Hey all. Per the subject. Help me love the Dark Reverb? I would love to embrace this, but I’m not there yet.
Applying LP and HP, modulating decay, are things I have tried.
Any secret recipes? I’d appreciate some DR patch descriptions.
My music is ambient, often LoFi. I like characterful verbs.
Thanks!
What is it you do not like? Let’s start with that…
For example, I often have a rather metallic sound and would like to avoid that…
You must learn to love yourself before you can learn to love the dark reverb.
Damping and predelay are the key parameters for me.
Also, try using it as a send effect using the aux send trick (studio mode, one track is recording and playing from cue simultaneously; cue evel from other tracks becomes the send level - there are a few discussions of it floating around on here). Put just a bit o one of the modultion effects like chorus or flange in slot 1 of the send and dark reverb set 100% wet in slot 2. Also, when it’s set up as a send effect you can carefully experiment with feeding a bit of it back into itself, which can sound good sometimes.
In general for me dark reverb really shines when it’s used like this, with a bit of all of the other tracks being sent to a single instance of it as glue for the whole mix.
I didn’t need help to love the OT Dark Reverb - heck I didn’t even need to learn to love it - it was instinctual.
Some cools tips on this thread though, so thanks for that.
Aye, and then combining that internal send trick with a scene that takes the reverb to infinite decay = super drone washout noise fest!
Thanks all. I wish you all deep happiness and contentment, in a spiritual rather than material sense.
Yeah, also multiple playback and/or record trigs on the send track can get you some really unusual effects, especially if you’re feeding a bit of the reverb back in to itself.
Now I wish I’d brought the Octatrack with me on my holiday vacation instead of a guitar.
All good thoughts. Wish the OTmk2 had more sends/returns. I usually have my El Capistan as a send effect - which I couldn’t do if I use the send for a dedicated reverb track . Or am I wrong?
…always keep in mind, this reverb algorithm is more than half a decade old…
and seen from that angle, it’s a beauty…and was last effect that got added to the ot selection…
…and the cue outs are always ready to serve u as fx sends,while four ins are waiting for any call back…so give ur reverb hardware favs a try…
and don’t understimate the built in plate reverb…and ot’s fx start to shine for real in combos…so the delay or filter should always be involved…and at least one lfo…
the lushness of modern ambient rooms is not too far away…
First you need to read “Elektron Octatrack: Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love its FX”
Dark reverb all day! Just P-lock some dope swells with some resonance… 
I like most that I can wildly modulate its parameters by lfos…
Instant changes of the room size on little bleeps can create drony caverns and then instantly shrinking to a small blip…
And all that in the box without breaking the flow due to clumsy mapping… It is all just a few turns of knobs away…
HP and LP filter the incoming signal, the shelfing filter affects the damping of the reverbarated signal.
So in case you’re going for a dark, warmy reverb and you use the low pass filter, try balancing the reverb tone with the shelfing filter.
Try opening the LP a bit more, but dampen the reverb more to compensate.
Try a few more tweaks.
This way I usually can make the reverb sit very well in the mix and achieve the reverb tone I was going for.
I found that on some material I like to radically low pass filter the source, on other material, I’d rather use the shelfing filter to dampen the reverbarations and not filter much of the source at all.
On other reverbs, I usually have my tried and tested approach that works for different types of source material.
With the dark reverb experimentation is key.
A lot of the most beloved reverb algorithms are 30+ years old, too.
…but they’re not squeezed into one dsp chip that has way much other stuff to do…
u speak of reverbs that do reverb stand alone in first not as make up option in last place…quite a difference, don’t u think…?
More than five years old! Gasp!
Anyway, I actually prefer to run my boss reverb pedal via the cue send with my octatrack. It just sounds nicer to my ears. So yeah, I dont really use Octatracks reverbs anymore. I seem to enjoy just using two machines at a time so I only need one stereo pair for the digitone or drum machine, all my other synths are mono.
If you dont like the OT reverb, use an external pedal. I keep telling myself i will get an eventide pedal one day. Still havent done that yet, the one I have does the job.
Strymon’s Big Sky is from same year, so age is not a factor here 
Interesting thread.
I sold my OT, but the Dark Reverb was one of the things that made it a hard decision. I loved it instantly with no effort and spent a lot of time (with no real success) to find a similarly sounding reverb VST or something.
So it’s an interesting read that someone is struggling with the DR.
…big sky’s job is to reverb…and nothing else…age is not the first argument…but the main sonic mission is…and by the way…big sky alone is almost half the price of the ot…and yup, younger also…dunno when it came up exactly, but it’s defenitly not since a decade in the market…