Electro-Harmonix rolls out its new Flagship Oceans Abyss Dual Stereo Advanced Reverb Laboratory in similar format to its recent POGIII

The Oceans Abyss takes over from the Oceans 12 as EHX’s flagship Reverb Workstation. The Oceans 12 has 12 Core Reverb Voicings - including Echo and Mod - which are replaced on this more potent model by numerous additional Delay and Modulation Effects options - where you can create your own signal path using all those effects.

So this pedal is more like the Meris Mercury X and Strymon NightSky - in being a Sound Design device focused on Reverb - but with a number of additional extras in the mix. I currently have the BigSky MX on my board - which is very much my speed!

Those slider controls on the Abyss are certainly really cool to have - but since I also have the Eventide H90 on the board - I’m not sure I would necessarily make use of all those optional extras - while there is some advantage of having those all onboard the same device. My current rig has 52 pedals in its signal chain - which I can already combine and route in several different ways - for instance - I have the 3rd port on my Parallelarator available for syncing any of those effects pedals of mine in parallel - so I don’t really need all those extra signal path options that come with the Abyss.

I always say that you need to pick your own lane really - find your own speed for the sorts of effects that match your needs and sensibilities. I always keep my options open - while I remain to be convinced that I should sub out my BigSky MX for this Oceans Abyss. Based on my experience with the Meris LVX I already decided that the Mercury X wasn’t really for me. Meris definitely pile on the extras - so those pedals are much more like Multi-FX Workstations. Lots of players who love those effects - like Jake @ TheGigRig - love them for all the included extras - which they wholly make use of - while if they had my rig - those kind of just add complexity - and somewhat duplicate abilities that I already have on the board - to most degrees of operation.

You need to decide whether you’re more a Creator of Effects or Shaper of Effects - each one requires its own mindset - and I feel I’m more firmly lodged in the latter category. If you’re more of a Sound Designer as such - then the Oceans Abyss, Meris Mercury X, Empress Zoia, and Poly Beebo should be more down your street - for the rest of us - we have slightly more on-rails pedals - like indeed the BigSky MX - albeit that one does allow you to import your own IR’s - so the sky’s kind of the limit there too from a Reverb perspective. While you don’t get those extra Delay and Modulations included like on the more Sound Design type devices.

When I first saw the POGIII and this Oceans Abyss - I always thought they looked a little larger - but they’re both actually near enough the same magnitude of dimensions - 18cm x 14.6cm x 5.7cm vs the 17.4 x 12.7 x 6cm of the Stymon BigSky MX - so the Oceans Abyss is only very fractionally larger!

As always - I never say never - and maintain an open mindset - I’m always open to be persuaded to head off in any divergent direction - I just need the appropriate stimuli to pique my interest!

The Oceans Abyss is most definitely a very decent proposition with potent capabilities - you need to decided for yourself whether it meets your needs - it certainly has a very cool central VDU control screen and overall control topology and interface. This is a particularly well thought out and well appointed device - reasonably priced too @ $495 / £475 - I’m not seeing any EU prices yet - as this pedal is not yet stocked at Thomann as of writing this article! (Which tends to be my reference for EU pricing).

Here below follow the usual details :

Controls - CORE } OLED VDU, Preset, Home, Settings, Rotary Encoder, REVERB A } Pan, Pre-Delay, Time, Blend, EQ > Low, High, Edit, Moment, Trails, REVERB B } Pan, Pre-Delay, Time, Blend, EQ > Low, High, Edit, Moment, Trails, FOOTSWITCHES } A, B, Engage Effect, A + Effect is Preset Down, B + Effect is Preset Up.

Rear Ports - 9V DC [-] 500mA, USB-C, MIDI In, MIDI Out, L Input, R Input, FX LOOP } Send, Return, Footswitch, Expression, L Output, R Output

Reverbs - Room, Hall, Spring, Plate, Reverse, Dynamic, Auto-Infinite, Shimmer, Polyphonic, Resonant.

Effects - Digital, Analog, and Tape Delays, Tremolo, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Graphic EQ, Saturation, Bitcrusher, External FX Loop, Volume.