Source Audio
104
GUITARIST MARCH 2018
T
hose requiring the ultimate
do-it-all reverb pedal have been
catered for lately by the units from
Strymon, Empress and others. But one
pedal that has been highly anticipated
since its unveiling at the 2017 NAMM
show is the Source Audio Ventris, billed as
a Dual Reverb with the promise of moving
the whole high-end reverb game along.
Now, finally, we have a pedal with a
relatively modest footprint that contains
two totally independent reverbs that can
be used singly or combined in parallel,
in series or Left/Right – with various
modes of mono and stereo operation being
available. There are 12 distinct reverb
engines available from the front panel but,
like previous Source Audio pedals, more
will be available via the Neuro software,
an editor program, available in iOS and
desktop versions that we don’t have at
the time of review but which should be
on-stream by the time you read this.
Other features include full MIDI
functionality offering access to 128 presets,
expression pedal control of assigned
parameters, direct hands-on access to a
limited number of onboard presets and
a second ‘Option’ footswitch that has
both Tap and Hold actions for different
functions for each reverb type, like
freezing/looping the reverb tail, but can be
assigned to a range of tasks, including A to
B and A+B processor toggling, via Neuro.
Source Audio’s intention was to keep the
Ventris user-interface simple and they’ve
managed that extremely well with just
a 12-way rotary switch, six knobs and a
three-way toggle switch providing instant
access to all of the essential parameters.
There will be much deeper tweaking
available via the Neuro editor but at no
point did we feel that we needed any more
than the front panel provided to dial in a
usable sound.
Four knobs offer the parameters that any
reverb-user would consider paramount
– Wet/Dry Mix, Decay Time, Pre-Delay
and Tone (a Treble control). Two other
knobs – Control 1 and Control 2 – deliver
a different function for each reverb type,
Modulation Depth and Rate being typical
examples. Reverb A, Reverb B or both
together are accessed by the toggle switch,
and if you have developed a particular
killer combination (or a single favourite
’verb) it’s an easy matter to save it as
one of the four presets accessed from a
front panel button or either footswitch.
Incidentally, this can be extended to eight
Ventris
SOURCE AUDIO
Can’t get enough reverb? How’s two high-end reverb processors in a
single pedal with options for single or combined use sound? Fantastic!
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Olly Curtis
PEDALBOARD
M ANU FACT UR ER
SOURCE AUDIO
MODEL
VENTRIS
PRICE
£399
CONTACT
01626 853019 /WWW.SOURCEAUDIO.NET
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT430.peds_ventris.indd 104 17/01/2018 17:13