Poly Effects VERBS Convolution Reverberator brings something genuinely new to the Reverb Workstation Genre

Operating the VERBS could not be simpler - and you can cycle around the presets by press-holding the right-hand footswitch. Press-holding the left one yields a Crescendo / Max Out for that Reverb.

Here follow the key controls and ports :

Controls - Spaces / Devices / Elements (groups of 8) : Pool of the Blackstar (≈Hall), Capricornia Caves (≈Cavern), Santa Lucia Basilica (≈Cathedral), Echo Plates (≈Plate), Analog Devices (≈Spring), Irregular Reverbs (≈Oddball Reverbs / Shimmer), Adverbs (≈Rooms / User IRs), Onset (Predelay), Mix (Reverb Level), Presets 1-8 (per Category), Press-hold number to save Preset), Low Cut (HPF), Smoosh (Intensity / Spreads and Expands Sound Particles to fill Void), A Footswitch = Hold for Reverb Crescendo, B Footswitch  = Bypass / Hold to scroll through Presets.

Rear Ports / Connections - Output : Mono / TRS Stereo, MIDI Mini TRS In / Out (3.5mm), USB C (for flash drive / memory stick / updates), 9VDC [-] 500mA, Input : Mono / TRS Stereo.

The VERBS has 7 Sections / Categories of Reverbs - with 8 Presets in each, and the final category where you can replace those 8 factory presets with your own IRs - which a lot of people are loving - and is a main reason for why Joe Halliday wants one of these - as he has recorded some really cool hangar spaces while on operations with the Royal Navy. And musicians about to play in a particular venue - can record the venue's Reverb Acoustics for in-studio practice sessions - just really clever all-round.

I may have done a couple of things differently here myself - make the Onset a little more pronounced - and possibly have a Tilt EQ in place of the the single Low Cut parameter. While I can't fault the core functions of this device.

It's not the most granular as noted, and there are certain of my favourite Reverb types that this does not cover - yet it's pretty much brilliant in every other way - and sounds truly magnificent.

I will still be mixing things up fairly regularly as I like so many of my other Reverb pedals for their particular algorithms. For e.g. the Sci-Fi Reverbs on the AmpliTube X-Space. In fact I would quite like to acquire a Reverb Workstation that just covered Spacey Sci-Fi Soundtrack and Special Effects Reverb sounds - no one has properly made one of those yet - at least not a dedicated workstation to that art form. The Meris Mercury covers a tiniest subsection of that, where the AmpliTube X-Space is currently the one closest to give me what I want in that area.

The Poly VERBS is very organic though - and quite ingenious in how it covers all those different notable and historic spaces! I can imagine some enterprising individuals doing brisk trade in recording IR's for the world's most popular concert venues - for loading up as Adverbs! Madison Square Gardens, O2 and Wembley Arenas, Royal Albert Hall etc!

Here are the 7 categories:

POOL OF THE BLACKSTAR
Spaces famous for their unique audio character, including the longest reverb in the world, a masonic accoustic lens and a sound sculpture.

• *1+2 : Pool of the Blackstar, Winnipeg, Canada.
• 3-5 : Tvísöngur Sound Sculpture (5 interconnected Domes of different size), Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
• 6 : Inchdown Oil Tanks, Invergordon, Scotland - longest reverb in the world.
• *7 : Hamilton Mausoleum, South Lanarkshire, Scotland - longest echo in the world.
• 8 : König Otto, Expressionist Brewing Hall, Berlin, Germany.

CAPRICORNIA CAVES
Caves and cavernous industrial structures, including a nuclear reactor hall, cooling tower and railway tunnels.

• 1 : Capricornia Caves, Cathedral Cave, Rockhampton, Australia.
• *2+3 : Innocent Railway Tunnel, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 4 : Poly HQ, 10x15x18m empty cavernous warehouse, Coburg, Australia.
• *5 : Abandoned Cooling Tower with amazing complex inner reflections, Charleroi, Belgium.
• *6 : R1 Nuclear Reactor Hall, Stockholm, Sweden.
• *7 : T2 Metallic Hangar, Yorkshire Air Museum, UK.
• *8 : Civil War Bunker, Menorca, Spain.

SANTA LUCIA BASILICA
Religious buildings including the almost 2000 year old Pantheon of Rome.

• 1 : Santa Lucia 17th Century Basilica, Sicily, Italy.
• 2 : The Pantheon of Rome AD126, Rome, Italy.
• 3 : 12th - 15th Century York Minster, York, UK.
• 4 : Knights of St John's Hall, Valetta, Malta.
• *5 : St Alban's Cathedral Day Chapel, St Albans, UK.
• 6 : St George's Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg, USA.
• 7 : St Patrick's Church, Patrington, UK.
• 8 : St Matthew's Church, Walsall, UK.

ECHO PLATES
Vintage analog reverb plate devices including the famous EMT140.

