Star light, star bright...
Okay, let's talk about reverb for a second. Specifically, the dark side of reverb. No, this isn't some investigative exposé, this is a love letter to a classic effect and its more brooding, temperamental tendencies. There's plenty of "darker" reverbs out there, but let's focus in on one: the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star. The Dark Star, a classically dark and ambient-leaning reverb, has amassed quite the following in the years since its debut – so much so that we're here today talking about an evolution on it – the Dark Star Stereo!
A veritably bigger and badder version of an Old Blood Noise classic, this new pedal comes with universes of sound packed into its dazzling, pedalboard-friendly casing. There's quite a bit to get into here, so let's not waste any more time – this is the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo.
Shop the Old Blood Noise Dark Star Stereo
A Star Is Born
Dark Star Stereo Origins
If you're this reading in 2024, Old Blood Noise has had quite a year. If you're reading this after 2024, same still applies. If you're reading before 2024, say "Hi" to everyone in the past for us! How you got a hold of this article before it was published, don't let us know – I already have a headache.
A Year in ReviewOld Blood Noise's 2024 has brought on a number of exciting, new devices that turned a lot of our preconceived notions on their heads. For instance, their Expression Ramper X3 clocked in with a tripled-up version of their automated expression controlling units, offering new dimensions on expression control. Their Pardner Fuzz played into a similar vein with a synth-voiced fuzz effect and effects loop combo pedal. This unique combination of utilities expanded our minds with new effect mixing for wild, parallel playing.
Their 2024 closes out with the Dark Star Stereo – an evolution on their popular Dark Star reverb pedals. A frequently seen pick on the boards of ambient experimenters and quirky noisemakers, the Dark Star series of reverbs clocked in with compact and powerful modulating reverbs that punched well above their weight class. The Dark Star series gained acclaim and popularity through their distinctly "dark" modulated reverb voices and expressive, multi-mode functionalities. Old Blood's previous Dark Star version shaped up in a compact package with pitch-shifting, bit-crushing, and delaying reverb modes, making this new stereo version quite the leap.
The Dark Star Stereo expands (physically and sonically) upon previous Dark Star versions in big ways. With new built-in functions for sound and control, extended routing options, and plenty more, the Dark Star touches down for an exciting, new experience. Let's get into some specifics, shall we?
Mapping a Constellation
Dark Star Stereo Reverb Effects
Now, one thing eagle-eyed fans of the original Dark Star reverbs are sure to spot is that – hey, there's no three-way toggle on this pedal! And you are right! The Dark Star Stereo has no three-way mode toggle for its reverb types like its previous versions – but let's not panic, let's not lose our heads, here. Old Blood Noise went ahead in this iteration to bring all three classic modes up to the front, offering all three effects at the same time. How does this work? Well, it works a little something like this.
The Dark Star Stereo's three effect modes exist in a proverbial cauldron of reverb. Each of the main effect modes – pitch-shift, bit-crush, delay – are controlled with their dedicated knobs across the Dark Star Stereo. The pitch-shifting and bit-crushing controls are not a one-to-zero scale as in, completely counterclockwise is not zero and completely clockwise is not one hundred. Rather, left is one direction and right is another, with noon being zero. Let's talk about this effect to effect.
Pitch-Shift
This is probably easiest to break down with our two pitch-shifting controls. At noon, your two independent pitch-shifting effects are zeroed out at unity pitch, so, no pitch shifting present in the signal. Turn a pitch-shift knob to the left and get a lowered pitch reverb, turn a knob to the right and get a heightened pitch reverb, reminiscent of shimmer-style reverbs.
Fever PitchPitch-shifting can really do quite a bit for making the Dark Star Stereo sound massive and menacing from the get-go! Double down on lower pitches and hear the interstellar grumbles of celestial bodies experiencing growth spurts make a landslide of reverb out of your instrument.
One thing you might be asking about, "hey, how do I get my pitch-shifting to match what I'm playing and not sound like an out-of-tune kerfuffle?" Well, Old Blood has thought of that! And nice use of the word "kerfuffle"! The Dark Star Stereo actually utilizes pitch quantization to land the pitch-shifting intervals to places that make sense and more easily fit into common sense sounds, so there isn't that endless search for the precise spot at the turn of a dial for something that will sound right.
Each pitch-shift control ranges from two octaves up to two octaves down. With these independent pitch-shifting sources, you can dial up a double-octave upward reverb and a double-octave downward reverb at the same time to expand your reverb output in either direction. Make this effect your own and build up fortresses of sturdy pitch-shifted voices or tear 'em all down. Your call!
Pitch in StereoThe Dark Star Stereo's pitch-shifting operates in default stereo. What this means is that Pitch 1 is routed to the left channel of the Dark Star and Pitch 2 is routed to the right. In mono, Pitch 2 is added to Pitch 1, like the original Dark Star!
Bit-Crush
Now that we're getting along with this setup, let's talk bit-crushing. At noon on the Crush dial, the bit-crushing effect is completely zeroed out and absent from the signal. The more you move counterclockwise, the fewer bits are used in the effect, and the more broken and distorted the reverb sounds.
Crushed for a BitBit-crushing is a really expressive effect when it comes to reverb. On lower settings, the higher bitrates make the reverb trails granular and fuzzy, like digitized diamond dust. The more you ramp counterclockwise, the bit-crushing intensifies and you've got some real dystopian TV static on your hands.
Moving past noon on the Crush dial and we move into an overdrive effect that introduces some grit and oomph to the reverb trails. This section of Crush is relatively clearer than the bit-crushing side and can make up for any loss of signal that might come with higher Mix settings.
