Eventide Blackhole Effectpedal

This pedal I use for analog synthesizers/drones. Some handy overlays indicate the various settings for presets such as Pulsar, Singularity, Nebula, Dark Matter, and of course Black Hole. All those names indeed do suggest what they seem. On more than one occasion I needed to throttle back the Mix and the Feedback knobs in order not to overdo some effects. Even at 50% they come out strong. The reverb is not the typical vintage raw hall style but rather nuanced like somewhat outerworld outerspace. The input is with a stereo TRS jack instead of two mono TS jacks which require clumsy fiddling with spiltter cables. With a special little knob the secondary functions can be set. But then in order to get the primary settings done, push that knob again and move a bit one of the knobs (Mix, for example) to get the whole thing settled. It's an undocumented feature, I guess. Minus point is that when the Mix knob is beyond 12 o'clock, when no sound is passed through, a hum is notiiceable. Other than that, it is a powerful pedal that works great on a snth.

ik heb veel reverb pedalen geprobeerd. ik zocht een reverb die ook goed te gebruiken was voor synths. elke reverb die ik heb geprobeerd viel tegen. klank niet natuurlijk, teveel bijgeluiden in de reverb. totdat ik de blackhole tegen kwam. uitzonderlijk mooi geluid. heel goed en nauwkeurig te tweaken. maakt van het simpelste synth geluid een space heaven waar je in kan verdwalen. pedaal is stevig gebouwd. aanrader

This pedal is astonishing. Stepping on it make you realise that it’s not your typical reverb pedal. It’s just huge, powerful and atmospheric. The pedal itself makes adjusting the parameters quite simple. Connecting the pedal to your computer, which is a good idea, allows you access to other presets. These presets demonstrate the versatility of the algorithm. Although you can configure the pedal without the app, like setting tails after switching the pedal off or turning the buffer on and off, it’s just simpler to do so here.
The only downside for me is accessing the midi and this is just because I’m not used to midi. I’m trying to daisy chain it with other midi comparable pedals and I’m just finding it difficult to select the exact connections I need. I just wish the pedal that midi in and through 5 pin dins. Its just a bit more awkward but totally possible.
I’m absolutely delighted with this reverb.

Andy Bell from Ride advised this as a shoegaze pedal on youtube. I didn't see it that much though in shoegaze rigs on you tube, so I had my doubts. But it really is that good to put in front of some dirt. Andy Bell was right. It is a Slö , an Afterneath, a reverse reverb, ... at the same time,.... Very fast dialed in, very intuitive. The tone control almost can get you in shimmer like regions.
To be clear; I am writing this review from a shoegaze point of view.

Pro's
The modulation is beautifull and can be controlled with rate and depth. It goes well with dirt.

The sound is clear but not sterile, not too cheesy; it stays mysterious. The big advantage is that it can carry a lot of dirt without losing sound caracteristics. Many other reverb pedals aren't capable to carry that much noise and still have this ambient vibe. They get muddy to soon.

Very user friendly. The secondary modes are an exemple fot other manufacturers like EHX. A led knob opens the wel written down secondary modes.

The Gravity knob gives that reverse and wet mix effect - hazy - sound in many forms, so essential for shoegaze. Off course nothing beats a Lexicon reverse reverb if you just want that pure sound.

It goes just as long as you want it to go.

It is a very simple pedal if you understand the knobs. Not like a H9, or a Space or a Bigsky. A Space Pedal would give you this and also other top reverbs. But because you have to menu dive, it won't rock that hard as this one simple box.

I think the price is good for the value. It is 100 euro more then another categorie of reverb pedals. But it has the same power as the 'Big Reverbs' and overclasses that categorie under 300 euro.

Off course, it goes 100 % wet

Con's
You've got to have some experience with effect on reverb before really understanding the possibilities of this pedal. I have been exploring reverse reverb, delay based reverb, modulated reverb, ... in other pedals for shoegaze sounds , with dirt (Slo, Afterneath, Context, ... ) for a while. Before this investigations, this pedal would have been too much for me because I didn't understand al this things.