• 1+2 : EMT 140 Plate - 1957
• *3+4 : EcoPlate - 1980
• 5+6 : Lexicon 480-L - 1986
• 7 : EMT 244 - 1978
• *8 : Bricasti M7 - 2007

ANALOG DEVICES
Vintage analog reverb spring and oil can devices including amp style and outboard studio gear.

• 1+2 : Fender Brown Face Reverb Tank - 1962.
• 3+4 : AKG BX20 Spring Reverb Unit - 1968.
• *5 : Fender Adineko Oil Can Delay - 1966.
• *6 : Fisher K-10 Dynamic Space Expander - 1960s.
• 7 : MicMix Master Room MR-II Reverb - 1974.
• 8 : Roland RE-201 Space Echo - 1974.

IRREGULAR VERBS
Bubbles, rain and unusual IRs that generate granular sounding textures.

• *1 : Bubbles
• *2 : Rain (Shimmer)
• *3 : Spinning Coin
• 4 : Train Whistle
• 5 : Cymbal Pattern (Shimmer)
• 6 : Piezo AutoHarp
• 7 : Metal Bathtub
• *8 : Slinky Toy

ADVERBS
This collection holds imported reverbs and by default includes Maeshowe, a neolithic monument built around 2800 BC. Any of the default reverbs can be found on our website if you save over one that you really like.

Adverbs can ne overwritten with you own Reverb Space IRs.

• *1 : Maeshowe Neolithic Chambered Cairn, Orkney, Scotland.
• 2 : RCA Studio B, Nashville, USA.
• 3 : Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, UK.
  *4 : Nokia Concert Hall, Tallinn, Estonia.
• 5 : Eleven Hall, Suffolk, UK.
• 6 : London Palladium, London, UK.
• 7 : Ursina Del Arte Symphony Hall, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• *8 : Ostia Antic Theatre, Rome, Italy.

Key Types of Reverb Covered : Room, Hall, Cathedral, Cavern, Plate, Spring, Shimmer, Swell, EchoVerb, Irregular Reverb.

Also Oil Can Delay, while Space Echo is just the Reverb side of that unit.

What we don't get are - Gated, Lo-Fi, Modulated, or Reverse Reverbs.

I'm hugely impressed by the Poly VERBS. It doesn't cover me for all my preferred / favourite Reverb algorithms in the same way that some of my other Reverbs do - but how it works is pretty exceptional.

It's not a totally perfect pedal - and for sure it has a few niggles - while nearly every IR / algorithm here is usable in some way. The only one I didn't really get on with was the Train Whistle - where for me the constant fixed pitch of the train whistle is somewhat annoying - and makes it rather minimally useful for me. Everything else has legs - and some of these are incredibly pristine and natural sounding - just amazing really.

It has all the same pros and cons as its Poly Flat V sibling - which I have and love also - and has been on the board since launch. While I feel I will be mixing up my Reverbs rather more. As an example - the Empress Reverb, Neunaber Illumine, and AmpltiTube X-Space are bound to get a look-in - while the Alabs Cetus, Boss RV-200 and Strymon Cloudburst will see a lot of action too. The Boss RV-200 has pretty much the perfect mix of algorithms - and covers off all my favourites in a suitably simple but granular style.

I would say the VERBS is rather more of a tabletop type experience than a floor-based one - but the fact that you can scroll through the presets with the right-hand footswitch makes it usable enough for my purposes. Bending down to make slight adjustments can be slightly annoying - as for most other pedals - I can tweak things with my toes - but here you need hands-on manipulation for the touch-controls to work. I'm not sure if Loki has tweaked those since the Flat V - but the VERBS does seem a little more responsive and consistent on the touch side of things. A really neat and intuitive interface - but one definitely honed rather more for a tabletop environment.

I personally don't feel the need to use MIDI for this pedal as the Preset scrolling works so well for me. I will definitely be hunting down the best MIDI controller for some of my other pedals - and the Kernom Moho in particular!

The Poly Verbs is just beautifully usable and fantastic sounding overall. And perfect for those who want to load up their own Reverb IRs - which functionality I know many of you like.

My one petty annoyance is that the pedal isn't stateful - so unlike most of my Reverb Workstations - which remember where I left off - this VERBS pedal always starts up with the very first Preset!

I'm very glad I got my hands on one so quickly - this will surely be a long-termer for me - while it doesn't cover off all the avenues to make it the only Reverb pedal you ever need. So it's going to be somewhat in rotation with some of my other favourites which better cover and supplement the full spectrum of Reverb types.

I feel that the $399  / £399 price tag is really very fair for the nature and quality of this pedal. All the batches are selling out very quickly - so you need to exercise some patience if you want one - as it's very much in high demand at the moment. I think we're on batch 3 by now! Henning Pauly talks about the first convolution reverb Sony made in 1999 I thin he said - that was going for 20 grand at the time and utilising a far lower resolution - so we've definitely come a long long way forward since then.

You can pre-order from the Poly Effects Webstore, and from Andertons - where I got mine from.