Delay
Rounding up the original Dark Star's three modes, the delaying reverb effect is mapped to the Dark Star Stereo's Lag control. This control is your traditional zero-to-one-hundred control where counterclockwise creates a shorter delay lag and clockwise creates a longer one. This effect plays into the output of the whole unit in a more holistic way, where the delay adds an extra dimension to the total reverb effect. Hit a note, the reverb rolls in after a beat or two, you get the idea.
Brave New World
New Dark Star Stereo Effects
There's a few new controls added onto the Dark Star Stereo that make big moves for the pedal overall. For one, we have a new, dedicated filter effect onboard. Let's start there!
Filter
It seems Old Blood Noise really thought of it all when it comes to out-of-the-box ambience*. Part of this comes from a new filter control. On the Filter control, you get a low-pass filter before noon that hushes the output like a weighted blanket of filtration. After noon, you get a high-pass filter that turns makes the output particularly glassy, like you'd expect from any high-pass filter, cutting lows and low mids.
Ambient soundscapers of the world, we know you're there, we're shouting you out!
Staying at noon, the Filter control filters high signals similarly to the original Dark Star, so there is some filtering taking place. However, noon acts as a reasonably safe place to land if you're looking for a minimally-filtered tone. Wherever you place this Filter control, you get a dense palette of tones to call upon that are rich and expressive. Explore bravely, the stars are the final frontier and won't move for you without some elbowing!
Multiply
Another single-dial control that adds quite a bit to the overall effect stew is Multiply. This control is an overall feedback control that increases the intensity of each effect, allowing for some real deepening and thickening of the effect mixes at play. From here, you can reel back on your soundscapes or go devil-may-care and get truly explorative with all the wild interactions each effect has with the others. Be mindful of the Dark Star Stereo's pension for self-oscillation at higher settings, however, it just might take the wheel itself!
"This is a reverb for anywhere in your signal chain, and almost an instrument of its own." - Old Blood Noise Endeavors
Interstellar Jazz, Man
Dark Star Stereo Connectivity and More
All this talk about the Dark Star and we still haven't touched on all its extra features! Let's get into more of the nuts and bolts of this pedal.
Auxiliary Control
If you're as tantalized by the promise of a second footswitch as we are, then you've come to the right place with the Dark Star Stereo. With the Dark Star's second footswitch, there's a world of built-in auxiliary controls that come readymade to get expressive. The Dark Star's Aux footswitch can be assigned to one of three primary functions – hold, pitch, and filter.
On hold mode, the auxiliary footswitch acts as a sustain control that holds out the tone of the reverb infinitely. For pitch mode, the auxiliary footswitch will set both pitches to +1 and automatically return them to where they were previously set when the auxiliary switch is disengaged. With filter mode, the auxiliary switch will close the low pass filter when engaged and swap back to its set mode when disengaged.
"And you're telling me there's even more to be done onboard?"
Yes! The Aux footswitch also allows for swapping between presets. For this function, hold the Aux switch and tap the preset switch. Use this capability to punch through your built lineup of presets and make on-the-fly changes in the proverbial reverberated channels. We mentioned there's preset slots on the Dark Star Stereo, right?
Presets
And just when you thought this pedal couldn't get even more studio-friendly, it drops in with onboard preset accessibility. The Dark Star Stereo offers three preset slots for designing in your own favorite configurations and can be swapped through with the Auxiliary footswitch or the preset toggle on the pedal's front plate. With this function, the Dark Star Stereo offers up what some would consider to be an essential studio-friendly function, allowing for studio dwellers and sonic experimenters to recall their favorite settings to drop in easily on their compositions or for live performers to let loose on stage.
Expression Control
Let's start to wrap this all up with a chat about expression controlling on the Dark Star Stereo. Like many of Old Blood Noise's other classic pedals, the expression jack can play a massively influential role in the playability of the pedal in total. The Dark Star Stereo can be programmed with a TRS expression device to adjust any combination of parameters onboard. This is as simple as turning a knob (or series of knobs) while holding the Bypass footswitch while an expression controller is connected.
Setting ExpressionThe knob position you press the footswitch at will be the "heel" expression position and the knob position you leave it at after releasing the footswitch will be the "toe". Always alchemists of expression functionality, Old Blood Noise delivers once again for players looking for in-depth expression control.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo Final Thoughts
Alright, so here we are. What have we learned?
The Old Blood Noise Dark Star Stereo is a massively powerful reverb pedal, for one. It's a relatively one-and-done pedal for ambient players that hits the ground running and doesn't look back in terms of expressive, modulated reverb tones. As a studio tool or pedalboard regular, there's sure to be a lot of fans of the original Dark Star (both old and new) that really latch onto this upgraded model for its expanded functionalities and musical palette – and rightfully so!
As a reverb, the Dark Star Stereo does quite a bit to span a large spectrum of modulated sounds from aggressive and distorted to sugary and strange. It leans fairly heavily into the soundscape camp, as per its namesake, meaning when it's set to take off and create worlds of reverb, it really takes off.
The Dark Star Stereo works to accomplish some real heavy lifting when it comes to coloring a signal, so it's not always a pedal for the faint of heart – but fear not! There are more than enough places to visit on the Dark Star's itinerary to make the trip worth it, whether your favorites lay with its pitch-shifting, bit-crushing, filtering, or delaying sound profiles.
To bring this all together one more time, the Dark Star Stereo is effectively a cauldron of reverb sounds that shapes up to how you design it. Want a heavy dose of bit-crushing mixed with a sprinkle of pitched-up, shimmery reverb but minimal filtering? Not a problem. In essence, the Dark Star Stereo is an impressively inclusive effect unit for endless tinkering while keeping inspiration close in reach.
Old Blood Noise has quite a bit to be proud of with this latest release. As not only a rebuild of one of their fan-favorite reverbs, but an upgrade, this Dark Star shines.
