light Reverb Final Thoughts
It's really no surprise as to why the Dark Light might be a popular pick for Old Blood's ravenous ambience fiends. While we now have an awesome, creative evolution on the original Dark Star in the form of the Dark Star Stereo (and maybe a little somethin' somethin' on the way for the Sunlight), having these classics split the rent on a downtown two-bedroom is a delight for any Old Blood fan. This is a model to truly make you reflect on how far these classic reverb algorithms have come and how expressive and inspirational they are at their core. As Old Blood continues to reinvent and innovate, as they're known to do, it is a treat to see some fan favorites not totally fade into obscurity and get their flowers as they generate excitement as they had in their earliest days.
